Minus One How a $3 Trillion+ Company Thinks About AI | Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott
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Dec 18, 2025 
In this engaging talk, Kevin Scott, Microsoft’s CTO and former Google exec, dives into the nuances of AI and entrepreneurship. He reflects on his transition from academia to impactful tech roles and stresses the importance of choosing problems based on their potential impact. Kevin discusses Microsoft’s early investment in OpenAI, the significance of customer feedback, and the need for rapid experimentation. He also highlights the exciting future of AI, advising kids to embrace fundamentals and a service mindset as they prepare for an AI-driven world.
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Leaving Academia For Impact
- Kevin Scott left academia because his PhD work had marginal impact and he needed impact as a priority.
- He joined Google and built an ads approval automation that saved about a billion dollars in operating costs.
Pivot Quickly To Find Product‑Market Fit
- When pre-revenue, run fast experiments and be willing to pivot relentlessly to find product-market fit.
- Avoid falling in love with ideas or tech without real customer feedback.
Scaling Enables Generalizable Models
- Kevin saw transfer learning and scaling laws as the early signs that generalizable AI platforms were viable.
- He argued Microsoft should fund the compute experiment to see if a single platform could replace many narrow models.