Microsoft Employees Spend Up to $28K on AI Tools in Under 30 Days

Microsoft employees' spending on AI tools has been revealed in an internal spreadsheet shared among workers. The data includes nearly 600 compensation entries from US-based Microsoft employees, with around 350 of those also including information about AI spending.

The median reported AI expenditure was $300 for a 28-day period, although the figures vary significantly across different business groups within the company. In some teams, individual employees spent as little as $1 on AI tools, while others reached up to $28,000.

Microsoft's Cloud + AI group had a median expenditure of $325, with reported amounts ranging from $1 to $15,000. The Azure team had a median of $241, with spending between $1 and $7,500. In contrast, employees in the CoreAI group spent a median of $975, with individual figures ranging from $40 to $16,000.

The data suggests that AI spending is becoming a significant part of workplace technology use, with employee usage varying depending on their roles and teams. The spreadsheet also includes compensation information for Microsoft employees, showing that base pay can range significantly across different job levels. For example, level 59 employees reported salaries between $111,000 and $134,000.

The data should be interpreted as a limited snapshot of employee spending rather than a company-wide measure. Microsoft had 223,000 employees as of June 30, meaning the approximately 350 AI-spending records represent only a small fraction of its workforce.