Welcome to the Cloud Wars Minute — your daily news and commentary show, hosted by Cloud Wars Founder Bob Evans. Each episode provides insights and perspectives around the “reimagination machine” that is the Cloud.
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In this Cloud Wars Minute, Bob Evans reviews Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s comments that were made on the company’s earnings call. Nadella promised that Microsoft will lead in artificial intelligence (AI).
Highlights
00:30 — Microsoft is trying to redirect its attention from recent layoffs and declining growth rates, focusing on a bold, new future around AI. On its earnings call earlier this week, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella made it clear that Microsoft will be a “leader in AI.”
01:00 — On the earnings call, Nadella said “the age of AI is upon us” and that “Microsoft is powering it.” Clearly, this is an area that the company wants to stake out — and in some ways, take ownership of — until another cloud company can prove that Microsoft is not the leader.
01:34 — Additionally, Nadella noted that AI models have now become a new computing platform and that the company will lead in the AI era. One of the ways this will happen is through the “non-linear improvements” Microsoft has made to its AI foundation models.
02:01 — Microsoft is well positioned to capture this opportunity as a leader in AI, says Nadella.
02:30 — After company layoffs and declining growth rates, Microsoft wants to “step out and change the topic” of what people are saying about the company and “move it over” to the whole world of AI, notes Bob.
02:43 — Bob suggests that he is looking to Microsoft to provide more clarity on “AI to be the next computing platform.” What is the current one? Is it the cloud? If AI is the next computing platform, does that make the cloud “old school”?
03:04 — While Nadella painted a strong picture of where Microsoft wants to go with AI, there is still an “untold story” about where AI and the cloud connect. Microsoft cloud is a massive part of the company’s business, with $27.1 billion in cloud revenue for Q2.
03:45 — As Nadella sets the vision for where Microsoft is headed with AI, Bob suggests he is equally, if not more, articulate and clear about “where the cloud fits” as the company takes off into the era of AI.
