Mikhail Parakhin, head of Microsoft Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising steps down

Mikhail Parakhin is stepping down from his role as the head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising and may be transitioning to a new role within Microsoft. “Mikhail Parakhin, head of the company’s Bing search engine and advertising businesses, will exit those roles and look for a new position, a week after the software giant named Mustafa Suleyman to oversee consumer artificial intelligence work and asked Parakhin to report to him,” Bloomberg reported.

Mustafa Suleyman. Last week Microsoft announced that Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of DeepMind, a company Google acquired years back, would now be leading up Microsoft’s AI efforts as the CEO of Microsoft AI. “Mustafa will be EVP and CEO, Microsoft AI, and joins the senior leadership team (SLT), reporting to me. I’ve known Mustafa for several years and have greatly admired him as a founder of both DeepMind and Inflection, and as a visionary, product maker, and builder of pioneering teams that go after bold missions,” Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft wrote.

Mikhail Parakhin. Mikhail Parakhin was suppose to report up to Mustafa Suleyman but it seems like now that won’t be happening. Mikhail Parakhin is stepping down from his role and the head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising. An internal email secured by The Verge says:

Mikhail Parakhin has decided to explore new roles. Satya and I are grateful for Mikhail’s contributions and leadership and want to thank him for all he has done to help Microsoft lead in the new AI wave. He will report to Kevin Scott while supporting the WWE transition.

Mikhail Parakhin was leading up a lot of Microsoft’s latest AI efforts around Bing Chat, now known as Copilot and that integration into Microsoft products like Bing Search, Office and other services and devices.

Why we care. With Mikhail Parakhin stepping down, you may expect to see changes to the direction of these efforts in Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising. It is unclear if Mikhail Parakhin will be leaving Microsoft completely or switching to a new role.

Personally, I loved how transparent and accessible Parakhin was with the industry.