Partner Blog | What's new for Microsoft partners: January 2026 edition
Your voice continues to shape how the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program evolves. In this update, we’re bringing together the announcements, investments, and resources that matter most to partners right now. From the innovations unveiled at Microsoft Ignite to updates across benefits, Azure, AI business solutions, Marketplace, security, and skilling, this edition is designed to build capability, accelerate execution, and drive meaningful customer impact as AI becomes central to every workload. What follows highlights our focus and areas of partner opportunity, grounded in feedback from across the ecosystem and aligned to how customers are evolving their cloud and AI strategies. Spotlight Microsoft Ignite Microsoft Ignite marked an important evolution for the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, introducing new investments for partners to lead as Frontier Firms, translating their own AI experience into customer impact. Read Nicole Dezen’s blog for a partner-focused recap of Microsoft Ignite 2025, bringing together the announcements that matter most across AI, cloud platforms, security, and developer tools. Continue reading herePartner Blog | Preparing for the next stage of partner skilling in 2026
As 2025 draws to a close, we are seeing the impact of focus and follow-through across the partner ecosystem. This year, partners made skilling a deliberate priority. Across solution areas, teams deepened technical capability, strengthened sales readiness, and brought innovation into real customer engagements. That intent is translating into more confident delivery, faster time to value, and practices built to operate in an AI-driven market. Our November skilling update outlined the latest resources, bootcamps, and learning paths available to partners. As we look ahead to 2026, this moment is about turning those investments into a scalable skilling foundation that supports consistent delivery, drives customer outcomes, and positions your organization to grow as demand for AI, cloud, security, and data solutions continues to accelerate. Continue reading hereDon't miss session two, Adopting Copilot Chat and Agent Builder. Sign up now!
Our dynamic four-part webinar series, Agentic AI + Copilot Partner Skilling Accelerator, empowers you to harness the Microsoft AI ecosystem to unlock new revenue streams and enhance customer success. Across each of the four sessions, experts will deliver practical guidance, best practices, and proven strategies for applying AI tools across no-code, low-code, and pro-code scenarios. Tune in to the second session, Adopting Copilot Chat and Agent Builder, to learn how Copilot and agents can help your business design, position, and sell AI solutions that drive customer success and revenue growth. This live virtual event is scheduled for December 1, 2025. Register today to reserve your spot.Partner Blog | Build what’s next: Accelerating partner success with Microsoft skilling
This week at Microsoft Ignite, one message came through clearly: capability fuels growth. Across every industry and every role, partners investing in skilling are accelerating innovation, deepening customer trust, and driving measurable impact. Skilling is the new currency of the AI era. As organizations transform, partners are turning knowledge into action, advancing technical and business expertise to lead with confidence and drive customer outcomes. In the past year, more than 2.4 million partner learners have engaged in training across solution areas, and 1.7 million have completed AI-specific courses, a 66% increase year over year. Through the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, we’re investing in resources that make learning simpler, more accessible, and more aligned to opportunity. From the centralized Partner Skilling Hub to Certification Weeks, in-person training events, LevelUp, and AI-focused bootcamps, partners can strengthen their technical depth, expand sales capability, and build the skills that turn potential into performance. Read the full list of partner announcements from Ignite in Nicole Dezen’s blog. Continue reading hereRedefine work in an AI-enhanced world: Attend the Frontier Firms webinar November 24, 2025
Our dynamic four-part webinar series, Agentic AI + Copilot Partner Skilling Accelerator, empowers you to use the Microsoft AI ecosystem to unlock new revenue streams and enhance customer success. Across four sessions, experts will deliver practical guidance, industry best practices, and proven strategies for applying AI tools in no-code, low-code, and pro-code scenarios. The first session in this learning series explores Frontier Firms and how to position yourself as one, provides an overview of the Microsoft AI ecosystem, and offers tips on when and how to apply specific Microsoft tools. Don't miss this chance to level up your business's ability to design, position, and sell AI solutions that accelerate customer success and increase revenue. This live virtual event is scheduled for November 24, 2025. Register today to reserve your spot!Azure Kubernetes Service Automatic: Fast and frictionless Kubernetes for all
AKS Automatic simplifies Kubernetes by offering a fully managed, opinionated experience that abstracts away from infrastructure complexity, while keeping the full power of Kubernetes at your fingertips. Learn how production-ready clusters and automated infrastructure operations can accelerate your time to delivery and simplify operations for you! Check out the announcement blog here!Join the Movement at Azure Dev Summit!
Azure Dev Summit is a chance for you to join a community of developers, architects, and tech leaders building with Azure, .NET, and Microsoft AI. This isn’t just another conference. It is a Microsoft-sponsored celebration of innovation, learning, and connection — and we’re bringing some of the most inspiring voices in tech to the stage. Find out more about the speakers at Azure Dev Summit and make sure to register! https://azuredevsummit.com/Transform business process with agentic business applications (Asia)
October 1-2, 2025 | 7:30 AM – 10:30 AM ASIA (IST) Overview This bootcamp is designed to equip you with the AI skills and clarity needed to harness the power of Copilot Studio and AI Agents in Dynamics 365. Participants will learn what AI agents are, why they matter in Dynamics 365, and how to design and build agents that address customer needs today while preparing for the AI-native ERP and CRM future. Building from the fundamentals of Copilot Studio and its integration across Dynamics 365 applications, we’ll explore how first-party agents are built, why Microsoft created them, and where their current limitations open opportunities for partner-led innovation. We’ll then expand into third-party agent design and extensibility, showing how partners can create differentiated solutions that deliver unique value. Finally, we will provide a forward-looking perspective on Microsoft’s strategy with Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent-to-Agent (A2A) orchestration, and AI-native business applications - inspiring partners to create industry-specific agents that solve real customer pain points and showcase their expertise. Join this virtual event to accelerate your technical readiness journey on AI agents in Dynamics 365. Register today and mark your calendars to gain valuable insights from our Microsoft SMEs. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about the latest developments and elevate your partnership with Microsoft Event prerequisites Participants should have some familiarity and work experience with the associated solutions. Additionally, we suggest having knowledge of the relevant role-based certification content (although passing the exam is not mandatory). You can find free self-paced learning content and technical documentation related to the workshop topics at Microsoft Learn. Earn a digital badge Attendees who participate in the live sessions of this workshop will earn a digital badge. These badges, which serve as a testament to your engagement and learning, can be conveniently accessed and shared through the Credly digital platform. Please note that accessing on-demand content does not meet the criteria for earning a badge. REGISTER TODAY!
