Microsoft reshuffles AI leadership, brings new head of Copilot

Microsoft has initiated a significant leadership restructuring as of March 17, 2026, aimed at streamlining the development of its Copilot assistants for both commercial and consumer markets. This strategic move comes in response to the slower-than-anticipated adoption of these AI tools. The new structure will encompass four essential components: the Copilot experience, the Copilot platform, Microsoft 365 applications, and the underlying AI models. CEO Satya Nadella emphasized the importance of this integration in a company blog post, stating, "This is how we move from a collection of great products to a truly integrated system, one that is simpler and more powerful for customers." Jacob Andreou, formerly part of Microsoft’s AI division, has been appointed as executive vice president (EVP) to oversee the Copilot experience across all products. In this pivotal role, Andreou will manage design, product development, growth, and engineering for the Copilot AI assistant, reporting directly to Nadella. Prior to his tenure at Microsoft, he played a crucial role as senior vice president at Snap, where he contributed to the company's significant growth. Additionally, executives Ryan Roslansky, Perry Clarke, and Charles Lamanna will jointly lead the Microsoft 365 applications and the Copilot platform. This leadership transition is partly to allow Mustafa Suleyman, who previously managed Copilot-related initiatives, to focus on advancing new AI technologies. Suleyman expressed his enthusiasm for the new phase of development, stating, "The next phase of this plan is to restructure our organization to enable me to focus all my energy on our Superintelligence efforts and be able to deliver world-class models for Microsoft over the next 5 years." He highlighted that these models will enhance enterprise-level capabilities across all Microsoft products. In November 2025, Microsoft had unveiled the superintelligence unit under Suleyman's leadership, reinforcing his commitment to developing advanced AI models. He will continue to play an active role in the overall operations of Microsoft’s broader AI division, which includes the Bing search engine.