“Using AI is no longer optional” — Did Microsoft just make Copilot mandatory for its staff as a critical performance metric?

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is progressively playing a more essential role in Microsoft’s operations, despite ongoing debates and tensions surrounding its billion-dollar collaboration with Sam Altman’s OpenAI regarding profit-driven AI advancements and strategic objectives.

At the start of the year, an internal document leak showed that Microsoft values its employees’ impact on AI projects when conducting performance reviews. It seems they use these assessments to identify staff whose skills are too valuable to let go.

As a researcher delving into the realm of artificial intelligence, I’m currently witnessing an intensified commitment from Microsoft. They seem to be encouraging their team members to integrate more AI tools within their daily work routines, as per recent reports from Business Insider.

Julia Liuson, the President of Microsoft’s Developer Division and GitHub, has recently written an email suggesting that top management assess employee performance by considering their usage of in-house AI tools such as GitHub Copilot.

AI has become an integral aspect of our work processes. Much like teamwork, data-informed decision making, and clear communication, employing AI is no longer a luxury – it’s essential to every position and every tier.

Microsoft’s President of Developer Division and GitHub, Julia Liuson

The email from the executive also suggested that AI could play a role in your comprehensive evaluations of an individual’s performance and overall influence.

It seems that different parts of this tech titan have varying performance benchmarks, but there’s a possibility they might make using internal AI tools a crucial factor for certain departments. Yet, it remains undecided how the company intends to proceed with this idea or which groups will be affected by this potential shift.

It’s intriguing that a source believed to be closely connected with Microsoft suggests they are employing this strategy to boost the usage of Copilot amongst their employees. This move also aims to enhance the understanding of AI tools and services among their developer team.

If you haven’t heard, a recent report suggests that Microsoft is finding it challenging to boost sales of Copilot in enterprise settings, primarily because many organizations prefer ChatGPT over Copilot. This preference persists even though both platforms are built using the same models and have comparable features. It seems OpenAI has done an excellent job at making their product enjoyable to use.

It appears that OpenAI is looking to remove certain restrictive terms from its contract with Microsoft, such as access to their Intellectual Property. This move comes ahead of a possible $3 billion purchase of Windsurf (a company that competes with GitHub Copilot), which could be seen as questionable business practices due to potential antitrust issues.

The company behind ChatGPT might announce an early achievement in Artificial General Intelligence as a means to end their partnership with Microsoft.

A couple of days ago, we learned that Microsoft might be planning significant reductions within the Xbox division. It’s also worth mentioning that Microsoft disclosed their intention to let go of 305 employees based in Washington state back in June.

Microsoft is (still) all-in on AI

Previously, it was reported that Microsoft moved certain employees from their Teams messaging app team to its Artificial Intelligence department, apparently to increase involvement in its Copilot projects. It’s noteworthy that Microsoft had recently separated the Teams application from its Office 365 suite of productivity tools on a global scale.

A recently leaked Microsoft document revealed that the company offers significantly higher salaries to its employees specializing in artificial intelligence compared to those working in divisions like Azure and Cloud. To provide some perspective, an AI software engineer’s average annual compensation can reach as high as $377,611, which represents a difference of approximately $120,000 when compared to the average salary earned by employees in the Azure division.

The competition in the development of advanced artificial intelligence is intensifying, as Meta (the company behind Facebook) has committed a staggering $15 billion investment in Scale AI and appointed Alexandr Wang as the head of its new high-level AI division. Furthermore, Meta is aggressively recruiting top-tier AI professionals from rival companies such as OpenAI and Google’s DeepMind, offering attractive signing bonuses that can reach up to $100 million.

It was disclosed in a different document that DeepMind employs strong anti-competition agreements to keep their leading AI personnel. These agreements offer up to a year of fully compensated time away from work (vacation or sabbatical) to discourage them from moving to competing AI companies.

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2025-06-30 14:09