Microsoft: AI workers earn much higher than average salaries

In the past two years, Microsoft has been one of the tech giants that has invested the most resources in the field of artificial intelligence, specifically towards developing high-performance AI-based services on a global scale. However, it seems that the Redmond giant not only spends a lot of time and effort on its AI products, but also pays very well to the staff working in this technology field.

A recent Business Insider report revealed details about the average salaries of a significant portion of Microsoft employees. If the leaked data is accurate, there is a significant gap in the average compensation that AI employees receive compared to their colleagues in other departments in a year at Microsoft.

The average Microsoft AI software engineer is paid $377,611 a year, according to the report. That includes a base salary of $192,667, plus stock and cash bonuses totaling $184,994. The large stock and cash bonuses give a Microsoft AI engineer a significantly higher actual pay than his or her Azure cloud computing colleagues. Data revealed by Business Insider shows that the total salary of an Azure team member can be as high as $252,464 a year. The actual base salary isn't much higher than that of an AI team member, at $174,196 a year. However, Azure employees' cash and stock bonuses are much higher, at just $77,268 a year.

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced the creation of a new AI division within the company, led by Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of two prominent AI companies DeepMind and Inflection. Suleyman holds the title of CEO of Microsoft AI, similar to Phil Spencer's role as CEO of Microsoft Gaming.

As part of the AI ​​division, Microsoft has decided to move its Bing, Copilot, and Edge development teams to the new AI team. However, it is unclear how the AI ​​division and higher salaries will make a specific difference in Microsoft's future AI plans.