Microsoft has become an academy for AI talent that other companies are now poaching
While few CEOs like to brag that they’re “shameless about stealing great ideas,” as Apple cofounder Steve Jobs once said, they’re less reticent when it comes to poaching great people. Unlike ideas, of course, people aren’t patented and possess free will, which is only occasionally cramped by non-compete agreements. And poaching top talent is a time-tested way to accelerate growth, launch new divisions, or develop instant expertise that can take a company to the next level.
Exhibit A this week is an announcement from Qualtrics that Microsoft veteran Gurdeep Singh Pall has joined the experience-management software company as its first-ever president of AI strategy. As Qualtrics CEO Zig Serafin told me, hiring one of the people who helped spearhead Microsoft’s OpenAI partnership is “a dream” that he hopes will “help us continue to be leading out front” in the next era.
Having spent almost 18 years at Microsoft himself, Serafin argues that “there’s really no place on the planet” where one can get so much exposure to leading-edge thinking and opportunities to execute on it across diverse industries in high-impact ways.
Some might beg to differ with that assessment, of course, but it’s worth noting the number of former Microsoft employees who’ve been popping up elsewhere lately. The short list includes Lila Tretikov at NEA, Vahé Torossian at Builder.ai, Xuedong Huang at Zoom, Rashmi Misra at Analog Devices, Tim Solms of Slingshot Aerospace, Brian Janous of Cloverleaf Infrastructure, Peggy Johnson of Agility Robotics and many more. Why each of them left Microsoft is a mystery that they’ve probably explained over a drink with close friends.
What we do know is that many former Microsoft leaders have ended up in AI-focused companies or roles. That bolsters the company’s status as an academy for AI talent, in the same way that Procter & Gamble has trained leaders in marketing and consumer packaged goods, Goldman Sachs has groomed leaders in finance, and PepsiCo has incubated Fortune 500 CEOs. Then again, talent can flow both ways: Microsoft in March recruited Mustafa Suleyman, cofounder of AI research lab DeepMind. Meanwhile, Elon Musk says he’s increasing salaries at Tesla because OpenAI is trying to poach his people.
Welcome to the AI talent wars. With business at the beginning stages of understanding how AI will transform what they do, it’s not yet clear whether the leaders of the next revolution will be those armed with technical know-how or ‘softer’ skills. Serafin values both, praising Pall as a technical leader who's skilled at understanding how AI impacts human interactions. “The way you do something with the insights that you get with AI will define the next generation of leading companies,” he says.
Separately, as my colleague Alan Murray winds down his transformative stint as CEO of Fortune, many CEOs are telling us what the brand means to them. Here’s a comment from Chuck Robbins, CEO, Cisco:
“Access to objective and in-depth business and technology reporting has never been more important. Fortune continues to be a trusted resource, offering thought-provoking and educational perspectives on key topics that matter."
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Diane Brady
@dianebrady
diane.brady@fortune.com
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
