Microsoft’s AI CEO Has a Strict In-Person Work Policy

Microsoft just lately mandated that workers come into the workplace in particular person three days every week beginning in February 2026 — however for workers on Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman’s group, working in particular person for many of the week is already the norm.

In keeping with a report launched earlier this week from Enterprise Insider, Suleyman requires workers on his group who reside close to an workplace to be there at the least 4 days every week. Suleyman is the pinnacle of Microsoft AI, a division targeted on Copilot and different shopper AI merchandise and analysis. Executives who report on to Suleyman should approve all exceptions to the in-office rule.

“I very a lot consider within the in-person working tradition,” Suleyman informed Enterprise Insider, stating that it helps “defragment” groups and permits for collaboration.

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Not solely does Suleyman require workers to work from the workplace greater than different Microsoft workers, however he additionally prefers open flooring plans, the place workers sit at open desks grouped into “neighborhoods” of 20 to 30 folks. The association is “a lot better for collaboration,” in Suleyman’s phrases.

“Everybody can see everybody else who’s in,” he informed BI. “It simply creates much more casual collaboration. It’s so a lot better.”

Most of Suleyman’s AI group at Microsoft relies in Silicon Valley fairly than on the firm’s Redmond, Washington headquarters. Suleyman himself splits his time between Silicon Valley and Redmond, emphasizing that there’s “large expertise density” in Silicon Valley and describing it as “the place to be” for his work and group.

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Different Microsoft groups exterior of Suleyman’s which might be engaged on AI have much less strict in-person workplace mandates. The Cloud and AI group underneath Microsoft Government Vice President (EVP) Scott Guthrie has no particular return-to-office necessities, whereas the CoreAI group underneath EVP Jay Parikh will implement a three-day-a-week in-office guideline in February, per BI.

It’s unclear how many individuals are on Suleyman’s AI group, although leaked organizational charts present he had at the least 17 direct stories as of final month. Suleyman joined Microsoft in March 2024 from Inflection AI, a $4 billion AI startup he co-founded in March 2022. He was beforehand the co-founder of AI lab DeepMind, which Google acquired in 2014 for greater than $500 million.

Final week, Microsoft introduced that it’ll kind a brand new superintelligence group underneath Suleyman tasked with conducting superior AI analysis and creating AI smarter than essentially the most clever human minds, in direct competitors with Meta’s superintelligence group. Suleyman mentioned in a weblog submit that he needs Microsoft’s superintelligence group “to be the world’s greatest place to analysis and construct AI.”

Microsoft just lately mandated that workers come into the workplace in particular person three days every week beginning in February 2026 — however for workers on Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman’s group, working in particular person for many of the week is already the norm.

In keeping with a report launched earlier this week from Enterprise Insider, Suleyman requires workers on his group who reside close to an workplace to be there at the least 4 days every week. Suleyman is the pinnacle of Microsoft AI, a division targeted on Copilot and different shopper AI merchandise and analysis. Executives who report on to Suleyman should approve all exceptions to the in-office rule.