Microsoft Stock Falls on Report About Reduced Ambition for AI Sales

Microsoft has yet to give specific sales figures for its Microsoft 365 Copilot offering. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg)

Microsoft shares were falling Wednesday after a report from tech-focused site The Information that Microsoft was easing sales quotas for enterprise artificial intelligence products like Microsoft 365 Copilot. The news could be a sign that, despite lots of excitement from tech executives, company leaders are being cautious about full scale adoption of AI tools.

Microsoft stock was down 1.5% in midday trading on Wednesday.

A Microsoft spokesperson told Barron’s that “aggregate sales quotas for AI products have not been lowered.”

According to the Census Bureau’s Business Trends and Outlook Survey, about 10% of businesses used any form of AI to produce goods or services in September, up from 3.7% two years before. But the survey also showed that adoption among larger organizations declined over the summer, as some businesses backed away from pilot programs.

Even though the company has talked up Microsoft 365 Copilot extensively during earnings calls and events, it hasn’t given firm figures on sales.

Salesforce is one of the few software companies that has provided AI-related revenue figures. As it closed the second quarter in July, it had $440 million of annual recurring revenue for future AI product sales, about 1% of projected companywide revenue for the next 12 months.

Salesforce reports earnings after the close of markets today. The stock was up 1.2% Wednesday.

Write to Adam Levine at adam.levine@barrons.com