WOW, the hits just keep on coming from Microsoft’s most recent layoffs. It seems no one at any level was spared from termination consideration, including the beloved long-tenured Clippy. First hired in November 1996 for Office 97 release (a 28 year tenure!), Clippy announced the news in a LinkedIn post.
From his profile:
“Like many others, I received the news today that my long chapter at Microsoft has come to an end. While I am saddened that this part of my career is ending, I am thankful to have learned so much from my fellow colleagues. Truly the strength of the company is in its employees, who are the smartest and most hard working people I have ever been around.
It was such a pleasure to irritate users in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel for so many years, and I am so thankful to Microsoft for giving me the opportunity to do that.
I’m currently taking some time to figure out my next steps. Please keep an eye open for me, and if you know or hear of any desktop applications in need of annoying popup assistants, please reach out!”
We reached out to Chief Marketing Office Takeshi Numoto as to why such a popular icon like Clippy was let go. Was it performance based? Have AI text-based assistants replaced a visual took like Clippy? Following is the answer we received:
“Microsoft is adjusting its priorities for the new Fiscal Year and as a result this position was eliminated.
AI generated content may be incorrect.“
Clippy has had a tremendous career, with a recent resurgence when Microsoft filed for a new trademark for him in 2021. After moving on from Office desktop work, Clippy was Program Manager responsible for many of Microsoft’s most successful products across hardware and software divisions, such as the Zune, Windows Phone, Windows RT, Groove, and the HoloLens. His most recent position was back to his roots in the collaboration space, as a Principal Copilot and M365 PGM CSAM TSP SE in MCAPS EMEALATAM CSU SLG&SMBCom division.