Abstract

The case discusses American multinational technology giant Microsoft Corporation’s (Microsoft) Bing search engine powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), which was launched in February 2023. With this launch, the company aimed to compete with the market leader in search engines, Google Inc. (Google). If the new Bing could capture even 1% market share from Google, Microsoft would garner additional revenues of US$2 billion. Industry analysts opined that while Microsoft had gained a first mover advantage by integrating generative AI into its search engine, it would still be an uphill task for the company to convince consumers to switch to Bing as Google held a dominant position in the global search engine market with a 93% share in July 2023 as against Bing’s 3%.While challenging Google’s position in the online search engine market would be tough for Microsoft’s Bing, the company had other concerns to tackle too. Some tech executives opined that when chatbots were integrated into search engines as in the case of Bing, it could lead to privacy concerns, the spread of misinformation, and bias. Several critics believed that the new wave of AI could displace jobs. Amidst these challenges, what should Nadella and his senior management team do to allay concerns related to privacy, spread of misinformation, and bias due to the use of AI-powered search engines? Could the new Bing be a challenger to Google? How should Microsoft further leverage AI to grow its portion of the pie in the lucrative online search engine market?

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Discuss how tech companies can enhance online search by using generative AI
• Analyze how organizations can tackle concerns related to privacy, bias, and misinformation while using AI-powered tools
• Formulate strategies to make Bing AI a truly transformative force in the online search engine market.

Keywords

OpenAI; ChatGPT; Generative AI; Algorithms; Chatbot; Responsible Artificial Intelligence policy; Privacy concerns; Ethical concerns; Misinformation; Bias; DeepMind; Microsoft Edge; Web browser; AI regulation; Job displacement