It is, he said, “certainly devastating for those affected, but the impact on customers is usually non-existent unless, like Google, for example, they cut an entire division or product team that your company happens to rely upon. In the case of stockholders, the impact can even be positive as the market rewards a perceived increase in profitability.”
In addition, noted Melody Brue, VP and principal analyst at Moor, “for companies selling AI as a tool for workforce efficiency, a layoff of their own staff serves as a tangible demonstration that their technology delivers on its promise. This offers a subtle, often overlooked proof point that AI can achieve the very productivity gains they market, not just cost savings or headcount reduction.”
Reprioritization of resources
Jason Wong, distinguished VP analyst on the digital workplace team at Gartner, said, “Microsoft has made some significant organizational and operational changes over the past two years, such as discontinuing investments in HoloLens, creating a new CoreAI engineering division and unifying AI under Mustafa Suleyman. These changes likely drive the staffing changes we are witnessing, and Microsoft recalibrates talent and resources to deliver on new products and services.”
