Your voice continues to shape how the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program evolves. This month’s update brings together the announcements, investments, and resources partners need now, so you can prioritize where to focus, what to skill, and which motions to scale as AI becomes central to more customer workloads.
These updates reflect partner opportunity across the Microsoft ecosystem, grounded in partner feedback, and aligned to how customers are evolving their cloud and AI strategies.
Spotlight
Join us this month for MCAPS Start for Partners
Join us for MCAPS Start for Partners, on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, starting at 7:00 AM Pacific Time. This digital event is designed to give partners a fast start to FY27; the event will share guidance on Microsoft priorities, innovation, investments, and go-to-market motions.
Hear from Microsoft leaders and partner voices on where Microsoft is investing, what is changing, and how to activate AI-led growth opportunities. Whether your organization serves small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), enterprise customers, or both, your teams can use the event to align early, reduce rework, and move faster into the year ahead.
Don’t miss the Microsoft Partner FY27 GTM Kickoff Event
Join us on July 28, 2026, to learn about the go-to-market (GTM) priorities and initiatives planned for FY27 across Microsoft AI Business Solutions, Microsoft Commercial Cloud and AI, and Microsoft Security. Sign up for a double-click on priorities shared at MCAPS Start for Partners and kickstart your GTM plans and tactics for the new fiscal year.
Nominations are closing soon for the 2026 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards
The 2026 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognize partner success in delivering customer outcomes across solution areas, industries, and regions. Nominations opened June 1, 2026, and will close July 7, 2026. Winners will be announced in November 2026, timed to celebrate with the global partner ecosystem at Microsoft Ignite.
The awards are an opportunity to highlight how your organization is driving Frontier Transformation and turning AI ambition into measurable business outcomes. Review the 2026 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards guidelines and resources to confirm eligibility, choose the right category, and complete your nomination before the July 7 deadline.
Copilot Cowork opens a new path for partner-led agentic AI
Copilot Cowork is now generally available worldwide, giving customers a way to move from AI that assists work to AI that executes complex, long-running, multi-tool tasks. Built on the Microsoft 365 Copilot foundation, it brings together organizational context, enterprise-grade security and compliance, multi-model capabilities, and usage-based billing through Copilot Credits.
For partners, Copilot Cowork extends the Copilot opportunity into agentic execution. Customers will need guidance on where to start, which use cases to prioritize, how to connect Microsoft 365 with business systems, and how to manage governance, adoption, usage, and cost. This creates opportunity across advisory, workflow design, integration, security readiness, change management, usage optimization, managed services, and repeatable agentic solutions.
Microsoft Build 2026: Turning innovation into partner growth
Microsoft Build 2026 was more than a developer moment. It was a partner growth moment. In a recent blog, Stephen Boyle shares how announcements across Microsoft IQ, Work IQ APIs, Foundry IQ, Agent 365 SDK, Azure HorizonDB, Azure Linux, Microsoft Foundry, Microsoft Marketplace, and Microsoft for Startups create opportunities for partners to turn platform innovation into customer impact.
Read the blog to see how partners can lead customer conversations across agent strategy, app modernization, data readiness, secure AI, Marketplace growth, managed services, and AI-ready infrastructure. Use the guidance to map Build announcements to your offers, refresh technical and sales readiness, optimize Marketplace listings, and prepare for FY27 growth.
Program and benefits updates
New research shows the ROI of partner benefits packages
Partner benefits packages can be a practical growth engine when used intentionally, and this is a timely opportunity to review your current benefits and align them to your growth priorities. New research from Omdia and IDC shows how benefits packages can deliver return on investment. These packages also give partners access to resources such as discounted product licenses, Azure credits, technical consultations, and support benefits across Partner Launch Benefits, Partner Success Core Benefits, and Partner Success Expanded Benefits. Read the blog to see how partners are using these packages to save money, accelerate skilling and innovation, and improve solution quality.
