Microsoft Corporation's Mikhail Parakhin, who currently serves as the head of the company's Bing search engine and advertising businesses, is all set to step down from his roles. Following this, he will explore opportunities for a new position.
This decision comes shortly after Microsoft appointed Mustafa Suleyman to look after consumer artificial intelligence endeavors. While searching for his new role, Parakhin will be reporting to Microsoft’s Chief Technology Officer, Kevin Scott, according to Bloomberg.
Certain aspects of Microsoft's Windows software division were also supervised by Parakhin. Pavan Davuluri, who previously managed hardware and other areas within Windows, will now be looking after this work.
All aspects of Windows and Surface hardware will be looked after by Davuluri, who will be reporting to Executive Vice President Rajesh Jha. These changes were announced in an internal email on Monday, according to Bloomberg. Similarly, the Verge had earlier reported this structural change.
A new shake-off and Suleyman
This restructuring comes days after Microsoft hired DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman as the CEO of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Unit. DeepMind is an AI start-up that was acquired by Google in 2014. In 2022, after leaving Google’s Alphabet, Suleyman became the co-founder and CEO of the start-up Inflection AI.
Inflection AI is a technology company that focuses on generative AI and machine learning. The company refers to itself as an AI studio. Talking about Suleyman’s entry in a blog post, Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft, wrote, “Mustafa will be EVP and CEO, Microsoft AI, and joins the senior leadership team (SLT), reporting to me.”
He further added, “I’ve known Mustafa for several years and have greatly admired him as a founder of both DeepMind and Inflection and as a visionary, product maker, and builder of pioneering teams that go after bold missions.”
The overall restructuring highlights Nadella’s lack of patience with the team’s efforts, according to Bloomberg. While Microsoft has invested a lot in AI for its Bing search engine, it has not made any gains against Google in this AI race, according to Bloomberg.
