Across industries, organizations are racing to modernize, unify data, and embrace AI. At the center of this transformation are Microsoft partners, guiding customers through disruption and redefining what’s possible. With more than 150 million developers building on GitHub, 13 million apps running on Azure, and over 70,000 organizations innovating with Azure AI Foundry, the ecosystem is creating new ways to reimagine business processes and deliver AI-powered outcomes.
This momentum is reshaping entire markets. AI adoption is expanding margins, sparking new waves of customer investment, and opening opportunities of unprecedented scale: Microsoft estimates a $777 billion SME market by FY26 and a $592 billion enterprise market driving large-scale cloud and AI adoption.
Businesses that seize this opportunity are becoming Frontier Firms: organizations embedding AI into every layer of their operations. They aren’t just streamlining—they are reinventing customer engagement, enriching employee experiences, securing their infrastructure, and accelerating innovation.
This blog launches a five-part series designed to equip you with a unified cloud and AI narrative and to activate your top opportunities in FY26. We will explore how to modernize infrastructure, unify data estates, and deliver transformative AI solutions so your customers don’t just stay future-ready, they become future-defining.
A unified story: From infrastructure to insight and intelligent agents
Today’s customers are navigating increasingly complex landscapes—balancing modernization, data unification, and AI innovation. With Microsoft Azure, partners gain a single, secure platform that brings it all together, spanning hyperscale infrastructure, unified data, and cutting-edge AI tools.
Through a comprehensive portfolio of cloud services—such as Azure Migrate and GitHub Copilot for migration and modernization; Microsoft Fabric and Azure Databricks to unify the data estate; and Azure AI Foundry to power intelligent applications and agents—you can meet your customers where they are and take them where they want to go, while delivering:
- Security from code to cloud: Protect every layer of the stack with our AI-first security platform spanning identity, threat protection, data security, and compliance. A recent study found that customers using Microsoft Defender for Cloud remediated threats up to 30% faster and achieved 117% ROI over three years.
- Cloud-native scalability and efficiency: Customers using PostgreSQL on Azure achieve up to 58% ROI through scalability and operational efficiency, driving both performance and cost optimization.
- Innovation at scale: Build and manage powerful AI apps and agents on the Microsoft Cloud platform, used by Fortune 500 companies, including partners like Accenture and NTT DATA.
- Data-driven intelligence: Unify your customers’ data estates with Microsoft Fabric, Azure Databricks, and Microsoft Purview, reducing data silos, cutting integration time, and enabling AI grounded in trusted, real-time data.
- Business agility: Execute changes faster with a modern, AI-ready foundation.
Our approach to AI is grounded in our commitment to responsible development, guided by principles of reliability, inclusiveness, and transparency.
What’s new in FY26: A connected go-to-market approach
To empower you to drive AI innovation, scale with Azure, and drive key business outcomes with your customers, we’ve built a connected go-to-market strategy anchored on three high-growth solution plays: Migrate and Modernize Your Estate, Unify Your Data Platform, and Innovate with Azure AI Apps and Agents.
Each solution play is backed by proven customer outcomes, FY26 playbooks, campaigns in a box, and skilling programs designed to equip you to meet customers wherever they are on their AI journey and accelerate every engagement.
- Explore the new CSA and Agentic AI playbooks and marketing campaign assets, including campaigns in a box, click-through demos, and customer pitch decks.
- Leverage Azure Accelerate—a simplified offer framework with end-to-end support and faster funding access. Plus, eligible partners can also access Dr Migrate, an AI-assisted platform built to optimize your end-to-end migration and modernization planning.
- Access tailored skilling aligned to customer business outcomes—from Azure infrastructure to Microsoft Fabric, agentic AI, and GitHub Copilot—through our new, unified Partner Skilling Hub.
- Streamline your day-to-day tasks with intelligent guidance for benefits, usage, and incentives through the Partner Center AI assistant.
- View on-demand content from the FY26 GTM Kickoff and MCAPS Start for Partners, then continue the conversation by joining us at Microsoft Ignite, registering for FabCon Vienna, and joining us at the Azure Dev Summit.
Start now with the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program
The Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program equips you with the tools, resources, and support to meet rising demand, differentiate with Solutions Partner designations, increase profitability with incentives like Azure Accelerate and ISV Success Advanced, and deliver more cohesive solutions across infrastructure, data, and AI.
- Meet demand with solution plays aligned to high-priority scenarios. Start strong by reviewing the FY26 cloud solution area partner playbooks and MCAPS Start for Partners content, and integrating them into your customer engagements, marketing efforts, and skilling plans.
- Differentiate with Solutions Partner designations and specializations that signal credibility, technical depth, and industry expertise.
- Increase profitability with offerings like Azure Accelerate, Azure Essentials, the ISV Success Advanced package, and key incentives.
- Scale more efficiently with integrated development tools, automation, skilling investments like our new security workshop, and deeper technical collaboration.
- Simplify your go-to-market with Spark and CloudAscent propensity tools as well as campaigns in a box.
Equipped with the full strength of the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program and the trusted Azure ecosystem, you can guide customers through complexity and accelerate their transformation with secure infrastructure, unified data, and innovation at scale.
This is your moment
Whether you're migrating and modernizing on-premises workloads to the cloud with our comprehensive suite of cloud services, unifying your customers' data estates, or deploying agentic AI apps, you are shaping the future of business. Together, we are empowering customers to transform faster with AI-powered innovation.
1 Throughout this document, $ refers to US dollar (USD).