Microsoft has shifted its widely used collaboration platform, Microsoft Teams, into a newly formed Workplace AI organization under the leadership of Ryan Roslansky. The executive, already responsible for LinkedIn and the Office product line, now oversees a triad of tools that together shape how over a billion people work.

The reorganization, disclosed in a recent internal memo, dismantles the expansive Experiences and Devices division that Rajesh Jha built over years. Jha’s group, which housed Teams alongside Windows, Surface, and other products, is being distributed across the company. With that, the tight coupling between the operating system and productivity software loosens, and artificial intelligence takes center stage.

A Unified Vision for Workplace AI

This restructuring places Roslansky at the nexus of Microsoft’s most critical productivity and networking tools. Combining Teams with Office and LinkedIn creates an unparalleled dataset of how people communicate, collaborate, and build professional connections. It’s a deliberate move to infuse AI deeply into the workflow.

Microsoft has been aggressively weaving its Copilot AI assistant across its product line, but the integration between Teams and Office has often felt disjointed. With one leader at the top, the company can accelerate features that blend real-time collaboration in Teams with document intelligence from Office and the social graph from LinkedIn.

The choice of Roslansky reflects his success at scaling LinkedIn’s AI-powered features—such as recruiter tools and content recommendations—and his deep understanding of enterprise and consumer productivity from leading Office. He now gains direct control over the app where millions spend their workdays.

The Dismantling of Experiences and Devices

Rajesh Jha’s Experiences and Devices group was a cornerstone of Microsoft’s strategy under CEO Satya Nadella. It brought together the engineers and product managers for Windows, Surface hardware, Microsoft 365 apps, and more. The group aimed to create a seamless experience across Microsoft’s ecosystem.

But the landscape has shifted. AI now demands a different kind of cross-product collaboration, one that isn’t tied to a specific operating system or hardware form factor. By breaking up the old structure, Nadella appears to be prioritizing software and services over device-specific integration.

Details about where Windows development and Surface hardware will land remain unclear. However, sources indicate they may fall under other existing divisions, possibly the Cloud + AI group or a new consumer-focused team. That uncertainty contrasts with the clear mandate for Roslansky’s new org.

Who Is Ryan Roslansky?

Roslansky’s ascent within Microsoft has been quietly remarkable. He took over as CEO of LinkedIn in 2020 after Jeff Weiner stepped down, having previously served as the professional network’s head of product. Under his watch, LinkedIn’s revenue grew steadily, and the platform expanded into video, creator tools, and learning content—all backed by machine learning.

His role expanded again in 2023 when Microsoft consolidated Office, SharePoint, and other productivity tools under his oversight alongside LinkedIn. Adding Teams now turns his organization into a formidable AI applications group, arguably the most important within the company outside of Azure.

Colleagues describe Roslansky as a product-focused leader who understands both the technological and human aspects of workplace tools. His background in building user-facing AI features will be critical as Teams evolves from a simple chat and video app into a central hub for AI-assisted work.

What This Means for Microsoft Teams

Teams has been on a tear since the pandemic, amassing over 300 million monthly active users. But it faces growing competition from Zoom, Slack, and Google Workspace. The platform has also been criticized for a cluttered interface and sometimes sluggish performance under heavy AI feature load.

Under Roslansky, expect a sharper focus on AI-powered experiences that span meetings, chat, and collaborative documents. Already, Teams has introduced Copilot summaries, intelligent meeting recaps, and message drafting. But deeper integration with Office’s Copilot and LinkedIn’s knowledge graph could unlock new scenarios—like an AI that pulls in project details from a Word document, meeting notes from a call, and the expertise profile of a colleague to draft a proposal.

On the development side, Microsoft plans to converge its Teams and Office extensibility platforms. Roslansky’s unified organization may expedite that vision, enabling developers to build agents and plugins that work seamlessly across the communication and content layers.

Rajesh Jha’s Legacy and the Road Ahead

Rajesh Jha is a Microsoft veteran who played a pivotal role in the company’s pivot to a cloud-first, mobile-first strategy. He led the development of Office 365 and later oversaw the launch of Microsoft Teams, which replaced Skype for Business. His Experiences and Devices group was instrumental in the resurgence of Surface and the modernization of Windows 11.

The dissolution of that group marks the end of an era. Jha’s next move hasn’t been announced, but insiders suggest he may take on an advisory role or leave the company. His departure from the product chain underscores how AI is redrawing Microsoft’s internal boundaries.

For employees and customers, the reorganization brings both opportunity and uncertainty. Teams users may see faster innovation, but also potential disruptions as priorities shift. LinkedIn’s roadmap might accelerate its integration with Office, a long-discussed but slowly executed marriage that could reshape how professionals share and create content.

The Bigger Picture: Microsoft’s AI-First Reorganization

This isn’t the first time Nadella has reshuffled the deck to chase a technology shift. In 2018, he disbanded the Windows division to focus on cloud and AI. Now, as the company bets its future on Copilot and generative AI, it makes sense to cluster the tools most affected by that transformation under a leader with proven AI chops.

Competitors are watching. Google has been weaving its Gemini AI across Workspace, and Salesforce is pushing Einstein into Slack. By combining Teams, Office, and LinkedIn under a single vision, Microsoft aims to create an ecosystem where AI understands the full context of a user’s professional life, not just a single app’s data.

For businesses that rely on Microsoft 365, this reorganization signals where the puck is going. AI features will become more deeply embedded and more personalized. The boundaries between communication tools, document editors, and professional networks will blur, all orchestrated by a Copilot that knows your calendar, your drafts, and your coworkers.

Microsoft has not yet commented publicly on the timeline of the transition or how it will affect current Teams development cycles. But one thing is clear: with Ryan Roslansky at the helm of workplace AI, the future of how we work is being rewritten from Redmond.