Microsoft is making another round of executive changes today as it reorganizes the way the Copilot assistant is designed. For years, different teams have worked on the business and consumer sides of Copilot, but Microsoft is bringing some of them together to create a more consistent Copilot for businesses and consumers.
The move means that Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleiman will focus on creating Microsoft’s own AI models, rather than working directly on Copilot’s assistant-like features for consumers. Suleyman joined Microsoft about two years ago after the company made several Inflection AI hires. Just a few months after Suleiman was hired, consumer-facing Copilot underwent a major redesign that was very similar to the work done by Inflection AI. pi Personalized AI Assistant. However, the commercial version of Copilot remained something else entirely.
Jacob Andreou will now lead the Copilot experience for both the commercial and consumer sectors, reporting directly to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. This means Andreou is responsible for Copilot’s design, product, growth and engineering. Andreou joined Microsoft AI last year and has been focused on product and growth. He also previously worked on product and growth at Snap.
“We are combining commercial and consumer Copilot systems into an integrated effort,” said Nadella. Internal memo. “It encompasses four connected pillars: Copilot Experience, Copilot Platform, Microsoft 365 Apps, and AI Models. This allows us to move from a collection of great products to a truly integrated, simpler and more powerful system for our customers.”
Microsoft has needed this moment for a long time, especially since the consumer and enterprise versions of Copilot not only look very different, but they also don’t share a common feature set. This integration should also help partially address the fact that no one at Microsoft actually owns Copilot.
Microsoft is currently creating a Copilot leadership team that includes Jacob Andreou, Ryan Roslansky, Perry Clarke, and Charles Lamanna. Roslansky, Clarke and Lamanna will lead Microsoft 365 applications and the Copilot platform, while Andreou will work to orchestrate the experience between commercial and consumer Copilots.
Suleiman will now focus on building Microsoft’s own AI models. “These models allow us to build custom strains that help improve all of the company’s products,” Suleyman said in an internal memo. “Jacob will keep a dotted line with me, and I will continue to be directly involved in much of the day-to-day operations of Microsoft AI,” says Suleyman.
This could also be seen as an admission that Microsoft’s efforts to separate the Copilot experience for consumers and businesses have failed in recent years. Copilot’s user experience for consumers is unlike anything Microsoft has tried before, and it will be interesting to see if Microsoft continues to lean in this digital assistant direction.
It’s also unclear what will happen to Microsoft Edge, Bing, MSN and the company’s advertising businesses, which were reported to Suleiman. Microsoft made a big breakthrough in Bing AI three years ago, but ended up rebranding Bing Chat to Copilot. With Suleiman currently focused on models, the teams responsible for Edge and Bing will likely have a new leader soon.
This latest leadership change comes less than a week after Rajesh Jha, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Devices and Experiences Group, announced his retirement from Microsoft after more than 35 years. Rja oversaw Microsoft 365 Copilot, Windows, Office and more, so expect more team changes ahead of Microsoft’s new fiscal year.
Former Xbox chief executive Phil Spencer also announced his retirement from Microsoft last month. Spencer is leaving Microsoft after nearly 40 years, and Asha Sharma will become the new CEO of Microsoft Gaming.
