Product Updates

Microsoft Foundry adds five Claude capabilities for agent solutions. Azure Content Understanding pairs generally available 1.0 updates with new document-processing capabilities in 2.0 public preview.

Partner Enablement and Go-to-Market

Compare GPT-5 models against workload requirements and use the FY27 Copilot and agent practice guide to identify capability gaps. Connect FY27 priorities to customer outcomes, refresh Azure conversations with the latest partner resources, strengthen AI business cases, and open modernization conversations with the new SQL Server Migration and Modernization Toolkit. See how Acme Corrugated Box modernized its data on Microsoft Fabric to increase self-service reporting by 50 percent and save 50-plus hours per week.

Incentives and Offers

Growth margins start October 1, 2026, for eligible partners and qualifying Microsoft 365 growth opportunities. Review API and billing readiness before launch, and complete Sandbox testing ahead of the October CSP Azure promos GA.

Partner Skilling

The five-part Co-sell Execution Engine video series covers seller collaboration, deal velocity, win rates, and scaling.

Events

Join Partnering for Success Together series on September 23, 2026 to gain practical guidance to support your go-to-market readiness.

Product Updates

Build production-ready agents with new Claude capabilities

Microsoft Foundry now supports structured outputs, web search, web fetch, Model Context Protocol connectors, and tool search for Claude models hosted on Azure. These capabilities provide built-in components for output validation, retrieval, integration, and tool routing in agent solutions. Partners can reduce custom engineering when building Claude-based agents while using Azure deployment, identity, billing, and governance patterns. Review the five capabilities and identify where they can replace custom components in current agent solutions.

Explore new Azure Content Understanding capabilities

Azure Content Understanding 1.0 adds broader GPT-5 support, lower token use, and improved grounding and confidence scoring. Azure Content Understanding 2.0 preview adds synchronous Read and Layout APIs, contextualization, semantic chunking, classification improvements, prebuilt analyzers, and agentic document reasoning. Partners can improve production content-processing solutions and evaluate new document automation, retrieval, and complex extraction scenarios. Assess the 1.0 updates for current workloads and test relevant 2.0 preview capabilities with representative customer content.

Partner Enablement & Go-to-market

Choose the right GPT-5 model for content workloads

The Azure Content Understanding guide compares GPT-5 series model options across document, image, video, and speech workloads. It also explains grounding efficiency and confidence enhancements, including considerations for quality, cost, latency, and workload requirements. Partners can make better architecture decisions by matching model choice to customer workload and business requirements. Shortlist models and compare them using the same analyzer, schema, representative inputs, and labeled examples.

Differentiate your Copilot and agent practice

Microsoft highlights the FY27 Copilot and agents Partner Practice Development Guide and complementary tools and assets for practice development. The resources are intended to help partners build and strengthen Copilot and agent capabilities. Partners can identify capability gaps and sharpen services that differentiate their Copilot and agent practices. Review the guide with practice leaders and select tools that address the highest-priority capability gaps.

Turn FY27 AI priorities into customer outcomes

FY27 guidance calls on Azure partners to move more AI initiatives into production and modernize the cloud, data, application, security, and governance foundations they require. The guidance emphasizes starting with customer outcomes and connecting Core and Frontier opportunities to measurable impact. Partners can use the FY27 direction to shape outcome-led customer conversations and identify the foundation work needed for production AI. Map priority accounts to a customer outcome, the required foundation work, and the next go-to-market action.

Use the latest Azure partner resources

The August Azure partner update highlights FY27 Cloud and AI Platforms go-to-market resources and an upcoming Azure reservation exchange policy update. The update brings together partner resources, Azure product information, and go-to-market opportunities for cloud and AI practices. Partners can refresh customer conversations with current FY27 materials and prepare relevant teams for Azure reservation planning changes. Review the update and route relevant go-to-market and reservation guidance to sales, delivery, and operations owners.

