CEOInterviews.AI
Start App
Try: AI strategy tariffs earnings guidance layoffs interest rates growth

Judson Althoff

Executive Vice President & Chief Executive Officer of Commercial Business, Microsoft

Search every verified Judson Althoff interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Judson Althoff, CEO of Microsoft's commercial business, announced the launch of Microsoft Frontier Company, a new unit mobilizing 6,000 employees to help enterprise clients integrate AI. Althoff described the initiative as a $2.5 billion investment aimed at driving "frontier transformation" for customers, with a focus on customer outcomes and compounding their intelligence. He stated that any intellectual property or data derived from engagements belongs to the customer. Althoff emphasized that the unit includes personnel with industry-specific experience in banking, retail, energy, and life sciences, and that Microsoft's platform supports model diversity, including over 11,000 models, to allow customers to choose the right model for their needs. Speaking at the Microsoft AI Tour in Helsinki, Althoff discussed the importance of balancing AI capabilities with governance, cybersecurity, and return on investment. He noted that Microsoft has committed to its board to maintain current revenue growth rates for three years without increasing headcount, describing this as a shift toward better customer engagement and product development. Althoff also stated that AI should amplify human intelligence rather than replace it, and cited potential operational expenditure savings of 20 to 30% in knowledge-based functions such as finance and engineering.

Recent appearances

Notable quotes

“We can see 20 to 30% OPEX savings and um and these are in different areas um especially in knowledge high knowledge based functions like corporate functions finance what I'm representing but also engineering and so on a lot of R&D we see a lot of u potential there we already doing just like you mentioned between 30 to 70% of coding is done by AI together with human beings.”

“We've committed to our board that will continue to grow revenue at the same rates for the next three years with the same headcount. So, it's not about reducing our workforce. It's about shifting to the left and having better engagement with our customers and shifting to the right and building better products for our customers.”

“Making sure that you have the appropriate guard rails in place to get the best out of your AI capabilities whilst at the same time adhering to governance, manageability, cyber security, and frankly the ROI of AI uh for your business across all industries.”

“The demands of data center buildouts are perhaps the single biggest constraint that we have. And so finding the right energy sources, the right critical infrastructure to support all of that, working closely with governments to unlock all of that, is hugely important to our future.”

“In our salesforce we look at the use of co-pilot and the agents that are infused into the selling environment and we can tell that the top users have 10% more pipeline 23% faster close rates 9 million more revenue per head. On the customer engagement side we've used AI in our call center environment to revolutionize how we engage with our customers, not only have we taken $750 million of cost out of that environment,”

“AI in the flow of human ambition, ubiquitous innovation, observability at every layer of the stack — all on the fundamental building blocks of intelligence and trust, empowered by Work IQ, Foundry IQ, and Fabric IQ. Because it's about your IQ, your bold ambitions, the human ambition that lives inside of your company.”

Other executives at Microsoft

The summary and quote tags on this profile are produced with AI assistance from verified, first-person interview transcripts, then checked by our team to confirm the speaker's identity and the accuracy of every quote. See how we verify →