(Bloomberg) – Microsoft () is committed to showing its employees how much artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming its own work environment, even while the company fires thousands of employees.
During a presentation this week, commercial director Judson Althoff stated that AI tools are increasing productivity in various areas, from sales and customer service to software engineering, according to a person familiar with his statements.
Althoff said AI saved Microsoft for more than $ 500 million last year only in its call centers, as well as increasing the satisfaction of both employees and customers, as reported by the source, who requested anonymity to deal with an internal issue.
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The company is also starting to use IA to deal with interactions with smaller customers, said Althoff. This effort is still at first, but it already generates tens of millions of dollars, he said.
Microsoft declined to comment.
Technology industry executives have been increasingly manifested about AI potential to automate work currently done by humans. Salesforce () stated that 30% of the company’s internal work is already done by AI, which allowed to reduce hiring in some functions. Alphabet () and goal () executives said large parts of the code are now written with the help of AI.
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At Microsoft, AI generated 35% of the code for new products, accelerating the release time, said Althoff. The company’s Github Copilot is a leader in the AI coding tools market and has 15 million users, Microsoft said in April.
AI implementation has generated replacement anxiety for many workers, especially in the technology industry. Microsoft announced cuts of about 15,000 employees this year, with a wave of layoffs last week focused on customer service positions such as sales.
Althoff stressed employees that AI can make them more effective as salespeople. With the use of Microsoft Copilot Wizard, each seller is finding more opportunities, closing business faster and generating 9% more revenue, he said.
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AI productivity gains were not “a predominant factor” in job reductions in recent months, Microsoft’s main lawyer Brad Smith said on Wednesday during an event that announced a donation of over $ 4 billion in cash and technology to schools focusing on AI skills dissemination.
(Update with executive comment in the last paragraph.)
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