BBC World Business Report: Aarti Samani comments on new Microsoft AI CEO, Mustafa Suleyman
BBC World Service Interview 2024
SPEAKERS
BBC
You’re listening to World Business report on the BBC World Service. Now, we’ve talked a lot about big company acquisitions when it comes to AI, haven’t we, today, though, start buying up people. Mustafa Suleyman was the founder of the UK AI startup DeepMind, a firm he sold to Google, bought in a deal reportedly upwards, worth upwards of $400 million back in 2014. He quit Google’s parent company Alphabet in 2022 and now, he’s off to one of their biggest rivals, Mark Microsoft. Aarti Samani is the CEO of AI strategy consulting firm, Shreem Growth Partners, Aarti, welcome to World Business Report. Thank you. How much for how much of a coup is this? How much of a coup is this for Microsoft,
Aarti Samani
This is huge, right? So for Microsoft, this underscores two major messages. One is that Microsoft is an unapologetic exertion of power in AI. And the other one is the beginning of moving the AI narrative beyond technology, a message that I have been driving for some while. I call it AI led growth. Basically, we are at a point in business where we need to be thinking strategies, business models, ROIs, etc, of all the Innovation that is coming through, much faster than the transformative application that has the capability of implicating, and we are not just not doing enough.
So what we’re seeing here is the rise of a new kind of seat position, the Chief AI Officer (CAIO) position. It’s a vacant seat at an executive table, but it is shrouded in mystery, because no one knows what this individual is supposed to do or what their profile should be. But over the coming months, Mr. Mustafa will show us what this looks like.
In the case of Microsoft, they are a large conglomerate at a macro level, they can afford to appoint a CEO of AI, but small businesses will need something similar on a lower scale, on a micro sale, which will be an AI officer or an AI leader, and this will be the start of the new kind of skill set we see coming into executive rooms and boardrooms.
BBC
Interesting. What we do know is Mustafa Sleyman’s track record, don’t we? Seen as one of the biggest minds in this space. You kind of wonder a little bit about what Google do as a result.
Aarti Samani
Exactly. This is the first question that comes to mind. That how, what will be Google’s response to this? So have they already lost this race? Microsoft is unstoppable, right? Every week, every other week, they are announcing new partnerships, new acquisition and now, as you now call it, purchasing people.
And we haven’t heard much from Google at all. Now I can’t imagine that Google is sitting silently, doing nothing, so we can expect to hear something. The question is, what? And it’s also not unfeasible to hypothesize that Google has probably been a little bit complacent in this space, as Microsoft have really made early investments and early bets.
BBC
Want to bring Russ Mould into the conversation here, investment director the UK investment platform, AJ Bell. Russ, give us your take on this.
Russ Mould
Oh, it’s interesting. Just looking through from the narrow perspective of share prices, Microsoft shares up another percent to another all-time high, cementing its position as the worst world’s most valuable public company, ahead of Apple, ahead of Nvidia. And yet, the arms race is on. The race is on for talent in technology. At the moment, investors think that Microsoft is one of the biggest winners here.
BBC
Yeah, Aarti is that what’s going on here? Which sort of way on the seesaw do you sort of give the most weight to Google, lagging, dragging its feet, perhaps lacking direction in this space, or changing direction too often in this space. Or Microsoft being, as Russ says, as certainly what investors think the clear leader in this and Mustaf Suleyman’s betting on the front runner, so to speak.
Aarti Samani
Yes, that latter, I think, and Nadella has been extremely strategic, right? That’s Satya Nadella CEO of Microsoft has been very strategic, just as he was when he made investment in cloud. They were one of the first to enter Cloud Computing, and that transformed Microsoft’s fortunes – Their share price, their visibility, reputation, etc. And the same thing is happening again in AI. So, by investing in open AI, very early on, by now diversifying actually, to reduce their dependency on OpenAI, also you can see strategically where the roadmap is going with them.
BBC
Russ, fascinating, isn’t it? The sort of the arms race as Aarti put it for, for people, rather than just, you know, the tech or cool kind of startup companies world in this space.
Russ Mould
And it reminds me very much of the internet in 1995-96-97, when there were new companies coming through, there were established companies protecting their positions, and nobody ultimately knew who was going to prevail. New champions emerged, and all champions fell by the wayside. And again, from the investment point of view, that’s what people have put their money into. The stock market will be thinking, will the current champions be dethroned, or will there be new, up and coming companies that they can make a profit on and ride to success as well? Yeah, it’s
BBC: The thing that everybody in the investment world is kind of looking at and trying to make a the right kind of call on aren’t they? Aarti, thanks, as always, for your company. That’s Aarti Samani, the CEO of AI strategy consulting firm, Shreem Growth Partners with us there. Russ Mould, still with us, from AJ Bell, the UK investment platform. Let’s take a look, Russ, at what else investors are digesting.
KEYWORDS
Microsoft, AI strategy, Chief AI Officer, AI-led growth, AI acquisition