Microsoft Partners: Accelerate Your AI Journey at AgentCon 2026 (Free Community Event)
Recently, a customer asked me a question many Microsoft partners are hearing right now: “We have Copilot — how do we actually use AI to change the way we work?” That question captures where we are in the AI journey today. Organizations have moved past curiosity. Now they’re looking for trusted partners who can turn AI into real business outcomes. That’s why events like AgentCon 2026 matter. A free, community-led event built by practicioners AgentCon is not a traditional conference. It’s a free, community-driven global event organized by the Global AI Community together with Microsoft partners and ecosystem leaders. Simply put: it’s for the community, by the community. Across cities worldwide, developers, consultants, architects, and Microsoft partners come together to share practical experiences building with AI agents, Copilot, and the Microsoft platform. The focus isn’t theory — it’s implementation: What worked What didn’t What partners can apply immediately with customers This peer learning model reflects how many of us actually grow in the Microsoft ecosystem: by learning from other partners solving real problems. Why this matters for Microsoft partners The opportunity for partners is evolving quickly. Customers aren’t just asking about AI tools — they’re asking how to redesign processes, automate work, and unlock productivity using AI-powered solutions. The Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program emphasizes partner skilling and helping customers realize value from AI investments. Community events like AgentCon accelerate that learning by bringing partners together to exchange proven approaches and practical insights. When partners upskill faster, customers succeed faster. Why attend AgentCon is designed to help partners move from AI awareness to AI delivery. As an attendee, you can expect: Practical sessions and demos from practitioners Real-world AI and agent scenarios Direct conversations with builders and peers New collaboration and co-sell opportunities You’ll leave with ideas and approaches you can bring directly into customer engagements. Why speak AgentCon thrives because partners share openly with one another. If you’ve implemented Copilot, explored AI agents, or learned lessons from customer deployments, your experience can help others accelerate their journey. Speaking at AgentCon allows you to: Share your expertise with the global partner community Build credibility within the Microsoft ecosystem Create new partnerships and opportunities Contribute to collective partner success You don’t need a perfect story — just an honest one others can learn from. Join the global AgentCon community AgentCon 2026 events takes place around the world including these upcoming events: March 9 - New York: https://aka.ms/AgentconNYC2026 April 11 - Hong Kong: https://aka.ms/AgentconHongKong2026 April 16 - Seoul: https://aka.ms/agentconLondon2026 April 22 - London: https://aka.ms/agentconSeoul2026 Each event is locally organized, community-led, and free to attend. Help shape the next phase of AI adoption AI transformation is happening now — and Microsoft partners play a critical role in guiding customers forward. AgentCon is an opportunity to learn together, share experiences, and strengthen the partner ecosystem driving AI innovation. 👉 Register or apply to speak: https://aka.ms/agentcon2026 We hope you’ll join us — and be part of the community helping customers turn AI potential into real impact.
Driving Global SMB Impact Through AI Powered, Partner Led Digital Sales
Join Siew Hoon Goh, General Manager of Microsoft’s Global Vendor Digital Sales (VDS) organization, as she shares how VDS is transforming SMB engagement through digitally‑scaled, partner‑centric sales motions that deliver impact worldwide. Under her leadership, VDS has become a core engine in Microsoft’s SMB strategy—driving significant YoY revenue growth, pioneering AI‑forward sales capabilities, and strengthening global alignment across Americas, EMEA, and Asia. In this session, Siew Hoon Goh will explore: How VDS empowers thousands of SMB customers by combining digital signals, AI innovation, and partner collaboration at scale. The evolving “digitally initiated, partner closed” model that accelerates customer acquisition, migration, and growth across global markets. FY26 priorities—including AI transformation, CSP growth acceleration, and deeper global‑regional orchestration—that strengthen partner execution and unlock new revenue opportunities. Attendees will gain insight into Microsoft’s fastest‑scaling SMB sales engine and learn how partners can amplify their impact by aligning with VDS’ global motion and leveraging shared best practices, joint planning frameworks, and AI‑powered customer engagement strategies. Register for this IAMCP Enlighten session here Driving Global SMB Impact Through AI Powered, Partner Led Digital SalesOpenAI’s open‑source model: gpt‑oss on Azure AI Foundry and Windows AI Foundry
Open-weight models give customer decision makers control and flexibility - no black boxes, fewer trade-offs, and more options across deployment, compliance, and cost. With OpenAI’s gpt-oss open-weight models on Azure AI Foundry, you can: Fine-tune and distill the models using your own data and deploy with confidence. Mix open and proprietary models to match task-specific needs. Spin up inference endpoints using gpt oss in the cloud with just a few CLI commands. And Foundry Local makes gpt‑oss-20b usable on a high-performance Windows PC – enabling use-cases in offline settings, buildings in a secure network, or running at the edge. Check out more here!
