Qi Zhang

Microsoft Corporate Vice President | CTO of Microsoft Asia Pacific R&D Group | Head of Microsoft AI Asia

Dr. Qi Zhang is Corporate Vice President, CTO of Microsoft Asia Pacific R&D Group and head of Microsoft AI Asia. As one of the leaders in Microsoft’s global product research and digital innovation, Dr. Zhang leads the Microsoft AI team in Asia, overseeing business expansion in areas such as Microsoft Advertising, Windows, Web experience, and artificial intelligence platforms. Additionally, he is responsible for shaping the technology product development strategy for APRD and driving collaboration for Win in China initiative while exploring new business opportunities.

Dr. Qi Zhang, as a distinguished engineer and artificial intelligence expert at Microsoft, has nearly 20 years of experience in machine learning, big data, AI algorithms, platforms, and commercialization. He has accumulated rich expertise in product development, strategic decision-making, organizational building, and talent cultivation.

Dr. Zhang joined Microsoft Redmond in 2002 and STCA in 2010. He founded the Search Ads team in 2011, leading products and services focused on big data, knowledge graph, content services, Edge, Business AI, and Azure AI Platform. His team has been instrumental to the hypergrowth of Bing Ads, contributing over $10 billion in revenue over the past nine years and working closely with US teams and Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) on foundational data and intelligence innovation for Office and Azure products. He was promoted to Partner in 2014. In 2018, he became the first Microsoft China employee to be honored as Distinguished Engineer for pushing the technology frontier for Microsoft. 

Dr. Zhang has a bachelor’s degree from Peking University, and MS and PhD degrees from Washington University in St. Louis.