Microsoft would like to remind you that they are all-in on AI

In case you weren’t sure how Microsoft felt about AI, CEO Satya Nadella is here to tell you: they like it. They like it a lot. In the company’s annual report, he pens a letter to shareholders bigging up AI in every way. And it’s not hard to see why: He clearly believes this is the biggest, perhaps the only advance in computing that has truly mattered in over a decade.

Though Microsoft’s business is sound, you could be forgiven for thinking they’ve been spinning their wheels somewhat. Their bids to get into mobile, search and hardware have all either stalled or fallen flat, and numerous product experiments have failed to penetrate their respective markets.

On the other hand, their cloud business is very strong, and they’ve increasingly shaped the company and its products around that premise. But even that success was beginning to wear thin, for as profitable as it is, there is only so much room for innovation there.

For years they must certainly have kept an eye on the trends, watching to see whether they some new development or another was worth adopting. Social web? Nah — too much work. Fitness? Simpler to be their infrastructure. Blockchain? Redundant and risky. Metaverse? Very funny.

Like a surfer in a calm, Microsoft waited, placid and bobbing. Then the AI wave rose up under them — and they started paddling for dear life.