Ability Summit 2026: Accessibility-first innovation and your next partner opportunity
Accessibility is increasingly both a business imperative and a meaningful commercial opportunity for partners. At this year’s Microsoft Ability Summit, leaders across technology, education, and advocacy reinforced a clear point: accessibility-first innovation is creating new demand across AI, collaboration, learning, and customer experience. For partners, accessibility represents a clear opportunity to grow customer value. Accessibility-first innovation is becoming a mainstream expectation, opening opportunities to build differentiated services and solutions across AI, collaboration, learning, compliance, and customer experience. Organizations are increasingly viewing accessibility as part of a broader shift in how they approach AI, employee experience, and customer engagement. For partners, that shift creates an opportunity to lead higher-value conversations around innovation, trust, and long-term business impact. I encourage you to read Microsoft Chief Accessibility Officer Neil Barnett’s full recap of this year’s announcements and stories from the summit, including updates across AI, developer tools, Windows, devices, learning, Xbox, and inclusive packaging design. Why accessiblity matters for partners now Accessibility is becoming part of how customers evaluate experience quality, employee productivity, compliance expectations, and technology trust. Organizations are looking for technology that works consistently across real-world scenarios, roles, abilities, and environments. That expectation is accelerating as AI adoption grows. Accessibility is increasingly becoming part of how customers evaluate transformation readiness, technology trust, and the quality of the experiences they deliver across their organizations. A 2026 Forrester Consulting study commissioned by Microsoft found that assistive technology is already part of everyday work and life. Consumers reported using assistive features across at least six activities in the past month, on average. The same study found that 63% of respondents reported some level of difficulty with daily tasks related to vision, hearing, learning and cognition, mobility, and/or mental health. It also found that 71% of respondents would use assistive tools more often if enhanced with AI capabilities, and 55% said they feel a stronger commitment to employers when companies prioritize assistive tools and features. For partners, this points to a broader opportunity. Accessibility-first design can expand participation, strengthen employee and customer experiences, and build greater trust in technology, making it an increasingly important part of long-term transformation strategy. Where partners can lead The opportunity for partners is to bring accessibility into the conversations that are already shaping customer priorities, including AI transformation and adoption, modern work, application innovation, employee experience, customer engagement, and compliance. As accessibility becomes more central to business and technology strategy, partners can differentiate by making it part of the broader value they bring to customers. Partners that bring accessibility-first innovation into these conversations can deepen trust, expand strategic relevance, and create more differentiated value over time. This opportunity spans organizations of every size. Across both SMB and enterprise customers, accessibility is increasingly part of how leaders think about growth, workforce experience, customer connection, and technology modernization, and the Microsoft partner ecosystem is well positioned to meet that need. Partner opportunities in Microsoft Marketplace Microsoft Marketplace offers a useful view into how partners are translating accessibility-first innovation into practical customer value. The examples below illustrate how that opportunity is taking shape across different business and technology scenarios. Level Access makes digital accessibility a streamlined, scalable part of everyday operations The Level Access platform supports a continuous approach to accessibility, embedded into design, development, governance, and training workflows. Unlike point tools or episodic audits, this integrated solution helps organizations accelerate remediation, reduce risk, and demonstrate progress over time. Organizations can extend the power of the Level Access platform through private offers with capabilities such as LevelDocs for accessible content creation and remediation in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint; LevelCI for automated web accessibility testing within CI/CD pipelines; and Mobile Testing for native iOS and Android accessibility across physical and virtual devices. Retain Connector by Inclusively Many organizations have invested heavily in benefits, workplace accommodations, mental health resources, and employee support programs. But employees, especially those navigating disabilities or workplace barriers, often don't know what is available or how to access it. Retain Connector by Inclusively closes that gap directly inside the tools employees already use. Deployed within Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Outlook, and Microsoft 365 with no heavy integrations required, Retain acts as a workforce intelligence layer that lets employees describe their needs in plain language and get routed to the right benefits and resources through Inclusively's Success Enabler framework without needing to know what to search for or where to look. For employees who may feel hesitant to disclose a need or navigate a fragmented benefits landscape, the anonymous, conversational experience lowers the barrier to getting support. For HR and people leaders, Retain surfaces something equally valuable: real-time, aggregated insights into the benefits and barriers employees are actually experiencing. That intelligence helps organizations understand unmet demand, allocate benefits investments more effectively, and demonstrate a genuine commitment to inclusion not just in policy, but in practice. Creating differentiated value through accessibility offerings Taken together, these examples reinforce a broader point: accessibility is becoming an increasingly important part of how partners create differentiated value across both employee and customer experiences. Marketplace solutions can strengthen how partners bring accessibility-first innovation into customer conversations and platform experiences. The Microsoft Accessibility Partner Onboarding Guide also provides a useful foundation for partners looking to expand their accessibility focus on Microsoft platforms. The opportunity ahead for partners Accessibility is becoming an increasingly important part of the conversations customers are having around AI, modern work, security, application development, and industry transformation. The opportunity is not to treat accessibility as a separate conversation. It is to make accessibility part of how customers modernize, adopt AI, and build more trusted digital experiences. Ability Summit 2026 reinforced that accessibility-first innovation is shaping the future of AI, productivity, learning, collaboration, and end-customer experience. For partners, the opportunity is to turn that innovation into real customer impact. It is about building AI-powered experiences that are more trusted, more inclusive, and more effective for the people they serve. As Frontier Transformation accelerates AI adoption, partners are uniquely positioned to turn accessibility-first innovation into lasting business impact deepening customer relationships, expanding strategic relevance, and building stronger momentum as accessibility-first expectations continue to rise for our customers. Additional resources Read the Ability Summit 2026 blog by Neil Barnett, Chief Accessibility Officer at Microsoft. Explore the Forrester Consulting thought leadership paper commissioned by Microsoft, May 2026. Visit the Unique Unites Us accessibility hub. Watch for Ability Summit sessions to be available on demand in the coming weeks.
