Programmers bore the brunt of Microsoft’s layoffs in its home state

• 817 Microsoft software engineers lost their jobs in Washington state alone
• The redundancies were believed to be targeting inefficient management layers
• Around a third of Microsoft's code is AI-written, Google and Meta are also in a similar place

Microsoft recently confirmed around 6,000 to 7,000 job cuts globally, including an estimated 2,000 redundancies in its home state of Washington.

It's now come to light that over 40% of the Washington layoffs were related to software engineering (817 roles) (via Bloomberg), with the company previously stating that the layoffs were part of a broader cost cutting effort and a shift in investments into AI.

Together with software engineers, the heaviest affected roles in Washington were product management (373 roles) and technical program management (218 roles), with business program management (55 roles), customer experience program management (44 roles) and product design (31 roles) also on the table.

Over 800 Microsoft software engineers laid off in Washington state

Despite the clear and ongoing need for software engineers in an increasingly software-defined world, it has become apparent that Microsoft deer appropriate to replace human workers with artificial intelligence. CEO Satya Nadella recently confirmed that AI now writes around one third of some projects' code, with the recent layoffs raising concerns about AI's effects on human workers and software developers.

More broadly, this is a trend that we are seeing from other tech companies including Salesforce and Workday. Google's CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg have also noted how much of their code is now written by AI.

However, Microsoft has been criticized for mixed messaging. The company stated that the recent layoffs were primarily designed to reduce inefficiencies in middle management by removing unnecessary layers, and while 17% of the Washington redundancies did relate to managers, the loss of hundreds of software engineers raises alarm bells.

Microsoft Principal Software Engineering Manager Mike Droettboom suggested in a LinkedIn post that Python and open-source remain important roles even though companies are enacting major shifts: "Looking around the room, I saw so many faces – some I have known for almost 25 years – coming together again with the same shared purpose, even as the company names on our badges change."

"My heart goes out to the majority of the team that was laid off," Droettboom added.

TechRadar Pro has asked Microsoft for further transparency into the roles affected by its redundancies.

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