Former Advisor to Satya Nadella Says Microsoft Missed the AI Wave

Former Microsoft executive Mat Velloso claims the company has completely missed the AI wave, drawing parallels to its historical failures in internet and mobile technologies. Despite massive infrastructure investments and integrating Copilot directly into Windows and Office, Velloso reveals that fewer than 3% of paying users actually interact with the tool. The critique also targets Microsoft's hardware strategy, noting that consumers are ignoring new NPU powered laptops due to a lack of valuable use cases. These statements emerge amid growing investor anxiety over Microsoft's staggering $146 billion AI infrastructure budget and a lack of clear profitability.

Editor's Note: While Microsoft was fatally late to the smartphone era, the company made the exact opposite mistake with artificial intelligence — it rushed in too quickly. Driven by an obsession to defeat Google, leadership in Redmond blindly over-relied on OpenAI. Convinced that their massive Windows and Office ecosystem would automatically establish Copilot, Microsoft committed a series of strategic blunders. Today, despite pouring in billions of dollars, the tech giant once again finds itself without a clear roadmap or a product capable of securing its future market leadership.

Read the full story on Windows Central →