- Reports that Microsoft lowered AI sales quotas have been denied
- The company declined to adjust growth expectations
- Quarterly Azure revenue is still up 40% year over year
Microsoft has reportedly reduced its sales targets for some AI products after struggling to meet them, according to The information.
The company’s Azure AI agent-building platform was highlighted as a key product that has been underperforming in terms of sales.
However, Microsoft has rejected lower sales quotas and notes that The information confused growth targets with sales quotas.
Is Microsoft struggling to sell its AI products?
“The information‘s story inaccurately conflates the terms growth and sales quotas, demonstrating their lack of understanding of the way a sales organization functions and is compensated,” a company spokesperson said.
“Total sales quotas for AI products have not been lowered,” they stressed.
The information reported that fewer than one in five workers from one of the US Azure sales units met the previous 50% growth target for Foundry. Another sales unit reportedly had a quota to double Foundry sales, but this is believed to have been lowered to 50%.
Although Redmond refused to lower sales quotas, the company did not refuse to reduce growth targets per se. TechRadar Pro asked Microsoft for clarification, but we have yet to receive a response.
With this in mind, it’s possible that Microsoft and many other companies may struggle to move some AI products as the world figures out where AI is most useful.
Azure revenue rose 40% last quarter, reflecting strong demand for cloud-based technologies, including artificial intelligence.
CEO Satya Nadella said the company will “continue to rise [its] investments in artificial intelligence across both capital and talent to meet the great opportunities that lie ahead.”
Microsoft stock fell about 3% after the initial report, but has since started to recover.
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