Document reveals how Microsoft 'cannot afford to lose' AI engineers

Microsoft has its own set of bonus rules to retain talented employees, especially those with an understanding of AI.

Internal documents obtained by Business Insider show that Microsoft poses a series of questions in the form of arguments to retain talent. Managers use these documents to present to their superiors, mainly proposing bonuses such as stock or cash to avoid employees leaving.

Microsoft logo at MWC exhibition, February 2023. Photo: Luu Quy

One of the most important questions in the document is: “What are the implications if this employee leaves Microsoft?” But the company recently added a new question in light of the growing AI talent shortage: “With AI transformation a key priority, please indicate whether this individual is a key AI talent and the risks to AI initiatives if this talent is not retained?”

The question was added to a document “for a large and specific group” at the company, according to an inside source.

Meanwhile, a Microsoft spokesperson said "there is no form related to special stock or cash offers for employees." At the same time, departments and groups will make their own human resources choices depending on their strategic priorities.

But the addition of an AI question to the hiring materials, if anything, suggests that the war for AI talent could push some parts of Microsoft to take more aggressive action to prevent being poached by rivals. Google, OpenAI, Meta, and other tech giants are developing powerful AI models and need people with a high level of understanding. This makes the AI ​​talent market hotter than ever. Last year, The Information reported that Big Tech’s top executives were even writing their own recruiting emails and making cold calls to lure top talent.

Microsoft has also been known to favor AI talent over other areas. A previously leaked salary sheet showed that, as of September, the average salary in Microsoft’s AI team was 37% higher than the general level. AI-related software engineers earned 48% more than software engineers in other areas. Microsoft did not respond at the time.

In the middle of last year, statistics from Levels.fyi , a company specializing in compiling salary data for technology workers, also showed that each AI software engineer in the US had a median salary of $300,000 , while programmers and software engineers who did not specialize in artificial intelligence were around $100,000.

Bao Lam

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