New Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma says Xbox won’t “flood” games with “soulless AI slop”

Microsoft has a new head of gaming. Asha Sharma is stepping in as Microsoft Gaming CEO and EVP, and she’s already trying to get out in front of the biggest worry around her resume: AI.

In an interview with Variety, Sharma said she’s “coming into gaming as a platform builder,” and that she wants to earn trust from both players and developers. She also said she has “no tolerance for bad AI” at Xbox, pushing back on concerns that her background means an AI-first approach to games.

Sharma joined Microsoft in 2024 as president of CoreAI, and previously held executive roles at Instacart and Meta. On the AI front, she framed it as something that’s already been part of games for a long time, while stressing that “great stories are created by humans.”

Microsoft also shared an internal memo from Sharma after her appointment, published as an official blog post. In it, she said Xbox will “not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop,” and described games as art “crafted by humans.”

Sharma’s appointment follows last week’s news that Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond are leaving Xbox. Spencer said he’d been thinking about stepping back since last fall, while Bond called it “the right time” for her to move on and said new leadership is a chance for “fresh eyes” as the industry changes.

My prediction is that Microsoft will announce major writedowns (multi billion dollar figures) in their gaming division following poor performance of their acquired gaming assets.