Connect AI economics to business outcomes

The article reframes Microsoft Foundry economics from token consumption toward the business value and outcomes created by agentic AI. It encourages teams to evaluate AI investments using outcome measures alongside technical consumption assumptions. Partners can strengthen customer business cases by connecting architecture and consumption choices to measurable operational outcomes. Add outcome measures to Microsoft Foundry proposals alongside technical consumption and cost assumptions.

New SQL Server Migration and Modernization Toolkit

A collection of ready-to-use assets is now live on Partner Center, in the Listen & Consult section, to help you start modernization conversations, build urgency around end-of-support, and guide small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers toward Azure. It includes a customer-ready Proactive Proposal deck with a to-customer email template and a SQL Server 2016 End-of-Support Pitch Deck—everything you need to open conversations and position the migration path. It is a practical starting point to engage customers earlier, ahead of end-of-support deadlines, and accelerate your Azure migration pipeline.

Download the assets, target your top SQL end-of-support accounts, and launch proactive outreach this quarter.

• SQL Server Modernization Proactive Proposal (includes to-customer email template)
• SQL Server 2016 End-of-Support Pitch Deck

Modernization isn’t a “someday” project—hear from partners on why Azure and why now

Hear from Microsoft partners on the Azure modernization opportunity and why now is the moment to act with customers. Use their perspectives to build urgency in modernization conversations and connect the migration path to near-term business outcomes.

Acme Corrugated Box modernizes data with Microsoft Fabric

A new small and medium-sized business (SMB) customer story shows how Acme Corrugated Box, a packaging manufacturer with roughly 200 employees, unified its data on Microsoft Fabric to replace manual, siloed reporting. The results are concrete: a 50 percent increase in self-service reporting and more than 50 hours saved each week on data reconciliation. It is a relatable, SMB-scale proof point you can use to show how Fabric turns manual reporting into self-service analytics and to build urgency for data-modernization conversations. Share the story with manufacturing and SMB prospects to open Microsoft Fabric conversations and position analytics as a quick-win outcome.

Incentives & Offers

Prepare APIs for the growth margins launch

Microsoft plans to introduce growth margins on October 1, 2026, for eligible partners and qualifying Microsoft 365 growth opportunities. Readiness resources cover technical guidance for API changes and billing automation ahead of the planned launch. Eligible partners can reduce operational disruption by validating systems and processes before the program changes take effect. Review the API and billing readiness guidance with technical, finance, and operations teams before launch.

Azure CSP promos go live in October—complete your Sandbox testing now

Azure consumption promotions for Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) reach general availability in October. For the first time, Microsoft is offering percentage-off discounts on pay-as-you-go, Reserved Instances, and pre-purchase plans, built directly into the Azure commerce experience. Sandbox is open now, and testing your capability there is a prerequisite for activation, so validate readiness and submit feedback ahead of the October GA. Partners who finish Sandbox testing early are ready to offer well-timed, competitive pricing on day one—winning more deals and accelerating Azure adoption instead of scrambling at GA. Begin or complete your Sandbox testing today, review the Learn docs and FAQ, and join an upcoming CSP promo readiness call to make sure your team is prepared.

Partner Skilling

Strengthen your co-sell motion with new videos

The five-part Co-sell Execution Engine video series provides on-demand guidance from Microsoft co-sell leaders and experienced partners. Sessions cover seller collaboration, deal velocity, win rates, and scaling co-sell across the business. Partners can use the series to establish a more consistent co-sell approach across teams and opportunities. Choose sessions that address current co-sell gaps or complete the full series with the sales team.

Events

Join the Partnering for Success Together series

The monthly Partnering for Success Together series begins September 23 on the Microsoft Partner Skilling Hub. The session covers Microsoft partner investments and practical go-to-market guidance designed to help partners prepare to act. Partners can align with current priorities, identify opportunities, and strengthen customer conversations and go-to-market execution. Register for the September 23 session to strengthen your go-to-market success.