This Microsoft pay scale reveals AI pros are making bank — with compensation packages reaching up to $336,000/year

Is compensation always tied to an employee's performance index in the workplace? Well, the answer is complicated. People have different needs to satisfy while working a job, which could be anything from personal fulfilment to making ends meet. Some are even doing it out of passion, making the job a labour of love rather than a means to an end.

Microsoft's special June Work Trend Index report revealed that most employees are seemingly trapped in an infinite workday loop, creating blurry lines and an unhealthy work-life balance.

The report details that most employees often bring work home with them. They often work late into the night with the daunting tasks bleeding into the weekend, making Sunday feel like just another Monday. But if we were to put all these factors aside and just look at the compensation aspect, what would it take to wheel you into the organization?

Microsoft is on the verge of unlocking an impressive $4 trillion market capitalization milestone. This means that its business operations are generating revenue and record-breaking profits. As such, it's safe to presume that the same is reflected in its employees' payslips.

Business Insider recently shared a report detailing how much Microsoft pays its employees in 2025, from software engineers to product managers. The data is based on approximately 5,400 applications from the first quarter of 2025.

Microsoft's AI talent get the best compensation packages

Last year, a leaked document revealed that Microsoft handsomely compensates employees in its AI division compared to other departments. For context, an average AI software engineer is paid up to $377,611, which is $120,000 more than the average salary of an employee in the Azure division.

Microsoft is seemingly laser-focused on its AI efforts, especially after a separate report revealed that the company removed some of its staffers from the Teams Chat department to help with Copilot-themed projects amid pressure from watchdogs to unbundle Microsoft Teams from its Office 365 suite of productivity tools, citing anticompetitive business practices.

This is consistent with Business Insider's report revealing that LinkedIn software engineers with a bias in machine learning earn up to $336,000 per year. As you may know, generative AI is a byproduct of machine learning, something that leverages algorithms trained on datasets to develop models with the capability to perform tasks that ordinarily heavily lean on human intervention.

This news comes amid massive layoffs impacting most departments across Microsoft, including sales, customer service, and software engineering. So far, the tech giant has laid off approximately 15,300 people since the year began.

Microsoft's President of Developer Division and GitHub, Julia Liuson, recently shared an email with the company's top management, making the use of internal AI tools like GitHub Copilot a critical performance evaluation element for employees.

According to Liuson:

"AI is now a fundamental part of how we work. Just like collaboration, data-driven thinking, and effective communication, using AI is no longer optional — it's core to every role and every level."

The company is also shaking up its structure and replacing salespeople with solution engineers in a bid to drive Copilot AI sales in the enterprise sector. This move was primarily fueled by feedback from clients claiming that the sales process was daunting and took too long before getting to the demos and technical aspects of the sales process.

Interestingly, Microsoft revealed that it managed to save up to $500 million by integrating AI into its call centers alone in 2024, citing incredible productivity gains as well.

Elsewhere, a separate report revealed that employees at NVIDIA "work like hell." While the staffers work around the clock, the company uses "golden handcuffs" to keep them rooted in the company in the form of lavish compensation packages.