Sumit Gulwani

About Sumit Gulwani

Computer scientist and AI leader with cross-disciplinary academic and industrial experience, focused on agentic AI, AI-assisted programming, and human-AI collaboration, with primary applications in end-user productivity (spreadsheets) and developer productivity (software engineering tools).Vice President and Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft, where for nearly two decades I have translated foundational research into AI capabilities used by hundreds of millions of people across Excel, Visual Studio, and the Power Platform.Inventor of Flash Fill in Excel, the first AI-assisted programming feature to reach mass-market adoption, establishing programming-by-example as a practical paradigm and helping define the field of AI-assisted programming. It is now taught in middle-school computing textbooks.Founder of PROSE, a blended research-and-engineering organization that has shipped AI systems across spreadsheets, software engineering, data integration, and automation platforms, including IntelliCode Suggestions in Visual Studio (1M+ accepted edits/day), Data Connectors in Power Query, and, most recently, Excel Copilot and Visual Studio Copilot agents. My leadership emphasizes a framework-driven approach to AI development, emphasizing deep customer connection, tight research–engineering integration, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.Current work focuses on agentic systems that reason, verify, and interact, combining large language models with neuro-symbolic methods, principles from human sciences, rubric-based evaluation, fine-tuning, and human-in-the-loop design.Author of 180+ research papers (h-index: 77), inventor on 80+ patents, and recipient of 15 research paper awards, including 3 Test-of-Time awards. ACM Fellow, ACM Distinguished Speaker, and recipient of the Max Planck–Humboldt Medal — the only industrial researcher ever to receive it.Beyond technology, I am deeply invested in storytelling as a leadership skill. I have delivered 80+ keynotes and invited talks across academia and industry and actively mentor researchers and leaders on turning complex ideas into shared understanding and effective action.Selected recordings of my keynotes and invited talks: sumitgulwani.com/videosComplete list of talks: sumitgulwani.com/talk-list

Experience

1. Vice President and Distinguished Scientist

   Microsoft

   Aug 2005 — Present · Redmond, US

   ROLE & SCOPE-Senior technical and organizational leader shaping Microsoft’s long-term investments in AI-assisted programming and agentic AI across end-user productivity and developer workflows-Founder and leader of PROSE, a blended research-and-engineering organization driving AI product impact across Microsoft. Built and scaled PROSE into a geo-diversified organization through sustained executive-level investment, influencing multi-year commitments and ~50 roles globally-Led cross-disciplinary collaboration across research, engineering, and design teams.PRODUCT IMPACT (SELECTED)-Excel: Invented Flash Fill, the first AI-assisted programming feature to reach mass-market adoption; led subsequent advances including Formula-by-Example, Excel Copilot, and Excel Agent-Visual Studio: Led the science behind IntelliCode Suggestions (1M+ accepted edits/day) and Debugger Agent in Visual Studio Copilot-Power Platform/Data Integration: Led Data Connectors in Power Query for extracting structured data from semi-structured sources (Web, PDF, text, JSON), now seeing 1M+ monthly invocations.AGENTIC AI & TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP (RECENT)-Led scientific direction for agentic systems, combining LLMs, neuro-symbolic methods, principles from human sciences, rubric-based evaluation and automated grading, fine-tuning of large and domain-specific models, and human-in-the-loop, verification-aware workflows-Architected evaluation and data pipelines using telemetry, synthetic data, user studies, and privacy-preserving customer data to drive continuous improvement at scale-Developed tools for systematic diagnosis and repair of agentic workflows.MENTORSHIP & STORYTELLING-Founded the PROSE India Research Fellowship Program; multiple fellows have transitioned to full-time research roles at Microsoft-Invested in storytelling as a leadership capability; delivered 80+ invited keynotes; mentored researchers and leaders on turning complex ideas into shared understanding and action.

Education

• Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

  Bachelor’s Degree, Computer Science and Engineering

  1996 — 2000

• University of California, Berkeley

  Phd, Computer Science

  2000 — 2005

• City Montessori School

  High School

  1990 — 1995