Microsoft Lowers AI Sales Quotas After Misses

Microsoft Corp. has lowered sales quotas for certain artificial intelligence products in multiple divisions after salespeople failed to meet targets during the fiscal year that ended in June, according to reports from industry sources. The adjustments, which affected tools in the company's Azure cloud unit, signal growing caution among enterprise customers toward rapid AI adoption, contributing to a more than 2 percent drop in Microsoft's shares during trading on Wednesday.

The changes primarily targeted sales of AI models and agents through Microsoft's Foundry marketplace, a platform for building and deploying automated AI tools that handle complex tasks. In one U.S. Azure sales unit, the company initially set a goal for salespeople to increase customer spending on Foundry by 50 percent in the fiscal year, but fewer than one-fifth achieved it. In July, Microsoft reduced the target to about 25 percent growth for the current fiscal year. A separate unit had aimed to double sales, yet most salespeople fell short, prompting a cut to 50 percent growth. Such quota reductions are unusual for Microsoft, the reports noted, reflecting resistance from businesses reluctant to commit...