Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella is handing off some duties related to the company’s commercial business so that he and the firm’s engineering leaders can be “laser focused” on technical work related to artificial intelligence.

In a communication to employees that he shared online, Nadella said that Judson Althoff will take on an expanded role as CEO of the company’s commercial business. Althoff has led Microsoft’s global sales organization for nine years.

Takeshi Numoto and his marketing team will join the new organization; Numoto will report Althoff as chief marketing officer while continuing to report to Nadella on some parts of the business; the operations organization will report to Althoff; and a new commercial leadership team will be led by Althoff, Nadella said.

The commercial leadership team will “drive our product strategy and governance, GTM readiness, and sales motions with shared accountability for the rigor and executional excellence our customers expect,” Nadella said.

These changes will allow Nadella and engineering leaders to focus on “our highest ambition technical work,” including datacenter buildout, systems architecture, AI science and product innovation, Nadella said.

“Each one of us needs to be at our very best in terms of rapidly learning new skills, adopting new ways to work, and staying close to the metal to drive innovation across the entire stack,” Nadella said. “This isn’t just evolution, it’s reinvention, for each of us professionally and for Microsoft.”

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PYMNTS reported Sept. 23 that Microsoft is among the industry giants that recently set out their latest moves on AI and infrastructure and are positioning themselves for growth at a time when AI is advancing at breakneck speed.

A week earlier, on Sept. 16, Microsoft announced a $30 billion investment in the United Kingdom through 2028 to expand AI and cloud infrastructure. This is one of the company’s largest regional commitments to date.

During a July 30 earnings call, Microsoft reported that it had a record fiscal year driven by demand for cloud and AI services. The quarter’s results were boosted by enterprises accelerating their cloud migration as well as increased AI usage across the company’s cloud stack.

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