Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella ‘warns’ employees at company townhall: ‘I’m haunted by one particular…’

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has revealed that he is “haunted” by the possibility of Microsoft not surviving the era of artificial intelligence (AI). Speaking at an employee-only town hall, Nadella was responding to a question about a perceived change in the company's culture, but his answer also exposed his personal fears about the company's future.

“Some of the biggest businesses we’ve built might not be as relevant going forward,” Nadella said in the town hall last week, as per The Verge.

Nadella cautions employees about future of technology

He cited Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) as a cautionary tale of a once-dominant tech company that disappeared after it failed to adapt to new technologies like the Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) architecture.

“Our industry is full of case studies of companies that were great once, that just disappeared. I’m haunted by one particular one called DEC,” said Nadella, adding that DEC, a leader in the early 1970s, faced competition from IBM and others, making it irrelevant.

The CEO, who said his first computer was a DEC VAX and that he always wanted to work there, reflected on what it takes for a company to not only thrive but to continue attracting top talent.

“Some of the people who contributed to Windows NT came from a DEC lab that was laid off,” Nadella noted. His remarks were made in response to an employee from the UK who described the company's atmosphere as “markedly different, colder, more rigid, and lacking in the empathy we have come to value.”

The Microsoft CEO recently told employees that the company needs to “do better” in rebuilding trust with its workforce, while accepting a perceived lack of empathy in the company’s culture

“I deeply appreciate that, the question and the sentiment behind it. I take it as feedback for me and everyone in the leadership team, because at the end of the day, I think we can do better, and we will do better,” as per an audio obtained by CNBC. The company had cut thousands of jobs across departments.