Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella vows to win back fans with focus on fundamentals over AI bloat

Not Loving Windows? Microsoft's CEO Wants to 'Win' You Back

Microsoft's CEO admits the company is losing its grip on consumers, but is working to "win" them back. Satya Nadella made the eyebrow-raising comment in a Wednesday earnings call, saying: "When it comes to our consumer business, we are doing the foundational work required to win back fans and strengthen engagement across Windows, Xbox, Bing, and Edge." He added: "In the near term, we are focused on fundamentals, prioritizing quality and serving our core users better. You see this in the work underway across our consumer products." Nadella pointed to Microsoft's recent effort to focus on performance and reliability improvements for future Windows 11 updates. He also mentioned Xbox, which is "recommitting to our core fans and players, and shaping the future of play" under new CEO Asha Sharma, who last week mentioned gamer dissatisfaction in a memo about a master plan for the console's development. Microsoft has championed AI in recent years, but the message has faced backlash from consumers over concerns that it has led to bloated, intrusive features in Windows. This has benefited competing OSes, especially with the arrival of Apple's MacBook Neo and the growth of Valve's SteamOS and other Linux distributions. Upgradable notebook maker Framework reported last week that its Ubuntu Laptop 13 Pro model was outselling the Windows versions. Still, despite some of the negative perceptions around Windows, Nadella said in the call: "Monthly active Windows devices surpassed 1.6 billion, and over time Windows value will extend to deliver unmetered intelligence at the edge." He also talked at length about AI and Copilot during the earnings call, which covered its enterprise business and its developing AI agents. "We have seen a surge in usage of our first-party agents, with monthly active usage up 6x year-to-date," he said. "Copilot queries per user were up nearly 20% quarter over quarter. To put this momentum in perspective, weekly engagement is now at the same level as Outlook, as more and more users make Copilot a habit."

Microsoft CEO says the company is focused on 'fundamentals' to 'win back fans and strengthen engagement' in Windows 11

The software giant has already made some changes, so let's hope they stick. I'm not sure whether it's because of the RAMpocalypse and resultant PC component prices, Windows 10 (partial) EOL, Valve's Linux-based Steam Machine announcement, or something else, but there seems to be increasing focus on operating systems and software compared to hardware this year. Perhaps it's just that people were finally getting to their wits' end with bloated, buggy software. Microsoft is taking note, though, and is looking to "win back fans and strengthen engagement." That's according to the company's CEO, Satya Nadella, who said in an earnings call: "When it comes to our consumer business, we are doing the foundational work required to win back fans and strengthen engagement across Windows, Xbox, Bing, and Edge." Nadella continued, "In the near term, we are focused on fundamentals, prioritizing quality, and serving our core users better. You see this in the work underway across our consumer products. With Windows, we recently announced performance improvements for lower-memory devices, streamlined the Windows Update experience, and brought back focus to core features and fundamentals that matter most to our customers." "Our north star remains the same", the CEO said, "delivering customer value with the highest quality and top-class innovation." Microsoft began ending support for Windows 10 late last year, which seemed to spur a fresh spate of complaints about Windows 11 from many users. The sentiment seemed to be, 'if we're being forced onto Windows 11, at least make it good.' Then, last month, Pavan Davuluri, Microsoft's Windows president, explained that the company was going to focus on making Windows better in some fundamental ways that users have actually been asking for. Previously, there'd been what seemed like two years straight of AI-focused updates that people hadn't asked for, without addressing any underlying issues that many users actually care about, such as general desktop performance and bugginess. Davuluri said Microsoft will be focusing on such areas and also scaling back AI in areas where it's not needed. And it seems that this isn't just talk, either, as certain AI tools have already been cut, and there have been some nice changes to core Windows apps and features, such as Windows Update. Though the extent to which those AI tools are actually cut rather than simply moved or partially cut (as with Notepad and Snipping Tool) is debatable. Regardless, the "foundational work" already seems to have begun. I suppose Microsoft will just have to hope it's enough to slow the slowly rising tide of Linux emigrees.