How Microsoft is simplifying the path to partner business value
Microsoft is simplifying the path to partner growth with updates across the program. New partner experiences are designed to make benefits easier to activate, reduce friction, and give partners clearer access to the resources they need to build, market, and grow with Microsoft. Explore how these updates connect partner benefits packages, Partner Center experiences, skilling, incentives, Marketplace, and Concierge resources into a more streamlined path for turning program participation into measurable business value.
Streamline your campaign execution with Partner Marketing Center Pro
Partner Marketing Center Pro brings campaign planning, activation, execution, and performance tracking into one AI-powered marketing hub. It is designed to reduce manual effort, lower localization costs, and support partners to move faster from campaign idea to customer engagement. Read the blog to learn how Partner Marketing Center Pro can simplify campaign execution, improve consistency across demand generation motions, and give your team a clearer path to tailor campaigns, launch with confidence, and understand what to optimize next.
Unlock the cloud benefits in your partner benefits package with a streamlined activation experience
A streamlined cloud benefits activation experience is coming to Partner Center, giving partners a clearer way to access, assign, and renew the cloud benefits included in their partner benefits packages. The update is designed to reduce manual steps and make it easier for partner admins to manage benefits across their organization. Read the blog to understand what is changing, how the new experience affects cloud benefits activation and renewal, and what actions your team should take now. Use this moment to review your benefits, confirm ownership in Partner Center, and prepare to capture the full value available through the program.
Skilling
Build Frontier Transformation Engineering capability
The Frontier Transformation Engineer Summit may be over, but the momentum continues.
Frontier Transformation is the shift from AI pilots to AI embedded as a repeatable, governed operating capability. It requires technical depth across agents, Copilot, Microsoft Foundry, Microsoft IQ, security, governance, and business process transformation.
The Frontier Transformation Engineer Badge is designed for technical professionals building that capability. It validates the skills needed to design and deliver AI agents across Microsoft Copilot Studio, Microsoft Foundry, and the broader Frontier stack. For partners, the badge is a capability signal that shows customers your team can move from AI vision to AI execution.
The summit sessions are now available on demand, giving your teams a chance to revisit key content or catch up on sessions they missed. Use the recordings to continue progressing toward badge attainment and prepare your teams for the AI implementation work customers are prioritizing now.
New Frontier Transformation Engineering Certification Week coming in July
Partners will soon have another way to accelerate readiness. The inaugural Frontier Transformation Engineering Certification Week is planned for July 2026 and will align to the Frontier Transformation Engineering skilling journey.
This new certification week is designed to build the skills needed to design, develop, and implement AI-powered solutions. Sessions will include preparation for certifications such as GH-300: GitHub Copilot, AI-102/AI-103: Develop AI applications and agents on Azure, and AB-100: Agentic AI Business Solutions Architect.
Registration details will be available soon. Visit the Partner Skilling Hub for updates, upcoming event information, and the latest Frontier Transformation Engineering learning paths.
Turn AI demand into pipeline with Frontier Transformation campaigns
Skilling and go-to-market execution should move together. As customers shift from AI pilots to scaled implementation, partners need a clear way to engage customers with relevant messaging and repeatable campaign assets.
The Frontier Transformation campaign in a box gives partners a ready-to-launch, co-branded campaign designed to connect customer AI priorities to partner expertise. Use it to go to market faster, generate qualified leads, build pipeline without creating assets from scratch, and position your business as a strategic AI partner.
The campaign can be launched through Partner Marketing Center Pro in minutes. Partner Marketing Center Pro is available to partners who have purchased a partner benefits package, attained a Solutions Partner designation, or enrolled in ISV Success.
Use Microskilling to move faster
Keeping pace with Microsoft AI innovation requires continuous learning, but not every learning moment needs to be a full course or live event. Microskilling gives partners a faster way to stay current.
Designed for the partner skilling journey, Microskilling in the Partner Skilling Hub is an autonomous learning modality that delivers short, high-impact videos and podcasts. Topics are curated to accelerate understanding of Microsoft leadership narratives, product pitches, product updates, industry insights, and competitive differentiators.
