'These tools can help you...', Microsoft Xbox exec suggests using to help laid-off workers cope, sparking backlash

Microsoft

As Microsoft continues cutting up to 9,100 jobs across the company, its gaming division has been particularly hard-hit, with multiple game cancellations, studio closures, and layoffs across key Xbox teams. Amid this turmoil, an Xbox executive’s well-meaning advice has sparked controversy.

Matt Turnbull of Xbox Game Studios shared a now-deleted LinkedIn post encouraging laid-off employees to lean on AI tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot for help with resumes, job applications, and career planning. “These are really challenging times,” he wrote, adding that AI could help those “overwhelmed” by job loss get “unstuck faster, calmer, and with more clarity.”

Turnbull was careful to note that AI is “no replacement for your voice or your lived experience,” but framed it as a helpful resource when emotional bandwidth is low. The post, however, didn’t land well with many in the industry — especially creatives who already view generative AI as a threat to artistic work and job stability.

The timing didn’t help either. Microsoft has been aggressively investing in AI, pledging $80 billion for infrastructure earlier this year — a figure that only fuels the perception that human jobs are being sacrificed at the altar of automation.

While it’s unclear why Turnbull removed the post, reactions to a repost on Bluesky suggest his advice may have come off as tone-deaf. For many in gaming, AI is not a helpful coping tool — it’s a symbol of an industry increasingly willing to automate at the expense of human creativity.