Microsoft freezes hirings in cloud, sales teams; here's what it means
Microsoft is freezing hirings across its cloud unit and sales teams in North America, as per reports. Scroll down to read the detailed story.
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Microsoft is reportedly planning to stop the hirings across its cloud division and the sales teams in North America. This move is being taken to control the costs and invest in the artificial intelligence domain. The managers have already been directed not to hire the candidates unless they have a job offer in hand, as per reports. This highlights a change of dynamics in the hiring strategy of the company. This step has not been implemented in all the domains. However, some business units may be under direct impact. According to reports, the teams which are working on the company's AI products, Copilot, are still actively looking for candidates.
Why is Microsoft freezing the hirings?
The decision of Microsoft freezing its hirings comes at a crucial point when the company is actively making investments on the AI front. The company has invested almost USD 80 billion in capital expenditure for the fiscal year 2025. Out of this investment, the major portion has gone to the building and expansion of AI-based capabilities.
AI teams in Microsoft
The AI teams in Microsoft are continuing to grow, while other divisions are still taking measures to cut their costs. Earlier in the year, the company had already reduced hiring in the consulting domain and cut the budgets of marketing by almost 35 per cent. According to the reports, Microsoft is looking forward to changing its focus and putting more finances into futuristic technologies like artificial intelligence.
Microsoft layoffs
The company has also made some changes in its workforce in the last year. This includes massive layoffs, as it had done so in July by laying off almost 9,000 employees. Later, the company came up with another job cut at the beginning of this year.
What does this mean?
Now that Microsoft is freezing its hirings across the cloud division and the sales teams in North America, the move highlights that the company may be looking in the direction of increasing investment tendencies in artificial intelligence by having to reduce its costs in other sectors.
The company has not frozen its hirings across all departments. The teams working in the AI domain are still actively hiring individuals, as per reports.
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