Big Tech is gearing up for a 'tectonic' shift thanks to AI that includes shaking up sales teams (www.businessinsider.com)

Microsoft and other Big Tech companies are reorganizing to monetize the next wave of AI, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella calling the moment a "tectonic AI platform shift." The clearest sign: Judson Althoff, long-time sales chief, was promoted to CEO of Microsoft's commercial business and given marketing and operations — a move meant to let engineering "be laser focused" on core technical work while sales drives adoption and revenue. Internal employee audio highlights confusion over multiple Copilot-branded apps, and Nadella’s blunt remedy — shoot for "a billion users of each" — underlines a strategy of scale and simpler branding to accelerate enterprise uptake. The broader implication for AI/ML: go-to-market strategy and sales org design are now as critical as models and infrastructure. Amazon’s Q Developer illustrates the stakes: projected ARR of $16.3M in year one lags far behind rivals Cursor ($500M) and Windsurf ($82M), prompting a pivot from top-down executive sales to grassroots developer outreach. With Wall Street losing patience, Big Tech must solve product-market fit, pricing, and branding problems quickly or risk ceding ground. The upshot: expect more structural shake-ups — sales, marketing, and operations teams will be retooled to capture expensive enterprise AI deals while engineering focuses on pushing capabilities forward.