Club Benefits
The shake-up at Microsoft caught a lot of people off guard. When Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond both stepped away from their roles, it marked a major turning point for Xbox.
What came next was even more unexpected: Asha Sharma, formerly leading Microsoft’s CoreAI product, stepped in as the new EVP and CEO of Xbox.
Article continues belowCopilot AI on consoles will no longer be a thing
Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers.Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business…May 5, 2026
Sharma made it clear that further development for Microsoft Copilot AI across mobile and consoles has officially been halted for good.
Before its cancellation on those devices, this feature was showcased as an AI assistant that could provide players with in-game tips, make game recommendations and even offer predictions for upcoming Xbox showcases. Gaming Copilot is currently available in the Xbox mobile app, on Game Bar for Windows 11 and across the ROG Xbox Ally family of handhelds.
Another major change that Sharma has enacted for the Xbox brand is her appointment of new leaders who will assist her in her mission to make Xbox a powerhouse once again. In a memo detailed by IGN, four of those new roles saw positions filled by Sharma’s colleagues from her time spent at CoreAI.
Those new Xbox leaders include:
- Jared Palmer, the new VP of Engineering at Xbox (former CoreAI VP of product)
- Tim Allen, the new CVP of Xbox Design (former CoreAI president of design)
- Jonathan McKay, the new Xbox Head of Growth (former CoreAI head of growth)
- Evan Chaki will “run a team of forward-deployed engineers that will look to simplify development and end repetitive work” (former CoreAI GM of AI innovation)
- David Schloss, the new Xbox Head of subscriptions and cloud (former Instacart senior director of product and growth)
Kotaku also discovered a bunch of other changes made to Xbox’s most important positions:
- Jason Ronald will now be "accountable for Project Helix and the Xbox platform" as the new VP of Next Generation at Xbox (former VP of Xbox gaming devices and ecosystems)
- Jason Beaumont will now lead product and also serve as interim head of engineering (former VP of Xbox experiences)
- Fatima Kardar will maintain her position as the corporate VP of gaming AI and fulfill her new responsibilities as the head of a “newly formed Personalization org” that will focus on solving player-facing issues like search and discovery.
- Jennifer Creegan will now lead Xbox’s media business (former VP of strategy, business model, and insights)
The takeaway
From my perspective, Sharma has made all the right moves so far to rebuild confidence in the Xbox brand.
As an Xbox Series X owner and long-time Xbox Game Pass subscriber, I’m genuinely optimistic about what comes next. With major titles like Forza Horizon 6, Halo: Campaign Evolved and a new Fable reportedly on the way, 2026 is shaping up to be a big year. I’m also hoping Clockwork Revolution makes the cut.
Dropping Copilot from the core gaming experience also feels like the right call. While I tested the Gaming Copilot feature on mobile and found its recommendations surprisingly useful, most players simply don’t need AI to handle tasks they can easily do themselves. The broader gaming audience hasn’t exactly been asking for it.
Instead, doubling down on first-party studios and focusing on delivering high-quality games—not forcing AI into places it doesn’t belong—looks like a smarter long-term strategy. If Sharma and her team stay on this path, Xbox could finally regain some serious momentum.
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