From insight to action: how Adobe and Microsoft are helping marketers move faster with AI
Today’s marketing leaders are under pressure to do more than ever—deliver meaningful personalization, accelerate execution, and prove measurable business impact. At the same time, teams are navigating increasing complexity: fragmented data, disconnected tools, and insights that arrive too late to act on. AI can change this—but only when it’s embedded directly into how people already work. That’s why Microsoft and Adobe are deepening our partnership: bringing customer experience intelligence, AI-powered workflows, and enterprise-grade AI directly into Microsoft 365 Copilot—so teams can move from insight to alignment to execution in one continuous workflow. The result is faster decisions, more coordinated execution, and clearer business outcomes—without breaking flow or context. Bringing customer experience intelligence into the flow of work Marketing teams don’t struggle because they lack data. They struggle because insights live in one place, collaboration in another, and execution somewhere else entirely. That disconnect slows teams down and creates unnecessary friction between analysis and action. Together, Adobe and Microsoft are changing that dynamic by connecting Adobe’s customer experience capabilities with Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Cowork—so insight, collaboration, and next-best action can happen where work already happens: in Copilot Chat and in everyday apps like Teams, Word, and PowerPoint. Marketers can ask questions, explore insights, align with teammates, and take action without jumping between tools—turning intelligence into impact at the moment it matters. Adobe Marketing Agent for Microsoft 365 Copilot: now generally available A major milestone in this journey is the general availability of the Adobe Marketing Agent for Microsoft 365 Copilot, now available via Microsoft Commercial Marketplace. The Adobe Marketing Agent brings Adobe customer experience intelligence directly into Copilot, enabling marketing teams to: Accelerate time from insight to decision Move seamlessly from analysis to execution Keep humans firmly in control, with AI supporting—not replacing—decision‑making Importantly, the agent is enterprise-ready by design. IT administrators can deploy and manage the experience through the Microsoft 365 admin center, ensuring security, governance, and compliance at scale. Expanding executive experiences with Copilot Cowork Looking ahead, Adobe skills designed for customer experience orchestration will be accessible in Copilot Cowork—in a future release. This upcoming experience will enable customer experience leaders to engage with customer experience insights in a more direct, conversational way, bringing strategic visibility into the same Copilot environments where decisions are made and actions are coordinated. Built on Azure to scale securely and responsibly The technology foundation of this innovation is Azure. Adobe Experience Platform, Adobe Experience Platform Agent Orchestrator, and Adobe AI Agents are built on Azure and leverage Azure AI models, providing the scalability, security, and reliability enterprises require. By running on Azure, these agentic experiences benefit from Microsoft’s global infrastructure, enterprise‑grade security, and responsible AI commitments—supporting customer trust as organizations scale AI across their business. Designed for interoperability across agent ecosystems Modern enterprises don’t operate in a single ecosystem—and their agents shouldn’t either. Adobe agents are built to interoperate with agents created using Microsoft Azure AI Foundry or Copilot Studio, enabling customers to orchestrate richer, cross‑functional workflows across marketing, sales, service, and operations. This architecture is designed to enable organizations to compose agentic solutions that reflect how work actually happens—across systems, teams, and business processes. Moving from experimentation to execution This partnership reflects a broader shift in how organizations adopt AI—moving from experimentation to embedded, enterprise‑ready execution. By bringing the full power of Adobe Experience Platform together with Microsoft’s AI platform, cloud infrastructure, and Copilot experiences, we’re helping teams move faster with clarity, confidence, and control. This is how AI becomes not just powerful—but practical. Learn more Adobe + Microsoft partnership page Adobe Marketing Agent for Microsoft Copilot pagePartner Case Study | United Technologies
Founded in 1994, United Technologies (Int’l) Ltd. is a leading IT service and accounting solutions provider based in Hong Kong. United Technologies joined the Microsoft Marketplace Rewards program to utilize the global advantage of co-marketing with Microsoft as a critical step toward expanding its business beyond its existing market in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. At the end of 2025, the company executed a listing optimization and press release support to promote SmartBusiness, an ABSS (formerly MYOB) accounting solution built on Microsoft Azure. During the following quarter, United Technologies realized a 20 percent month-over-month increase in page visits and an increase to 65 percent of conversion rates for calls to action from qualified leads. Utilizing Microsoft Marketplace to navigate changing business conditions United