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Microsoft’s AI division is undergoing upheaval with the announcement of a new chief for its Copilot products, while simultaneously pausing the enforced rollout of Copilot to Microsoft 365 customers. Oh, and it’s reportedly considering suing its biggest AI partner, OpenAI.
Let’s start with the change at the top, with Microsoft boss Satya Nadella announcing a change in its Copilot leadership. Mustafa Suleyman, the DeepMind Co-Founder who was appointed head of Microsoft AI as recently as November 2024 is being moved sideways, taking on a new role that Nadella says will be “doubling down on our superintelligence mission”. This is a month after he suggested office workers will be obsolete by 2026.
Taking over as the new boss of the Copilot experience is Jacob Andreou, a former Snap executive who has been working in the Microsoft AI team as CVP of product and growth.
In a company message explaining the move, Suleyman states that he “came to Microsoft with an overriding mission: to create superintelligence that delivers a transformative, positive impact for millions of people”. He claims the company now has “everything we need” to build state-of-the-art AI models.
The reshuffle sees the corporate and consumer sides of Copilot brought together under Andreou, who “will retain a dotted line to me”, according to Sulyeman, although Andreou will report to Nadella.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has suspended the mandatory rollout of the Copilot app to Microsoft 365 customers
Back in December, Microsoft began installing the Microsoft 365 Copilot app on Windows devices that had the Microsoft 365 desktop apps. At the time, Microsoft said the “change simplifies access to Copilot and ensures users can easily discover and engage with productivity-enhancing features”.
The decision wasn’t met with universal gratitude, especially in corporate environments where companies didn’t want staff meddling with AI. However, an update on the Microsoft 365 Message Center says the rollout has been “temporarily disabled”.
Customers who already had the Copilot app installed won’t see it disappear, but it won’t be appearing on any new machines for the time being – except for those customers in the European Economic Area (EEA), which are oddly excepted from this pause. The UK is not part of the EEA.
Microsoft hasn’t given any explanation for the move. We asked Copilot if it could explain the reasons why the rollout had been stopped, and it replied: “The rollout of the Microsoft 365 Copilot app was suspended because Microsoft temporarily disabled its automatic installation on Windows devices.” So that’s all cleared up, then. Next…
Finally, Microsoft is weighing up whether to take legal action against Amazon and OpenAI over a $50 billion deal between the two companies, which Microsoft believes may break the exclusive deal it struck with Sam Altman’s company.
According to the FT, Microsoft is unhappy that OpenAI’s new commercial product, Frontier, will be offered to customers on Amazon Web Services. Microsoft believes the agreement it has with OpenAI stipulates that all of OpenAI’s models should be offered through Microsoft’s own Azure platform.
“We know our contract,” a “person familiar” with Microsoft’s position told the FT. “We will sue them if they breach it. If Amazon and OpenAI want to take a bet on the creativity of their contractual lawyers, I would back us, not them.”
The dispute is another sign of the growing tensions between Microsoft and OpenAI. The OpenAI chief, Sam Altman, briefly joined Microsoft when he was ousted by the OpenAI board in 2023, but was reinstated by OpenAI days later. It seems less likely he’ll still have a parking space in Redmond if the OpenAI board lose patience with him once more.
