Mikhail Parakhin Steps Aside in the Wake of Microsoft AI Reorg

When Microsoft created its Microsoft AI “organization” recently, I found it odd that it was led solely by outsiders. Apparently, I’m not alone: Mikhail Parakhin, who previously led Microsoft’s consumer AI efforts and was reorganized into an underling role under that new leadership, has declined his demotion less than a week later and will seek another role, either at the company or elsewhere.

Until the reorg, Parakhin led the team at Microsoft responsible for Copilot, Bing, and Edge. And while other reports make a big deal of this, his exit doesn’t impact Windows or Surface much, as Pavan Davuluri continues forward in his role as the leader of that combined team. More on this in a moment.

Parakhin had been told to report directly to Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman, the DeepMind and Inflection co-founder who recently joined the software giant, and he was to bring his team with him. But he was unsatisfied with the demotion and will temporarily report directly to Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott—another AI leader at Microsoft who found themselves somewhat pushed aside in the recent reorg—while he searches for his next role. Which may or may not be outside of Microsoft. (I’d be surprised if he stuck around, frankly.)

As for Windows and Surface, Rajesh Jha, who oversees Microsoft’s Experiences & Devices organization within More Personal Computing, explained to employees in a memo how Parakhin’s exit will impact these products. In short, not much: Pavan Davuluri was already directly responsible for both Windows and Surface, though Jha has combined the previously separate Windows Experiences and Windows + Devices teams into a single Experiences + Devices (E+D) team. Jha says he is excited to “closely partnering with Mustafa and the team” at Microsoft AI, so he is apparently comfortable with the new corporate structure, unlike Parakhin. This makes sense, as his role hasn’t changed.

Left unexplained is who now leads Copilot, Bing, and Edge, though those products still fall under Microsoft AI and thus Mustafa Suleyman, as was previously the case. But Jha’s memo provides a few clues, and it looks like Copilot, Bing, and Edge are part of a Web Experiences team in Microsoft AI that will include executives such as Jordi Ribas (Search, Maps, and Platforms), Rukmini Iyer (Advertising), and Mike Davidson (Design). Intriguingly, Davidson “will work with Pavan and team on how to realign Windows design.”

Other Microsoft executives are shifting over to Microsoft AI too, including Ali Akgun (Mobile Experiences and Platform), Kya Sainsbury-Carter (Advertising), and Rajesh Sundaram (Edge).