The big question: Will Nadella continue keeping Trump at arm’s length, and not try to make the company culture more like Trump would like to see it? My guess is he’ll stay the course. But we’ll see.
We may get real revenue numbers for AI…or not
Finally, comes perhaps the biggest issue of all for the company’s financial health: Can Microsoft sign up enough customers to make its genAI ambitions worth its while? We’re no longer in the early hype days when mere possibilities were more important than revenue. In 2025, the ROI rubber will meet the road of reality.
This is particularly important because the investments that need to be made in genAI are far greater in scale than in any technology before it. Microsoft can spend all the billions it wants for infrastructure, electricity, data centers, training and development. But if businesses and people don’t find AI useful and open their wallets for it, that will mean nothing.
