Microsoft’s Satya Nadella says tech needs efficiency as job cuts loom

“During the [coronavirus] pandemic there was rapid acceleration. I think we are going to go through a phase today where there is some amount of normalization in demand,” said Satya Nadella at WEF, adding that the world will have to do more with less. “We will have to do more with less — we will have to show our own productivity gains with our own technology,” he said.

It was earlier reported that Microsoft is planning to cut down jobs in engineering divisions, joining the ranks of technology giants that are scaling back as the industry prepares for a prolonged slump. The software giant is forecast to post its slowest revenue increase in years when it reports earnings later this month. Even its star cloud computing segment has begun to wane in the past year.

Satya Nadella said the tech spending should accelerate after the current economic cycle, while touting artificial intelligence as a technology that would boost growth.

Satya Nadella later said that many companies have a “productivity paranoia,” toward their workers. “Every leader thinks that somehow they’re not being productive, but everyone who’s working in the organization feels burned out.”