Born and raised in the Seattle area, Aaron Bjork's roots in the Pacific Northwest run deep—including an impressive 22-year career at Microsoft. But with remote work becoming increasingly ‘normalized’ following the pandemic, this golf enthusiast and nature lover seized the opportunity to try out some new scenery.
Two years ago, Aaron and his family headed to Bend, Oregon to plant roots in their new home. Relocating has allowed Aaron to keep doing the work he loves while also indulging in hobbies like hiking, kayaking, mountain biking, and golfing.
“Golf's my biggest passion,” Aaron admits. “It’s a mental game. Every shot is an opportunity to ‘reset’—even if it’s a fail. But with every failure, comes an opportunity to learn and improve.”
This same philosophy of resilience and continuous learning has served Aaron well throughout his career at Microsoft. Aaron has played key roles in imagining, building, deploying, and evolving some of the company’s most significant technological shifts.
Aaron’s journey from engineering to product management
Today, as the Director of Product Management for Microsoft’s Copilot Apps, he starts each day–drip coffee in hand–ready to tackle what lies ahead at the forefront of Microsoft's AI evolution.
In many ways, Aaron's journey at Microsoft is a testament to the company's ability to nurture talent. Due to a love for writing code, he spent his first eight years as a software engineer. But a conversation with his mentor sparked a major shift. “She wanted me to lean into what I was most passionate about: how we build things, what we're building, and why we're building them,” Aaron recalls. This guidance launched him into product management.
Looking back, a clear theme emerges: “I love building tools that help people,” Aaron says. “Whether it’s developer tools, IoT, or business apps—it’s all about making people's lives better.”
It’s this passion for innovation that has earned Aaron’s place at the heart of Microsoft's AI transformation—a journey aimed at reshaping how people work and interact with technology.
A closer look at Microsoft's AI journey
Over the last two years, excitement around generative AI has intensified. For Microsoft, the challenge was clear: adapt quickly or risk falling behind.
“The first big decision Microsoft had to make was accepting that AI was a big deal and that we had to go all in,” Aaron explains. AI had already “crossed the chasm” towards mainstream adoption—and it wasn’t going to slow down anytime soon.
“Soon after ChatGPT first disrupted the industry, Microsoft’s leadership team saw the writing on the wall: it was time to take a step back and rethink everything through the lens of AI.”
But this pivot wasn't simply about incorporating AI into existing products; it signaled a fundamental shift in Microsoft's holistic approach to innovation. “We made the decision to put an entirely new business plan in place very quickly. The speed of that decision was transformational in and of itself.”
Any kind of transformation comes with its challenges. AI is no exception. “Rolling out AI in your company is not something you just whip together, turn on, and hope to get right,” Aaron warns. Instead, it requires gleaning customer input to identify where AI can add value to their work.
This customer-centric approach is at the heart of Microsoft's AI journey. “We want to know what scenarios and use cases make the most sense for our customers,” explains Aaron.
“We’re not building AI solutions just to be in the AI game; we are innovating our products to help our customers be more successful in everything they do.”
Lessons learned from the past
Microsoft’s slow response to the smartphone revolution stands out in Aaron’s mind as a cautionary tale of what not to do in the face of AI. “We took a wait-and-see approach, and then got left far behind,” he reflects. “It took Microsoft three years to build the Windows Phone—and then three years later, it was completely obsolete.”
A bold vision underlying Microsoft Copilot for Sales
One area ripe for AI innovation was the gap between customer relationship management (CRM) systems and sales enablement tools. Enter Microsoft Copilot for Sales.
“Copilot for Sales is an AI-first assistant designed to streamline workflows by bringing information from a CRM directly into the Microsoft 365 tools that salespeople use every day, like Outlook and Teams,” Aaron explains.
“We live in a world where sellers are in their inbox and CRM all the time. A lot of manual steps are required to use data from a CRM in the context of emails, meetings, or documents. With the help of Microsoft Copilot for Sales, we can bridge this gap.”
