Satya Nadella is reorganizing Microsoft around AI — and changing who holds power

CEO Satya Nadella has dismantled the senior leadership structure that has run Microsoft for decades, creating a new inner circle, Business Insider has learned.

It’s the latest step in his plan to reboot Microsoft for the AI era and transform the 220,000-person behemoth into a company capable of competing with its smaller, faster, technically sophisticated rivals.

People who work closely with the CEO and internal documents revealed to Business Insider who’s in, who’s out, and how the company’s power structure is changing.

“We quietly retired what’s known as the SLT,” said one of the people who works closely with Nadella, referring to the commonly used acronym for senior leadership team — powerful executives who run sprawling businesses and report to the CEO. Instead, Nadella has created smaller and flatter teams closer to the action.

It’s a big deal inside a company that Jeff Bezos once said was a “country club” for employees who were ready to…