Microsoft AI Chief Suleyman: All White-Collar Tasks Automated Within 18 Months

Fortune·medium signal

Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, told the Financial Times that all tasks involving 'sitting down at a computer' — accounting, legal, marketing, project management — will reach human-level AI performance within 12-18 months, citing exponential compute growth. The February 2026 prediction gained renewed traction on May 16-17 across Fortune, Tom's Hardware, and Futurism as outlets re-examined it against accumulating evidence of AI impact on professional services hiring.