Microsoft Forms New AI Division Under Leadership of Former Meta Executive
Microsoft has announced the creation of an innovative engineering group aimed at advancing artificial intelligence. The division, known as CoreAI - Platform and Tools, will be helmed by Jay Parikh, who previously played a critical role at Meta as its engineering chief. This strategic move will see the integration of Microsoft’s developer and AI platform teams along with select Office of the CTO team members to bolster AI platform and tool development for the company and its clientele.
In an internal memo, CEO Satya Nadella shed light on the vision for this new team, likening the current phase of AI evolution to "entering the next innings" of a game he loves—cricket. He emphasized that this AI-driven shift in application frameworks by 2025 will revolutionize various software categories. According to Nadella, the convergence of AI innovations is set to compress incremental changes of the past three decades into just three years.
To prepare for these sweeping transformations, Nadella advocates for an "AI-first app stack" to enhance how Microsoft’s developers interact with and build AI applications and tools. "Azure must become the infrastructure for AI," Nadella stated, calling for the development of AI platforms and tools, including Azure AI Foundry, GitHub, and VS Code, atop this infrastructure. The aim is to amalgamate these elements to create agents poised to transform every category of SaaS applications, aligning with a "service as software" model.
Under the leadership of Jay Parikh, an executive seasoned by over a decade of experience at Meta, Microsoft aims to push the envelope in engineering. Parikh joined Microsoft officially in October, marking the first significant engineering reshuffle since his arrival. Reporting directly to Nadella, Parikh now leads an ensemble of proficient Microsoft executives, including Eric Boyd, the AI platform chief; Jason Taylor, deputy CTO of AI infrastructure; Julia Liuson, head of the developer division; and Tim Bozarth, head of developer infrastructure.
The reorganization underscores Microsoft’s commitment to positioning AI at the heart of its developer division. Despite references to Azure AI Foundry, GitHub, and VS Code, Nadella's memo unexpectedly omits mentions of Visual Studio or .NET. The overarching mission as articulated by Nadella is for the CoreAI team to develop a comprehensive "end-to-end Copilot & AI stack" that caters to both Microsoft’s initial and third-party clients, facilitating AI application and agent development.