Technologies provides ABSS subject-matter experts with efficient, cost-effective, one-stop IT business management consultancy services and solutions, including its SmartBusiness for retail and wholesale business integration with ABSS accounting systems. Before joining Marketplace Rewards, United Technologies relied on traditional marketing channels and word of mouth to deliver sales and certified technical support for ABSS accounting software to over 10,000 clients in Hong Kong across retail, wholesale, and professional services. The company’s mission is to be a long-term strategic partner for businesses by helping clients steadily move toward digital transformation and a sustainable future. United Technologies realized it needed a more powerful platform to accelerate business growth, stay ahead of intensifying market competition, and adapt to changing client purchasing habits. Joining the Marketplace Rewards program built on United Technologies’ long-standing partnership with Microsoft and deep integration with Microsoft technology. "The Microsoft Marketplace Rewards program has been the catalyst for our international expansion. By handling the complex deployment and payment workflows seamlessly, Microsoft allowed us to focus on what we do best—delivering smart business solutions to our clients," said Sunny Yaury, Business Director, United Technologies (Int'l) Ltd. Expert advice expands marketing reach globally United Technologies benefited from Marketplace Rewards via expert guidance and breadth of resources available to better market apps on Microsoft Marketplace. The activities available through Marketplace Rewards delivered significant, quantifiable results, helping the company close its first deal in new markets. From the beginning, United Technologies received expert recommendations from Microsoft about how to optimize its marketplace offer page. Using press release support including a quote from a Microsoft executive, United Technologies enhanced the announcement of the availability of SmartBusiness in the Microsoft Marketplace. In the first calendar quarter after executing Marketplace Rewards, United Technologies saw a 20 percent month-over-month increase in page visits that has remained constant, a sign of sustained Marketplace traction. The conversion rate from calls to action to qualified leads jumped to 65 percent. Marketplace presence leads to new customers and international expansion "Microsoft Marketplace has enabled us to reach new customers across territories with complete confidence. The worry-free deployment and trusted payment workflows endorsed by Microsoft removed the barriers we once faced when expanding beyond Hong Kong," Yaury said. Continue reading here Explore all case studies or submit your own. Subscribe to case studies tag to follow all new case study posts. Don't forget to follow the Marketplace blog, Marketplace discussion board and the events calendar to stay in the know!Partner Blog | Scaling partner-led growth in Europe: Multiparty private offers expand to new markets
The way solutions, services, and agents are procured is changing, and partners are shaping what comes next. As customers accelerate investments in AI, they are looking for solutions that combine technology with expertise, services, and trusted relationships. The most successful technology transformations happen when partners work together to deliver measurable outcomes. We continued to invest in Microsoft Marketplace, bringing together a unified experience through Marketplace.Microsoft.com, while expanding partner-led capabilities like resale enabled offers. Marketplace is how we co-sell together at scale. Building on this momentum, starting May 27, 2026, multiparty private offers in Microsoft Marketplace will be available across 30 countries in Europe. This expansion makes it easy for partners to collaborate on deals, simplify transactions, and scale across borders. We are also continuing to expand beyond Europe, with multiparty private offers becoming available in Australia, Japan, and South Africa starting July 15, 2026. “Customer expectations across Europe are continuing to evolve towards localized buying models and requiring faster outcomes. The expansion of the multiparty private offers functionality in Microsoft Marketplace provides us with an additional way to quickly connect the right software, services, and partners in a single offer to support faster time to value for Microsoft customers.” Sophie Daval Director Hyperscalers Global ArrowSphere Arrow Why it matters for partners Customers want outcomes they can realize quickly, with buying experiences that reflect local buying preferences. At the same time, many businesses operate across multiple countries, which increases complexity for pricing, contracting, billing, and fulfillment. Continue reading hereBoost Marketplace discoverability with AI-assisted feedback
Enhance your Marketplace listings with personalized guidance delivered through App Advisor. Powered by agentic capabilities trained on Microsoft best practices, App Advisor is a no-cost, self-service growth tool that scans and reviews your listings to provide clear, actionable recommendations. These insights are designed to improve discoverability and strengthen customer engagement—which can drive more clicks, leads, and deals. Try App Advisor today and learn more in our blog. Don't forget to follow the Marketplace blog, Marketplace discussion board and the events calendar to stay in the know!Partner Case Study | CTERA
