Within the framework of the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland), Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shared frankly about the increasingly fierce competition in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).
He admitted that the technology industry is entering a "quite tense" period.
According to Nadella, AI is opening up countless opportunities, while pushing large technology companies into an unprecedented race.
This is a rather tense time. I always think that the appearance of completely new opponents every decade is beneficial, because it forces us to always be sensitive," said Satya Nadella.
Despite admitting that the pressure is increasing, the Microsoft CEO is optimistic. Mr. Satya Nadella believes that competition in AI is not a "game" where one person wins and another loses.
Conversely, the market scale is expanding rapidly and the impact of AI will spread strongly to the entire economy.
Mr. Nadella predicts that in the next few years, the proportion of the technology industry to global GDP will continue to increase.
Amidst fierce competition, Nadella emphasized the importance of returning to the core questions of "Who is Microsoft, what brand represents and what do customers really expect from the company?".
According to him, many technology businesses often make mistakes when they believe that customers want the same things from all competitors.
Instead of being obsessed with competition, avoid it by truly understanding customers," said Satya Nadella.
The exchange also mentioned the question of how to know if a country or a company is "winning" the AI race? Mr. David Sacks (a businessman, venture capitalist and famous South African American technology figure), said that the most important measure is market share.
According to Mr. David Sacks, the fact that US technology companies are holding about 80% of global market share shows that the US is still leading.
Satya Nadella agrees with this view, but adds that leadership roles are not only about market share or revenue. According to Mr. Nadella, what the US has done well in recent decades is to build large technology ecosystems.
Nadella said that every time he visits a country, he always considers the number of local jobs created through Microsoft's ecosystem, from information technology employees, channel partners to independent software developers.
Even in China, Nadella believes that US technology platforms still play an important role when many systems are built on them. This reflects the profound influence of US technology beyond pure financial figures.
When asked about Microsoft's ability to increase revenue in a context where the number of employees does not increase correspondingly, Nadella explained that this comes from major structural changes, helping the company handle the increasing workload and processes thanks to technology, especially AI.
