Xbox CEO Asha Sharma Ends Copilot AI Development, Overhauls Leadership

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced the wind-down of Copilot AI on mobile and the halt of console development, alongside sweeping leadership changes in a memo to staff on Tuesday. The moves aim to reverse declining revenue. Sharma, who took over in February after Phil Spencer's retirement, joined Microsoft in 2024 from Meta and Instacart. She stated Xbox needs to move faster and deepen community connection, retiring features that don't align with the current direction. Four executives from CoreAI are joining Xbox: Jared Palmer (formerly CoreAI VP and GitHub SVP) in a technical staff role; Tim Allen (CoreAI design lead) as Xbox design head; Jonathan McKay (ex-OpenAI ChatGPT growth head) as growth head; and Evan Chaki (CoreAI GM) leading a forward-deployed engineering team. David Schloss (Instacart senior director) takes charge of subscriptions and cloud. Two veteran Microsoft executives are departing: Kevin Gammill (corporate VP for Xbox user experience, game development, publishing platforms) and Roanne Sones (corporate VP for Xbox devices and ecosystem), who takes leave after summer. This follows Sharma's earlier Game Pass Ultimate price cut and a teased Xbox-Discord partnership.