Microsoft AI boss warns most white-collar jobs will be fully automated soonTech bosses warn AI will automate most white-collar jobs within 18 months as companies slash thousands of roles in preparation for the workforce revolution.Hannah Wilcox3 min readFebruary 16, 2026 - 3:57AMSome of the world’s top tech bosses have predicted the future of the workforce as artificial intelligence adoption accelerates – and it’s looking pretty bleak for the next generation of workers.Microsoft’s AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman has anticipated widespread job automation in the very near future in an interview with the Financial Times.Most, if not every, task in white-collar fields will be replaced with the technology within the next year or year and a half, he warned.Microsoft’s AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman warned most, if not all, white-collar tasks will be replaced with AI within the next year or year and a half. Picture: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP“I think that we’re going to have a human-level performance on most, if not all, professional tasks,” Mr Suleyman said. “So white-collar work, where you’re sitting down at a computer, either being a lawyer or an accountant or a project manager or a marketing person – most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months.”Employees in fields such as software engineering are already using “AI-assisted coding for the vast majority of their code production.”“It’s a quite different relationship to the technology, and that’s happened in the last six months,” he added.Microsoft is only one of a slew of major technology companies utilising AI in its everyday processes.In January 2025, Meta announced a 5 per cent workforce reduction, impacting about 3600 staffers.Last May, 6000 employees were let go by Microsoft, and in July, another 9000.CEO Satya Nadella at the time announced AI was responsible for 20 to 30 per cent of the company’s code, Forbes reported, with Microsoft funding a $US80 billion ($115.7bn) AI infrastructure drive.Salman Khan, CEO of Khan Academy and vision steward at TED, warned mass employment due to AI integration could cause a "depression". Picture: TEDMeanwhile, Amazon plans to cut as many as 30,000 roles after chief executive Andy Jassy admitted in a memo to staffers last year that the business “will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today”.The grim reality comes as Salman Khan, CEO of Khan Academy and vision steward at TED, has warned the AI revolutions will come faster and hit harder than anticipated.Even the impacts of small increase in unemployment will be felt, he told Fortune.“If white-collar work were to shrink even 10 per cent,” Mr Khan said.“It’s going to feel like a depression.”On top of kicking a whole sector out of their office chairs, AI integration could cause an identity crisis, he added.“They’ve been making upper-middle-class, affluent salaries for the last 20 years,” Mr Khan said. “Their identity is tied to this. And now, all of a sudden, you’re going to have this mass shift in the job market.”A number of major industries will have a “huge problem on their hands” if they don’t find pathways for roles replaced by the technology.“If you don’t figure out how the laid-off truck driver or delivery driver can become a radiology tech or a nurse’s aide or something,” he said. The CEO suggested a solution in the form of a 1 per cent commitment, funded by personnel costs or profits, funnelled into a national reskilling collective. Last May, 6000 employees were let go by Microsoft, and in July, another 9000. Picture: Drew Angerer/Getty Images/AFPIt comes after US employment consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas revealed in a recent report 1.2 million job cuts were announced last year – up 58 per cent from the roughly 760,000 lay-offs in 2024.Concerningly, 2025 saw the highest level of workforce reductions since 2020, and was almost in line with the 2008 financial crisis.The private sector tech industry was hit the hardest during the job cut surge.More CoverageAussie CEOs plotting major job cutsHarrison ChristianReally bad news for kids who finished HSCHannah Wilcox It was announced last year by the sector that 154,000 roles would be slashed – a 15 per cent increase from about 134,000 in 2024 – all thanks to rapid AI implementation. In 2025 alone, AI was responsible for 54,836 lay-off plans.“Technology has been pivoting to both developing and implementing artificial intelligence much more quickly than any other industry,” the Challenger, Gray & Christmas report read.“This, coupled with over-hiring over the last decade, created a wave of job loss in the industry.”More related storiesAustralian Culture‘Important’: Extra public holiday defendedNSW Premier Chris Minns has defended the decision to add a public holiday for Anzac Day, even though it’s not popular with a number of business groups.Read moreAt Work‘C**khead’: Agent’s wild blow-up at mumA real estate agent’s extraordinary blow-up at a young mother has been captured on camera.Read moreAt WorkViral chair thrower named as furniture bossA man who allegedly knocked out his workmate with a viral chair throw outside a Melbourne strip club has been identified.Read more