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The Microsoft brand is seen by means of glass at Nationwide Retail Federation in New York Metropolis, U.S., Jan. 12. Weekly lunchtime protests exterior Microsoft Korea’s Seoul workplace have turned the corporate into an emblem of a broader unease gripping white-collar employees right here. Reuters-Yonhap
One per week at lunchtime, a small crowd gathers exterior Microsoft Korea’s Seoul workplace, holding protests over fears that synthetic intelligence (AI) might make their jobs out of date.
The weekly demonstration has grow to be a visual image of the deep nervousness gripping white-collar employees, significantly software program builders and different staff who’re constructing the very AI programs that might sooner or later substitute them.
Union officers say about 50 positions — largely software program builders — have been affected by AI-driven restructuring over the previous three years, and so they fear that one other 10 % of roughly 550 jobs might be in danger because the expertise is rolled out extra aggressively.
“For instance, in a single technical help division that handles telephone and e mail queries from prospects utilizing Microsoft merchandise, employees have been informed to assist prepare an AI agent that may mechanically counsel options to issues,” Kwak Chang-yong, secretary-general of the union, informed The Korea Occasions. “It naturally prompts a query, ‘What is going to occur to me after I full the coaching?’”
In the US, Microsoft, one of many world’s main AI firms, introduced in July 2025 that it could lay off as much as 9,000 employees. In Korea, such large-scale cuts could be far harder, as labor legal guidelines require firms to show pressing enterprise necessity and observe strict session and choice procedures.
However many employees at Microsoft Korea concern that their abilities will grow to be out of date or far much less helpful, Kwak stated. They fear that they could be assigned to work they’re unfamiliar with or to no work in any respect ― a tactic some Korean companies have been accused of utilizing to make employees “go away voluntarily.”
The corporate’s restructuring prolonged past software program builders to incorporate employees within the advertising and marketing and human sources departments, in line with the official.
“The present AI increase has not been a lot of a increase for these working in tech firms, a minimum of when it comes to job safety and salaries,” stated Kwak, including that Microsoft and different tech giants prioritize investing in AI over the employees who develop and implement it.
Union members are demanding higher job safety and retraining, and have been holding Monday lunchtime protests exterior the Seoul workplace since early December, saying that they’ll proceed till administration accepts their calls for.
Requested concerning the union’s complaints and Microsoft’s restructuring plans within the coming years, the corporate stated it’s innovating responsibly and throughout the regulation right here.
“Microsoft creates and sustains high-quality jobs by means of steady enterprise funding and innovation, whereas assembly the expectations and wishes of its world prospects,” the agency stated in a press release despatched to The Korea Occasions. “Our firm operates a good and aggressive compensation system that takes into consideration varied components comparable to function, efficiency and market competitiveness, and complies with all relevant legal guidelines and laws in Korea.”
Microsoft will not be alone.
Throughout company Korea, employees are more and more uneasy. The sort of sweeping, AI-driven job displacement many concern has not but materialized in earnest, however nervousness about it’s clearly on the rise.
A 2023 report by the Korea Improvement Institute, a state-funded assume tank, discovered that almost 39 % of at present’s jobs contain roles the place greater than 70 % of duties can already be dealt with by AI. Wanting forward, the report outlines a extra sweeping chance: By round 2030, practically 90 % of duties throughout about 90 % of job classes might, in concept, be dealt with by AI.
AI seems to be significantly harming job prospects for younger individuals.
In a report launched in October 2025, the Financial institution of Korea stated that between 2022 and 2025, jobs for individuals aged 15-29 fell by about 211,000, and 208,000 of these losses have been in industries with excessive AI publicity. The findings counsel that automation is enjoying a key function in weakening their job prospects, alongside different financial and demographic components.
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