Microsoft’s Javier Soltero, the company’s vice president of Cortana, will be departing by the end of the year, according to a report from ZDNet. Following the report’s publication, Soltero confirmed his departure in a tweet posted to his personal account.
Microsoft’s Cortana chief is leaving the company by the end of the year
As Cortana is moved from the AI research division and into the Experiences and Devices group
As Cortana is moved from the AI research division and into the Experiences and Devices group
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
is a Senior Producer on Decoder. Previously, he reported on the technology and gaming industries for more than a decade.
Soltero first joined Microsoft when it scooped up his email app Acompli back in late 2014. He and the Acompli team helped Microsoft vastly improve its Outlook iOS app. He later became the overall head of Outlook before taking on the Cortana chief role in March of this year, as part of the company’s massive reorganization that brought a renewed focus on artificial intelligence and the cloud, as well as the departure of Windows chief Terry Myerson.
ZDNet reported last month that Microsoft is moving Cortana out of its AI research division and into its Experiences and Devices team, signaling the company’s interest in building out Cortana more as a viable productivity assistant for existing Microsoft software and less as an experimental research project. Soltero is reportedly heading back into the entrepreneurial space, but it’s unclear what his concrete plans are once he leaves Microsoft.
Update 11/6, 3:30PM ET: Added confirmation from Soltero himself, who posted about his departure from Microsoft on his personal Twitter account.
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