Microsoft names Pavan Davuluri as head of Windows and Surface

Microsoft has undergone a major organizational change several months after the departure of Panos Panay, former product director of Windows and Surface devices. The company has now integrated its Windows Experiences and Windows + Devices teams as a core part of the Experiences + Devices (R&D) division.

IIT Madras alumnus Pavan Davuluri, who has been with Microsoft for over 23 years, will lead the team and report to Rajesh Jha, Executive Vice President of Microsoft Experiences and Devices. This team will work closely with Microsoft's newly formed AI team led by the recently hired Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of Google DeepMind.

The company hopes this shift will bring a holistic approach to building silicon, systems, experiences and devices spanning Windows clients and the cloud for this AI era. Pavan has extensive experience engineering Surface devices and is expected to bring a new dimension to the Surface line with new AI experiences.

Lately, Microsoft has been investing heavily in AI and working closely with silicon manufacturers to push AI into PCs by offering integrated AI experiences through Windows and its Office products. These internal changes should drive the company's current efforts.

In an internal note, Rajesh Jha said:

I want to share an update on the Windows and Web Experiences (WWE) team following last week's announcement and the creation of the Microsoft AI organization.

Mikhail Parakhin decided to explore new roles. Satya and I are grateful for Mikhail's contributions and leadership and want to thank him for all he has done to help Microsoft lead the next wave of AI. He will report to Kevin Scott as he supports WWE's transition.

As part of this change, we brought together the Windows Experiences and Windows + Devices teams as a core part of the Experiences + Devices (R&D) division. This will allow us to take a holistic approach to building silicon, systems, experiences and devices that span the Windows client and the cloud for this AI era. Pavan Davuluri will lead this team and will continue to report to me. Shilpa Ranganathan and Jeff Johnson and their teams will report directly to Pavan. The Windows team will continue to work closely with Microsoft's AI team on AI, silicon and experiences.

The Web Experiences team will report to Mustafa in the new Microsoft AI organization.

We're excited for this team to help Microsoft AI achieve its bold ambition to build world-class consumer AI products. And I look forward to working closely with Mustafa and the team as we bring our AI products, including Copilot, to the breadth of our R&D products and services.