- An Xbox leader suggested that dismissed employees use AI for emotional support and career advice
- The suggestion triggered a backlash and led the executive to delete his LinkedIn post
- Microsoft has dismissed 9,000 employees in recent months while investing massively in AI.
Microsoft has set up its AI ambitions for several years, but the field of an executive on the power of the AI for former employees who have recently been released landed with a deaf noise.
In the midst of the largest series of layoffs in more than two years, around 9,000 people, Matt Turnbull, executive producer of Xbox Game Studios Publishing, suggested that IA chatbots could help people affected to treat their sorrow, their curriculum vitae and rebuild their confidence.
The gesture was intended for support, but he left many game developers to be indignant.
Turnbull took its possibly well -intentioned message but definitely poorly formulated and timed in Linkedin. He shared ideas for prompts to give an AI chatbot which, according to him, could help colleagues licensed to sail in career uncertainty and emotional turbulence.
The backlash has been fast and angry, leading it to delete the post, but you can always read it thanks to the Brandon Sheffield Bluesky post below.
Matt Turnbull, executive producer of Xbox Game Studios Publishing – After Microsoft layoffs – suggesting on LinkedIn who may may be released should turn to AI to get help. He seriously thought that publishing it would be a good idea.
– @ Brandon.inSertCredit.com ( @ brandon.inseertcredit.com.bsky.social) 2025-07-07t07: 54: 06.534Z
Turnbull has urged her colleagues to rely on AI to reduce the “emotional and cognitive load” of job loss in his post, as well as quick ideas for 30 -day recovery plans and Linkedin messages. The highest suggestion of the eyebrows probably suggests an prompt to help crop the impostor syndrome after being dismissed.
“No AI tool replaces your voice or lived experience,” wrote Turnbull. “But in times when mental energy is rare, these tools can help you take off more quickly, calmer and with more clarity.”
Even the most charity interpretation of his post cannot ignore how condescending and poorly timed. And angry game developers have flooded the comments, probably leading to the deletion of the position.
To put it slightly, they do not agree that being dismissed is an emotional puzzle best resolved with an algorithm. Instead, perhaps a human could understand the career and the upheavals of life it represents, and how it requires human compassion, support networks and tangible help, for example, an introduction to someone who can help you find a new job.
AI therapy
This incident is even worse in the context of Microsoft’s expenses which spend AI infrastructure while considerably shrinking its game teams. Upping developers dismissed to rely on AI just after losing their job is more than hypocritical; That said to people to use the very technology that may have caused their job loss.
To be scrupulously and too just in Turnbull, the use of AI could help certain mental health problems and could be useful for improving a curriculum vitae or preparing for a job interview. Making part of the Outplacement Services AI is not a horrible idea. This could stimulate internal coaching and the career transition arm that Microsoft already offers, adding to recruiters, curriculum vitae workshops and offers. But he cannot and should not replace these human services. And having one of the people who let you tell you to use AI to find a new job is the opposite of support. It’s just an insult in addition to injury.
Microsoft’s double approach to put people and double AI infrastructure is a test of its corporate culture as much as its technical capacity. Are we going to see a new standard where layoffs are delivered with invited plans in AI instead of counseling and dismissal? If the message is, “do not hesitate to use chatbots to help you after dismissed”, expect many more deaf nonsense and frame sources.
Perhaps they should ask these chatbots how to interact with human beings without angry them, because it is a lesson that they did not learn well.
