Microsoft cuts 6000 jobs, mostly software engineers because AI automates codes and transforms the tech industry’s workforce.

Microsoft has recently announced major job cuts, software developers and product teams being among the hardest-hit, an indication of the effect of AI on tech jobs. In Microsoft's home base in Washington State, software engineering made up over 40 percent of the almost 2,000 positions eliminated locally, which was about a third of the total 6,000 overhaul around the company.

While ramped up investments in artificial intelligence and in particular, in data center expansion by Microsoft, it is also squeezing budgets. CEO Satya Nadella disclosed that AI is writing up to 30% of the code in certain projects at Microsoft, leaving a fewer requirement for the traditional software engineering positions.

It even impacted product management as well as technical program managers who accounted for almost 600 of the job cuts in Washington. Some of the employees who were involved in the AI projects were also let go but the customer-facing roles such as sales and marketing did not suffer that much.

Microsoft said the revisions would eliminate management levels, but reports show that nearly 17% of the affected were managers, showing that those levels were in line with the company's normal workforce.

It is part of the general trend in the industry, with similar companies such as Salesforce and Workday adjusting their staff to work on AI-powered initiatives. Microsoft’s layoffs highlight the way AI is transforming the tech workforce, leaving businesses to reconsider the roles of human resources in the world of automation.