With GitHub Copilot lagging and OpenAI relations strained, Microsoft enforces AI usage company-wide
New Delhi: Microsoft is now requiring the use of its AI across its employees in a broad cultural shift, as internal tensions with OpenAI and lackluster takeup of GitHub Copilot further fuel competitive pressure inside the company.
In a recent leaked internal memo received by Business Insider, Microsoft’s President of Developer Division, Julia Liuson, alerted managers that future employee performance reviews will include usage of Microsoft’s internal AI tools. “AI is no longer optional,” wrote Liuson, describing AI integration as “core to every role and every level” in the company.
The action follows Microsoft’s slower-than-expected internal uptake of GitHub Copilot, its star AI coding assistant. Recent data from Barclays reveals that Copilot is falling behind insurgent rivals such as Cursor, which has allegedly surpassed Copilot in important developer niches. In order to reverse this trend, Microsoft is encouraging greater AI adoption across teams and roles with the objective of making Copilot and others like it a daily requirement, not an optional add-on.
Fueling the fire is the increasingly tense relationship between OpenAI and the company. According to sources speaking with Business Insider, OpenAI is mulling a takeover of Windsurf, a GitHub Copilot competitor. But Microsoft’s current agreement with OpenAI gives it access to Windsurf’s intellectual property — a sticky legal situation that has apparently created a standoff in acquisition discussions. This high-stakes tension is now leaking into Microsoft’s own internal operations and influencing its AI strategy.
While Microsoft does permit employees to utilize some outside AI technologies that satisfy security needs — such as coding tool Replit — the company is now prioritizing the establishment of fluency with its own technologies. AI project employees are particularly being urged, if not mandated, to thoroughly familiarize themselves with Microsoft’s AI services.
Company insiders say some groups are even looking to add AI use metrics into official performance reviews for next year. The aim is to get employees on board with Microsoft’s overall AI-first agenda and get all team members working toward product development and user adoption.
“Just as collaboration and data-driven thinking, AI fluency needs to be integrated into your end-to-end thoughts about an individual’s performance and contribution,” Liuson said.
The belligerent internal drive reflects Microsoft’s determination to stay in the lead of the AI game — even at the cost of redefining its culture and operating expectations in the face of growing external and internal pressures.
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