Former Facebook Exec Now Heads Microsoft’s New AI Engineering Team

Microsoft has announced the creation of a new engineering division, CoreAI – Platform and Tools, combining its Developer Division, AI platform teams, and staff from the Office of the Chief Technology Officer. 

This new group will focus on building AI platforms and tools for Microsoft and its customers, marking a major shift to centre AI development in its operations.

This new division will be led by Jay Parikh, former Facebook engineering chief, who joined Microsoft in October 2024. According to details in the blog, as Executive Vice President of CoreAI – Platform and Tools, Parikh will report directly to CEO Satya Nadella and join the senior leadership team. 

In his role, he will oversee leaders including Eric Boyd (AI platform), Jason Taylor (Deputy CTO of AI Infrastructure), Julia Liuson (Developer Division), and Tim Bozarth (Developer Infrastructure).

An AI-First Application Stack

CEO Satya Nadella described the reorganisation as preparing for the “next innings of this AI platform shift” in 2025. He said this transformation will reshape software development, accelerating decades of change into just a few years.

Nadella underlined an AI-first application stack that will change how developers create and deploy AI applications. Azure will provide the infrastructure, while Azure AI Foundry, GitHub, and Visual Studio Code will support advanced AI tools and agents. 

“Our AI platform and tools will create agents, and these agents will change every SaaS application category, with custom applications driven by software as a service,” he added. 

Scope of CoreAI

The CoreAI group will develop an end-to-end Copilot and AI stack for first-party and third-party customers to create and run AI applications. It appears that Nadella’s memo highlights Azure AI Foundry, GitHub, and Visual Studio Code, but excludes Visual Studio and .NET, indicating a shift to cloud-first, AI-focused tools.