Xbox CEO Announces Leadership Changes, Kills Copilot on Console Plans

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced some important leadership changes yesterday in an internal memo seen by CNBC. This is part of a new effort to bring “new leaders with consumer and technical expertise we do not yet have,” Sharma explained.

“We need to evolve how we work and how we are organized across our platform,” Sharma wrote in the memo. “Right now, it is too hard to ship impact quickly. We spend too much time inward instead of with the community, and we lack the depth we need in some of the fundamentals.”

As part of the leadership changes, Sharma picked up four senior executives from her previous CoreAI group at Microsoft to join Xbox:

• Jared Palmer, previously VP of Product at Microsoft’s CoreAI group, has been appointed VP of Engineering at Xbox and Technical advisor to Sharma
• Tim Allen, previously CoreAI vice president of design and SVP, Design & Research at GitHub, has been appointed as CVP, Head of Xbox Design
• Jonathan McKay, previously head of growth of the CoreAI group, will now lead growth at Xbox
• Evan Chaki, a general manager in the CoreAI group, will lead a new team tasked with simplifying development and ending repetitive work.

Two senior executives will also leave Xbox as part of the transition: That includes Kevin Gammill, Corporate Vice President, Gaming Ecosystem Organization, and Roanne Sones, Corporate Vice President, Xbox Devices and Ecosystem. The latter will take a leave of absence after the summer, but will keep a role as an Xbox advisor.

“Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers. Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track,” Sharma also posted on X yesterday.

Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers.
Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business…

— Asha (@asha_shar) May 5, 2026

The new Xbox CEO also announced that the Gaming Copilot, which was introduced a year ago on the Xbox mobile app, would soon be retired. The Xbox team is also ending development of the console version of this new Gaming Copilot. At the moment, it seems like the PC version of the AI assistant, which is accessible through the Windows 11 Game Bar, will remain.