Microsoft announced on Tuesday that starting next year, employees will be required to work in the office three days per week.

Employees working near Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, or in the Puget Sound area will begin implementing the three-day in-office requirement starting February next year. The policy will subsequently be rolled out to other regions across the United States, followed by international offices.

Microsoft stated that it has already sent emails to employees in the Puget Sound area who live within 50 miles of Microsoft offices, notifying them of this adjustment.

Amy Coleman, Microsoft's head of human resources, wrote in a memo published on the company's official website: "As we build the AI products that will define this era, we need a vitality and momentum that comes from smart people working side by side to solve hard problems together."

Since the COVID pandemic, Microsoft has maintained a policy allowing most employees to work from home half the time each week without requiring manager approval.

Although Microsoft has conducted multiple rounds of layoffs this year, Coleman wrote in the memo that "this policy adjustment is not related to reducing headcount." Instead, its purpose is to "help us meet our customers' needs through collaborative work methods."

In its latest financial results released in July, Microsoft's performance exceeded market expectations, with the company's market capitalization briefly surpassing $4 trillion.