At just over a year old, Microsoft AI is one of the tech giant’s newest experiments. The research laboratory oversees the firm’s consumer AI products, which includes Microsoft Copilot—its Gen AI chatbot which runs on OpenAI’s large language models.
Yet despite the lab’s AI focus, not all its staff are AI-native, admitted Liz Danzico, Microsoft AI’s vice-president of design, at the Fortune Brainstorm Design conference in Macau on Tuesday.
“We created a goal for our organization—that every person in the studio will become AI-native by the end of the fiscal year,” Danzico said, adding that she had helped put together an in-house AI course for the firm’s 8,000 to 9,000 employees.
According to Danzico, the response has been “tremendously positive.” AI has found its way into Microsoft AI’s products and internal communications, and its workers have been “feeling more satisfied and energized about the possibilities with AI.”
They’ve also been less fearful and anxious about it, Danzico said, after “experimenting with multiple [AI] tools.”
As the team—led by CEO Mustafa Suleyman—continues to expand, the designer also emphasized the importance of creating a workplace where workers are empowered to lean into uncertainty and embrace creativity.
“For diverse ideas to make it out, people have to feel safe to voice them, so [it is key to] make sure that that psychological safety is there,” she added.
Social impact
Besides spearheading AI rollout on platforms like Bing and Microsoft Edge, Microsoft AI also seeks to democratize AI’s impact on society.
In December 2023, Microsoft inked a partnership with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)—the largest federation of labour unions in the U.S. This allows Microsoft to educate labour union workers on AI rollout, and convene summits where workers have a say in how their companies incorporate AI at work.
“That they [workers] are empowered to have that information—the ideas about what’s happening and unfurling in the market—is so important, so that when they go back to the bargaining table, their everyday jobs, and the ways that they touch our everyday lives, they’re going to be informed,” said Danzico.
All in all, Microsoft AI’s work centers on creating AI for people and the greater good of society, Danzico explained. “What unites us all is our commitment to the user, whether the user is at their office, at their desk, or working somewhere out in the wild.”
