The Windows era at Microsoft, long in eclipse, is officially history. Microsoft said Tuesday it was splitting up its Windows engineering team and the leader of its Windows business was leaving. The moves, analysts said, were part of a reorganization intended to accelerate Microsoft's emphasis on newer, faster-growing businesses like cloud computing and data-fueled artificial intelligence. That shift, they noted, has been underway since Satya Nadella became chief executive in 2014. In an email to employees, Nadella cited the central role of cloud computing and the advances in artificial intelligence -- and their potential across all the company's products.

The Windows era at Microsoft, long in eclipse, is officially history. Microsoft said on Tuesday that it was splitting up its Windows engineering team and that the leader of its Windows business was leaving. The moves, analysts said, were part of a reorganization intended to accelerate Microsoft's emphasis on newer, faster-growing businesses like cloud computing and data-fueled artificial intelligence. That shift, they noted, has been underway since Satya Nadella became chief executive in 2014. In an email to employees, Mr. Nadella cited the central role of cloud computing and the advances in artificial intelligence -- and their potential across all the company's products.

Microsoft Executive Vice President of the Windows and Devices Group Terry Myerson speaks during the 2016 Microsoft Build Developer Conference in San Francisco, California. Microsoft announced a major reorganization Thursday, establishing two main engineering teams focused on experiences and devices, and cloud and AI platforms. Terry Myerson, executive vice president for the Windows and Devices group, is leaving the company. "Leaving fills me with many emotions," Myerson said in a post to his LinkedIn. "But I'm mostly filled with gratitude and optimism – gratitude for the experiences I have had and optimism for the future ahead – both for Microsoft and myself."

Microsoft is reorganizing itself to be better-equipped for the future, according to an email sent to employees by CEO Satya Nadella. One casualty of the change is Terry Myerson, who has headed up the company's Windows business for the last five years. His team, the Windows and Devices Group, is essentially being cleaved in two, with hardware and software now handled by different teams. An Experiences and Devices division, led by Rajesh Jha, will concentrate on Microsoft's products, with Panos Panay put in charge of all hardware. Panay's role makes sense, since he has already had broad involvement with products like Xbox, HoloLens and Surface.

Microsoft said on Thursday that it was reorganizing part of the company to better position itself as one of the significant players in the emerging field of artificial intelligence. The company has created a new organization that combines its research group, one of the largest in the technology industry, and a number of products that rely on artificial intelligence, including its Bing search engine and Cortana virtual assistant. The new artificial intelligence and research group at Microsoft will have more than 5,000 employees. Microsoft also said that one of its top executives, Qi Lu, has left the company to recuperate from a serious bicycling accident that occurred several months ago. Once he recovers, Mr. Lu will continue to act as an adviser to Satya Nadella, Microsoft's chief executive, and Bill Gates, its co-founder, Mr. Nadella said in an email to company employees Thursday.

Microsoft said on Thursday that it was reorganizing part of the company to better position itself as one of the significant players in the emerging field of artificial intelligence. The company has created a new organization that combines its research group, one of the largest in the technology industry, and a number of products that rely on artificial intelligence, including its Bing search engine and Cortana virtual assistant. The new artificial intelligence and research group at Microsoft will have more than 5,000 employees. Microsoft also said that one of its top executives, Qi Lu, has left the company to recuperate from a serious bicycling accident that occurred several months ago. Once he recovers, Mr. Lu will continue to act as an adviser to Satya Nadella, Microsoft's chief executive, and Bill Gates, its co-founder, Mr. Nadella said in an email to company employees Thursday. The creation of a new group at Microsoft with a focus on artificial intelligence was already planned, but the departure of Mr. Lu -- a respected computer scientist who spent a decade at Yahoo -- affected the shape of the new organization.

Microsoft has reorganized several disparate projects and programs into an entirely new Artificial Intelligence group. It will be the fourth major division after Windows, Office and cloud, reallocating over 5,000 computer scientists and engineers under its umbrella. The shift shows how much unified effort the tech giant believes the field needs, as well as internally standardized AI tech they can more easily integrate into customer products. Microsoft Research chief Harry Shum will head the new AI division, according to GeekWire. In addition to his old department, the new group will include products like Cortana and Bing with the Ambient Computing and Robotics teams, as well as the company's Information Platform Group. Collecting them all under one banner suggests how standardized they want their AI tech to be between disparate programs.