--- title: "Microsoft AI CEO: Virtually All White Collar Tasks Will Be Automated Within a Year and a Half" description: "Mustafa Suleyman said that AI is on the verge of having \"human-level performance\" and will soon automate white collar tasks." date: "2026-02-13" modified: "2026-02-13" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/microsoft-all-white-collar-tasks-automated" categories: - "Anthropic" - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Ethics" - "Finance" - "Future Society" --- # Microsoft AI CEO: Virtually All White Collar Tasks Will Be Automated Within a Year and a Half ![An empty office space with rows of white desks and black office chairs. Multiple computer monitors are placed on the desks, and large windows along one wall let in natural light. Numerous green plants are arranged on the windowsills, adding a touch of nature to the workspace. The floor is wooden, and the ceiling features exposed ductwork and lighting fixtures. A cardboard box is visible under one of the desks.]() *Getty Images / SrdjanPav* Congratulations, office workers. Most of what you do at your cozy desk jobs will soon be automated with AI, according to the extremely questionable projections of Microsoft's AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman. That's because AI models, as Suleyman claims in an [interview with the *Financial Times*]() published Wednesday, are on the verge of achieving "human-level performance on most, if not all professional tasks." "So white collar work where you're sitting down at a computer, either being a lawyer or an accountant or a project manager or a marketing person, most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months," Suleyman said. Suleyman's bold assertion comes amid [renewed anxiety]() over AI's potential to disrupt the job market. The release of Anthropic's new Claude Cowork AI agent [helped spark a broad stock market selloff]() last week, as investors feared that it could automate tasks like legal work, something that also jeopardized the bottom line of large software companies who make a killing off of providing the specialized programs to complete those office tasks. According to the Microsoft AI chief, heavy AI automation can already be seen in fields like software engineering. "Many software engineers report that they are now using AI-assisted coding for the vast majority of their code production," Suleyman said in the interview, "which means that their roles shifted now to this meta function of debugging, scrutinizing, of doing the strategic stuff like architecting," and "putting things into production." "So it's a quite different relationship to the technology," he added. "And that's happened in the last six months." It's true that many programmers are now using AI coding tools and agents. Microsoft's CEO — the main one, not the AI one — Satya Nadella has claimed that over a quarter of its code is written with AI. But the quality of AI-generated code and other outputs remains suspect, with [some]() [studies]() finding that these purported automation miracles overwhelmingly fail to complete common remote work and office tasks. Equally suspect is AI's [ability to yield economic gains for the companies that embrace it](). Some research suggests that AI [does not lead to an increase in productivity]() and may even slow down workflows, including [in fields like programming](), where humans are forced to double and triple check AI outputs. AI [may in reality be intensifying work](), as its introduction leads to employees being expected to take on even greater workloads, resulting in [burnout and lower quality work](). Nonetheless, AI leaders insist on sounding the alarm. Last summer, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei [proclaimed]() that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white collar jobs. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman echoed that the tech is poised to [destroy entire categories of work](). Don't get us wrong: AI-related layoffs [are already happening](). Many companies, however, are arguably using the pretense of AI to fire employees for purely financial reasons, a practice that some are calling "[AI washing]()." And given how fresh AI automation is, it's still unclear how sustainable it will be for companies to heavily depend on the tech in the long-term, a reality that [some over-eager firms are already having to reckon with](). **More on AI:** [*AI Is a Burnout Machine*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()