Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has launched a new personal blog series called “sn scratchpad,” marking a shift in his public engagement as he steps back from day-to-day leadership of Microsoft’s core businesses. With a new CEO now overseeing the company’s largest divisions, Nadella is focusing on broader strategic themes, particularly around the future of artificial intelligence. In his first post, Nadella calls for moving beyond the current debate around “AI slop” versus “sophistication”—a shorthand for the tension between low-quality, hastily generated AI content and truly intelligent, meaningful applications. He argues that the industry must evolve its understanding of how humans interact with AI, moving past simplistic views of tools as mere extensions of human thought. Drawing inspiration from Steve Jobs’ famous “bicycles for the mind” metaphor, Nadella proposes a new framework: AI should be seen not just as a tool, but as a cognitive amplifier that reshapes how people create, collaborate, and understand the world. He emphasizes the need for a new “theory of the mind” that accounts for human-AI collaboration in real-life contexts. This vision aligns with Microsoft’s growing bet on AI agents—autonomous systems that act on behalf of users, rather than relying solely on traditional software like Office or Windows. The company envisions a future where people use voice-powered Copilot to generate content, search for information, and learn how to do tasks, all in real time. But as Nadella acknowledges, this vision is far from reality today. Many of Copilot’s promised capabilities still don’t work reliably, and much of what it produces is low-quality or inaccurate. Despite this gap, Microsoft remains committed to advancing AI systems that go beyond individual models. Nadella stresses that the real impact of AI will come not from better algorithms alone, but from how we build integrated systems that consider real-world consequences—on people, society, and the planet. He highlights the importance of making thoughtful decisions about how to allocate limited resources like energy, compute, and talent. Nadella frames 2026 as a pivotal year for AI, one in which the industry will finally have a clearer sense of direction. He believes the focus should shift from model performance to responsible deployment, and from competition to collaboration. The goal, he says, is to build consensus around the socio-technical challenges of AI. While his first post is short, it sets the tone for a series of personal reflections on technology’s evolving role in society. Nadella promises to share more insights throughout 2026, offering a rare glimpse into the thinking of one of the tech world’s most influential leaders as the AI era enters a critical phase.