This week at Microsoft Ignite, one message came through clearly: capability fuels growth. Across every industry and every role, partners investing in skilling are accelerating innovation, deepening customer trust, and driving measurable impact.
Skilling is the new currency of the AI era. As organizations transform, partners are turning knowledge into action, advancing technical and business expertise to lead with confidence and drive customer outcomes. In the past year, more than 2.4 million partner learners have engaged in training across solution areas, and 1.7 million have completed AI-specific courses, a 66% increase year over year.
Through the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, we’re investing in resources that make learning simpler, more accessible, and more aligned to opportunity. From the centralized Partner Skilling Hub to Certification Weeks, in-person training events, LevelUp, and AI-focused bootcamps, partners can strengthen their technical depth, expand sales capability, and build the skills that turn potential into performance.
Read the full list of partner announcements from Ignite in Nicole Dezen’s blog.
New skilling resources
Partner skilling in the age of AI: Impact on partner success and growth
At Ignite, Ramanan Arunachalam presented a session on the impact of partner skilling on business performance. New insights showed that project-ready and workload-aligned training accelerates partner success by strengthening delivery capability and expanding opportunity. His session included practical examples of how skilling supports higher win rates and faster deal cycles. Read the blog to learn more.
Partner Skilling Hub: Free learning for every role across the Microsoft AI Cloud
The Partner Skilling Hub is the single destination for mastering Microsoft AI and cloud solutions. It provides comprehensive learning that is live, virtual, or on demand for developers, architects, and sellers. Every experience is designed to accelerate partner capability and capacity across the Microsoft AI Cloud.
By expanding AI expertise across roles and earning key technical certifications, your organization can become a Frontier Firm, leading with technical depth, customer impact, and AI innovation. Use the Partner Skilling Hub to move beyond skilling for today and start building for what’s next.
Tech Deal Ready Accelerators and Skilling Content Syndication
For presales and technical roles across the partner ecosystem, we’re introducing Tech Deal Ready Accelerators, reusable solution frameworks that partners can use to move faster from opportunity to deployment. These are available now for AI and will expand to Security, Fabric, and AI Business Solutions by December.
We’re also piloting Skilling Content Syndication, through which Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) and distributor partners can scale Microsoft partner skilling content, both technical and sales, directly to their resellers through existing learning management platforms. This allows partners to extend learning deeper across their organizations and networks.
Explore these skilling events to get started.
Microsoft Sovereign Cloud Boot Camps
For partners pursuing the upcoming Digital Sovereignty specialization, we’re launching deep, hands-on Sovereign Cloud Boot Camps focused on compliance, privacy, and operational sovereignty. These boot camps are designed to prepare partners to deliver solutions that meet regional and regulatory requirements while powering innovation in secure, trusted environments.
Agentic AI and Copilot Partner Skills Accelerator webcast series
We’re excited to launch the Agentic AI and Copilot Partner Skills Accelerator webcast series, a new learning experience designed for partners who want to turn knowledge into impact.
This four-episode series provides a clear, practical path to support customers becoming Frontier Firms. It begins by demystifying what a Frontier Firm is and why it matters, then maps the end-to-end architecture of modern AI—how agents, copilots, data, and orchestration work together to deliver measurable outcomes.
Partners will also gain clarity on “what to use when...” across the Microsoft Copilot stack, including Copilot Chat, Copilot Studio, and Azure AI Foundry. Each session is structured to build capability step by step, so you can apply what you learn immediately in customer conversations.
Ongoing skilling opportunities
Our popular skilling series offers new dates for:
- Partner Project Ready Workshops: These multiday skilling events are designed to deepen your ability to assess customer needs and seamlessly implement Azure solutions.
- Sales & Presales Skilling Bootcamps: Create new business opportunities and stand out in the AI and cloud market by investing in sales skilling. Get support with planning, building, and assessing strategies for closing sales opportunities. You will learn how to articulate the value of your solutions and services, expand your sales strategies, and accelerate the customer journey.
- Partner Meetups for Microsoft Azure: Join live and virtual events designed by Microsoft for Azure partners to stay current, connect with experts, and deepen their technical and go-to-market capabilities.
Join the Microsoft AI Tour for Partners and transform insight into impact
We’re delivering skilling opportunities to partners worldwide through our flagship event series, the Microsoft AI Tour for Partners. These in-person sessions deliver role-based and market-specific training on agentic AI, Copilot Studio, Security, Fabric, and more. This format ensures partners can build technical depth and sales readiness in the regions where they operate. Find an event in your area:
- Frankfurt | Tuesday, December 2 | 8:00 AM–5:45 PM CET
- Mumbai | Tuesday, December 9 | 8:00 AM–7:00 PM IST
- Sao Paulo | Tuesday, February 10 | 9:00 AM–5:30 PM BRT (registration opening soon)
- London | Thursday, February 26 | 9:00 AM–5:30 PM GMT
- Paris | Tuesday, March 10 | 9:00 AM–5:30 PM CET
- Seoul | Tuesday, March 24 | 9:00 AM–5:30 PM KST
- Tokyo | Wednesday, April 8 | 9:00 AM–5:30 PM JST
- Sydney | Monday, April 20 | 9:00 AM–5:30 PM AEST
- Zurich | Tuesday, May 5 | 9:00 AM–5:30 PM CET
Certification Weeks
Certification Weeks and on-demand Certification Ready courses offer focused preparation across Azure AI, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and other key areas. Partners gain access to live instruction, practice resources, and exam support to accelerate certification and increase capability across their organizations. Explore upcoming Certification Weeks:
- Germany Certification Week: Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program – AI Business Solutions
Monday, November 24, 8:00 AM – Friday, November 28, 6:00 PM CET
- Asia Certification Week: Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program – AI Business Solutions
Monday, December 1, 8:00 AM – Friday, December 5, 6:00 PM IST
- Japan Certification Week: Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program – AI Business Solutions
Monday, December 1, 8:00 AM – Friday, December 5, 6:00 PM JST
- Korea Certification Week: Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program – AI Business Solutions
Monday, December 1, 8:00 AM – Friday, December 5, 6:00 PM KST
- China Certification Week: Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program – AI Business Solutions
Monday, December 1, 9:00 AM – Friday, December 5, 5:30 PM CST
- Certification Prep (on demand)
- Azure Developer Certification Prep (on demand)
- Azure AI Engineer Certification Prep (on demand)
Boost your expertise: Secure your spot at an upcoming in-person Microsoft regional workshop
Discover hands-on Project Ready and Tech Deal Ready workshops at your local Microsoft office. Join us in person to connect with expert trainers and peers while exploring topics such as building agentic AI in Copilot Studio, strengthening security with Microsoft Defender XDR, architecting and implementing AVS, and advancing with Microsoft Sovereign Cloud, as well as workshops on agentic AI acceleration and Microsoft Fabric.
Moving forward with Microsoft partner skilling
These investments are designed to make learning a growth engine for every partner. By connecting readiness to opportunity, partners can advance faster, deliver differentiated customer value, and lead the way in AI innovation.
With Microsoft partner skilling, you’re not only preparing for what’s next—you’re building the future of the AI economy.