How Winning Partners are Using AI Agents

Last week, we hosted the Voice of the Microsoft Partner to tackle one of the biggest shifts partners are facing: moving beyond the Copilot buzz of FY25 and embracing AI agents as the next stage of Microsoft’s strategy. Partners everywhere are asking the same questions: Where do agents fit into my business? How do I build them? And how do I monetize them without getting lost in the hype?

If you couldn’t make it live, here’s what we covered and what it means for your Microsoft practice.

AI Agents Take Center Stage

FY25 was all about Copilot. Every partner was told to deploy it, bundle it, and sell it as the future of productivity. But adoption reality hit hard: customers weren’t buying 100 Copilot licenses for 100 employees. Most only bought 20 for their power users.

FY26 changes the narrative. This is no longer about “add Copilot to every workload.” Instead, the focus is on AI agents, processes powered by knowledge bases, workflows, and integrations that run on their own. Think less chatbot, more business process automation.

Microsoft is making it clear: agents are where partners should invest time and creativity. Whether built in Copilot Studio, Power Platform, or Azure OpenAI, these agents can be vertical-specific, solve pain points, and open the door to ongoing managed services revenue.

From Assistants to Agents: The Adoption Curve

The roundtable walked through Microsoft’s AI adoption curve, which shows how organizations move from assistant-led tasks to agent-controlled operations. Partners who stay stuck in “assistant mode” risk being left behind.

We talked about how to start small, by creating simple, low-code agents in Copilot Studio, and then scale quickly by aligning them with vertical use cases. For example, billing agents in healthcare, data reconciliation agents in finance, or knowledge bots in legal. These are not futuristic ideas; they are real opportunities partners can launch in weeks, not years.

The message was clear: this is not as hard as it looks. Partners can build proof-of-concepts fast, get early wins with customers, and refine offerings into repeatable, industry-specific solutions.

Case Studies That Show What’s Possible

To ground this in reality, we looked at examples of Microsoft AI already driving impact:

• Finastra cut content creation cycles from seven months to seven weeks.

• Lumen connected Copilot with Salesforce and ServiceNow, saving employees 10 hours per week and driving $50M in projected annual revenue.

• Honeywell is saving 1.5 hours per employee each week, 74 hours annually, just by automating repetitive tasks.

• Amgen rolled out Copilot to 20,000 employees to speed up drug development in rare diseases.

These aren’t pilots anymore. They’re proof that AI agents deliver real ROI when tied to business outcomes.

Revenue Models and Pricing for Partners

Another hot topic was how to monetize agents. Sherman and David outlined a simple two-step approach:

1. Start with a fixed-price “Get Started” package. Partners can charge $5K–$8K for an agent POC that includes discovery, configuration, and adoption support.

2. Layer in monthly recurring revenue. Once deployed, agents can be supported as managed services at $500+ per month, with scalability based on usage and compute.

This model makes AI agents both approachable for customers and profitable for partners. The bottom line: don’t overcomplicate it. Start small, package it clearly, and expand as adoption grows.

Why Business Associations Matter

One of the most practical takeaways was how to find the right vertical entry point. Partners were encouraged to look at their client base, identify the top industries they already serve, and then align with relevant business associations.

This is where agent ideas can be validated and scaled. Associations highlight common industry pain points, provide access to large groups of potential customers, and help position the partner as a thought leader. We even heard examples of partners selling solutions into associations where one proof-of-concept turned into hundreds of opportunities.

Final Takeaway

Microsoft is pushing partners to evolve fast. FY26 is not about Copilot alone. It is about creating agent-led solutions that solve real business problems, drive measurable ROI, and align with Microsoft’s focus on AI adoption.

The partners who act now will be the ones positioned to lead their industries when the agent wave hits full scale. Start small, start vertical, and start now.

If you missed the discussion, you can watch the full recording here.

And don’t miss our next session, where we’ll uncover hidden earnings in Partner Center, one of the biggest areas partners are leaving money on the table.

Register Here