Recently, the tech industry's enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI) technology has continued to rise, with major companies launching products to boost efficiency. However, despite many companies actively trying to introduce AI technology, not all companies are willing to use it as a replacement for human labor. According to a report by The Information, Microsoft faced significant setbacks in the sales of its enterprise-level AI services, forcing the company to cut its sales targets by up to 50%.
The team primarily responsible for promoting AI services is Microsoft Azure's sales staff. However, due to immense performance pressure, many salespeople found it difficult to meet their original targets. Microsoft's fiscal year 2026 starts on July 1, 2025, and ends on June 30, 2026, with an initial sales target set for the end of next June. However, multiple Azure sales teams failed to meet the growth targets for AI products, and salespeople were asked to increase customer spending on the Foundry platform by 50%. In reality, less than 20% of salespeople achieved this target.
Additionally, one department initially aimed to double customer spending, but after struggling to meet the goal, the target was adjusted to a 50% increase. Even so, the revised target was still unmet, and eventually, some departments had to reduce their AI product growth targets to about 25%, meaning the target was halved compared to the original 50% growth target.
In response, Microsoft stated that the overall sales quota for AI products did not decrease, and the reports mistakenly conflated growth targets with sales quotas, indicating a misunderstanding of how Microsoft's sales organization operates. Nevertheless, after the news was released, Microsoft's stock price declined, and many investors expressed concerns about the sustainability of demand for AI services, believing that future AI service sales growth might slow down rapidly, which would not be good news for Microsoft or the entire AI industry.
Key points:
🌐 Microsoft reduced its AI service sales targets by 50% due to sales pressure, making it difficult for salespeople to complete tasks.
📉 Multiple sales teams failed to meet targets, with actual achievement rates below 20%, and some departments reduced their AI product growth targets to 25%.
💼 Microsoft denied that the overall sales quota was reduced, and the stock price decline raised investor concerns about the sustainability of AI demand.
