Microsoft Centralizes Artificial Intelligence Efforts as Injured Executive Steps Down

By Jay Greene 

Microsoft Corp. is concentrating its artificial-intelligence efforts under one roof as veteran executive Qi Lu stepped down to focus on recovering from a bicycle accident.

Mr. Lu, a highly regarded executive in charge of the Office products and Bing search-engine businesses, was injured months ago. His recovery has been slow, a person familiar with the matter said.

Mr. Lu expects to return to Microsoft in an advisory role to Chief Executive Satya Nadella and co-founder Bill Gates, the company said.

Microsoft changed two of the top jobs at the company as Mr. Lu exits.

Harry Shum, who has led the company's research efforts, will now take responsibility for the artificial-intelligence strategy, Microsoft said.

He will oversee 5,000 employees, including the 1,000 researchers he led in his previous job, as the head of a newly formed AI division. Nearly all of the workers are coming from the applications and services group.

The moves come as Microsoft ramps up its efforts in AI, an emerging and hotly contested area where Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc. all are investing heavily.

Microsoft also named Rajesh Jha executive vice president of the newly created Office Products Group. In that post, Mr. Jha will lead the engineering and development teams for products that include Office, Skype and OneNote. Most recently, he was corporate vice president for Office 365.

News of Mr. Lu's departure was earlier reported by Recode.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 29, 2016 11:42 ET (15:42 GMT)

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