AI Demand Struggles: Microsoft Slashes Enterprise AI Sales Quotas by Up to 50%

5 December 2025. According to The Information, Microsoft has faced mounting difficulties persuading corporate customers to adopt its AI offerings and has reportedly been forced to slash its enterprise AI sales quotas by as much as 50%. AI services are largely sold through Microsoft Azure’s enterprise sales division, where performance pressure has left many representatives unable to meet original targets.

For the 2026 fiscal year, which runs from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026, initial goals for Microsoft Foundry-based sales were to increase customer spending by 50%, a target fewer than 20% of staff met, while another division’s doubled target was later scaled back to 50% and, in some cases, to around 25%. Microsoft maintains that overall AI sales quotas have not been reduced, arguing the publication misinterpreted how its sales organisation operates. The developments contributed to a decline in Microsoft’s stock price as investors debated the sustainability of AI demand.