Microsoft AI CEO: Bigger organisations are ‘starting to feel the pressure’ from AI

Microsoft AI’s chief executive, Mustafa Suleyman, believes AI tools will “radically empower many millions of people”, but highlighted with that will come “some chaos” in the form of hyper-competition.

Speaking at this year's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Suleyman said: “Competition naturally drives up higher standards. It's true that the barrier to entry is going down, and therefore the quantity of garbage is going to go up.” 

He added: “The good news is quality is going to go through the roof. It may be produced by different people, different organisations and different institutions, and I think some of the bigger organisations are starting to feel that pressure. I think that's exciting.”

Suleyman was being interviewed on stage at this year’s festival by Colleen DeCourcy, former chief creative officer at Snap. She left the technology company earlier this month. 

DeCourcy then outlined that while the removal of friction has always happened through progress and technology, it also helps to “make better work”.

She said: "In a moment when everyone has the tools – and I'm never as afraid of that, because I think it's still the minds that elevate an idea – how do you add the friction back into your thinking? How do you push yourself when you're creating outside of 'This is what I know. This is what I'm making. This is what it tells me."

Suleyman responded, saying, "Friction and slowness are an inherent property of us gestating on ideas and processing," and agreed that this is a challenge within the AI community.

"We have to remember technology is here to serve us. It is really only great technology, in my opinion, if it jointly addresses the questions of how we actually live and adapt with it in its creation. If that ends up becoming an afterthought… then we lose something quite profound."

He added that humans must be placed at the centre of this revolution because "it's really humans that we're trying to uplevel and support and accelerate, rather than just trying to create a super intelligence that exceeds humans".

Suleyman co-founded DeepMind with Demis Hassabis, but left the now Google-owned business in 2019. He then joined Microsoft in March 2024 to lead its new consumer AI unit, Microsoft AI.

DeCourcy, meanwhile, worked at Snap for three years, having joined in 2022 from Wieden & Kennedy, where she was co-president and chief creative officer for about three years.