Microsoft is offering about 60,000 of its employees voluntary buyouts in an effort to decrease costs amid rampant AI adoption, according to reports from Bloomberg.

The offer is allegedly going to about 27% of the tech titan’s current workforce, over a quarter of its global employees.

Reports suggest that the that the programme will be offered to workers in the UK, US, Canada, and India, to hose at the vice president level and below.

Some groups of employees, however, such as marketing, sales, and those working on data centres, have been excluded from the offer.

Amy Coleman, an executive vice president of  Microsoft said in a memo to employees: “The Voluntary Exit Offer reflects an important part of how we’re evolving our approach to change: creating greater flexibility and, where possible, more ways for employees to shape their next chapter.”

Recommended reading

• Report: Appetite for AI Investment Higher Than Manageable for CIOs
• Tech Layoffs Jump 40% in Q1’26 as AI Fever Spikes
• How Worried Should We Be About Hostile State AI Collaboration?
• Why 75% of AI Pilots Never Scale

This is the second time this year that Microsoft has offered buyouts to employees – the tech giant behind Copilot offered seven per cent of its US employees an option in April to retire early, with about 30% of those eligible taking the offer.