Microskilling is built for action. Assets are available on demand, typically in two- to nine-minute formats, and each one includes clear next steps, so learning can translate quickly into customer conversations, sales motions, and delivery readiness. Partners can access Microskilling through Partner Center or the Microsoft Partner Skilling Hub.
Accelerate your sales with Deal Ready Demo Accelerators
Access 40 ready-to-demo scenarios built on the latest technologies from Microsoft. Designed specifically for presales teams, these accelerators support you in delivering complex architecture demos with ease and speeding up real customer deals.
Whether you’re a Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP) distributor, indirect or direct bill partner, scale solution provider (SSP), software development company (SDC), or global systems integrator/systems integrator (GSI/SI), this on-demand skilling resource is designed to boost your demo capabilities and sales success. Start exploring the Deal Ready Demo Accelerators now.
Available on demand for eligible Microsoft partner types. Please refer to the official terms and conditions for usage guidelines.
Strengthen readiness across Microsoft AI priorities
Several new and updated skilling opportunities can support your teams as they prepare for FY27 customer conversations.
For sales professionals, the Microsoft 365 E7 course prepares partners to position Microsoft 365 E7 as the complete solution for customers ready to unlock Frontier Firm potential. The session focuses on identifying the right opportunities, articulating the value proposition, handling objections, and driving adoption in a fast, focused format.
For security professionals and architects, the implement Agent 365 course focuses on implementing, securing, and governing AI agents. Participants learn how to use Agent 365 to observe, govern, and secure AI apps, Copilot, and agents with the right architecture, controls, and operational practices.
For security teams, the Microsoft Security Copilot course focuses on deploying and configuring Security Copilot across Microsoft Security workloads, including alert analysis, identity risk investigation, threat intelligence, custom plugins, and agents.
Marketplace
Build, scale, and monetize apps and agents with Microsoft Marketplace
Microsoft Marketplace brings the build, scale, and monetize motions together for apps and agents. The blog explains how developers and software companies can source AI stack components, deploy through Azure-native workflows, increase discoverability across Microsoft experiences, and commercialize solutions through built-in commerce and go-to-market channels.
Read the blog to see how Marketplace can move apps and agents from prototype to production, then connect them to customer demand through intelligent discovery, in-product experiences such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Foundry, and partner-led routes to market. It is a useful resource for partners looking to increase discoverability, simplify customer adoption, and build scalable Marketplace-led growth.
Scaling partner-led growth in Europe: Multiparty private offers expand to new markets
Multiparty private offers in Microsoft Marketplace are expanding across Europe, giving partners a broader path to sell together and scale customer opportunities through Marketplace. Starting May 27, 2026, multiparty private offers are available across 30 countries in Europe, creating new ways for software development companies and channel partners to collaborate on customer deals and simplify Marketplace-led selling. Read the blog to learn how this expansion can support partner-led growth, strengthen co-sell motions, and make Marketplace a more strategic channel for reaching customers.
Driving channel velocity in an AI-first world: Microsoft Marketplace at Channel Partners Conference
Microsoft Marketplace is becoming a central channel for partners looking to scale in an AI-first market. This blog highlights how partners can use Marketplace to increase discoverability, streamline selling, and connect solutions to customer demand through repeatable go-to-market motions.
Cloud and AI platforms
Leading the moment: How Azure partners are driving the Frontier shift
Across recent partner events and one-on-one conversations, we have heard a consistent message: customers are actively adopting AI and shifting toward becoming Frontier Firms. They are moving AI from isolated experimentation to a core capability that drives execution, differentiation, and growth. Now customers are asking a more consequential question: how do we rewire our businesses to operate as a Frontier Firm? That question can reshape how you deliver value.
In this blog, Cyril Belikoff, Vice President, Commercial Cloud & AI, shares how Microsoft is investing in the platform and programs that empower the partner-led path to becoming Frontier, so you can turn AI ambition into durable transformation.
