Microsoft cuts thousands of employees weeks after Bill Gates revealed which three jobs would survive AI

If Bill Gates knows anything, it's how to earn money. The co-founder of Microsoft has made his billions from the tech scene, notably serving as the world's richest person for 18 out of 24 years between 1995 and 2017. He also has the honor of being the world's first centibillionaire.

Although Bill Gates has long stepped down from being Microsoft CEO, he serves as technology adviser to current CEO Satya Nadella and still carries plenty of gravitas when discussing the current state of the tech world.

He's notably spoken out about advancements in artificial intelligence and how it could change our work lives for the better. The billionaire predicts that we could eventually end up with a two-day working week as AI takes over 'most things' that humans do, and while that might sound great to some who are sick of the 9 to 5 grind, there's the obvious question about what we'll do for money without our careers.

Gates has shared some of these concerns, suggesting that only three jobs will survive the upcoming AI revolution. According to Gates, coders, biologists, and energy experts will be indispensable amid the great AI culling, potentially leaving the rest of us out in the cold.

This has unfortunately been hammered home by Microsoft laying off thousands of employees. As confirmed by CNBC, Microsoft is laying off 3% of its entire workforce, across all levels, teams, and territories.

3% might not sound like much to some, but with Microsoft boasting 228,000 employees worldwide at the end of June 2024, that would equate to nearly 7,000 jobs. It also comes after the tech giant reported some reasonably cheery forecast results of $25.8 billion in quarterly net income in late April.

This isn't the first time Microsoft has been gutted by layoffs, although CNBC notes the 3% falls short of the massive round of layoffs that saw 10,000 staff get shown the door in 2023.

In a statement to the outlet, a Microsoft spokesperson explained: "We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace."

While a small(er) round of layoffs occurred in January 2025 and were based on performance, the spokesperson reiterated that this new crop isn’t performance-based. It's said that the layoffs are aiming to reduce the layers in management.

In January 2025, Nadella explained to analysts how Microsoft would have to make changes after it delivered slower growth than it anticipated in its Azure cloud revenue that wasn’t to do with artificial intelligence. This is in contrast to performance in AI cloud growth climbing past projections.

At the time, Nadella said: "How do you really tweak the incentives, go-to-market? At a time of platform shifts, you kind of want to make sure you lean into even the new design wins, and you just don’t keep doing the stuff that you did in the previous generation."

Layoffs have so far largely impacted the gaming sector in the aftermath of Microsoft's Activision Blizzard King acquisition, but this time, even those at the Microsoft-owned LinkedIn are said to be on the chopping block.