Microsoft Commercial CEO On Biggest 2026 AI Investments And Partner Plans

Microsoft’s global commercial leader, Judson Althoff, explains his company’s biggest channel partner plans, AI investments and customer challenges in 2026 in written responses to CRN’s CEO Outlook 2026 project.

Judson Althoff, CEO of Microsoft Commercial Business, laid out the software giant’s channel partner plans and investment strategy for 2026 which revolves around Copilot, Agent 365 and transforming Microsoft partners to become Frontier Firms.

“The key to success for our partners is to become a Frontier Firm,” said Althoff in written responses to CRN’s CEO Outlook 2026 project.

“This starts with partners as customer zero, using Microsoft's AI capabilities internally to transform employee experiences, customer engagement and operationalize processes,” he said.

Microsoft defines Frontier Firms as next-generation AI-first organizations that move beyond simple AI experimentation to rebuild their entire operational model around intelligence on tap. These types of partners blend human ambition with AI-powered agents to scale faster and operate more efficiently.

As part of CRN’s CEO Outlook project, Althoff takes a deep dive into Microsoft’s channel partner strategy in 2026, the tough challenges for Microsoft customers this year and the $78 billion company’s biggest investment areas.

What are the key technology investments Microsoft plans to make in 2026?

At Microsoft, we are focused on empowering every person and organization to achieve more, and that starts with building the infrastructure and AI capabilities our customers need to compete as Frontier Firms.

We are continuing to invest in this area to meet the growing global demand for our cloud and AI services and meet the sovereignty and resilience needs of every market we serve.

Our Copilot and agentic AI innovations—powered by Work IQ, Foundry IQ and Fabric IQ—connect how people work, unify enterprise knowledge, and bring intelligence to data so organizations can turn intent into action. Agent 365 enables you to observe, manage and secure your AI agents whether they are created with Microsoft platforms, open-source frameworks or third-party platforms.

With Microsoft Agent Factory, customers can measure ROI up front and build agents with the support of our engineers and partners.

All of this is enabled by our open, diverse and heterogeneous model platforms designed to help organizations bring together their full enterprise IQ and achieve their highest aspirations.

Click through to read about Microsoft Commercial Business CEO thoughts on the AI impact on partners in 2026, Microsoft’s biggest market opportunities and toughest customer challenges this year.

Fill in the blank: My top priority for 2026 is:

Bringing our best as a company through our differentiated technology portfolio to empower our customers to become Frontier.

We have achieved efficiency and productivity at scale that has helped shape industries and markets around the world—but it is time to demand more of AI to solve humanity's biggest challenges.

Together we will democratize intelligence, obsolesce the mundane, and unlock creativity to truly maximize an organization's potential and our collective impact on society.

What is the key to success for your channel partners in 2026?

The key to success for our partners is to become a Frontier Firm.

This starts with partners as customer zero, using Microsoft's AI capabilities internally to transform employee experiences [and] customer engagement, and operationalize processes.

The key to success is to leverage our partner skilling. Frontier Firms outperform because they devote 10 percent to 20 percent of their time to skilling.

Partners who embed AI into their operations, deploy Copilots, and build autonomous agents while maximizing skilling unlock designations, co-sell benefits and higher revenue.

With 145 AI courses and millions of individuals at partner organizations trained, we are building capability and capacity to lead the AI era.

What impact do you expect AI to have on the business you and your partners do together in 2026?

AI is redefining every aspect of partner engagement—from pre-sales and delivery to customer success and support.

Copilot and agentic AI will automate tasks that once took weeks, freeing partners to focus on higher-value services for our customers.

AI-powered insights will accelerate co-sell motions, increase win rates, and expand deal sizes.

Partners who adopt AI internally will gain credibility and speed, enabling them to deliver transformative outcomes for customers grounded in experience. With unified platforms like Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio, partners can also build multi-agent solutions that drive measurable business impact.

We believe Microsoft's AI capabilities and innovation will continue serving as the foundation for partner-led business growth and Frontier Transformation in the year ahead.

What do you see as the toughest challenges facing customers in 2026?

For some organizations, realizing ROI from AI projects has been difficult for a few common reasons: alignment between the business and IT professionals is inconsistent, data quality issues need to be rationalized by AI developers to get meaningful output from their efforts, governance and requirements in markets require AI to be sidelined from many of the largest impact projects, and an overemphasis on experimentation—or simply put, too many random acts of innovation.

The difference between successful projects and those that fail is the mindset shift from technology focused efforts to business led transformation empowered by AI—and in that order.

We are helping our customers evolve their approach through a Frontier Success Framework grounded on four pillars: enriching the employee experience, reinventing customer engagement, reshaping business processes, and bending the curve on innovation.

Anchored in this, we will help them achieve their business objectives with AI and foster greater competitive advantage.

What is the biggest market opportunity you and your channel partners will tackle together in 2026?

We are at an inflection point where every customer is looking to turn AI potential into real business outcomes.

Together with our partners, we share an opportunity to empower customers through Frontier Transformation: a holistic reimagining of their business, deeply aligning AI with human ambition to achieve their highest aspirations and potential.

Intelligence-plus trust are the two most important foundational elements in everything we do—helping our customers harness the power of their intelligence to build AI solutions and giving them the capability to observe and govern them in a secure environment.

The demand for AI-driven transformation spans every industry and region around the world, and partners are critical to delivering end-to-end outcomes.

Through the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, we are enabling partners to lead with AI—deploying Copilots, building autonomous agents, and integrating AI into every workflow.

Partners who embrace this market opportunity will capture new revenue streams in cloud, security, and data while accelerating meaningful innovation for customers.