Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees

Microsoft confirmed on 26 October that it has offered voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees at level 70 and below, meaning vice presidents and below, in the US, Canada, India and the UK. CNBC, NBC and TechCrunch say the aim is to control costs while AI spending stays high. Microsoft has not said how many it expects to accept.

Teams such as Xbox, Windows, Copilot and Finance are included; marketing, sales and data-centre groups are reportedly excluded. The package resembles standard severance: base pay by tenure, stock, health care and career support. Employees decide by early December and leavers exit on 31 December.

Copilot teams are included, so Microsoft is pressing for efficiency in AI groups too, not only legacy units. The company does not plan to replace leavers one for one.

About 30% of 8,750 eligible staff took an earlier voluntary retirement offer. Microsoft expects lower uptake this time; a spokesperson said similar programmes elsewhere saw 5–6% leave. American Express also announced a 5% staff cut to prepare for AI.

A voluntary buyout pays employees to leave by choice, avoiding the legal and reputational cost of layoffs. The risk is that the most employable people leave first, which is why critical teams are excluded.

Big Tech budgets are shifting from people to infrastructure. Anthropic's S-1 values knowledge work above $40 trillion and lists labour effects among its risks. An engineer's widely read essay this week described agents raising, not lowering, his workload. Uptake will be known in December; Microsoft Ignite is on 17 November.

Many analysts say AI is cited in 2026 cuts less because it does the work than because AI investment is claiming budget.

• Experienced talent may become available for freelance or project work.
• Redesign tasks, not just roles, around what AI takes over.
• Watch for burnout as tools raise output expectations.