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Microsoft is laying off 4,800 workers: ‘AI is changing how work gets done’

A logo sits outside the Microsoft pavilion during the second day of the Mobile World Congress 2015 at the Fira Gran Via complex on March 3, 2015 in Barcelona, Spain. (David Ramos/Getty Images)

(NEW YORK) — Microsoft said on Monday it will lay off 4,800 employees and that the job cuts would be especially pronounced in its Xbox department.

The layoffs will affect 2.1% of Microsoft’s global workforce, Amy Coleman, executive vice president and chief people officer, said in a public memo to employees.

Coleman attributed the layoffs in part to a shakeup in the tech sector wrought by artificial intelligence. None of the terminated roles will be replaced by AI, Coleman noted. At the same time, she acknowledged: “AI is changing how work gets done.”

“Our business is changing because the world around it is changing. The way technology is built, deployed, and used is transforming faster than at any point in my time here,” Coleman said.

In a separate statement, Microsoft said a large share of the job cuts would impact its Xbox department, which oversees the company’s popular video game console.

In all, Xbox would slash 1,600 jobs as part of the layoffs announced on Monday, as well as an additional 1,600 cuts through the end of fiscal year 2027, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said in a public memo to employees.

“We are beginning the most significant restructure in XBOX history,” Sharma said, adding, “Our business today is not healthy.”

Sharma pointed to weaker-than-expected performance for Xbox’s subscription service, Game Pass, which charges a monthly fee for access to a collection of games. The company faced stiff competition in its efforts to increase output of new games, Sharma added.

“We now find ourselves competing not only with the largest publishers, but also with smaller independent studios,” Sharma said.

Xbox will not cancel any of its first-party, publicly announced games or projects as part of the new plans, Sharma said.

Shares of Microsoft fell about 1% in early trading on Monday.

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Western Europe breaks temperature record in summer plagued by heatwaves and wildfires

By CNN
(CNN) — The first two months of summer in western Europe have been the hottest on record, the European Union’s climate monitor said Monday, as the continent grapples with devastating wildfires and braces for yet another heatwave.The average temperature for June and July was 21.62 degrees Celsius (70.9 Fahrenheit), about 2.79 degrees above the average, and surpassing the previous heat record set in 2022, said the Copernicus climate change service.July was also the hottest month ever logged for the world’s non-polar oceans, Copernicus said, with record high temperatures set along the Atlantic and western Mediterranean, putting sea life and coastal communities at risk. The conditions were partly fueled by the so-called “Super” El Niño weather pattern developing in the pacific.The continent has been hit by a string of deadly heatwaves, with more hot temperatures forecast for this week. Heat has killed more than 25,000 people across Europe this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent but is particularly ill-equipped to withstand heat, due to older infrastructure and a lack of air conditioning.The scorching temperatures and persistent droughts in June and July mutually reinforced each other to create a hot weather spiral, according to Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.“As soils dry out, they lose their ability to provide natural cooling, allowing heat to build more readily,” Burgess said, adding that it was “a clear example of how climate change is intensifying heat extremes.”Surface soil moisture levels across western Europe in July 2026 were also “significantly lower” than in July 2022, the last summer the region saw extreme drought, with “exceptional to record deficits” for rain and soil moisture in France, Spain and parts of Germany and the United Kingdom, the scientists found.The record-breaking summer heat has fostered conditions for Europe’s record-setting wildfires, which have displaced hundreds of thousands of people and burned more than 1.23 million acres of land, mainly in Spain, France and Italy, according to an August 6 report by the EU.Beyond the scorched land, the fires have also had a broader effect across the continent, increasing emissions and disrupting air quality, said Laurence Rouil, director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.“Larger fires produce more smoke and inject it higher into the atmosphere, meaning it can travel further and impact air quality not only locally, but across the wider region,” Rouil said.Severe droughts have also sucked the water from Europe’s major rivers, particularly the Seine, the Rhine and the Danube, threatening the continent’s energy supply.Hungary and Romania were forced to temporarily shut down nuclear reactors cooled by the Danube, Europe’s second-longest river, which has experienced such low water levels that the crisis can be observed from space.Richard Allan, a climate science professor at the University of Reading in England previously told CNN the these record river lows are likely to be broken again in the future and that this “will only be the top of the iceberg.”“Managing water resources will become progressively more challenging.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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