Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to visit India to explore AI opportunities

Microsoft Corp’s Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella will be coming to India on February 7 and 8 as part of his annual visit to the country with the key theme for 2024 set as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its opportunities.

In an internal email a few weeks ago, Puneet Chandok, Microsoft India and South Asia’s President, said that Nadella’s visit reinforces Microsoft’s commitment to applying technology to expand opportunities in the country.

“AI is playing a game-changing role in shaping ‘India’s Techade’ and will make India and South Asia one of the most exciting markets for technology,” the email said.

In June 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his US visit, held meetings with prominent US and Indian technology executives, such as Tim Cook from Apple, Sundar Pichai from Google, and Satya Nadella.

The statement highlighted discussions relating to harnessing the power of technology specifically about Artificial Intelligence and India’s capabilities.

“One important topic was the power of technology, particularly Artificial Intelligence, to help improve the lives of Indians. India is home to one of the most vibrant developer and start-up ecosystems in the world, and Microsoft remains deeply committed to the growth of Indian technology – that will impact both India and markets across the globe,” Microsoft’s statement said.

A year ago, CEO Nadella made a four-day official visit to India. During his visit, he met some of the key customers, start-ups, developers, not-for-profit organisations, and students.

Key focus on AI
Sources told Moneycontrol that founders of some of India’s prominent AI start-ups including Lightspeed and Peak XV-backed Sarvam, Bhavish Aggarwal’s AI startup Krutrim, and a few early-stage AI start-ups are gearing up to meet Nadella in Mumbai and Bangalore.

However, Moneycontrol could not individually verify the start-ups that were invited to the event.

Microsoft and OpenAI
The year 2023 was a big one for Microsoft and developments around Artificial Intelligence. In October 2023, Satya Nadella, in the company’s annual letter, highlighted the company’s big plans for AI after its partnership with OpenAI.

In March 2023, Microsoft announced AI integrations for all of its Office 365 apps and services. The new AI assistant called Copilot will be available in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and Business Chat. The AI assistant is powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 technology, the same framework that powers ChatGPT, Bing AI, and more.

In May 2023, Microsoft announced that it is further strengthening its partnership with OpenAI by integrating the Bing search engine into ChatGPT, a move aimed at directly competing with Google.

On November 17, 2023, in a shocking turn, OpenAI’s board dismissed Altman over a video call, accusing him of being “not consistently candid in his communications with the board”.

Three days later, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that Altman, Brockman, and other OpenAI employees will be joining the company’s new advanced AI research team. Nadella added that Altman will serve as the CEO of the new advanced AI research team.

As AI adoption increases, revenues for Microsoft are expected to rise nearly 15 percent in its 2024 fiscal year, faster than the overall tech sector, according to data from Bloomberg Intelligence. Moneycontrol