Navigating Microsoft AI: What the Move Toward Agentic AI Means for Partners
Estimated Read Time: 5 minutes
Intended Audience: Microsoft Partners
Microsoft’s Partner ecosystem is undergoing a major shift, and at the center of it all is agentic AI. As Microsoft repositions its cloud and business applications around intelligent agents, Partners are expected to evolve their go-to-market motions, solution design, and sales strategy to stay relevant. Here’s what you need to know to stay competitive in the Microsoft AI era and how to take action.
Why Agentic AI Is Now the Core of Microsoft’s AI Strategy
Agentic AI supports Microsoft’s long-term goal of enabling fully autonomous, outcome-driven workflows across every cloud and business application. At the 2025 Biz Apps Summit, one of the most consistent themes across sessions and partner conversations was Microsoft’s push toward agentic AI. This strategic shift supports Microsoft’s long-term goal of enabling fully autonomous, outcome-driven workflows across every cloud and business application. From what we heard firsthand, agentic AI moves beyond productivity enhancements to deliver real business transformation, especially in high-impact areas like customer service, sales, operations, and security.
To accelerate adoption, Microsoft is embedding agents across all major solution areas, including Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Microsoft 365. Every GTM playbook, co-sell motion, and sales conversation is being reframed to prioritize AI agents as the default delivery model.
Microsoft’s Three New Designations for the Agentic AI Era
As agentic AI becomes foundational to Microsoft’s product and sales strategy, the expectations for Partners are shifting too. As first announced in MCAPS Start for Partners 2025, Microsoft is streamlining Partner recognition into three core designations, simplifying the framework and aligning it more closely with emerging priorities:
- AI Business Solutions: A new designation for Partners building, deploying, and scaling real-world AI solutions on Microsoft Cloud, with a strong emphasis on integrating agentic AI into business scenarios. This designation combines the former Business Applications Solutions and Modern Work Solutions areas.
- Cloud & AI Platforms: A unified designation that merges Data & AI, Digital & App Innovation, and Azure Infrastructure solution areas. This streamlines recognition for Partners who design, build, and operate scalable, secure, and intelligent cloud environments.
- Security: This designation remains unchanged but continues to be a critical recognition area for Partners specializing in safeguarding identities, devices, applications, and data across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
These designation changes raise the bar for Partner performance, requiring new levels of AI fluency and technical delivery.
Microsoft-Funded Engagements Built Around Agentic AI Adoption
To support Partners in delivering measurable AI value, Microsoft has introduced three structured, funded engagements under the Copilot + Power Accelerate motion. These engagements are designed to accelerate time-to-value for customers across the sales journey:
- Immersion Briefings: A half-day session designed to inspire and educate customers on Copilot and agent capabilities. These group sessions focus on showcasing real-world agentic AI scenarios and encouraging customers to envision what’s possible within their organization.
- Envisioning & Proof of Concept: A guided engagement to help customers identify key personas, define use cases, build a business case, and assess technical and security readiness. This stage also includes delivering an Immersion and Proof of Concept to validate the solution’s fit and impact.
- Deployment Accelerator: A hands-on delivery phase focused on implementation. Partners help customers develop agents, establish security foundations, provide training, and support adoption change management to drive long-term success with Copilot and Power Platform solutions.
How can Microsoft Partners Sell AI Agents?
Supporting that journey requires not only the right delivery strategy but also the right tools. This framework, introduced at the 2025 Biz Apps Summit, outlines how Microsoft Partners can effectively sell AI agents by guiding customers through a structured adoption journey. The framework breaks this process into three clear phases:
1. Readiness: Build Trust and Uncover Use Cases
Before selling anything, help customers get comfortable with AI agents. This means focusing on education, trust-building, and early ideation. At this stage, the goal is to help customers see what’s possible and align agent adoption with their business priorities.
2. Evaluation: Shape and Validate a Real Solution
Once interest is there, shift to co-designing and validating a solution through pilot development. This is where Microsoft’s Agent Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) Program comes in. This stage gives the customer confidence in the solution’s value and feasibility, accelerating the sales cycle and setting the stage for a smooth close.
3. Implementation: Deploy and Expand
After closing, Partners lead deployment using Microsoft’s Deployment Accelerator and high-touch programs like CAPE and CAT. This includes agent implementation, governance setup, training, and adoption support.
Tools to Support Microsoft Agentic AI Alignment, Adoption, and Selling
SPARK Propensity (Enterprise & Corporate)
SPARK Propensity is Microsoft’s customer propensity modeling tool for enterprise and corporate segments. It uses first- and third-party data to surface high-priority accounts that are most likely to adopt new solutions, especially AI-powered workloads.
For Partners selling agentic AI, SPARK makes it easier to prioritize the right accounts, craft more relevant messaging, and engage customers who are already showing strong signals of readiness. It helps shorten the sales cycle by focusing efforts where the likelihood of conversion is highest.
CloudAscent (SMB)
CloudAscent is the SMB counterpart to SPARK, built to help Partners identify and engage small- and mid-sized businesses with a high likelihood of adopting specific Microsoft solution areas.
For agentic AI, this means Partners can proactively target SMBs that are ready to experiment with Copilot, Power Platform, or Dynamics 365 agents. CloudAscent enables a more efficient prospecting motion, especially for Partners scaling AI through digital sales or tele-sales motions.
BOOST (Digital Maturity Scoring)
- Overall maturity score (based on content volume and engagement)
- LinkedIn activity and reach across Microsoft-focused topics
- Breakdown by solution area, including blogs, case studies, and web pages
- A prioritized view of where your GTM performance is strongest or needs improvement
Microsoft Americas Customer Evidence Program
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