Washington: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has rejected claims that the pace of artificial intelligence development is slowing down, saying advances in AI are continuing rapidly and moving beyond the creation of increasingly powerful models.

There has been growing debate in the technology industry over whether the rapid progress seen in AI models in recent years is beginning to slow. The discussion has been fuelled by comments and developments involving major AI companies and technology leaders.

Nadella, however, dismissed such concerns and said the underlying scaling of AI capabilities continues to advance.

He said the industry is now moving into a new phase in which AI systems are becoming better at logical reasoning and are capable of acting as autonomous or semi-autonomous agents to perform tasks.

The Microsoft chief also highlighted the growing use of AI in real-world business applications, suggesting that the technology's progress should not be judged only by the size or performance of individual AI models.

Microsoft, he said, would continue to support the development of these next-generation AI technologies and their adoption across businesses.

The remarks come at a time when the technology industry is closely watching the pace of AI development, particularly amid questions over the cost of building larger models and the availability of the computing power and data needed to train them.

Nadella's comments offer a more optimistic assessment of the sector's future, arguing that AI innovation is entering a broader phase focused not only on model development but also on reasoning, autonomous systems and practical applications.

The debate over whether AI progress is slowing is expected to continue as companies compete to develop more capable systems and turn them into useful products and services.