Forget salaries, Microsoft employees are revealing how much AI they use — the numbers may surprise you

For years, employees have quietly compared salaries, bonuses and raises. But at Microsoft, employees are revealing more than just their salaries. According to a Business Insider report, hundreds of Microsoft employees have voluntarily disclosed their base pay, raises, cash bonuses, stock awards, and another revealing number: how much AI they use.

The internal spreadsheet, reviewed by Business Insider, reveals the monthly dollar value of the AI tool usage, which in select cases has gone up to staggering $28,000 for one employee.

To calculate these costs — AI usage and spending — the staff is reportedly utilising an internal Microsoft tracking tool. A company spokesperson told BI that this specific tool is currently in early testing.

This spreadsheet, BI reported, provides a rare glimpse at internal AI adoption as Microsoft races against competitors like Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta and Google to build AI products.

While Microsoft spends hundreds of billions of dollars on AI infrastructure and pushes its staff to weave AI into their daily work, it is not alone; across Big Tech, companies are monitoring employee AI consumption as they also invest billions in models and infrastructure.

Within Microsoft, the spreadsheet showed that AI usage varies widely across teams, ranging from a few dollars to tens of thousands of dollars per month.

However, the current figures suggested that, at least for now, heavier AI consumption does not translate into promotions, larger raises, or bigger bonuses.

Up to $28,000 on AI

The newest addition to the annual spreadsheet is a column titled “AI $ Usage Per Month”, which asks employees to document their self-reported AI costs over the previous 28 days.

At the time of Business Insider's analysis, the document contained nearly 600 compensation entries from US staff, with approximately 350 of those individuals reporting their AI usage.

The median AI usage over the 28-day period was roughly $300, according to the BI report. The highest reported figure was $28,000, logged by an employee in the Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions organisation.

Business Insider noted that its analysis excluded teams and levels with few entries. And because the data on self-reported AI usage among Microsoft employees is submitted voluntarily, it may contain errors.

Self-reported AI usage among Microsoft employees

Microsoft staff generally share this information anonymously and voluntarily to encourage pay transparency, BI reported. Consequently, the collected data is neither official nor complete.

As of 30 June, the company employed 2,23,000 people, meaning a spreadsheet containing only about 350 AI usage entries represents a very small snapshot of the overall workforce.

An analysis of the spreadsheet by Business Insider revealed no significant correlation between reported AI consumption and employee rewards.

Specifically, logging higher AI usage was not linked to a greater likelihood of promotion, higher merit increases, or better bonus ratings.