Amazon ‘will return to being in the office the way we were’ before the pandemic, CEO tells employees

Amazon wants employees coming back to the office like they did prior to the pandemic, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a memo Monday morning.

• The new policy, starting in January 2025, means that employees will be expected to work from the office five days a week unless there are “extenuating circumstances.”?Amazon will also be bringing back assigned desks.
• In another major change, Amazon plans to reduce the total number of managers inside teams, aiming to “increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% by the end of Q1 2025,” Jassy wrote in the memo.?
• Jassy said the?moves reflect Amazon’s efforts to “operate like the world’s largest startup,” with streamlined decision-making, in-person collaboration, and fewer layers of bureaucracy. Read the story.

Microsoft rolled out a wave of new AI features for Microsoft 365 programs including Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook. The announcements come amid reports that some business customers aren’t yet finding Microsoft’s AI features?worth the extra $30/user per month. Read more.

Seattle-based technology investor and business leader Mark Nelson, the former Tableau CEO, has joined the board of Veezoo, a company based in Zurich, Switzerland, that specializes in self-serve, AI-powered data analytics. Read more.

OceanGate sub tragedy hearings: The U.S. Coast Guard is beginning two weeks of public hearings into last year’s loss of OceanGate’s Titan submersible and its crew during a dive to the Titanic shipwreck. Read more.?

Microsoft will make 50 grants of $50,000 each to organizations in the Seattle area to mark its own 50th anniversary. It’s “a great opportunity for the company to say thank you for the decades of support that we’ve had here in our headquarters state,” said Kate Behncken, head of Microsoft Philanthropies. Read more.

Hot Links:

• A new brain-computer interface lets people control Amazon Alexa with their mind. (Wired)?
• Expedia launched “shoppable storefronts” that spotlight curated travel products and recommendations from influencers and celebs. (PYMNTS)

Sign up here to receive GeekWire's daily newsletter in your email inbox each day at 11 a.m. PT.

SPONSOR MESSAGE: GeekWire's special series marks Microsoft’s 50th anniversary by looking at what’s next for a company that reshaped the technology landscape: Read more.

SPONSOR MESSAGE: Does Compute, presented by Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science and GeekWire Studios, is a podcast exploring the ways that computer science is reshaping our world through building useful stuff that works. Check out Episode 4 of Does Compute to hear from Carnegie Mellon University alum Priya Donti as she discusses how artificial intelligence and machine learning impact efforts to address climate change. Watch now.