After
Windows
and
Surface
chief
Panos
Panay
departed
Microsoft
last
year,
the
software
giant
quickly
split
his
two
divisions
into
two
different
teams.
It
was
a
move
designed
to
push
Windows
engineers
to
focus
on
more
web
and
AI
features
under
Mikhail
Parakhin,
who
was
previously
responsible
for
Bing
and
ads.
It
didn’t
work
out.
Six
months
after
that
shake-up,
Windows
and
Surface
are
back
together
under
a
new
leader,
following
frustrations
from
the
very
top
of
Microsoft.
The
shuffling
comes
just
as
Microsoft
gets
ready
for
a
big
“AI
PC”
push.
Pavan
Davuluri,
who’s
currently
in
charge
of
Surface
hardware,
will
now
lead
both
Windows
and
Surface.
Mustafa
Suleyman,
the
DeepMind
co-founder
who
Microsoft
CEO
Satya
Nadella
just
hired,
will
now
take
over
the
company’s
consumer
AI
push
as
the
CEO
of
Microsoft
AI.
The
hiring
of
Suleyman
is
a
key
admission
that
something
wasn’t
working
out
with
the
Windows
and
AI
shake-up
from
six
months
ago.
Microsoft
CEO
Satya
Nadella
has
been
frustrated
with
the
Windows
web
split.Image:
Microsoft
Nadella
placed
Suleyman
above
Parakhin
in
Microsoft’s
organization
chart.
Parakhin
had
taken
on
parts
of
Windows
engineering
after
Panay’s
departure
last
year,
and
he
had
been
working
closely
on
Bing
Chat
and
several
Microsoft
Edge
features.
Parakhin’s
official
title
was
CEO
of
advertising
and
web
services
at
Microsoft,
so
if
he
remained
in
his
position
then
he
would
have
been
a
CEO,
reporting
to
the
Microsoft
AI
CEO,
who
reports
to
the
actual
Microsoft
CEO.
That’s
a
lot
of
CEOs,
and
Microsoft
typically
reserves
CEO
titles
for
big
acquisitions
like
LinkedIn
or
GitHub,
or
for
big
divisions
like
Microsoft
Gaming.
Instead,
Parakhin
is
leaving
his
current
position
and
“has
decided
to
explore
new
roles”
according
to
a
Microsoft
internal
memo
obtained
by
The
Verge.
He
will
report
to
Kevin
Scott,
the
previous
face
of
Microsoft’s
AI
efforts,
during
a
transition
phase.
But
it
sounds
like
Parakhin
will
be
leaving
Microsoft
soon.
It’s
a
surprise
turn
of
events
for
a
leader
who
one
source
described
to
me
as
one
of
the
“fastest
rising
leaders
in
the
company”
just
six
months
ago.
Parakhin
was
responsible
for
Microsoft’s
reborn
advertising
business
and
all
of
the
company’s
ad-based
consumer
businesses.
It’s
a
big
organization
of
more
than
10,000
people,
but
some
were
frustrated
with
the
way
it
was
being
managed.
Bloomberg
reported
earlier
this
week
that
Nadella
was
growing
impatient
with
Parakhin’s
team,
too.
One
employee,
who
wishes
to
remain
anonymous,
tells
me
that
the
web
experiences
team
that
Parakhin
led
had
a
different
culture
from
the
rest
of
Microsoft
that
often
resulted
in
micromanaging
and
“insane
deadlines”
for
projects.
It’s
been
described
as
a
culture
of
being
forced
to
do
more
with
less.
Hopefully
we
see
less
of
these
Bing
pop-ups
in
Windows.Screenshot
by
Tom
Warren
/
The
Verge
The
Windows
and
Web
Experiences
(WWE)
team
that
Parakhin
briefly
oversaw
also
developed
the
malware-like
Bing
pop-ups
we’ve
seen
appear
in
Windows
recently.
Microsoft
has
also
been
aggressively
pushing
Edge
in
Windows,
with
lots
of
tricks
to
get
users
to
move
away
from
Chrome
or
use
Edge’s
shopping
and
AI
features.
