Microsoft is restructuring its sales division to focus heavily on AI, Business Insider reports. Judson Althoff, Microsoft’s chief commercial officer, sent an internal memo calling for his sales unit, Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions (MCAPS), to become “the Frontier AI Firm.”
The memo arrived just before Microsoft began a round of layoffs that affected many salespeople in Althoff’s organization. Notably, the memo doesn’t mention these job cuts.
Althoff outlined five priorities for the revamped sales team: 
- Establish a Copilot on every device and across every role
- Strengthen Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 execution and penetration
- Create meaningful AI design wins
- Grow the Azure cloud platform via migration and modernization
- Build a cybersecurity foundation for secure AI transformation
Back in April, Althoff revealed plans to cut the sales team’s “solutions areas” from six down to three: AI Business Solutions, Cloud & AI Platforms, and Security.
The AI Business Solutions group will push for “Copilots on every device” and promote Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365. Cloud & AI Platforms will focus on Azure, the AI “agent factory” Foundry, and data analytics platform Fabric.
Security will pivot from defense to aggressive competition in Microsoft’s security tools.
Althoff said on Security:
We have spent a lot of time playing defense over the last year, and it is now time to compete more aggressively.
Microsoft faces fierce AI competition from OpenAI and Google. Despite this, Microsoft has an edge with enterprise customers already using its ecosystem. Still, many employees prefer well-known AI services like ChatGPT.
The overhaul kicked off July 1 as the new fiscal year started.
[Source: Business Insider]
