Microsoft saved over $500 million last year by implementing AI across various critical business operations, according to a senior executive.

As reported by Bloomberg, Judson Althoff, Microsoft’s chief commercial officer, shared this information during a recent presentation.

Althoff stated that the tech company has been applying AI to boost productivity in areas including software engineering, customer service, and sales.

Importantly, the majority of these savings were realized in its call centers. Specific figures for savings in other departments remain undisclosed.

A source informed Bloomberg that AI tools have enhanced both employee efficiency and customer satisfaction, particularly in managing communications with smaller clients.

In the area of sales, the technology is also proving highly effective at improving productivity. Althoff pointed out that AI makes sales representatives more efficient.

Employees in this sector are utilizing the company's Copilot AI assistant, which helps them identify leads, close deals faster, and increase revenue by approximately 9%, according to the source.

Not a great week for Microsoft PR

Althoff's remarks came shortly after Microsoft announced another wave of layoffs expected to affect about 9,000 employees globally.

This latest round follows several others earlier this year, including one just two months ago impacting 6,000 employees.

The May layoffs hit the Redmond headquarters particularly hard, with software engineers among those most affected.

The newest workforce reductions were further complicated when a senior figure from the Xbox division – which experienced job cuts – offered advice some viewed as ill-timed.

In a LinkedIn post, Matt Turnbull, an executive producer at Xbox Game Studios, encouraged employees to use AI to ease the “emotional and cognitive load” associated with job losses.

AI is starting to show benefits, but not quite in the way you'd expect

This new revelation from the tech giant emerges during a time of increasing concern regarding generative AI's impact on employment.

In recent months, experts have cautioned that the technology could significantly affect entry-level jobs across multiple sectors. For tech professionals specifically, the growing adoption of AI is raising alarms — and these concerns may be valid.

For instance, Salesforce recently revealed that 30% of internal tasks are now being managed by AI.

Since last year, the CRM leader has been promoting its own agentic AI platform, called ‘Agentforce’, enabling enterprise clients to deploy automated agents capable of performing duties previously handled by humans.

Studies have indicated that customer service and contact center roles are especially vulnerable due to agentic AI, while other functions such as human resources and even software development are also under threat.

During a podcast episode in January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicted that AI would soon perform the work typically done by mid-level engineers within the next year or so.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff also suggested the possibility of not hiring new software engineers because of the success they've seen internally using agentic AI.

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