Microsoft Corp CEO Satya Nadella is reportedly scheduled to visit India on February 7 and 8 as part of his annual visit to the country, focusing on the theme of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its opportunities for 2024.

What Happened: In an internal email sent a few weeks ago, Puneet Chandok, President of Microsoft India and South Asia, emphasised that Nadella’s visit underscores Microsoft’s commitment to leveraging technology to expand opportunities in India, Moneycontrol reported.

According to the email, AI is playing a transformative role in shaping “India's Techade,” positioning India and South Asia as one of the most exciting markets for technology.

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Why It Matters: In June 2023, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US, discussions were held with prominent technology executives, including Tim Cook from Apple, Sundar Pichai from Google and Nadella.

The focus of these discussions, as highlighted in Nadella’s office statement, was on harnessing the power of technology, particularly AI, to improve the lives of Indians and capitalise on India’s vibrant developer and start-up ecosystems.

Founders of notable Indian AI start-ups, including Lightspeed and Peak XV-backed Sarvam, Bhavish Aggarwal’s AI startup Krutrim and several early-stage AI start-ups, are gearing up to meet Nadella in Mumbai and Bangalore, sources told the publication.

In October 2023, Satya Nadella outlined Microsoft’s ambitious plans for AI in its annual letter, following its partnership with OpenAI, which owns ChatGPT. Microsoft announced AI integrations for all Office 365 apps and services in March 2023, unveiling the AI assistant called Copilot powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 technology.

Further strengthening its partnership with OpenAI, Microsoft integrated the Bing search engine into ChatGPT in May 2023, positioning itself to compete directly with Google.

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