The savings came from their call center customer service personnel utilizing AI tools. These remarks by Microsoft’s Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff comes a week after the company announced they were laying off approximately 4% (9,000) of their workforce. As I mentioned in that previous post, executives at most major publicly traded corporations see AI replacing actual people as the quickest way to save money in order to fuel this infinite growth at all costs mentality that drives Wall Street. After that report (plus the one about an Xbox executive producer writing that laid off workers should use AI/Co-Pilot to manage their emotions regarding the job loss), I decided it was time to step away as a shareholder (this new one just cements my overall disdain for Microsoft’s current executive “leadership”).
Disclosure: The limit sell order for MSFT that I put in that other day was filled. Only thing is I forgot to put in a sell order for the shares I have in my retirement account (I put in a limited sell order at $505 after the market close today). All of these MSFT shares are long term holdings (the ones sold are in a non-retirement account so they will be subject to long term capital gains, but I’ll also likely benefit from the “big beautiful bill” that just passed; the shares in my ROTH IRA won’t be subject to any capital gains by comparison).
<OB RANT>Compared to the amount of shares many executives hold (hundreds of thousands to millions in shares, employee stock options, restricted stock units), this is minor by comparison; just a few thousand accumulated over the years. For the average person, it would be their dream retirement nest egg. But the decisions driving these executives is to preserve their executive bonuses (and to be rewarded even more compensation which the average person working that daily grind in order to make ends meet, cannot even conceive of). After a certain amount, no one needs more (you don’t need that yacht, extra houses/properties, multiple fancy vehicles, etc). After a certain point, it is just pure GREED.</OB RANT>
Finally, just as when I sold my Facebook shares, a percentage of the realized gains (at least a third of it) will be earmarked for worthy causes (considering all of the idiotic cuts in the U.S. by the regime in D.C., food banks are going to be at the top of that list). This is also one of the things I’ve been thinking about lately over the past 3 months. Much of what I’ve blogged about over the years (regarding Wall Street, these companies, the overall state of things) is leading to my exit strategy from the market (most of that, I plan to execute in 2026 and just be done with all of the shenanigans).
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