Big Tech's AI Race: Workforce Cuts Loom as Companies Shift Focus to AI Productivity

Getty ImagesBig Tech companies are now racing to see who can build the best AI coworkerAfter years of trying to have the best model, Big Tech is getting serious about the business side of AI. For the past few years, the AI boom has been defined by experimentation: launch everything, chase each use case, and figure out the business later.

Over the span of a few days, Alibaba, Microsoft, and OpenAI each made moves that reflect the same shift: AI is no longer an experiment. It’s the core business. Their focus is increasingly on tools that can do real work, not just answer questions.

In other words, the race is shifting from who has the smartest model to who can build the most useful coworker. Microsoft is combining its consumer and commercial Copilot efforts into a single system, aiming to reduce “manual coordination,” or human intervention, and make its AI more useful for actual work.

Alibaba is consolidating its AI efforts into a new unit led by CEO Eddie Wu, who framed the shift around capturing a “historic opportunity” as AI agents take on a growing share of business tasks.