Latest news with #JudsonAlthoff
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Internal Microsoft memo lays out its new strategy for selling AI as the company cuts salespeople
Microsoft's Judson Althoff wants to revamp sales to become the "frontier AI firm," a memo shows. The changes come as Microsoft cuts thousands of roles, including in sales. Althoff's memo outlined the changes to the organization and his ambitions for the new fiscal year. Microsoft's sales chief, Judson Althoff, is revamping his unit to make it more AI-focused, according to an internal memo viewed by Business Insider. Althoff, the company's chief commercial officer, sent the memo to the sales unit, called Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions (MCAPS), a day before the company announced a significant round of layoffs. Those layoffs affected many salespeople in Althoff's organization, sources familiar with them said. The memo did not mention the layoffs, announced beginning July 2 in separate communications to employees. Althoff's memo called for "continued agility" and "reinventing Microsoft and MCAPS" to become "the Frontier AI Firm," and outlined the five priorities of the sales organization: Establish a Copilot on every device and across every role Strengthen our M365 and D365 execution and penetration across all segments Create meaningful AI design wins Grow our cloud platform business by migrating and modernizing workloads to Azure Build a cybersecurity foundation to enable secure AI Transformation Althoff in April unveiled plans to slash the number of the sales team's "solutions areas" by half during the next fiscal year, which started July 1. BI obtained copies of slides from Althoff's April presentation, showing the company planned to condense its six previous areas into three: AI Business Solutions, Cloud & AI Platforms, and Security, according to those slides. AI Business Solutions will focus on getting "Copilots on every device across every role" and on selling Microsoft 365's suite of business applications and Dynamics 365 customer relationship management service, according to the July 1 memo. Cloud & AI Platform will include the company's Azure business, its AI "agent factory" Foundry, and data analytics platform Fabric. That group will be focused on frontier AI solutions and migrating and modernizing cloud workloads to Azure. Security focuses on selling Microsoft's security tools. "We have spent a lot of time playing defense over the last year, and it is now time to compete more aggressively," Althoff said, referring to the security solutions area. The changes come as Microsoft faces increasing competition for enterprise customers in AI from companies like OpenAI and Google. Microsoft has an advantage in that many large companies already use its other tools, but many of those companies' employees want the more well-known the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
3 hours ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Internal Microsoft memo lays out its new strategy for selling AI as the company cuts salespeople
Microsoft's sales chief, Judson Althoff, is revamping his unit to make it more AI-focused, according to an internal memo viewed by Business Insider. Althoff, the company's chief commercial officer, sent the memo to the sales unit, called Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions (MCAPS), a day before the company announced a significant round of layoffs. Those layoffs affected many salespeople in Althoff's organization, sources familiar with them said. The memo did not mention the layoffs, announced beginning July 2 in separate communications to employees. Althoff's memo called for "continued agility" and "reinventing Microsoft and MCAPS" to become "the Frontier AI Firm," and outlined the five priorities of the sales organization: Establish a Copilot on every device and across every role Strengthen our M365 and D365 execution and penetration across all segments Create meaningful AI design wins Grow our cloud platform business by migrating and modernizing workloads to Azure Build a cybersecurity foundation to enable secure AI Transformation Althoff in April unveiled plans to slash the number of the sales team's "solutions areas" by half during the next fiscal year, which started July 1. BI obtained copies of slides from Althoff's April presentation, showing the company planned to condense its six previous areas into three: AI Business Solutions, Cloud & AI Platforms, and Security, according to those slides. AI Business Solutions will focus on getting "Copilots on every device across every role" and on selling Microsoft 365's suite of business applications and Dynamics 365 customer relationship management service, according to the July 1 memo. Cloud & AI Platform will include the company's Azure business, its AI "agent factory" Foundry, and data analytics platform Fabric. That group will be focused on frontier AI solutions and migrating and modernizing cloud workloads to Azure. Security focuses on selling Microsoft's security tools. "We have spent a lot of time playing defense over the last year, and it is now time to compete more aggressively," Althoff said, referring to the security solutions area. The changes come as Microsoft faces increasing competition for enterprise customers in AI from companies like OpenAI and Google. Microsoft has an advantage in that many large companies already use its other tools, but many of those companies' employees want the more well-known ChatGPT.
