According to official announcements, Microsoft (MSFT) announced on September 28 that Zhang Qi, Microsoft Corporate Vice President and Dean of Microsoft Search Technology Center Asia, has been appointed Chairman of the Microsoft Asia-Pacific R&D Group. The group's former Chairman, Wang Yongdong, has stepped down and retired.
Zhang Qi is described as one of Microsoft's key leaders in product and artificial intelligence, possessing deep engineering expertise, product innovation capabilities, and business insight. During his more than two decades at Microsoft, he has long focused on frontier fields such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, and distributed computing. He has been deeply involved in the development of products and businesses including Microsoft 365, Copilot, Windows, Office, Azure AI, Bing, and Microsoft Ads, continuously driving the deep integration of technological innovation with products and business. He has rich experience in AI platform research and development, product innovation, technology commercialization, strategic decision-making, organizational building, and talent development.
Zhang Qi joined Microsoft's U.S. headquarters in 2002 and joined Microsoft Search Technology Center Asia in 2010. Since then, he has led the formation of core teams in Microsoft search advertising, big data, knowledge graphs, commercial artificial intelligence, and AI platforms, and has collaborated extensively with Microsoft Research Asia and global R&D teams to drive the transformation of cutting-edge technologies into products and business innovations with global impact. The Microsoft search advertising team he founded made key contributions to the rapid growth of Bing Ads, achieving over $10 billion in revenue within nine years.
In recent years, Zhang Qi has further promoted the development of Microsoft's productivity platforms, enterprise AI, and intelligent applications, playing an important role in the continued evolution of key businesses such as Microsoft 365, Copilot, and Azure AI, as well as in AI-driven product innovation and transformation. He is also responsible for formulating the technology and product development strategy of the Microsoft Asia-Pacific R&D Group, promoting technological innovation, ecosystem cooperation, and new business exploration.
In 2018, Zhang Qi was honored as a Microsoft Global Distinguished Engineer, becoming the first engineer in the Microsoft Asia-Pacific R&D Group to receive this technical expert honor. In 2021, he was promoted to Microsoft Corporate Vice President. In 2024, he became President of Microsoft AI Asia-Pacific. In 2026, Dr. Zhang Qi took over as Dean of Microsoft Search Technology Center Asia.
Zhang Qi has long been concerned with the profound impact of artificial intelligence on individual capabilities, organizational forms, and future ways of working. In 2023, he was among the first to propose the "One-Person Entrepreneur" (OPE) concept and published the book "OPE: One Person as a System — The One-Person Entrepreneur Paradigm in the AI Era," exploring the innovative model of "one person + AI as a team," offering new directions for thinking and practice regarding the release of individual potential and organizational innovation in the AI era. Previously, he also co-authored with his team the book "Prompt Engineering: Methods, Techniques, and Industry Applications," conducting systematic exploration around the technical principles, methods, and industry practices of large language models and prompt engineering.
Zhang Qi holds more than 30 international patents and has published over 150 academic papers. He graduated with a bachelor's degree from Peking University and obtained his master's and doctoral degrees from Washington University in St. Louis.
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