Xbox CEO to Bring in New Leaders, says “We Need to Evolve How We Work”

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is reportedly reshuffling executives inside the gaming division as the company looks to recover from lukewarm performance. The move comes at a time when Xbox is under pressure, with revenue declines recorded in four of the past six quarters.

In an internal memo viewed by CNBC, Sharma wrote, “We need to evolve how we work and how we are organized across our platform.” She added, “Right now, it is too hard to ship impact quickly. We spend too much time inward instead of with the community, and we lack the depth we need in some of the fundamentals.”

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma reshuffles team, bringing in CoreAI talent

As reported, the restructuring includes several high-profile transfers from Microsoft’s CoreAI engineering group, along with talent from Instacart and Meta. Sharma also stated, “Xbox is bringing in new leaders with consumer and technical expertise we do not yet have.” As part of this plan, Jared Palmer will join Xbox to focus on product and engineering systems, while Tim Allen will lead design. Jonathan McKay will take over as head of growth after roles across CoreAI and OpenAI-linked work.

Meanwhile, Evan Chaki will lead forward-deployed engineering efforts, which focus on reducing repetitive development work. Whereas David Schloss will oversee subscriptions and cloud services, areas increasingly central to Xbox’s long-term strategy.

Other transitions include Kevin Gammill leaving his post, while Roanne Sones will take a leave of absence and later serve as an advisor. The shift in leadership comes as Microsoft continues trying to close the gap with PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch hardware dominance. It’s unclear how quickly these leadership changes will translate into measurable growth, but the direction suggests a tighter focus on execution and AI-driven development.

Not to forget, the Xbox CEO recently also invited Xbox co-founder Seamus Blackley to the company’s headquarters. It seems leadership changes and insights from Xbox veterans are all part of Xbox’s big reset plan that Asha Sharma and Matt Booty announced last month. Speaking of which, Xbox is also taking criticism in a good way as well as players’ feedback seriously these days.