Building AI-ready applications on open, enterprise-grade Azure platforms
AI-ready applications need more than ambition. They need modern databases, governed data, secure infrastructure, and developer experiences that can support production at scale. In this new blog, Dave Miller shares how Microsoft Build 2026 announcements, including the public previews of Azure HorizonDB and Azure Linux and the general availability of Azure Container Linux, create new opportunities for partners to connect customer AI goals to open, enterprise-grade Azure platforms.
Read the blog to learn how Azure HorizonDB, Azure Linux, and Azure Container Linux can support data modernization, cloud-native operations, secure infrastructure, and AI-ready application development. Explore how partners can use these announcements to engage customers on PostgreSQL modernization, Linux estate readiness, container modernization, and the infrastructure decisions that turn AI experimentation into scalable business value.
What’s new in Azure for partners May update
Guiding customers through their AI transformation is not just about delivering technology but shepherding them into a new era of AI-powered productivity. From migrations and modernization to innovation at scale, partners have a profound opportunity to help their customers usher in Frontier Transformation while creating long-term business by building and deploying intelligent apps and agents.
This month’s Azure newsletter rounds up Azure platform innovations, incentives, skilling, events, and go-to-market resources designed to meet that moment. From this year's MCAPS Start for Partners to a new Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study by Forrester on the partner value of a robust Azure practice, this roundup is for partners who want to migrate and modernize with confidence and turn data into a competitive advantage.
Time to market wins: Engineering the Frontier partner practice
Customers are moving from AI experimentation to production, and time to market is becoming a competitive advantage. In this blog, we share how services partners can engineer a Frontier partner practice that repeatedly takes agentic solutions from concept to production while addressing the governance, security, and scale customers require.
Learn how Microsoft IQ, Agent 365, the Frontier Transformation Engineer badge, and the Frontier Partner specialization can support partners to build the skills, credibility, and repeatable delivery patterns needed to lead customer transformation. You’ll also find practical guidance on the Frontier Transformation Engineer Summit, Partner Marketing Center Pro, and actions partners can take now to build capacity, accelerate offers, and bring AI solutions to market faster.
Turn infrastructure disruption into a growth opportunity for your hosting business
Hosting and hybrid cloud partners are facing a major market shift as virtualization licensing changes, rising infrastructure costs, and evolving customer expectations reshape traditional hosting economics. In this new blog, Alex Zagury, CVP of Global Channel Sales shares why this moment is also a growth opportunity for partners who act early, protect customer relationships, and evolve from capacity-led offerings to higher-value managed services.
Learn how Microsoft Adaptive Cloud, including Azure Arc, Azure Local, and Azure native services, can empower partners to give customers greater choice, consistency, and continuity across on-premises, edge, and cloud environments. Explore practical steps hosting partners can take now to modernize their platforms, expand recurring revenue, and build a more resilient, AI-ready business.
AI Business Solutions and productivity
Partner-led momentum, broader availability for SMBs: Microsoft 365 Business with Copilot
In December, we introduced Microsoft 365 Copilot Business to streamline AI adoption for SMBs and support a clearer partner-led motion. Partners who were early adopters validated strong and growing demand.
Starting July 1, 2026, we are transitioning the promotional bundles into two durable SKUs, available at the current promotional price point, giving partners a more consistent and scalable way to drive adoption and renewal opportunities with customers.
We are also launching a new 25% promotional offer on Microsoft 365 Business Basic plus Microsoft 365 Copilot Business ($21/user/month, 1–300 seats, for annual subscription with annual billing), available through December 31, 2026. This provides a clear entry point for Business Basic customers who would like to get started with Copilot.
In addition, the current 15% promotional offer on Microsoft 365 Copilot Business ($18/user/month, 1–300 seats, for annual subscription with annual billing) has also been extended through December 31, 2026, providing partners with more opportunities to scale AI adoption and build pipeline.
We encourage partners to lead with Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot or Business Premium with Copilot as integrated offerings for productivity, AI, and security, designed to support partner-led SMB conversations. Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard, and Premium also remain available as standalone plans for customers who prefer to purchase Copilot separately. This gives you flexibility to meet customers where they are.
