How do you conduct research with sales people? even if they manage to bring in researchers from OpenAI, the only gain here is microsoft getting some of the researchers behind the products and/or product developers.
Well, the same way a man with drive, discipline and money but very little in the way of technical expertise can build a company.
Sometimes you need someone who can drive a project and recruit the right people for the project. That person does not always need to be a subject matter expert.