Xbox Boss Asha Sharma Joins Federal Reserve Taskforce on Productivity and Jobs

The Federal Reserve has called on Xbox CEO Asha Sharma to help it assess the economic impact of new technologies, including AI, as part of a ‘Productivity and Jobs’ taskforce.

Sharma, who previously worked at Microsoft’s Core AI group before replacing Phil Spencer as boss of the company’s gaming business earlier this year, joins Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner, Andreessen Horowitz, and Charles I. Jones, professor of economics, Stanford University, currently on leave at Anthropic, on the taskforce.

The announcement of Sharma’s appointment to the task force comes just days after she began a restructure of the Xbox business, which included 1,600 staff losing their jobs on Monday, and another 1,600 to be cut over the course of the current financial year. Four Xbox studios have left Microsoft so far. Projects have been canceled, and iconic developers have been gutted.

The impact of AI on tech jobs in particular is well-documented, and Microsoft itself is all in on AI. However one of Sharma’s first moves as boss of Xbox was to kill Microsoft’s AI tool Copilot for gaming. Still, she has said she believes in AI, pointing to neural rendering as benefiting video game graphics.

Sharma did not specifically mention AI as part of her “Reset” memo, nor was it mentioned when she announced the Xbox layoffs earlier this week. Rather, Sharma’s plan for Xbox appears to revolve around increased profit growth through a focus on the company’s biggest franchises, such as Halo, Minecraft, Candy Crush, Fallout, and The Elder Scrolls. Where this leaves smaller Xbox franchises remains to be seen.

“We know that great technology gets better when it gets simpler, not bigger,” Sharma said in her statement. “Today, in some parts of the company, work passes through as many as 14 layers of management. Our platform teams are 40% larger than they were at the start of this generation, even as our player base and playtime have declined. That complexity has slowed decisions, blurred accountability, and made it harder to deliver for players. As we reset Xbox, we will simplify.

“We will reduce management layers to no more than five, and where possible, three. We will deliver success through a flatter organization that is built around makers (individual contributors focused on building), player-coaches (leaders who remain deeply involved in the work while developing their teams), and directly responsible individuals (DRIs) who own key decisions and outcomes. And we will streamline how we work across our tools, with a cleaner code base, shared services, and 50% reduced vendor spend.”

“The Federal Reserve’s commitment to price stability and maximum employment is unwavering. As is our resolve to pursue our mandate with rigor,” said Chairman Kevin Warsh. “The U.S. economy has changed significantly over the last generation, and never more so than right now. Each task force will carefully consider whether policymakers’ means and methods, analytical tools and policy approaches can be improved upon. I am honored that the best minds from a range of disciplines have agreed to work with us to sharpen our performance as an institution. The goal is straightforward: to ensure the Fed is best positioned to achieve our objectives in this consequential time.”