Microsoft Casually Layoffs Several From Its Legal Amid Push For AI; Team Internet Jibes ‘Time To Learn Carpentry’

Satya Nadella-led Microsoft has laid off dozens of lawyers in its ongoing spree of layoffs at its Redmond HQ.

At least 32 attorneys and 5 paralegals lost their jobs to the fresh wave of cuts at Microsoft, according to reports. Up to 465 legal roles will be impacted in the process as the company integrates AI into its day-to-day operations. Not even jobs for employees with over half a decade of experience are safe anymore.

Per the report, the laid-off legal team was “the bottom tranche, lawyers three to seven years out of law school that are more easily replaced.”

Per Amanda Goodall, an analyst, Microsoft “didn’t cut out legal because it’s dead weight… AI is basically winning the balance of leverage.”

Microsoft recently let go of 9000+ staff, with several laid off from the Xbox division. Reportedly some of the developers of Candy Crush Saga at its subsidiary were replaced by the very AI tools they had developed.

Most layoffs are tied with AI in the tech sector and have become a norm. Ironically, these tech giants are aggressively hiring (to the point of poaching) AI talents to develop the next phase in the post-ChatGPT AI gold rush.

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Reactions poured in on Microsoft legal layoffs. One user jibed, “AI has gotten real good at reading verbose legalese (& crafting it). Given that good lawyers are expensive, I’m not surprised they are shown the door.” The user added, “A lot of legal for young folks is plowing through documents. AI is faster, but seemingly also invents cases so?”

Another quipped, “Yet we have people saying that this is a prioritization initiative and not a cost cutting one. Wake up folks “ANY” knowledge based profession is done.” The user suggested,

Time to go back to trade school and learn Carpentry.”

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