Up to 100 Australian employees of Microsoft will be made redundant as part of a sweeping round of job cuts in which 6000 staff across the company will be removed.

The US tech giant is a pioneer in the development of artificial intelligence software and co-pilots to reduce human intervention in tasks, but did not say in its announcement on Tuesday night whether the greater use of the technology was enabling the cuts. The job losses are believed to target middle management, but will also hit staff across all levels of the company.