Satya Nadella On The Future Of Big Tech

Six years into leading one of the largest technology companies on earth, Microsoft’s CEO is flying high—just as many of his peers seem to have had their wings clipped. Can tech regain the world’s trust? We sit down with Nadella at Microsoft’s headquarters to discuss the industry’s future and role in society.

- Andrew Nusca

A QUESTION OF TRUST

In January, you wrote a LinkedIn 1 post about using technology to foster empowerment and trust. But research conducted by Pew in 2017 suggests that although more people will use tech in the next decade, they won’t necessarily trust it. How will you bridge that gap?

NADELLA A book my colleague [ Microsoft president] Brad Smith wrote is called Tools and Weapons, and I think that’s a good metaphor to keep in mind. Digital technology is perhaps the most malleable resource that we have. It can be both a tool and a weapon. So, let’s first talk about the tool and how it empowers.

There are three things we need to think about. First, is economic growth from technology equitable? You cannot have just the tech industry growing; you have to have all industries growing. The great convergence between emerging and developed markets needs to continue.

Second is trust. You can’t have unintended consequences. Privacy—you have to think about data and privacy rights as a human right. Cybersecurity—a trillion dollars or so in the economy is lost because of cyberattacks, and most of the impact is felt by small businesses and consumers. As technology providers, we are the first responders. We have to build the core infrastructure, and even the engineering processes, to ensure that there is more trust in technology.

The last piece is sustainability. You can’t talk about growth or trust without thinking about not breaking the planet.

Sure. But when consumers are seeing tech companies misuse their personal information, or learning they’ve been the victims of data breaches 2 , how can the industry regain their trust?