Bill Gates sat on ‘The Tonight Show’ and named the only 4 jobs that will survive as Microsoft offers buyouts to 60,000 workers

Microsoft is offering voluntary exit packages to 60,000 of its staff across the globe as part of a cost-efficiency push reportedly driven by AI. The offer comes after Bill Gates previously claimed that only a handful of jobs will survive the rise of artificial intelligence.

As reported by LADbible, Gates, 70, shared his thoughts on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, naming coders, biologists, energy workers, and professional athletes as the only AI-proof jobs. Explaining why athletes are safe, he said, “You know, like baseball. We won’t want to watch computers play baseball.”

When asked if humans would still be needed, Gates said, “Not for most things, we’ll decide.” He added, “So there’ll be some things that we reserve for ourselves, but in terms of making things and moving things, and growing food, over time, those will be basically solved problems.”

Microsoft’s buyouts come even after a huge profit jump

Microsoft made $133.75 billion in profit last year, a 31% increase from the year before. Despite that growth, the company is still looking to streamline operations. In February, it also released patches for actively exploited Windows flaws.

The voluntary exit offer will be available to eligible employees at level 70 and below in Canada, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States, according to a blog post leaked by Business Insider. Amy Coleman, Microsoft’s chief people officer, said, “This is a time-limited, voluntary program that gives those who are eligible the opportunity to leave Microsoft with financial support and career planning resources.”

Coleman added, “Eligible employees will receive an email with a link to their Voluntary Exit Offer details within the next few hours.” The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) have noted that roughly 40% to 60% of jobs in advanced economies have high exposure to AI integration.

Elon Musk has also weighed in on the future of work, predicting a surge in humanoid robots. Speaking at the 2026 G20 summit in North Carolina, Musk said, “So it starts off very slowly but then grows at an explosive rate.”

He added, “10 years from now, I would say there are well over a billion humanoid robots. The productivity per robot will be probably five times that of a human.”

Microsoft released a list last year of the 40 jobs most exposed to AI, which measures how well AI performs challenging tasks within each job rather than whether it can take over the whole role. Interpreters and translators topped the list at 98%, followed by historians, mathematicians, and proofreaders at 91%.

Automatic machine coders came in at 90%, while writers and authors and statistical assistants were at 85%. Sales representatives were listed at 84%, and journalists at 81%.