This division helps customers deploy AI more efficiently and informs Microsoft’s product development decisions.
issued Friday, July 3, 2026, 10:48 a.m.
[SAN FRANCISCO] Microsoft is creating a new 6,000-employee organization to help companies with the technical and strategic work of implementing artificial intelligence.
Employees in the division will have experience in a wide range of fields, including engineering, corporate training and management, as well as specific industries, Microsoft announced.
“The skill set needed to do this is very unique. We have people who have spent 20 years in banking, including retail, energy and life sciences,” Judson Althoff, CEO of Microsoft’s commercial business, said in an interview on Bloomberg TV on Thursday (July 2).
By working more closely with customers, Althoff said they will be able to implement AI more efficiently and will be able to inform Microsoft’s own product development decisions.
Traditionally, software vendors have left this type of low-margin implementation work to consulting firms.
However, in the AI era, many are realizing that businesses need additional support to implement cutting-edge tools.
The model popularized by Palantir Technologies that places engineers within customer organizations has since been adopted by vendors from Salesforce to OpenAI.
Amazon’s cloud division announced a similar initiative on Tuesday.
Althoff said the idea for the new organization stemmed in part from customer concerns about the rising costs of AI.
Microsoft can help these companies improve how they use AI, such as replacing expensive models with cheaper ones, he said. bloomberg
