Why Microsoft Should Bet on Vertical AI Search — Not General AI Search
I still remember a moment from my startup days at Spock.com, a people search engine I co-founded in Silicon Valley.
At the time, Microsoft Research invited me back to campus to give a talk. I had spent five years at Microsoft before leaving to build a machine learning startup focused on natural language processing and entity resolution — figuring out who’s who online.
So when Microsoft Research asked me to share how we differentiated people in our algorithms, I was excited. What I didn’t expect, though, was that this visit would lead to a meeting with the head of Bing at the time — Satya Nadella (yes, the same Satya who is now Microsoft’s CEO).
The Search Conversation with Satya Nadella
During our discussion, I told Satya something I still believe to this day:
“If you want to beat Google, you don’t go head-to-head with them in general search. That’s King Kong vs. Godzilla. You need to win by being the best vertical search engine.”
My idea was simple — instead of competing in the same giant ocean, own the bays and rivers.
Imagine Bing with dedicated tabs:
Travel: Powered by an acquisition like Kayak, offering the best possible search and booking experience.
Autos: Integrated with a platform like Vast.com, helping you buy your next car effortlessly.
People: A vertical search experience that could rival LinkedIn or what we built at Spock.
Each vertical would deliver a focused, high-intent driven experience — something general search simply can’t do as well.
Of course, Microsoft doubled down on general search instead. Today, Bing still hovers around 10–11% of the search market, largely due to being bundled with enterprise tools rather than dominating consumer search.
The AI Era: A Second Chance at Vertical Search
Now, with Microsoft’s massive investments in OpenAI and the rise of Copilot, they’re back in the spotlight of the next search revolution — AI search.
But here’s the thing: they’re falling into the same trap.
Trying to make Copilot the ultimate “one-box-for-everything” experience — competing directly with Google Gemini — is playing in Google’s backyard again. Google’s DNA is general search. Microsoft won’t beat them there.
The Real Opportunity: Vertical AI
Where Microsoft can win — and win big — is in vertical AI.
Imagine if Bing had tabs like:
Copilot Travel: An AI specialized in planning your trip, booking flights, and finding hidden gems — not just answering questions, but acting like your personal travel agent.
Copilot Finance: Optimized for mortgages, car loans, and financial comparisons — giving personalized, contextual answers.
Copilot Auto, Copilot Health, Copilot Local — each trained, tuned, and UX-optimized for its own vertical.
Now, while some people think that AI agents built on top of existing LLMs can deliver this kind of “vertical AI,” I see a few major issues.
First, third-party agents never get the full compute power or deep access of the base LLM. To achieve real performance and scale, the LLM itself must build these verticals natively — not just as lightweight wrappers. Second, agents are always built on top of a general-purpose model, whereas a true vertical AI would be built from the ground up as its own dedicated LLM, designed for a single mission.
Imagine what could be achieved if Bing had vertical LLMs for Travel, Cars, Health, Finance, and Local — each trained specifically for its domain, integrating domain-specific reasoning, data, and experiences. Finally, mass user adoption matters. With scale, each vertical AI could negotiate custom data partnerships — for example, with airlines, car dealers, or health organizations — to make its results and recommendations far richer and more relevant.
This approach plays directly to Microsoft’s strengths:
Deep enterprise relationships
Robust data integrations
Powerful AI infrastructure through Azure and OpenAI
They’re already doing something similar in the enterprise world — customizing Copilot for Fortune 500 clients. So why not take that same playbook to consumers?
The Future of Search is Vertical AI
I would love to see a world where I can use Copilot Travel to plan my next Europe trip — where it doesn’t just “search,” but truly understands the mindset I’m in.
Where I can switch to Copilot Finance when I’m buying a home or car — and get tailored insights, not generic web results.
That’s the future.
That’s how Microsoft can finally outflank Google. Not by fighting over the same box, but by redesigning what search means in an AI-first world.