Baidu –the leading operator of the largest online service in China, has recently claimed that its COO (Chief Operating Officer), Lu Qi, will be stepping down in order to take up a new role. This is going to happen as the results of the latest reshuffle happening around in the company as it aims at focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI) towards driving future growth.

Lu –who was a former executive at Microsoft, had joined Baidu in January last year, is all set to step down from the current position in the upcoming month of July. The main reason behind this move has been stated to be due to “family & personal reasons”. The Beijing-based Internet giant on Friday claimed that Lu will be taking on the position of Vice Chairman at Baidu. He had recently joined Baidu at the time when the company was being repositioned to be the AI-first organization.

The company’s Chairman & Chief Executive Robin Li Yanhong claimed in a statement that the company has observed several positive changes in the company since Qi had joined the organization last year. The senior management team of the company will be reporting to Li directly after Qi has moved to the latest new role. The Vice President of the company Wang Haifeng will be given promotion to the post of Senior Vice President towards overseeing the AI projects of Baidu, as per the latest reports of the company.

In March 2017, Andrew Ng, who had served as the Chief Scientist at Baidu, had left the company after 3 years on the given job of leading the AI research of the online search provider in China. The move of Lu has come at a crucial moment for Baidu which has been given the task by the Chinese government towards spearheading the development autonomous driving in the nation.

ZHUOHAN YANG