Situation assessment: Microsoft is cutting staff again, but this time it’s asking for volunteers first.
The company is offering voluntary buyouts to up to 60,000 employees in the US, UK, Canada, and India, The Verge AI reports. In a memo to staff, chief people officer Amy Coleman said the program gives employees “the opportunity to leave Microsoft with financial support and career planning resources.” The goal is to reduce headcount without another round of layoffs.
It’s one of the largest voluntary exit programs any Big Tech company has run. It also hits the teams building Microsoft’s AI products.
🎯 Who’s in, who’s out
According to sources who spoke with The Verge AI, eligibility depends on the team.
Fully eligible:
- AI experiences
- Copilot
- CoreAI
- Windows + Devices
- Xbox
- Finance
- Human resources
Partially participating:
- Cloud + AI
- Microsoft AI
- Corporate, external, and legal affairs
Not participating:
- Marketing
- Commercial business
- Discovery and quantum
- Security
Copilot and CoreAI are on the fully eligible list. Those groups sit at the center of Microsoft’s AI strategy, so this isn’t only a trim of legacy divisions. Security and quantum are excluded entirely. That suggests Microsoft wants to keep every person it has in those areas.
📉 How it compares to earlier cuts
This is the third workforce move in a short span:
- Layoffs: Microsoft laid off 4,800 employees a few months ago, mostly in Xbox and commercial sales.
- Voluntary retirement: Earlier this year, Microsoft offered retirement packages to around 9,000 long-serving US employees. Only people whose age plus years of service added up to 70 or more qualified.
- Voluntary exit (now): Up to 60,000 people across four countries are eligible. According to an internal HRweb note seen by The Verge AI, the offer isn’t based on age, length of service, or performance.
The jump in scale stands out. The retirement program targeted a narrow group of veterans. This offer is open to a large share of the workforce, including early- and mid-career staff.
More cuts could still come. Fortune reports that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is planning new rounds of layoffs.
🧭 What Microsoft is saying
Coleman called the program an experiment. “The Voluntary Exit Offer is new for us,” she wrote. “We’ll learn from it.”
She added that the company will keep helping people “build new skills and, where it makes sense, find new opportunities across Microsoft,” and noted that “there is no one-size-fits-all approach for every team or every employee.”
The HRweb note goes further. It says Microsoft may consider a future voluntary exit offer “where there is a business and workforce need.” So this may not be a one-time event. It could become a regular tool.
⚙️ Why this matters for AI
Microsoft is spending huge amounts on AI infrastructure while holding headcount steady or shrinking it. A voluntary exit program lets it reshape teams with less disruption and less bad press than mass layoffs.
The tradeoff is real, though. Voluntary programs often lose the people with the best options elsewhere. Experienced Copilot and CoreAI engineers will have offers from AI labs and startups. If too many of them take the money, Microsoft could lose talent it actually wants to keep.
📋 Tactical takeaways
- For Microsoft employees: Read the eligibility details closely. A voluntary package almost always beats an involuntary layoff on terms and timing.
- For hiring managers: Expect a wave of experienced AI, Windows, and Xbox talent on the market soon.
- For industry watchers: Watch whether Google, Amazon, or Meta copy this model. Microsoft’s choices on workforce policy tend to spread across Big Tech.
- For Microsoft customers: Watch Copilot and Windows release schedules. Big team changes can slow product roadmaps.
🔭 What’s next
The key number is how many of the 60,000 people actually say yes. A low take rate could push Microsoft back toward layoffs, and Fortune’s Xbox report suggests those are already on the table. A high take rate could make voluntary exits a standard part of how Big Tech restructures around AI.
The Verge AI has the full report, including more detail from Coleman’s memo.