Microsoft’s LinkedIn chief to run office group in AI shakeup

The chief of Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn is taking charge of the teams that build email and productivity apps, in a reorganization that consolidates more of the company’s workplace software as it seeks to speed up deployment of artificial intelligence tools.

Ryan Roslansky, the professional networking site’s chief executive officer since 2020, will tack on responsibility for the teams behind Outlook, Word, Excel and the rest of the Office bundle, Microsoft told employees on Wednesday. He’ll report to Rajesh Jha, a top engineering executive whose organization includes Windows and business software. In Roslansky’s capacity as LinkedIn CEO, he’ll continue to report to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

A Microsoft spokesperson said the changes don’t signal the end of the relative autonomy LinkedIn has been granted during its nearly nine years as a subsidiary. Microsoft acquired the San Francisco Bay Area-based startup for $26 billion in 2016, outbidding rival Salesforce Inc. 

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, also announced that Charles Lamanna will join Jha’s organization. A corporate vice president, Lamanna runs the Dynamics 365 line of sales and business planning software and some Copilot-branded AI tools for corporate technologists, among other teams. He previously reported to cloud-computing chief Scott Guthrie.

Like its biggest rivals in corporate software, Microsoft is betting that artificial intelligence bots powered by large language models will shake up how office workers get things done. The company has been rapidly deploying new tools, many under the Copilot brand, that are designed to automate or streamline tasks previously done manually. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com