Copilot Cowork: Now available in Frontier
With Copilot Cowork now generally available worldwide, customers have a new way to realize the value of Microsoft 365 Copilot—from AI that assists work to AI that executes work. For Microsoft partners, the opportunity is clear: the Copilot opportunity you are already building with customers is now the on-ramp to agentic execution, enabling them to operationalize AI at scale. As customers apply Copilot Cowork to real business processes, they will need guidance on where to start, which use cases to prioritize, how to connect Microsoft 365 with the systems they rely on, and how to manage governance, adoption, and cost controls. That is where partners can lead.
Copilot Cowork opens the door for partners to expand Copilot conversations into end-to-end agentic solutions, from use case discovery and workflow design to system integration, change management, security readiness, usage optimization, and managed services. Frontier Transformation is being operationalized, grounded in intelligence, and built on trust. Partners are essential to making it repeatable, governed, and measurable for customers across every segment and industry.
Lead Frontier Transformation with Microsoft 365 E7, now generally available
In March, we introduced Microsoft 365 E7, the Frontier Suite, and outlined the partner opportunity to guide customers from AI pilots to company-wide Frontier Transformation. In May, Microsoft 365 E7 and Microsoft Agent 365 became generally available, along with partner-ready resources you can use to move customer conversations from interest to execution.
Read the blog from Nicole Dezen, Chief Partner Officer and CVP, Global Channel Partner Sales to learn what is now transactable, what is new since the announcement, and how to turn this milestone into a repeatable motion across your customer base.
Copilot monetization for SMBs blog series
Learn how to capture the SMB Copilot partner opportunity in this blog series. Start with Copilot Chat to build familiarity. Expand with Microsoft 365 Copilot Business to embed AI into everyday work. Convert renewal momentum into growth. Then optimize, extend, and monetize through agents and managed services. That is how partners can move SMB customers from AI curiosity to sustained business impact. It is also how you can build a durable Copilot monetization motion that grows with your customers across the Microsoft partner ecosystem.
AI business solutions June partner news
This month’s newsletter highlights new capabilities, resources, and partner opportunities designed to turn AI innovation into real customer outcomes. Explore what’s new and see how partners can connect Microsoft innovation to practical business value.
Security
Advancing AI-powered security in an evolving threat landscape
Keep pace with emerging AI threats and learn how Microsoft is proactively working with model providers and the industry to support partners and customers navigating evolving AI risk using advanced cyber capabilities. This includes AI-led vulnerability discovery and mitigations, an AI-ready posture to reduce exposure, and AI-powered solutions to defend at scale.
New Cloud and AI Security Engineer Associate (SC‑500) certification
The Azure Security Engineer Associate (AZ-500) certification is retiring in August 2026 and will be replaced by the new Cloud and AI Security Engineer Associate (SC-500) certification. We are providing a transition period that allows partners to use either certification to meet skilling requirements for the Solutions Partner designation for Security and relevant specializations.
New capabilities in Microsoft Agent 365; new Microsoft Defender and GitHub integration
Expand your security footprint across AI, development, and operations with In the Loop, a new series from Microsoft Security that delivers timely news and updates to the global security community. The current edition spotlights the latest capabilities you can use to deliver high-value services like securing AI agents, protecting foundations, and defending against threats in real time.
Keep the conversation going
The Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program monthly news is opt-in and open to anyone in your organization. Subscribe to stay current on partner program updates, benefits and incentives, specialization, and designation changes, and more—delivered monthly.
These updates reflect our continued commitment to partner success across the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program. From modernizing cloud foundations and advancing AI adoption to strengthening security, expanding Marketplace opportunity, and investing in skilling, we are committed to supporting strong starts, efficient scaling, and confident leadership in 2026 and beyond.
Follow us on LinkedIn for the latest partner news and explore partner news in Partner Community for fresh insights on programs, incentives, skilling, case studies, Copilot, Marketplace growth, and more.