Microsoft's AI CEO explains why he wants employees in the office, working at open desks (www.businessinsider.com)

Microsoft AI head Mustafa Suleyman has instituted a stricter in‑office policy for his organization, requiring team members who live near an office to be onsite at least four days a week — one day more than Microsoft’s companywide three‑day mandate — with any exceptions needing approval from an executive who reports directly to him. Suleyman also favors open, “neighborhood” layouts (about 20–30 desks placed close together) rather than closed offices, arguing the density and visible presence drive informal collaboration and intensity; he splits time between Silicon Valley and Seattle but says most of his team is in Silicon Valley because of “huge talent density.” For the AI/ML community this signals a deliberate push toward concentrated, in‑person collaboration in product and model development; Suleyman’s approach prioritizes ad‑hoc interactions, faster iteration and knowledge transfer that can accelerate research-to-production cycles. It also highlights organizational variability inside Microsoft — some groups already enforce four days, others follow the three‑day rule or have no org‑specific guidance — and raises tradeoffs: while denser teams may boost serendipitous innovation, the move risks alienating remote‑first engineers, affecting hiring/retention and concentrating expertise geographically rather than distributing it across a hybrid workforce.