Mustafa Suleyman, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft AI, has warned that artificial intelligence could soon automate a large share of white-collar work, including jobs in law, accounting, marketing and project management.
Speaking earlier this year in a conversation with the Financial Times, Suleyman said AI systems were approaching “human-level performance on most, if not all professional tasks”.
According to Fortune, Suleyman predicted that most work involving “sitting down at a computer” could be fully automated within the next year to 18 months.
The comments add to a growing wave of warnings from technology executives and AI researchers about the potential impact of artificial intelligence on office-based professions.
Lawyers, marketers and coders among roles flagged
Suleyman identified several professional sectors that he believes are particularly exposed to AI-driven automation.
These include:
- Accounting
- Legal services
- Marketing
- Project management
- Software coding and development
The Microsoft AI executive linked the shift to the rapid growth in computational power, arguing that increasingly advanced AI models would eventually outperform many human workers in technical and analytical tasks.
“As compute advances,” Suleyman said, AI models would become capable of coding better than most human programmers.
His comments were echoed in a recent essay by AI researcher Matt Shumer, published in part by Fortune, which compared the current AI moment to the period immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic reshaped economies and workplaces globally.
Tech leaders revive warnings over AI job losses
Suleyman’s remarks come amid renewed debate over whether generative AI will fundamentally alter the structure of professional employment.
Several major technology executives have issued similar warnings over the past two years.
Among the predictions cited by Fortune:
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei previously warned AI could eliminate half of entry-level white-collar jobs
- Ford CEO Jim Farley said AI could reduce US white-collar employment by 50 per cent
- Elon Musk stated earlier this year at Davos that artificial general intelligence could arrive as early as 2026
In The Atlantic, journalist Josh Tyrangiel argued that the United States remained unprepared for the scale of disruption AI could bring to professional employment.
The warnings have intensified as companies accelerate spending on AI infrastructure, large language models and enterprise automation tools.
Real-world impact remains uneven
Despite growing concern, evidence of large-scale white-collar job displacement remains mixed.
A 2025 report by Thomson Reuters found that lawyers, accountants and auditors were primarily using AI for narrow tasks such as document review and routine analysis rather than full job replacement.
The report noted productivity improvements in some areas but did not indicate widespread workforce elimination.
Meanwhile, a recent study by nonprofit research organisation Model Evaluation and Threat Research (METR) found that AI tools actually slowed some software developers, with tasks taking 20 per cent longer in certain cases.
Broader economic indicators also suggest that AI-related gains remain concentrated within the technology sector.
Research by Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, found that while Big Tech profit margins rose more than 20 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2025, the wider Bloomberg 500 Index showed little change.
Slok also noted that investors remained unconvinced that AI would significantly boost earnings outside the technology industry.
Layoffs and market fears keep pressure on workforce
Even with mixed productivity evidence, signs of AI-linked workforce disruption are beginning to emerge.
Employment consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that 49,135 job cuts this year had been linked to AI-related restructuring.
While Microsoft did not officially attribute its own workforce reductions to AI, the company cut around 15,000 jobs last year.
Following those layoffs, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote in an internal memo that the company needed to “reimagine our mission for a new era”.
Financial markets have also reacted sharply to automation concerns.
In February, software company shares fell heavily during what analysts described as the “SaaSpocalypse”, a selloff driven by fears that agentic AI systems from firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic could automate key software and enterprise functions.
Microsoft AI pushes towards ‘superintelligence’
Suleyman said his long-term objective at Microsoft AI is to build what he described as “superintelligence”.
According to Fortune, the executive wants Microsoft to reduce dependence on OpenAI and develop its own frontier AI foundation models.
He argued that organisations in future would be able to create highly customised AI systems tailored to individual operational needs.
“Creating a new model is going to be like creating a podcast or writing a blog,” Suleyman said.
The comments reflect the increasingly competitive race among major technology firms to dominate enterprise AI infrastructure and services.
Even as debate continues over the real economic impact of AI, pressure is mounting on businesses, universities and policymakers to prepare for potential changes to professional work patterns over the coming decade.