Microsoft is overhauling its GitHub platform to counter growing competition from AI-powered coding tools like Cursor and Anthropic’s Claude Code, according to audio from an internal meeting reviewed by Business Insider. The transformation is part of a broader strategy to make GitHub the central hub for AI-driven software development. The shift is rooted in a long-standing vision from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who once criticized the fragmentation of digital tools—why separate apps for documents, websites, and software development? CEO Satya Nadella echoed that sentiment in the meeting, stating that in the age of AI, the distinctions between apps, documents, and websites are blurring. “There is none,” he said. “What’s the difference between an app and a document and a website?” Microsoft aims to leverage this convergence by making GitHub’s AI tools accessible across every environment where developers work—whether in the command line, web browsers, VS Code, or other Microsoft products. The goal is to position GitHub not just as a code repository but as a unified dashboard for managing multiple AI agents and workflows. Jay Parikh, who leads Microsoft’s new CoreAI unit overseeing GitHub, emphasized that GitHub must become the “center of gravity” for AI-powered development. He acknowledged that developers are increasingly leaving GitHub for other platforms, noting, “GitHub is just not the place anymore where developers are storing code.” To strengthen its position, Microsoft is accelerating updates to GitHub, with new features rolling out multiple times a day. Key improvements include enhancing GitHub Actions for faster automation of builds, tests, and deployments, expanding analytics and insights for teams, boosting security features, and ensuring compliance with local data regulations to expand into new markets. Parikh also signaled a strategic shift in Microsoft’s AI model approach. While GitHub Copilot was built with OpenAI, Parikh stressed the need to support a variety of large language models, regardless of origin. “As new models come, as models go, we want to stay the place where developers have that choice of both surfaces that they work in, also modes that they work in, and the models that they work with,” he said. This move aligns with broader internal changes. Microsoft has been investing heavily in upgrading Visual Studio and is reportedly evaluating employees based on their use of AI tools internally. The company is even considering making AI adoption a formal metric in performance reviews. With GitHub’s former CEO stepping down in August and Parikh now leading the charge, Microsoft is betting that a fully integrated, AI-first development environment will help it retain dominance in the rapidly evolving world of software engineering.