New capabilities in Azure AI Foundry to build advanced agentic applications
Microsoft continues to evolve the technologies it offers to customers and partners so they can push the boundaries of innovation! Here is a summary of just a few announcements for Microsoft’s 50 th anniversary. Check out the blog for more! General availability of agent framework that you can use to simplify the orchestration of multi-agent systems for your customers. See how KPMG is using Semantic Kernel to orchestrate workflows among specialized agents, dramatically reducing development complexity. The advanced observability suite for evaluations, tracing, and A/B testing—giving developers unprecedented visibility into agent behaviors and outcomes. Use the observability suite to build more robust AI systems for your customers. AI Red Teaming Agent (public preview) helps uncover safety risks through comprehensive reports, tracking improvements over time. Mitigate risks in AI so your customers feel more comfortable in investing in AI and in your services. See what Accenture has to say about the AI Red Teaming Agent. With Azure AI Foundry extension for Visual Studio Code (public preview), developers can build, test, and deploy agent-based applications entirely within their Integrated Development Environment (IDE)—no context switching required. Improved developer experience leads to faster development times. And don’t forget to block out May 19-22 on your calendar to join us for Microsoft Build in Seattle!Dynamics 365 Blog | Accelerate your journey to AI-first selling with Microsoft AI Accelerator for Sales and new sales agents
AI transforms the way people work, the way every function operates, and the way businesses drive competition and growth. It’s also transforming the business application landscape as customers adopt Microsoft 365 Copilot as the UI for AI and agents for every business process. Nowhere is that more true than in sales. The combination of Copilot, agents, and human ambition can free time to focus on closing deals, help teams build a stronger pipeline, and drive new levels of profitability. That matters because in sales, time is money. We’re announcing a new program—Microsoft AI Accelerator for Sales—to help more customers rapidly transform their sales organization with Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents, as well as two new agents—Sales Agent and Sales Chat—to help scale the team’s ability to nurture and close deals. Read on for more information on each of these announcements on our full blog.Partner Blog | Capturing the marketplace opportunity: Part one of a series by selling path
Cloud marketplaces have become the fastest growing channel for B2B software sales, driven by continuous growth in IT spending that is projected to reach $5 trillion in 2024 1 . More customers are centralizing their cloud portfolios and making marketplaces their preferred buying platform. For software companies, adopting cloud marketplaces as a core go-to-market strategy helps close deals faster and increases deal sizes. At Microsoft, the marketplace is the center of gravity for how we go to market with our software partners to solve customers’ technology challenges. The Microsoft commercial marketplace promise The marketplace democratizes IT, helping empower any Microsoft partner to sell to any Microsoft customer worldwide. As a B2B global commerce engine, the marketplace adapts to how customers want to buy and how you want to sell, whether that is digital direct (always-on selling to help grow your pipeline), through partner (selling alongside the Microsoft global ecosystem of over 500,000 partners), or with Microsoft (unlocking enterprise deals alongside Microsoft sellers). This blog is the introduction, and first in a four-part series on maximizing your marketplace opportunity across these different selling paths. Our next edition will dive into always-on selling with digital direct. Continue reading here You can continue to stay connected to us through the Marketplace Community and follow our Marketplace Blog for important announcements.New opportunities for sales, services, and education partners
Today, we are excited to announce the expansion of Copilot for Microsoft 365 with the general availability of new offerings for sales, services, and education—providing new ways for customers and partners to embrace AI to achieve their goals and significantly enhance how they work.