In step with Microsoft, working to unlock customer potential Headquartered in Israel and New York, with global offices worldwide, CTERA Networks Ltd strives to help organizations create a connected fabric of data to unlock its full potential. CTERA powers some of the world’s largest Fortune 500 enterprises and government agencies. Its customers are often highly distributed organizations, operating across numerous edge and core sites, including factories, hospitals, municipalities, law offices, and remote work environments with file estates ranging from hundreds of terabytes to hundreds of petabytes of data. CTERA has partnered with Microsoft since the early introduction of Microsoft Azure and today supports more than 60 customers running CTERA on Azure compute and storage infrastructure. CTERA’s Intelligent Data Platform, available for purchase through Microsoft Marketplace, delivers a software-defined global file system that intelligently caches data at distributed sites based on access frequency. It uses Azure Blob Storage as the authoritative, protected, immutable copy, and Azure Premium SSD and Azure Virtual Machines as core infrastructure components. In addition, CTERA integrates with Microsoft’s security, productivity, and AI ecosystem, including Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Copilot, enabling governed data to power secure collaboration and AI-driven insights. Swift enterprise deals and 68% more marketplace listing engagement Because CTERA focuses on large enterprises and government agencies, Microsoft Marketplace significantly streamlines procurement, legal review, and vendor onboarding processes, which are often complex. Offering a solution through the marketplace enables customers with a Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment to apply eligible purchases toward their cloud budget while benefiting from Microsoft’s established trust and account relationships. The marketplace also increases product visibility and provides valuable insight into market engagement, allowing CTERA to better support customers and refine its strategy. Continue reading here Explore all case studies or submit your own Subscribe to case studies tag to follow all new case study posts. Don't forget to follow this blog to receive email notifications of new stories!Partner Blog | Driving channel velocity in an AI-first world: Microsoft Marketplace at Channel Partners Conference
The recent Channel Partners Conference & Expo brought together thousands of channel leaders, technology providers, and ecosystem partners to explore what’s next for the channel—and how partners can accelerate growth in a market being rapidly reshaped by AI. With an audience deeply focused on differentiation, scale, and customer value, the conference highlighted how cloud, AI, and modern commerce models are redefining the partner opportunity. Microsoft Marketplace participated as a Platinum sponsor, reflecting the central role the channel plays as customers move AI from experimentation into production. As partners guide strategy, deployment, and outcomes, Marketplace provides the commercial foundation—connecting partners, software companies, and customers through flexible, channel-led sales models that scale. “Microsoft Marketplace gives enterprise and SMC customers a direct path to procure Devicie against their Microsoft commitments, while our channel-led sales motion extends our reach through the trusted partner relationships that help customers achieve better device management outcomes.” Connor O’Reilly, Channel Sales Manager, Devicie Continue reading herePartner Blog | Veeam
Higher education institutions are under increasing pressure to safeguard the growing volumes of data required to support their teaching, learning, and research. As hybrid learning environments become more complex and cloud adoption accelerates, IT teams need a unified approach to protect data across both on‑premises systems and virtual infrastructure. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Veeam is a long-standing Microsoft partner that delivers data protection and recovery solutions to help organizations protect data across hybrid environments. As a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Azure, Veeam delivers solutions through the Microsoft Marketplace and holds a certified software designation, with recognition as a 2025 Microsoft Partner of the Year finalist for ISV Innovation. The company’s Microsoft‑aligned solutions support customers as they modernize infrastructure, strengthen cybersecurity postures, and prepare for future growth. That focus is why Batterjee Medical College (BMC)—a rapidly expanding private medical college in Saudi Arabia—partnered with Veeam to strengthen their data resilience strategy and ensure continuity as their operations, hybrid learning environment, and regional footprint continue to grow. Building a scalable data protection approach BMC has been undergoing significant change, working to elevate their teaching, clinical practice, and research through digital initiatives. The institution is also expanding their geographic footprint by scaling hybrid learning opportunities in the region and opening a new campus in Dubai, making BMC the first Saudi education provider to operate internationally. These initiatives placed