On Tuesday, Microsoft informed employees of the promotion of four sales executives, following its earlier decision to appoint Judson Althoff as CEO of its commercial business. Investors have been questioning the growth potential of Microsoft and other established software companies as corporate workers develop new applications utilizing generative artificial intelligence models. So far this year, Microsoft shares have fallen 15%, underperforming all other Magnificent Seven technology stocks. Last week, Microsoft reported Azure cloud growth that missed some projections. Executives stated their intention to allocate more computing resources toward research and development teams and AI products such as the Microsoft 365 Copilot productivity add-on and the GitHub Copilot coding assistant, while still fulfilling Azure client needs. "Judson expanded his leadership team's responsibilities to free up more time to focus on Microsoft's commercial product strategy and to minimize the feedback loop between customers and product decisions, " a Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC via email. "This feedback loop is crucial now because AI adoption is occurring at an extraordinary pace, and our customers expect these capabilities to be integrated into their businesses faster than ever. " According to an internal memo from Althoff, Deb Cupp, who leads Microsoft's global enterprise sales as chief revenue officer, is the company’s newest executive vice president. In recent years, Cupp advanced from president of Microsoft's U. S.

business to president for North America and then president of the Americas. Nick Parker, chief business officer of worldwide sales and solutions and a Microsoft employee since 2000, is also being promoted to executive vice president. Ralph Haupter is named executive vice president and chief revenue officer for small and medium enterprises and channels. Haupter, who joined Microsoft from IBM in 2005, served four years as CEO and chairman of Microsoft’s Greater China business. Mala Anand, a former SAP executive who joined Microsoft in 2019, will become executive vice president and chief customer experience officer. The four executives will continue reporting to Althoff, the spokesperson added. Since 2014, Satya Nadella, who was previously executive vice president before becoming Microsoft CEO, has focused on innovation, while Althoff has assumed greater responsibilities. At a December software developer event in India, Nadella demonstrated an app he created to research topics using multiple generative AI models. “I started my career in a command line, ” Nadella said on a podcast recorded at the Davos conference in Switzerland in January. “Who knows?I may just end it in a command line. ”