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Ever since Satya Nadella took control of Microsoft, he's been referring to the company equally competing in a "mobile-first, cloud-outset world." It'southward a phrase he's used for years, fifty-fifty as he's close down Windows Phone manufacturing and essentially killed Microsoft's mobile ambitions. The latest sign that Windows 10 Mobile is a expressionless Bone walking is courtesy of Microsoft'due south almanac study.

The company'southward vision statement in its latest form ten-K filing reads:

Microsoft is a technology company whose mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We strive to create local opportunity, growth, and impact in every land around the world. Our strategy is to build all-time-in-class platforms and productivity services for an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge infused with artificial intelligence ("AI").

In 2022 and 2022, the company led with different phrasing (2014 didn't include a Vision Argument at all). In both years, the almanac report led with the post-obit: "Microsoft is a technology company whose mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our strategy is to build best-in-class platforms and productivity services for a mobile-get-go, cloud-first world."

Nvidia Ray Tracing

AI can mean anything from more effective rendering to a self-driving car, as illustrated by NV's contempo ray-tracing demo at SIGGRAPH 2022.

The fact that Microsoft is effectively shutting down its aspirations in mobile is no surprise. The company'south latest annual report doesn't even refer to mobile except when discussing other products, like Office 365, or when discussing providing backend services for other mobile devices. Only the accent on AI — it's mentioned in six places throughout the written report — is an interesting twist for a visitor that previously didn't discuss that topic at all:

AI will be pervasive across devices, applications, and infrastructure to bulldoze insights and act on the user's behalf. Azure is also unique in its back up for emerging applications and so that Internet of Things ("IoT") devices can human action locally at the edge while taking advantage of the cloud for global coordination and car learning at scale.

That'due south a remarkably fast pivot for a company that didn't previously mention AI in any of its annual reports, but information technology'south also a sign of how trendy information technology'due south become to talk about artificial intelligence.

Is AI the New Cloud?

We included the Azure reference in the quote higher up to highlight an interesting trend in how Microsoft talks about its own products and services. AI may be new, merely Azure isn't — and Microsoft's previous 10K reports hash out Azure in well-nigh identical language to what nosotros encounter above, except that the phrases about Azure every bit an IoT backend or AI platform aren't mentioned.

I don't uncertainty Microsoft's decision to push into AI, deep learning, and similar markets; we're seeing the unabridged hardware ecosystem move in this direction. Everyone — everyone — wants to talk about AI, deep learning, self-driving cars, the Net of Shitty Things, and similar technologies. Information technology's far from the outset time we've seen an industry pin on this kind of topic. When deject calculating became officially A Thing, companies roughshod all over themselves to rebrand previously available products as "cloud" products, frequently past slapping a new logo on them as opposed to including any new features.

It may seem odd to raise this upshot, given how much coverage has been defended to AI and how many companies are pursuing it, but there'south reason to exist skeptical. The tech industry scarcely has a perfect tape on predictions of the hereafter, and the term "artificial intelligence" is so vague as to be easily driveling. Azure didn't magically evolve AI-friendly hosting capabilities in the past year, it'due south being rebranded to discuss a hot topic in calculating.

On the other hand, Microsoft's shifting vision statement could point that the visitor is now diverting far more resources into AI research and development. But if information technology is, nosotros haven't heard about the products or services that will feature this capability just all the same. Expanding Cortana'due south ability to perform searches without opening a browser, for example, may exist an advance, only it's scarcely AI.