Business View Magazine - October 2016 9
Microsoft Corp. announced recently that it has
formed the Microsoft AI and Research Group, bring-
ing together Microsoft’s world-class research orga-
nization with more than 5,000 computer scientists
and engineers focused on the company’s AI product
efforts. The new group will be led by computer vi-
sion luminary Harry Shum, a 20-year Microsoft vet-
eran whose career has spanned leadership roles
across Microsoft Research and Bing engineering.
Microsoft is dedicated to democratizing AI for every
person and organization, making it more accessible
and valuable to everyone and ultimately enabling
new ways to solve some of society’s toughest chal-
lenges. Today’s announcement builds on the com-
pany’s deep focus on AI and will accelerate the deliv-
ery of new capabilities to customers across agents,
apps, services and infrastructure.
In addition to Shum’s existing leadership team,
several of the company’s engineering leaders and
teams will join the newly formed group including
Information Platform, Cortana and Bing, and Am-
bient Computing and Robotics teams led by David
Ku, Derrick Connell, and Vijay Mital, respectively. All
combined, the Microsoft AI and Research Group will
encompass AI product engineering, basic and ap-
plied research labs, and New Experiences and Tech-
nologies (NExT).
“We live in a time when digital technology is trans-
forming our lives, businesses, and the world, but
also generating an exponential growth in data and
information,” said Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft.
“At Microsoft, we are focused on empowering both
people and organizations, by democratizing access
to intelligence to help solve our most pressing chal-
lenges. To do this, we are infusing AI into everything
we deliver across our computing platforms and ex-
periences.”
“Microsoft has been working in Artificial Intelligence
since the beginning of Microsoft Research, and yet
we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what’s
possible,” said Shum, Executive Vice President of
theMicrosoft AI and Research Group. “Today’s move
signifies Microsoft’s commitment to deploying intel-
ligent technology and democratizing AI in a way that
changes our lives and the world around us for the
better. We will significantly expand our efforts to
empower people and organizations to achieve more
with our tools, our software and services, and our
powerful, global-scale cloud computing capabilities.”
