Xbox CEO Bringing in “New Leaders” from Microsoft AI Team

Asha Sharma, the new CEO of Xbox, is changing up the leadership team by bringing in people she previously worked with at Microsoft’s CoreAI engineering platform. Since becoming CEO, Sharma has already made a significant impact, and this move aims to strengthen Xbox’s technical skills by adding experienced team members.

Satya Nadella appointed Satya Sharma as the new CEO of Xbox on February 23rd, following the announcement that Phil Spencer, who led the brand for over ten years, would be retiring. Before taking the top job at Xbox, Sharma led Microsoft’s CoreAI product from 2024 until early 2026. He previously held important technical positions at Meta and Instacart.

Xbox Adds Four Former CoreAI Members to High Profile Roles

Just a few months into her new job, Sharma is bringing in five former coworkers – four from her time at CoreAI – to help improve Xbox. According to a CNBC report based on an internal memo, these new hires will fill leadership roles and bring valuable skills Xbox currently lacks. This suggests Sharma’s vision for Xbox goes beyond simply reducing Game Pass prices; she’s focused on building a stronger, more capable team.

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Xbox is reorganizing its leadership to better connect with players and deliver improvements faster, rather than getting bogged down in internal problems, especially as they develop their next-generation Project Helix console. According to Xbox’s head, some features that don’t fit with the company’s future plans will be removed. For example, the Copilot assistance feature will be phased out on mobile devices and won’t be further developed for consoles.

Xbox has recently added several new team members, including Jonathan McKay, who previously led growth at CoreAI and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Joining him from CoreAI are Tim Allen, the new design lead; Evan Chaki, who will head up an engineering team focused on streamlining work; and Jared Palmer, who will contribute his technical expertise to engineering, infrastructure, and development tools. David Schloss also joins Xbox as a leader for subscriptions and cloud services, coming from Instacart where he was a senior director of product and growth.

The memo also details the exits of two long-time Microsoft employees: Kevin Gammill and Roanne Sones, both corporate vice presidents. Sones will leave her position after the summer, but will return as an advisor for the Xbox brand. These departures follow those of Xbox leader Phil Spencer earlier this year and former Xbox president Sarah Bond, who is leaving in early 2026. Both Bond and Spencer are currently serving as special advisors to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during this period of change.

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2026-05-06 00:34