Microsoft’s AI CEO has a strict personal work policy

Microsoft recently mandated that employees come into the office in person three days a week starting in February 2026, but for employees on Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman’s team, in-person work is already the norm for most of the week.

According to one report Released earlier this week by Business Insider, Suleyman requires employees on his team who live near an office to be there at least four days a week. Suleyman is the head of Microsoft AI, a division focused on Copilot and other consumer AI products and research. Executives who report directly to Suleyman must approve any exceptions to the office rule.

“I’m a big believer in personal work culture,” Suleyman told Business Insider, explaining that it helps “defrag” teams and enable collaboration.

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Suleyman not only requires employees to work from the office more than other Microsoft employees, but he also prefers open floor plans, where employees sit at open desks, grouped into “neighborhoods” of 20 to 30 people. The arrangement is “much better for cooperation”, in the words of Suleyman.

“Everyone can see everyone who is also in it,” he told BI. “It just makes for a much more informal collaboration. It’s so much better.”

Most of Suleyman’s AI team at Microsoft is based in Silicon Valley rather than at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Suleyman himself divides his time between Silicon Valley and Redmond, emphasizing that there is a “tremendous talent density” in Silicon Valley and describing it as “the place to be” for his work and team.

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Other Microsoft teams outside of Suleyman’s working on AI have less strict in-person office mandates. The Cloud and AI group under Microsoft Executive Vice President (EVP) Scott Guthrie has no specific return-to-office requirements, while the CoreAI group falls under EVP Jay Parikh will implement a guideline for three days per week in the office per BI in February.

It’s unclear how many people are on Suleyman’s AI team, though leaked organizational charts suggest he’s at least 17 direct reports since last month. Suleyman joined Microsoft March 2024 from Inflection AI, a $4 billion He starts AI co-founded in March 2022. He was previously co-founder of Google’s AI lab DeepMind acquired in 2014 for more than $500 million.

Last week, Microsoft announced that it will form a new superintelligence team led by Suleyman, charged with conducting advanced AI research and developing AI that is smarter than the most intelligent human minds, in direct competition with Meta’s superintelligence group. said Suleyman in a blog post that he wants Microsoft’s superintelligence team to be “the best place in the world to research and build AI.”

Microsoft recently mandated that employees come into the office in person three days a week starting in February 2026, but for employees on Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman’s team, in-person work is already the norm for most of the week.

According to one report Released earlier this week by Business Insider, Suleyman requires employees on his team who live near an office to be there at least four days a week. Suleyman is the head of Microsoft AI, a division focused on Copilot and other consumer AI products and research. Executives who report directly to Suleyman must approve any exceptions to the office rule.