Disjointed workflows and poor data signals stem from CRM systems filled with duplicate and inaccurate data - or missing data altogether. Copilot for Sales aims to solve this by weaving contextual information about customers, accounts, contacts, and leads directly into emails, meetings, and chats.
“I want sellers to use their CRM regularly, without having to switch between apps,” Aaron expresses. “We're making it possible for everything to flow seamlessly, so they can be more efficient in their day-to-day work.”
Getting feedback from sellers is absolutely essential
Aaron admits that salespeople are creatures of habit. “They tend to have this ‘Listen, I know what I’m doing, leave me alone and let me do my work’ approach.”
Getting over this hurdle had to be baked into the Copilot for Sales deployment strategy. For starters, Aaron’s team worked closely with internal Microsoft sales teams and current customers to identify and address friction points. This created a feedback loop for continuous refinement, setting the product up for success. As more teams are using Copilot for Sales, its value is crystallizing. “It’s like a flywheel: when you see the data flowing to and from the CRM more effectively, it will get used in more places and lead to better and stronger signals over time,” he explains.
AI’s evolution from assistive to proactive
Microsoft’s team approaches its AI-powered tools in three key stages: assistive, conversational, and agentic.
Aaron explains, “We already have assistive and conversational capabilities—these are table stakes.” Assistive AI solutions make tasks easier and more efficient, while ChatGPT-like conversational AI enables users to interact with data and information via natural language.
But it's the agentic AI stage that truly excites Aaron.
“At Microsoft, we are doubling down on building agents and other automations that can intelligently work 24/7 in the background, propelling AI’s ability to enhance productivity and decision-making.”
“In Copilot for Sales, when new leads get added to a CRM, AI agents will immediately start doing research in the background—which includes gathering information from different data sources—to rapidly qualify the lead and make relevant recommendations about how to nurture that lead.” Not only will this save time, but it will also change how salespeople and business leaders interact with data and make decisions.
Implementing AI is not one-size-fits-all
For AI implementation, Aaron follows the same trusted playbook he’s used over the years: focus on outcomes, start small, and embrace clear communication.
For Aaron, there’s a parallel between big data transformation and AI implementation. He cautions against taking a “more is better” mentality. “With big data, the question we should have asked ourselves was: are we using the data we have effectively?,” he reinforces.
For this reason, focusing on desired business outcomes before making big bets with AI is critical.
“Pick the AI use cases where you can secure quick wins—and use that to build a foundation for a longer-term play. Immediately demonstrating the benefits of what you’re implementing is the key to driving mass adoption.”
“You can’t just throw something new out there and hope it works—that’s the wrong approach,” he says. Instead, you must start small, build confidence in the solution, and then identify internal champions to drive widespread adoption.
“Nobody wants to be told how to work differently from the top down,” Aaron explains. “The more you can spark a bottom-up approach, where champions and power users on the ground can be your megaphone, the better.”
Constant innovation is the only path forward
For Aaron, AI is here to stay—and it’s only going to expand and evolve in remarkable ways in the years to come. “The big benefit of AI is its ability to automate low-level tactical tasks, empowering people to be more strategic and deliver more value in their work,” he underscores.
Seeing AI as a tool for human enablement mirrors his dedication to continuous learning and his ethos as a leader, manager, mentor, and colleague. While people often like to be remembered for their achievements and accolades, Aaron strives to be someone who succeeded at inspiring people to do their best work. “More than anything, I want to be remembered as that guy who people truly enjoyed working with,” he comments.
From the early days of writing code to standing at the forefront of Microsoft’s AI revolution today, Aaron has always focused on one thing: empowering teams to harness the power of technology to build tools that improve peoples’ lives.
At a time when everything is evolving faster than ever, “You’ve got no choice but to keep innovating and changing,” concludes Aaron.
Fortunately, with enthusiastic and visionary product leaders like Aaron at the helm of the AI revolution, what’s yet to come from Microsoft promises to be both exciting and transformative.