According to sources, Microsoft executive Qi Lu will be leaving the organization due to health reasons. The medical concern has stemmed up from a bicycle incident which happened months ago.
Rajesh Jha, the Corporate Vice President in charge of Microsoft's Outlook and Office 365 projects, will be taking over Lu's functions. The outgoing executive has led the Bing Search department before climbing the ladder to head the company's applications and services division which oversees Bing Apps, MSN, Skype, Sharepoint, Exchange and Yammer. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2008, he has been with Yahoo for a decade.
Before coming to Yahoo, Lu has been a staff member at IBM's Almaden Research Center in Silicon Valley. He has also held positions at China's Fudan University and the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University.
It has been known that Qi Lu is a favorite associate of top boss Satya Nadella. Under the Nadella, Lu has been instrumental in the transition of the Office program from a desktop suite into a system of apps and services that run on iOS and android in mobile devices.
"We want Office to be a habit," said Lu in a 2014 interview.
Qi Lu's involvement in Office 365 is a vital one considering that the program he led and helped organize has integrated artificial intelligence (AI) functions into its system. This means that the software will have a cloud-based AI guiding or assisting in various tasks.
For instance, a QuickStarter feature from PowerPoint and Sway provides outlines for subjects to be tackled or discussed. In a busy world, this actually saves users from the trouble of making a presentation structure from scratch. For Word and Outlook, simple taps will activate relevant information about a topic. In Excel, there are functions that will translate raw geographic data into Bing-based maps.
Office 365 goes beyond the bots and digital assistants. The software has been wired with an intelligence structure that presents significant information. In a sales transaction, for example, representatives will be directed to seal a deal through the utilization of essential pointers.
Upgrades in the machines are not merely about making the lives of people easier and more convenient. For Microsoft, integrating machines with intelligence software is key to a faster and more efficient manifestation of service. It is astounding to note that in its call centers across the United States, Microsoft has AI agents in place to assist company staffs in addressing queries.
