• Source:JND
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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has admitted he is deeply worried about whether the company can endure in the age of artificial intelligence. Speaking at an internal town hall meeting, he confessed he is “haunted” by the possibility that Microsoft may not survive this technological shift.

According to The Verge, Nadella made the comments while responding to a question about the company’s evolving culture. He warned employees that “some of the biggest businesses we’ve built might not be as relevant going forward,” highlighting the risks that even the most dominant companies face when they fail to adapt.

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As a cautionary tale, Nadella pointed to Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), once a major player in computing that collapsed after failing to embrace new technologies like the Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) architecture. “Our industry is full of case studies of companies that were great once and that just disappeared. I’m haunted by one particular one called DEC,” he said, recalling how the company lost relevance amid rising competition from IBM and others.

The remark came in response to a UK-based employee who described Microsoft’s culture as “markedly different, colder, more rigid, and lacking in the empathy we have come to value.” Acknowledging those concerns, Nadella told employees the company must “do better” in rebuilding trust and restoring empathy within its workforce.

At the same time, Microsoft has been tightening its internal policies to stay competitive in an industry increasingly defined by AI breakthroughs from rivals like OpenAI, Google, and Meta. The company has introduced a return-to-office mandate requiring staff to be physically present at least three days a week, warning that ignoring the policy could affect promotions. This shift effectively winds down the flexible remote work culture that flourished during the pandemic.

Microsoft has also been cutting costs and restructuring. Earlier this year, it announced a 3 per cent reduction in its workforce, eliminating about 6,000 roles across teams and levels. Despite strong quarterly results, including a net income of $25.8 billion, the company said in a statement to CNBC, “We continue to implement organisational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace.”

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Taken together, Nadella’s candid remarks and Microsoft’s sweeping policy changes reflect both the opportunities and anxieties of steering one of the world’s biggest technology firms into an uncertain AI future.