Most white-collar jobs will be automated in 12-18 months: Microsoft AI CEO

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman warns AI will automate most white-collar jobs within 12-18 months, as the company pushes self-sufficiency and expands into healthcare AI

Amid the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and ongoing layoffs across industries, Microsoft AI chief executive officer (CEO) Mustafa Suleyman has warned that AI will replace a significant share of white-collar jobs within the next 12 to 18 months.

 

Suleyman cautioned that the impact will extend beyond coders and software engineers to professionals such as lawyers, accountants, project managers, and marketing executives.

 

In an interview with the Financial Times, Suleyman said: “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.”

 

He further added that AI agents are expected to coordinate more effectively within the workflows of large institutions over the next two to three years. These AI tools will continue to learn and improve over time, taking increasingly autonomous actions.

 

Suleyman also noted that as AI advances, creating new models will become easier and more accessible. “Creating a new model is going to be like creating a podcast or writing a blog,” he said. “It is going to be possible to design an AI that suits your requirements for every institutional organisation and person on the planet", he added, reported Financial Times.

 

His comments come at a time when companies are accelerating the adoption of AI. Recently, Anthropic’s Claude model shook stock markets after raising concerns about the future of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) firms such as Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). 

 

Microsoft pursuing “true self-sufficiency” in AI

 

To keep pace with AI’s rapid evolution, Microsoft is pursuing what Suleyman described as “true self-sufficiency” in AI by developing its own powerful foundation models and reducing reliance on OpenAI.

 

“We have to develop our own foundation models, which are at the absolute frontier, with gigawatt-scale compute and some of the very best AI training teams in the world,” Suleyman told the Financial Times. Microsoft is investing heavily in assembling and organising the vast datasets required to train advanced AI systems.

 

This shift follows a restructuring of Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI last year. Microsoft holds nearly a 27 per cent stake in the ChatGPT maker, valued at $135 billion. The agreement secures Microsoft’s long-term access to OpenAI models until at least 2032, while also giving OpenAI greater freedom to seek new investors and infrastructure partners.

 

In a bid to sharpen its competitive edge, Microsoft is also investing in other model developers such as Anthropic and Mistral. According to Suleyman, the company has accelerated development of its own in-house models, with a launch expected sometime this year.

 

Microsoft has forecast capital expenditure of $140 billion in its fiscal year ending in June, as it ramps up spending on the infrastructure required to build advanced AI systems.

 

Microsoft plans AI expansion in healthcare

 

According to Suleyman, healthcare is another key focus area for Microsoft. The company aims to build what he described as “medical superintelligence”, AI systems capable of helping address staffing shortages and long waiting times in overstretched healthcare systems.  Last year, Microsoft unveiled an AI diagnostic tool that it claims can outperform doctors on certain tasks.

 

He added that Microsoft’s broader goal is to develop “humanist superintelligence,” ensuring that AI technologies remain under human control. This stance comes amid growing concerns that rival AI labs are racing to build increasingly powerful systems that may resist oversight by their creators.

 

Suleyman said: “These tools, like any other past technology, are designed to enhance human wellbeing and serve humanity, not exceed humanity", reported Financial Times.