One year after Microsoft laid off over 9,000 employees, the company is back at it with even more layoffs.
In an internal memo acquired by The Verge, Microsoft executive vice president and chief people officer Amy Coleman announced the company is laying off around 4,800 employees. Around 1,600 of those employees are from Xbox.
“Decisions like these are never easy, and you have my commitment that we are constantly looking for ways to reduce the need for job eliminations,” wrote Coleman.
“Whenever possible, our priority is to place people into new roles aligned to the company’s highest priorities and greatest areas of opportunity. Over the past year, we have redeployed more than 4,000 employees into new roles, including another 500 this month.”
Coleman pointed to the “need to adjust resources and roles and shift how we operate” in response to AI as the reason for the layoffs.
“I also want to be direct that the roles eliminated today are not being replaced by AI,” wrote Coleman.
“At the same time, what is true is that AI is changing how work gets done.”
There’s no mention of what each employee’s severance package looks like or what else Microsoft is doing to help affected employees transition from their previous roles.
As initially mentioned, Microsoft laid off around 9,100 employees last July. Before that, the company laid off over 6,000 employees in May 2025.
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