I’m
personally
hoping
that
Microsoft
ends
these
tactics
and
focuses
on
making
Microsoft
Edge
a
better
browser
for
consumers
instead
of
tricking
them
into
using
it.
That
will
now
be
down
to
Microsoft
AI
CEO
Mustafa
Suleyman,
as
his
team
will
continue
to
handle
the
company’s
consumer-facing
AI
products
like
Copilot,
Bing,
and
Edge.
Windows
and
Surface
returning
under
one
leader
should
hopefully
bring
some
much-needed
clarity
to
Microsoft’s
AI
efforts
for
Windows,
too.
Microsoft
has
been
gradually
unveiling
more
AI-powered
features
in
Windows,
and
pushing
the
need
for
“AI
PCs”
with
neural
processing
units,
but
it
hasn’t
coherently
explained
why
any
of
this
matters.
The
new
Windows
and
Surface
chief,
Davuluri,
is
experienced
when
it
comes
to
the
combination
of
hardware
and
software
that
Microsoft
needs
to
get
right
in
this
new
era
of
AI.
Davuluri
has
worked
at
Microsoft
for
more
than
23
years
and
has
been
at
the
heart
of
Surface
engineering.
He
was
deeply
involved
in
the
company’s
work
with
Qualcomm
and
AMD
to
create
custom
Surface
processors.
While
it
looked
like
Surface
hardware
could
get
sidelined
after
Microsoft
changed
up
its
hardware
portfolio
amid
layoffs
last
year,
it’s
encouraging
to
see
Microsoft
return
to
a
focus
on
hardware
and
software
for
Windows
under
Davuluri.
Microsoft’s
Surface
Pro
10
for
Business
is
one
of
the
company’s
first
AI
PCs.Image:
Microsoft
Microsoft’s
Windows
future
looked
like
it
was
tied
to
hardware
just
before
the
pandemic
began
in
2020,
and
the
rollercoaster
of
laptop
sales
over
the
past
few
years
has
clearly
had
an
impact
on
how
Nadella
positions
Windows
in
a
new
era
of
AI.
There
was
a
brief
period
of
trying
something
new
after
Panay
departed,
but
now
it
feels
like
Surface
and
Windows
are
back
together
where
they
belong.
Now
it’s
up
to
Microsoft
to
explain
why
consumers
should
care
about
AI
PCs,
and
define
exactly
what
they
are
beyond
a
flashy
marketing
term
that
involves
a
Copilot
key
on
a
keyboard.
Pavan
Davuluri
has
spent
the
past
six
months
focused
on
leading
Microsoft’s
silicon
efforts,
with
the
company
expected
to
launch
Arm-powered
versions
of
its
Surface
Pro
10
and
Surface
Laptop
6
at
an
event
on
May
20th.
This
could
be
a
huge
turning
point
for
Windows
and
Microsoft’s
relationship
with
Intel.
While
Microsoft
has
experimented
with
custom
Qualcomm-powered
chips
for
its
Surface
devices
in
the
past,
there
has
always
been
an
Intel
option
for
consumers
to
fall
back
on.
Microsoft
appears
to
have
much
more
confidence
in
Qualcomm’s
latest
Snapdragon
Elite
X
processors,
because
I
understand
it’s
about
to
only
offer
these
chips
to
consumers
on
an
OLED
version
of
the
Surface
Pro
10.
That’s
a
big
change
for
Microsoft’s
hero
Surface
device,
and
Davuluri
will
have
been
at
the
center
of
it.
If
the
performance
of
the
Snapdragon
X
Elite
is
greatly
improved
and
Microsoft’s
app
emulation
efforts
are
solid,
we
could
be
about
to
witness
an
Arm
transition
for
Windows
laptops
that
has
been
years
in
the
making.
Microsoft
won’t
have
the
luxury
of
dropping
Intel
in
quite
the
same
fashion
as
Apple
did
with
its
transition
to
its
own
silicon,
but
by
only
shipping
Surface
consumer
devices
on
Arm,
it’s
putting
down
a
new
line
in
the
silicon
sand.
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