Microsoft Korea Faces Protests Over AI Restructuring

Weekly lunchtime protests outside Microsoft Korea’s Seoul office have continued since early December as union members demand job security and retraining amid AI-driven restructuring that the union says affected about 50 positions and could put roughly 10% of 550 roles at risk. They cite a 2023 Korea Development Institute finding that 39 percent of jobs have more than 70 percent AI-automatable tasks, and an October 2025 Bank of Korea report linking 211,000 youth job losses to high-AI-exposure sectors.