Back in February 2026, Phil Spencer passed the Xbox CEO torch to Microsoft’s CoreAI President Asha Sharma. Gamers were worried at first because a majority of the new leadership came from the department. Then, their concerns transformed into hope when the original console’s green color dyed their corporate white logo.
Unlike her gung-ho AI partner, Satya Nadella, Sharma has been actively listening to Windows users and Xbox owners. Now, the next step for Microsoft is to offer the option to uninstall the system’s generative AI, Copilot. This time, users will put it away for good rather than temporarily.
How Asha Sharma Earned the Trust of Xbox Gamers
Satya Nadella officially announced Asha Sharma as the next CEO of Microsoft Gaming. The official company blog stated his reasoning on Feb. 23:
“Over the last two years at [Microsoft and Meta], Asha has helped build and scale services that reach billions of people, and support thriving consumer and developer ecosytems. She brings deep experience building and growing platforms, aligning business models to long-term value, and operating at a global scale, which will be critical in leading our gaming business into its next era of growth.”
When people searched her name, Sharma’s work portfolio is mainly associated with their CoreAI division, including the development of Azure. She has also overseen Meta, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Coupang, Home Depot, and Instacart.
Skepticism and doubts grew for the personal pick due to Nadella’s Copilot agenda. Through his leadership alone, Microsoft suffered financial losses after partnering with Sam Altman’s OpenAI. He repeatedly encouraged business leaders and gamers to apply Copilot in their everyday activities. His efforts failed as the in-house AI disrupted Windows 11’s user interface.
Until Apr. 23, Asha Sharma and Xbox Chief Content Creator Matt Booty revealed the Xbox logo, returning to the original console’s shade of green. The unexpected change became a necessary statement for the CEO’s address letter. They stated on Xbox Wire:
“We have work to do. Players are frustrated. New feature drops on consoles have been less frequent. Our presence on PC isn’t strong enough. Pricing is getting harder for people to keep up with. And core experiences, like search, discovery, social, and personalization, still feel too fragmented. Developers and publishers are asking for more, too: better tools, better insight, and a platform that helps them grow faster.
[…] ‘Microsoft Gaming’ describes our structure, but it does not describe our ambition. So, we are going back to where we started and changing our team’s name. We are Xbox. We are a high agency culture where wild and wonderful ideas thrive.”
Sharma and Booty chose to confirm Xbox’s 5-year failure when Copilot was established, and increased the price of their Game Pass Service to $30 per month with limited advertisements. They honored their word by cutting the Ultimate subscription to $22.99 and the basic PC Pass from $16.49 to $13.99 on Apr. 21.
Sharma Plans to Eliminate Gaming Copilot
Throughout May, Asha Sharma is continuing to oversee Microsoft’s customer dissatisfaction. She understood that Nadella’s bullish marketing for Copilot had tarnished Windows and Xbox. She decided that its gaming guide counterpart, Gaming Copilot, is unfit for its audience.
She informed on X (then Twitter) on May 5, “Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for players and developers. […] As part of this shift, you’ll see us begin to retire features that align with where we’re headed. We will begin by winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop its development on console.”
Microsoft launched Gaming Copilot in beta last year, hoping gamers would use it during gameplay. Game reporters and influencers have tested its in-development capabilities, and the majority deemed it unhelpful. Depending on what you ask the AI, it will analyze your game and try to give you tips. Microsoft AI developers failed to recognize that strategy guides existed and evolved for over 40 years before it.
Her Actions Are Impacting Windows 11
Asha Sharma’s contributions to recovering Xbox’s gaming roots are Microsoft’s wake-up call from the Copilot pipe dream. Their developers announced that Windows 11 users will uninstall the AI permanently in a future update.
The previous and current builds of the operating system do allow users to uninstall it from their computer, but it always reinstalls after an update. This forced PC owners to either invest in a Mac, switch to Linux, or use GitHub coding to prevent Copilot from accessing their private information and avoid bloatware.
The Register reported that only 3.3% using its add-on on Microsoft 365 (formerly Microsoft Office) back on Feb. 2. Even worse, adding Copilot to their programs costs $30 per user and month. The company itself has called their revolutionary software a risk in their terms of service, as it was intended for entertainment purposes rather than business, in October 2025.
As Asha Sharma continues to reshape Microsoft Gaming, its AI sector is showing signs of resignation. Agentic AI marketeer Yusuf Mehdi is officially stepping down after working for the Xbox manufacturer for 35 years.
“After 35 extraordinary years at Microsoft, I’ve decided the time is right to begin planning for my next adventure!” he exclaimed on Business Insider Africa. “I will work through the next fiscal year to help reimagine Windows for the agentic era, grow Microsoft 365 services, and bring our One Copilot vision to life.”
Apparently, he and his agentic OS team still have not gotten the message from the Twitter responders who rejected their vision from November 2025: “Stop this non-sense. No one wants this. It’s evolving into a bug-ridden slop pile.”