Time of India
6 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Microsoft's new AI tool a medical genius? Tech giant claims it is 4x more accurate than real doctors
Tech giant Microsoft, recently hit with a fresh round of layoffs, has developed a new medical AI tool that performs better than human doctors at complex health diagnoses, creating a 'path to medical superintelligence'. The Microsoft AI team shared research that demonstrated how AI can sequentially investigate and solve medicine's most complex diagnostic challenges—cases that expert physicians struggle to answer. Tech company's AI unit, led by the British tech pioneer Mustafa Suleyman , has developed a system that imitates a panel of expert physicians tackling 'diagnostically complex and intellectually demanding' cases. Microsoft AI Diagnostic Orchestrator (MAI-DxO) correctly diagnosed up to 85% of NEJM case proceedings, a rate more than four times higher than a group of experienced physicians. MAI-DxO also gets to the correct diagnosis more cost-effectively than physicians, the company said in a blog post. ALSO READ: Microsoft layoffs: Tech giant's sales head Judson Althoff asked to go on two-month leave. Here's why Microsoft says AI system better than doctors The Microsoft AI Diagnostic Orchestrator', or MAI-DxO for short, the AI-powered tool is developed by the company's AI health unit, which was founded last year by Mustafa Suleyman. The tech giant said when paired with OpenAI's advanced o3 AI model, its approach 'solved' more than eight of 10 case studies specially chosen for the diagnostic challenge. When those case studies were tried on practising physicians – who had no access to colleagues, textbooks or chatbots – the accuracy rate was two out of 10. Microsoft said it was also a cheaper option than using human doctors because it was more efficient at ordering tests. When benchmarked against real-world case records, the new medical AI tool 'correctly diagnoses up to 85% of NEJM case proceedings, a rate more than four times higher than a group of experienced physicians' while being more impressive is that these cases are from the New England Journal of Medicine and are very complex and require multiple specialists and tests before doctors can reach any conclusion. Live Events According to The Wired, the Microsoft team used 304 case studies sourced from the New England Journal of Medicine to devise a test called the Sequential Diagnosis Benchmark. A language model broke down each case into a step-by-step process that a doctor would perform in order to reach a diagnosis. ALSO READ: Melania should be on first boat: Deportation calls for US' First Lady gains traction amid Trump's immigration crackdown Microsoft new AI tool diagnosed 85% cases For this, the company used different large language models from OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic, Google, xAI and DeepSeek. Microsoft said that the new AI medical tool correctly diagnosed 85.5 per cent of cases, which is way better compared to experienced human doctors, who were able to correctly diagnose only 20 per cent of the cases. "This orchestration mechanism—multiple agents that work together in this chain-of-debate style—that's what's going to drive us closer to medical superintelligence,' Suleyman told The Wired. Microsoft announced it is building a system designed to mimic the step-by-step approach of real-world clinicians—asking targeted questions, ordering diagnostic tests, and narrowing down possibilities to reach an accurate diagnosis. For example, a patient presenting with a cough and fever might be guided through blood tests and a chest X-ray before the system determines a diagnosis like pneumonia. ALSO READ: Sean Diddy Combs' secret plan against his ex Jennifer Lopez emerges amid sex-trafficking trial Microsoft said its approach was able to wield a 'breadth and depth of expertise' that went beyond individual physicians because it could span multiple medical disciplines. It added: 'Scaling this level of reasoning – and beyond – has the potential to reshape healthcare. AI could empower patients to self-manage routine aspects of care and equip clinicians with advanced decision support for complex cases.' Microsoft acknowledged its work is not ready for clinical use. Further testing is needed on its 'orchestrator' to assess its performance on more common symptoms, for instance. Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
Time of India
7 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Microsoft cuts thousands of jobs in latest layoff wave amid major AI push & exec shake-up; CCO goes on sabbatical
