Jared Palmer, an Xbox vice president of engineering, is departing the company only three months after joining a new leadership team. Palmer announced his move to applied AI lab Cognition via a post on X, formerly Twitter, stating he is "excited for this next chapter." He had joined Microsoft's CoreAI division in October of last year before moving to Xbox.
Palmer was named as part of a leadership overhaul for the Xbox platform initiated by Asha Sharma, the head of Xbox's developer division. In a May memo to staff, Sharma described Palmer as a "product leader who understands modern development, including where tools can remove friction and help teams move faster." She further elaborated that his role at Xbox would involve reporting directly to her, "working directly with me on our most complex product and engineering problems, with a focus on developer tooling, taste, and infrastructure."
Palmer's departure comes shortly after Cognition, an AI startup, secured $21 million in funding. The company, reportedly valued at over $4 billion, develops an AI coding tool named Devin. Palmer's previous work has involved building developer tools aimed at enhancing productivity and reducing friction, a mindset Sharma had expressed a desire to bring to Xbox's engineering efforts. Palmer himself has previously drawn parallels between traditional programming and agentic software development, comparing the shift to learning Guitar Hero instead of playing the actual guitar.