Leadership changes for Bing and Windows follow Microsoft's Inflection grab

Microsoft is making some big changes in its leadership as it doubles down on AI development. The main focus is on restructuring the Windows team and bringing in fresh blood to lead their consumer AI efforts.

What's going on here?

Bing’s head is stepping down. Windows gets a new face.

What does this mean?

The head of Bing and advertising, Mikhail Parakhin, is stepping down and exploring new opportunities (which could mean within or outside Microsoft). In the meantime, he'll report to the CTO Kevin Scott. These roles are now distributed under the newly built Microsoft AI team headed by Mustafa Suleyman.

Windows is also getting a new chief: Pavan Davuluri. He's taking over Parakhin's side gigs i.e. his old Windows responsibilities. Davuluri will manage all things Windows and Surface going forward.

The Windows team and the AI team will be “working together closely” but it’s interesting to note that Edge, Microsoft’s browser is under the consumer AI team, not Windows.

Why should I care?

These changes follow Microsoft’s move to create a centralized AI division. This new Microsoft AI team will own consumer products like Bing, Edge, and Copilot. Suleyman, ex-DeepMind and Inflection AI, will drive this initiative.

According to Bloomberg, CEO Satya Nadella is getting impatient with the progress from Microsoft’s AI push into its products. The leadership shuffling is a result of this speculated lack of performance.