Microsoft executive: AI has saved the company $500 million, 35% of the code is written by AI, and laying off 15,000 people is just the beginning?

Microsoft executives revealed that the company saved over $500 million through AI in the past year, with 35% of new product code written by AI. However, the company has laid off about 15,000 employees this year, raising concerns about employment and industry transformation. (Background: Who is AI taking jobs from? 4 million chat records reveal the answer) (Supplementary background: AI is really starting to take human jobs - global giants accelerating layoffs, American college graduates facing unemployment...) Microsoft (Microsoft)'s Chief Business Officer Judson Althoff recently stated internally that AI tools saved the company over $500 million in customer service centers alone over the past year and improved employee and customer satisfaction. He noted that these AI tools have been widely applied in sales, customer service, and software engineering departments, and have even begun assisting with interactions with small customers, initially bringing in tens of millions of dollars in new revenue. However, this wave of efficiency improvements has also been accompanied by a wave of layoffs. By mid-year, Microsoft had already reduced its workforce by about 15,000 employees, with the latest round of layoffs affecting 9,000 people, primarily impacting sales and other customer-related positions. Although Microsoft emphasized that the productivity boost from AI "is not the main reason for layoffs," the timing of the layoffs, while the company is achieving record high profits and heavily investing in AI, still raises employee anxiety about AI replacing human labor, a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly common in the tech industry. AI has written 35% of new product code, accelerating development efficiency. Additionally, in software development, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that currently, 30% to 40% of the code for new products is written by AI, and this percentage continues to rise; GitHub Copilot, a Microsoft subsidiary, now has 15 million users, becoming a popular AI programming assistant tool in the market. Although some industry observers remain cautious about the reliability and security of AI-generated code, Nadella emphasized that the application of AI in program development will only continue to expand, and its role in software engineering will become increasingly important. The wave of automation in the tech industry poses challenges to employee work patterns. Microsoft's approach reflects a broader trend in the tech industry. Large companies like Salesforce, Alphabet, and Meta have also revealed that a significant proportion of work and code within their companies has already been generated by AI. For example, Salesforce stated that 30% of internal work is handled by AI, and Google mentioned that 25% of new code is written by AI. This wave of automation has provided companies with unprecedented productivity, but it has also caused employees to question their job security in the future. The impact of AI on industry structure is gradually becoming apparent, and how to balance productivity enhancement with employee rights protection will be a common challenge for companies and society to face. Related reports: Musk says AI knowledge has too many errors 'Grok3.5 needs to rebuild the correct version of humanity'; CZ responds: A single historical perspective can be problematic. Zuckerberg predicts that mobile phones will be eliminated! AI smart glasses + holographic projection are the future of humanity. Will humans really fall in love with AI? GPT-4o shows initial "emotional attachment" phenomenon, could virtual partners become your rivals? <Microsoft executives: AI has saved the company $500 million, with 35% of code written by AI, and layoffs of 15,000 people are just the beginning?> This article was first published in BlockTempo, the most influential blockchain news media.