How much AI do Microsoft employees use?
What's the story
In a surprising move, Microsoft employees have started disclosing their artificial intelligence (AI) usage. According to Business Insider, the internal spreadsheet shared by the employees reveals a lot more than just salaries and bonuses. It includes base pay, raises, cash bonuses, stock awards, and most importantly, the monthly dollar value of their AI tool usage. The data was collected using an internal Microsoft tracking tool that is currently in early testing phase.
Usage disparity
AI usage varies widely across teams
The internal spreadsheet gives a rare look into how much AI is being used by Microsoft employees.
The usage varies widely across teams, with some reporting costs of just a few dollars while others have reported costs running into tens of thousands of dollars per month.
The highest reported figure was an astonishing $28,000 for one employee in the Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions organization.
Data representation
Only a small fraction of employees reported AI usage
As of June 30, Microsoft had a total of 223,000 employees.
However, the spreadsheet only contained around 350 entries for AI usage. This means that the data represents a very small fraction of the entire workforce.
The analysis by Business Insider also showed no clear link between reported AI usage and employee rewards such as promotions or bonuses.
Company stance
Microsoft is investing heavily in AI
Despite the lack of direct correlation between AI usage and employee rewards, Microsoft is still pushing its employees to integrate AI into their daily work.
The company has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in AI infrastructure, competing with Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta, as well as Google to build AI products.