This month started with some stark information for Microsoft workers: The enterprise was doing higher than ever earlier than, and that someway means layoffs. Around 9,000 workers had been laid-off globally, studios had been closed, video games had been cancelled, after which to rub salt within the wound some Microsoft exec with terminal LinkedIn mind prompt that these affected use AI to console themselves.
Judging by the newest weird missive from Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, that very government might be in line for a promotion. There’s government management verbiage, after which there’s Nadella in full move, an limitless spewer with terrifying ranges of government energy and a cheery disregard for the financial realities of the little folks. Ahem.
In a brand new weblog titled “Recommitting to our why, what and how” Nadella takes off, to begin with bravely addressing the query of why Microsoft has simply fired so many people.
“I want to speak to what’s been weighing heavily on me, and what I know many of you are thinking about: the recent job eliminations,” writes Nadella. Then it is on to the “seeming incongruence” of the truth that “by every objective measure, Microsoft is thriving—our market performance, strategic positioning, and growth all point up and to the right […] And yet, at the same time, we’ve undergone layoffs.”
Get prepared as a result of, within the annals of government bullshit, this can be a magnificence.
“This is the enigma of success in an industry that has no franchise value,” writes Nadella. “Progress isn’t linear. It’s dynamic, sometimes dissonant, and always demanding. But it’s also a new opportunity for us to shape, lead through, and have greater impact than ever before.”
I’m undecided precisely what Nadella means by “franchise value” however neither’s he, and that is the purpose. Is the suggestion that massive tech can fail in a single day with a foul product? Because Microsoft’s historical past and de facto monopoly definitely suggests in any other case!
There’s extra nonsense about “creating new categories with new business models and a new production function” and, naturally, a reference to “this new paradigm.”
Then we get into the titular “why, what, and how” of Microsoft’s “mission” and shock shock folks: it is AI! “What does empowerment look like in the era of AI?” Nadella wonders. “It’s about building tools that empower everyone to create their own tools. That’s the shift we are driving—from a software factory to an intelligence engine empowering every person and organization to build whatever they need to achieve.”
There’s some nonsense about AI altering every part as a result of “that’s the empowerment our mission enables, creating local surplus in every company, community, and country.” Local surplus? What, of laid-off staff? Is that the longer term Satya?
The man’s language actually makes my head damage at factors, however I can say one factor—Copilot could not provide you with this:
“We will reimagine every layer of the tech stack for AI—infrastructure, to the app platform, to apps and agents. The key is to get the platform primitives right for these new workloads and for the next order of magnitude of scale. Our differentiation will come from how we bring these layers together to deliver end-to-end experiences and products, with the core ethos of a platform company that fosters ecosystem opportunity broadly. Getting both the product and platform right for the AI wave is our North Star!”
The LinkedIn nerds are gonna love this line: “Growth mindset has served us well over the last decade—the everyday practice of being a learn-it-all, not a know-it-all.” This is sweet, apparently, and “it might feel messy at times, but transformation always is.” Nadella claims that the place AI is now “reminds me of the early ’90s, when PCs and productivity software became standard in every home and every desk!”
Don’t ask why. “What we’ve learned over the past five decades is that success is not about longevity,” says Nadella. “It’s about relevance. Our future won’t be defined by what we’ve built before, but by what we empower others to build now.”
It appears to me that the principle factor Microsoft is empowering folks to construct is the newest model of their CV, however I digress. Nadella’s distinctive mode of expression apart, that is principally simply one other tone-deaf missive from an organization that actually appears to specialize in them. Perhaps probably the most concrete take-away from all of this although is that “we will reimagine every layer of the tech stack for AI—infrastructure, to the app platform, to apps and agents.”
AI might not do every part the boosters say, in different phrases: nevertheless it’s right here to remain anyway and, in the event you assume it has been obtrusive to date, you actually have not seen something but.