Final answer:
The statement is false; an Azure AD tenant is not deleted when an Azure subscription expires. The tenant remains operational and can be linked to other subscriptions, thus protecting important identity and access configurations.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement 'When an Azure subscription expires, the associated Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) tenant is deleted automatically' is false. When an Azure subscription expires, the Azure services that are deployed within that subscription may become inaccessible or be deactivated. However, the Azure AD tenant is not tied exclusively to the subscription itself. The Azure AD tenant remains operational and can be associated with other Azure subscriptions. Therefore, the tenant is not automatically deleted when a subscription expires. This is critical to understand because the Azure AD tenant could contain important organisational identity and access management configurations that shouldn't be lost just because a subscription ends.