Unless you have been under a rock for the last year, you know that Microsoft has been all in on the generative AI wave that's taken over much of the tech industry. With the help of its partner OpenAI, Microsoft has been adding its Copilot AI chatbot as an option for its productivity apps, software development, and Teams online meeting and collaboration services.
Microsoft Teams remains a very popular service, but in a new report from Business Insider, it looks like Microsoft is reducing the number of its employees who work on Teams. Some of them may have moved over to work on Copilot.
The report is based on a leaked memo that Business Insider says it got to view. The memo was written by Jared Spataro, who is Microsoft's corporate vice president of AI at Work. According to the report, the changes will create a central team that will concentrate on Copilot and the "future of work" development. BI added that these changes would include some layoffs but did not specify how many Microsoft employees would have their jobs cut.
In response to its inquiries, Microsoft's head of communications Frank Shaw did admit that the company is expanding its efforts on Copilot. However, he also claimed the company's Teams efforts were a "core priority" for Microsoft. He added that the Copilot for Teams service is the most popular among the many Copilot offerings, according to its own surveys. Shaw would not comment if this reorganization resulted in any layoffs.
Earlier this week, Microsoft announced it was unbundling Teams from Microsoft 365 worldwide after it freed up Teams in the EU and Switzerland in 2023 in order to appease the European Commission. Teams will now be available as a stand-alone service as well as one that will be included in Microsoft 365.
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