growing pressure on the organization’s digital infrastructure, with data volumes increasing at an estimated 20% a year. As BMC extended the use of cloud services while continuing to rely on their on‑premises infrastructure, the limitations of their existing solutions became more pronounced. The IT team needed consistent protection across workloads and a future‑ready, hybrid approach that could scale without compromising service availability. “Our previous tools supported earlier phases of growth, but with expansion, we needed a unified and scalable solution,” said Nabil Alsanbi, IT Operations Director at BMC. “We were looking for more scalability and granular control of data backup and recovery. We targeted a single data resilience solution for our entire hybrid environment, which would put us in the best position to support the growing business.” Continue reading herePartner Case Study | SCvation
Founded in 2015, SCvation GmbH specializes in business intelligence solutions, including expertly crafted visuals for Microsoft Power BI. The small team of highly skilled and experienced professionals delivers products such as Data Slicer that help SCvation customers use Power BI to uncover data insights for making strategic decisions. SCvation helps companies across industries, from retail to public services, to optimize their business and visualize their process-specific data. Seeking to increase traffic and sales for its solutions on Microsoft Marketplace, a worldwide marketplace for line-of-business solutions, SCvation utilized Microsoft Marketplace Rewards. SCvation got expert marketing advice for improving the Data Slicer offer listing. Additionally, SCvation received press release support, including a quote from a Microsoft executive, to announce the availability of Data Slicer in Microsoft Marketplace. SCvation gained a more attractive visual design and increased the number of page visits to its offers on Marketplace. Promoting the listing on social media and through the press release also increased traffic. “Microsoft Marketplace Rewards is helping us to increase our brand awareness. Our Microsoft Marketplace listing page views have increased by up to 50 percent in the last three months!” said Christian Neuwirth, Managing Director, SCvation GmbH. Since using Marketplace Rewards, SCvation has grown the number of licenses sold for its product from a few hundred to over a thousand, for an increase of 25 percent in a few months. Reflecting on calendar year 2025 growth, Neuwirth said, “We experienced a great increase in generating leads on Microsoft Marketplace. With minimal effort, due to the collaboration with Marketplace Rewards, we were able to drive much higher levels of traffic and opportunities.” Continue reading here
Microsoft Partnership Multiplier Series for ISVs (SDCs) with Juhi Saha
Eighty percent of Azure Marketplace listings never generate meaningful revenue - this session reveals why and shows you how to be in the winning twenty percent. We'll move beyond basic listings to explore the monetization hierarchy: when contact-me offers work versus when transactability becomes essential, how private offers unlock enterprise opportunities, and advanced strategies like MACC consumption programs. You'll learn the pricing models that convert versus those that create friction, discover what truly drives marketplace visibility and field seller recommendations, and understand the co-marketing tactics that actually work. Walk away with a clear offer design strategy and your path to first marketplace transaction. Register for the event here About Juhi She specializes in turning partnerships into a company’s fastest growth engine. A seasoned operator, over the past two decades, she's helped startups, scale-ups, services companies and global enterprises transform complex ecosystems into real revenue, driving billions in pipeline (and valuations), accelerating exits, and scaling globally while de-risking the investment into partner-led growth. At Microsoft, she launched and led Pegasus, the company’s flagship program for high-growth VC-backed startups, unlocking hundreds of millions in pipeline. She also built fintech and AI partnerships that shaped Microsoft’s GTM strategy with key industries. As VP of Partnerships at Clearbit, she designed and ran a new partner business that generated double-digit revenue growth and positioned the company for acquisition by HubSpot. Earlier leadership roles at Intel and Qualcomm gave her a foundation in product, operations, and ecosystem expansion. Today, as CEO of Partner1, she advises CEOs and CROs on how to: ✔ Grow profitably and globally through B2B partnerships while de-risking investment in partnerships ✔ Accelerate co-sell and marketplace revenue with Microsoft, AWS, GCP, AI and other key ecosystems ✔ Align GTM, sales, and partner strategies to unlock non-dilutive, scalable growth She also serves as a board director and strategic advisor to fintech, AI, and SaaS companies scaling through ecosystem-led growth. With a B.S. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from UC Berkeley, an M.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from UC San Diego, and three patents that run on every mobile device, she pairs deep technical expertise with real-world impact. Combined with go-to-market expertise, She brings the rare ability to bridge vision with execution, and partnerships with revenue.