Microsoft has initiated another large-scale workforce reduction, confirming it will lay off more than 9,000 employees globally. This move, which affects nearly 4% of its 228,000-strong global workforce, marks the third major round of job cuts by the company in 2025. The layoffs are part of Microsoft's continuing effort to restructure operations and shift its focus toward artificial intelligence-driven growth. AI push drives organisational changes In an official statement, a Microsoft spokesperson said, 'We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace.' The company highlighted that even under favourable market conditions, regular adjustments in staffing have been part of its business strategy. Microsoft has stated that it aims to empower employees by leveraging new technologies that allow them to focus on more meaningful work, indicating a broader integration of AI across all its services and departments. The latest layoff round follows cuts made earlier this year. In May 2025, Microsoft reduced its workforce by about 6,000 employees, followed by another smaller round weeks later. The current layoffs are expected to primarily affect the sales and marketing departments, although no specific regions were mentioned. Judson Althoff on sabbatical amid changes In a related development, Microsoft's Chief Commercial Officer, Judson Althoff, has taken an eight-week sabbatical. The leave, as confirmed by the company, was pre-scheduled and aligns with the end of Microsoft's fiscal year, which closed on June 30, 2025. Althoff is expected to resume his duties in September. Sorry to hear about the layoffs at over at Microsoft Like the mass layoffs, studios closures and Game Cancellations at PlayStation , Embracer & others these are never good nor should be celebrated or used for Console everyone lands on their feet soon. The timing of the sabbatical has drawn attention within the industry, as it coincides with the period of significant internal restructuring. While Microsoft has not indicated any link between Althoff's absence and the workforce changes, the overlap has prompted speculation among analysts and insiders. More layoffs may follow in Xbox division According to an earlier Bloomberg report, Microsoft may also be preparing additional layoffs in its gaming division, particularly within Xbox. If implemented, this would mark the fourth major layoff round at Microsoft in just 18 months, underscoring the scale of internal changes taking place. Meanwhile, the news of potential job cuts had an immediate, albeit minor, effect on Microsoft's stock performance. On Wednesday, Microsoft's intraday share price slipped by 0.68%, from $493.50 to $490.37. As of 11:00 a.m. EDT, shares were trading at $491.74, slightly down from the previous day's close of $492.05, according to MarketWatch data.
Time of India
9 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Microsoft layoffs: Tech giant's sales head Judson Althoff asked to go on two-month leave. Here's why
Tech giant Microsoft, which has announced a fresh round of layoff of over 9,000 employees, has asked its top sales executive Judson Althoff to step away for an eight-week sabbatical. The move that coincides with an expected wave of terminations targeting his organization as Microsoft is preparing to eliminate thousands of employees in its sales division, reports Bloomberg. Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff will step away for eight weeks, a company spokesperson said. Althoff "will be back with his team in September," the spokesperson said. The sabbatical was timed to the close of Microsoft's fiscal year, which ends Monday. Microsoft layoffs amid AI boom It was reported earlier that Microsoft is planning to fire thousands of jobs, particularly in sales division as part of an effort to trim its workforce amid heavy spending on artificial intelligence. Microsoft often makes major organizational changes near the end of its fiscal year. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Elegant New Scooters For Seniors In 2024: The Prices May Surprise You Mobility Scooter | Search Ads Learn More Undo ALSO READ: Trump gives deportation threat to Elon Musk. But US President's latest target might have an exit plan This is another round of layoff with a major workforce reduction this year for the Redmond-based tech giant, following 6,000 cuts in May and over 300 additional eliminations just weeks later. Bloomberg first reported the planned summer layoffs, with sources indicating the timing coincides with the start of Microsoft's new fiscal year beginning in July. Live Events Microsoft's sales and marketing division employs approximately 45,000 of the company's 228,000 total workforce as of June 2024. The company signaled this shift in April this year when it announced plans to use third-party firms to handle more software sales to small and mid-sized customers. Sources told Bloomberg the reductions won't exclusively affect sales teams, though they will bear the brunt of the cuts. Fresh layoffs at Microsoft Microsoft said Wednesday it will fire 9,000 employees. The move will affect less than 4% of its global workforce across different teams, geographies and levels of experience. 'We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace,' a Microsoft spokesperson said in an email. ALSO READ: 25 million Americans at risk? Trump's most shocking deportation call targets US citizens as he sets bizarre conditions There have been several rounds of layoffs at Microsoft already this calendar year. In January, it cut less than 1% of headcount based on performance. The 50-year-old software company slashed over 6,000 jobs in May and then at least 300 more in June. As of June 2024 it employed 228,000 people. In 2023, it laid off 10,000. Corporate America has kicked off a series of job cuts across sectors as companies attempt to streamline operations amid economic uncertainties, following similar cutbacks seen last year.
