Neel Sundaresan, a distinguished leader in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), currently serves as the Vice President of AI and Engineering within the Cloud & AI division at Microsoft. Neel has been a pioneer of bringing AI to code and pushing the boundaries of AI applications to software engineering. He has been instrumental in integrating AI technologies into Microsoft tools to bolster developer productivity and automate various facets of software engineering. He leads a dynamic team of AI researchers and engineers, focusing on the development of productivity tools through traditional deep learning and Large Language Model (LLM)-based systems.
Prior to his tenure at Microsoft, Neel was the head of eBay Research and Data Labs. He introduced groundbreaking machine learning advancements, leading to innovative developments in Search, Recommender Systems, and Trust and Safety systems. He established eBay’s Economics, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and Computer Vision groups, integrating diverse expertise into product development and business strategy.
Neel’s entrepreneurial journey includes co-founding a successful network CRM company and contributing as a research manager at IBM’s Almaden Research Center. He has over 275 issued patents and has co-authored more than 125 refereed publications. He is a sought-after speaker, sharing his insights and experiences at numerous national and international conferences.
Beyond his professional endeavors, Neel is deeply invested in social impact initiatives. He founded the Inspire! Program, a mentorship and scholarship platform guiding financially disadvantaged yet academically gifted students from grade school through to professional careers. Neel also plays an active role in the MusicAsLanguage project, empowering children with autism to use music as a medium of communication. He has held the position of adjunct professor of computer science at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he frequently delivers invited lectures aimed at equipping the diverse student body for a future shaped by Artificial Intelligence.
Neel has a PhD in Computer Science from Indiana University, Bloomington, and dual master’s degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science from IIT Mumbai.