Microsoft denies reports of lower AI sales targets as customers resist new tools

• Reports that Microsoft lowered AI sales quotas have been denied
• The company did not deny adjusting growth expectations
• Quarterly Azure revenue is still up 40% year-over-year

Microsoft has reportedly reduced its sales targets for some AI products after struggling to hit them, according to The Information.

The company’s Azure AI agent-building platform was highlighted as a key product that has been underperforming in terms of sales.

However, Microsoft has denied lower sales quotas, noting that The Information confused growth targets with sales quotas.

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“The Information‘s story inaccurately combines the concepts of growth and sales quotas, which shows their lack of understanding of the way a sales organization works and is compensated,” a company spokesperson commented.

“Aggregate sales quotas for AI products have not been lowered,” they stressed.

The Information reported that fewer than one in five workers from one of the US Azure sales units met the previous growth target of 50% for Foundry. Another sales unit reportedly had a quota to double Foundry sales, but this is believed to have been lowered to 50%.

Although Redmond denied lowering sales quotas, the company did not deny reducing growth targets, per se. TechRadar Pro asked Microsoft for clarification, but we have not received a response as yet.

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With this in mind, it’s possible that Microsoft, and many other companies, could be struggling to shift some AI products as the world works out where AI is most useful.

Azure revenue rose 40% last quarter, reflecting strong demand for cloud-based technologies including AI.

CEO Satya Nadella said the company will “continue to increase [its] investments in AI across both capital and talent to meet the massive opportunity ahead.”

Microsoft stock dropped around 3% following the initial report, but it has since started to recover.

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