When Mustafa Sulyman, a leading figure in artificial intelligence, left Inflection AI in March to head Microsoft’s AI division, the tech world buzzed about Microsoft’s gain in the ongoing AI talent war. Less discussed, however, was the impact of this departure on Inflection AI. With Sulyman and approximately 70 team members moving to Microsoft, the question loomed: What would become of Inflection AI, which had secured $1.525 billion in funding and spent a good chunk of it to develop an emotionally empathetic personal AI assistant named Pi? In an exclusive interview last week with VentureBeat, Inflection AI unveiled its new leadership team, composed of seasoned Silicon Valley veterans. Sean White, the newly appointed CEO, has a background in user experience and augmented reality, most recently leading Mozilla’s R&D. Vibhu Mittal, now chief technology officer, previously worked on early forms of generative AI as a graduate student, and later helped build Google Translate. Ted Shelton, the new chief operating officer, comes from Bain & Co, where he consulted for enterprise companies on AI applications. Ian McCarthy, leading product, brings experience from Microsoft, Sony, Yahoo, and LinkedIn. Despite the Suleyman exodus, co-founder Reid Hoffman, a venture capitalist best known for founding LinkedIn, has opted not to disband but to double down. He’s aided by a warchest of less than the reported $650 million that Microsoft paid Inflection in a deal to take Suleyman. Hoffman wouldn’t say how much the company has left, but in an interview with VentureBeat said the company has “real money. It’s well funded for 18 months.” Today, the company announces a refocused mission: To double down on its leadership in the realm of emotional intelligence within AI, at a time when industry giants like OpenAI, Microsoft and Google prioritize cognitive prowess. And its business plan is to build empathetic chatbots for other businesses – bots that can adapt to and reflect business’ unique communicative  needs.

Full exclusive : Inflection AI, which had ~70 staffers follow Mustafa Sulyman and leave for Microsoft in March, debuts a new leadership team and says it has 18 months of runway.