Microsoft has reduced its ambition with AI. It has been realized that almost no one uses Copilot, they say in The Information

There is Satya Nadella, in his office, like an influencer. Since the Excel World Championship has been held, he wants to see how good he is at handling it… with the help of Copilot. The video is nice and seems to show that Microsoft’s promise that AI will be able to do many things for you is fulfilled. However, reality says otherwise, and the company itself seems to recognize it, because its sales objectives have been cut, according to The Information.

Optimism has cooled. According to internal sources in the Azure division cited in said newspaper, the company has made an unusual decision: lowering sales growth quotas for its AI products and services. The objectives were not achieved in the fiscal year that ended in June, and that has now caused the sales teams’ goals to be adjusted downward, reaching close to 25% growth. That Microsoft makes such a change is a clear indicator that the market is not responding at the speed expected.

Microsoft denies it. The Information’s claims have been denied by Microsoft. Those responsible indicated on Bloomberg that that article “inaccurately conflates the concepts of growth and sales quotas” and that “aggregate sales quotas for AI products have not been reduced.”

Which chatbot is used the most? (in USA). Meanwhile, the consulting firm FirstPageSage has published the market shares of the main chatbots on the market in the US. According to this data, ChatGPT clearly dominates that market with 61.30% of queries, while Microsoft is second with 14.10%. However, it is interesting to look at the details of the estimated growth: at Microsoft it is only 2%, while at Gemini it grows 12% and Claude 14%.

AI chatbot usage rate in December 2025 in the US. Source: FirstPageSage

AI doesn’t quite work. Corporate clients are finding it difficult to justify the return on investment from AI. It is difficult to measure the real savings that AI represents for writing reports or analyzing sales leads, for example. But there are sectors such as finance or cybersecurity in which the tolerance for error is zero. We still cannot trust AI, and that means that its real scope, especially in companies, is limited. An MIT report already warned that 95% of companies that have opted for the use of AI they have seen no measurable return in real income.

An example. In the topic of The Information we talk about the Carlyle private equity fund. They started using Copilot Studio to automate meeting summaries and financial models, but hit a technical roadblock: the AI ​​was having trouble pulling reliable data from other external applications. Given the situation, Carlyle reduced its spending on AI and is now much more selective with the AI ​​solutions it pays for, although its overall investment in technology is growing.

Bad on one hand, good on the other. It must be made clear that the AI ​​business is not in crisis, but it is very polarized. Azure is still going strong and GirHub works really well, for example. The problem is convincing traditional companies to pay extra for automated AI agents. Especially when using them is much more complex than installing a simple chatbot and starting to use it.

Even OpenAI adjusts expectations. OpenAI itself, they also indicated in The Information, has had to review its expectations with the agent market. Their new estimates have reduced AI agent revenue by $26 billion over the next five years. To compensate for this drop, OpenAI will focus its income on ChatGPT subscriptions.

Patience is running outeither. The industry is certainly not throwing in the towel, but it is beginning to lose patience. Brian Spanswick, CEO of the cybersecurity firm Cohesity, summed up the current situation: there is hope, but evidence is lacking. His company is creating its own code that allows it to connect Microsoft agents with its internal data, and they hope that this will demonstrate a real return on investment in a few months. Whether they succeed is another story, but one thing seems increasingly clear: the promises of AI remain unfulfilled. At least, those that Microsoft did with Copilot in companies.

Images | Microsoft | OFFICIAL LEWEB PHOTOS (CC BY 2.0)

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