Our customers are no longer asking what AI can do. They are asking how to deploy it securely, govern it consistently, and generate measurable business outcomes. They are experimenting with agents, and many are stuck between pilots and scale. What separates companies experimenting with AI from Frontier Firms comes down to how they combine intelligence and trust, not just adding more AI tools, but connecting with organizational data and knowledge, and building a secure, compliant and observable foundation. That is where Microsoft’s partner ecosystem makes the difference, turning experimentation into secure, governed deployments that drive Frontier transformation.
To support this next phase of AI adoption, we are announcing Microsoft 365 E7: The Frontier Suite, with general availability of Microsoft 365 E7 and Microsoft Agent 365 on May 1, 2026.
Microsoft 365 E7 is the productivity suite for a human-led, agent-operated enterprise, designed to move customers from AI experimentation to company-wide execution by turning human intent into AI action that functions securely and at scale.
Microsoft 365 E7 brings together Microsoft 365 E5 for secure productivity, Entra Suite for identity and access control, Microsoft 365 Copilot for AI in the flow of work, and Agent 365 as the control plane to govern and scale agents, all grounded in shared intelligence from Work IQ and built with trust to protect the organization. It is a comprehensive solution that offers up to 15% incremental savings when purchased as an integrated suite.
While Microsoft 365 E7 equips people to work differently, Microsoft Agent Factory enables customers to build, deploy, and scale custom agents with comprehensive tooling. The Microsoft Agent Factory Pre-purchase Plan (P3) adds licensing flexibility across Microsoft Copilot Studio, Microsoft Foundry, Microsoft Fabric, and GitHub. It also provides role-based skilling, reducing adoption friction and increasing the value you deliver. Together, Microsoft 365 E7 and Agent Factory provide a clear path to move customers from early adoption to durable Frontier transformation.
For partners, this is a new revenue stream with attach opportunities across the customer lifecycle, from AI advisory and solution design to agent deployment, governance, and ongoing optimization. Anchored in AI execution, security, and operational rigor, it creates repeatable, services-led monetization and positions you to guide customers through Frontier transformation.
The partner opportunity
Partners play a central role in translating Microsoft 365 E7 and Agent 365 into business execution, from scenario design and deployment to adoption, integration, and governance from day one.
Services and solutions partners: Your opportunity is to own the end-to-end Frontier Firm transformation by building an AI practice that spans advisory, deployment, and adoption through a Center of Excellence (CoE). Lead with AI advisory to align IT and business leaders on high value scenarios and a clear path from pilots to production, then deploy Copilot and agents with confidence using the right guardrails across identity, data, security, and compliance.
Build additional value by activating out-of-the-box agents and developing custom agents integrated with line-of-business systems, enabling customers to confidently adopt agentic solutions at-scale with comprehensive Agent governance and security services provided through Agent 365. Finally, drive sustained impact through adoption and CoE motions including training, change management, and ongoing AgentOps managed services.
“KPMG sees Microsoft Agent 365 as a notable development for organizations seeking to scale agentic AI responsibly. By offering a more unified control plane for governance, security, and observability, Agent 365 supports enterprises as they move beyond fragmented pilots toward a more consistent, production‑ready approach to deploying agents.”
- Cherie Gartner, Global Client Lead Partner, KPMG US
To accelerate Microsoft 365 E5 to E7 upsell and Agent 365 adoption, Copilot + Power Accelerate will include Agent 365 across Immersion Briefings, Envisioning and PoC engagements, and Deployment Accelerators starting April 1, 2026. Partners will also receive performance credit for incremental revenue from Agent 365 and Microsoft 365 E7 SKUs, directly aligning Copilot expansion with Microsoft 365 E7 growth. This strengthens your ability to turn Copilot momentum into governed agent scale and long-term services revenue.
Channel and CSP partners: Your opportunity is to make the upgrade path repeatable, then attach services that accelerate time to value. There are multiple customer scenarios that are an excellent starting point for your engagement: customers already using Microsoft 365 E5 plus Copilot, Microsoft 365 E3 plus Copilot customers, and Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 customers focused on scaling AI safely.
Package readiness workshops, security and governance assessments, deployment, and adoption offers, then establish an operating rhythm for optimization that can evolve into managed services as agent usage grows.
“Agent 365 unlocks the full potential of employees and agents—combining strong governance with the control organizations need to scale responsible AI without slowing innovation.”
- Mattias Bruhn, Offering Manager, Atea Sweden
To support partner engagement across the customer journey, starting April 1, 2026, Microsoft 365 E7 and Agent 365 will be included as eligible workloads for the core, strategic product accelerator, and growth levers in CSP incentives.
In addition, leverage the promotional offers aligned to Microsoft 365 E7 and designed to accelerate customer adoption of secure, agent‑enabled AI at scale. These promotions create a lower‑friction entry point for customers to move from AI experimentation to enterprise execution, while enabling partners to lead with higher‑value conversations around governance, security, and operationalization of AI agents.
Software development companies: Your opportunity as an Agent Factory provider or delivering your own agents is to scale your agents with enterprise trust. Using Agent 365 SDK, you can make your agents governable, secure, and manageable inside Microsoft customer tenants, turning bottom-up adoption into tenant-approved deployment. Admins can govern both Microsoft-built agents and partner agents through a unified control plane, reducing enterprise adoption friction while eliminating the need to build bespoke governance for each customer.
“What impressed us most about Agent 365 is that Microsoft didn't just build a platform- they built the trust layer enterprises actually need. The governance, security, and compliance are baked in from the start, so IT leaders can deploy AI with confidence. For Genspark, that meant we could now bring Genspark's AI into enterprises and directly into Teams, Microsoft Word, other M365 productivity apps, Copilot and computer use with compute from Windows 365 for Agents all within the purview of enterprise IT while letting users experience it in the flow of work. That's the kind of partnership that gets us excited.”
- Eric Jing, CEO, Genspark
All partners: Many customers are on the journey to becoming Frontier Firms, but the path will look different depending on where they are in this transformation. For customers already on Microsoft 365 E5 who are ready to buy and implement an integrated AI and agent platform, lead with Microsoft 365 E7 and Agent Factory to move from experimentation to company-wide execution.
For customers who have not yet adopted Microsoft’s E5 security solutions, but are already advancing their AI transformation with Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents, start with Agent 365 to address immediate agent security, governance, and visibility needs, while positioning the broader Microsoft 365 E5 security and compliance foundation in parallel as the platform they will need to scale with confidence. For customers currently on Microsoft 365 E3, focus on the Microsoft 365 E7 components that address their top-priority needs depending on where they are in their Frontier Firm transformation journeys.
Position your business for success with the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program
The Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program has new investments and resources for partners to lead as Frontier Firms by translating your own AI experience into customer impact. This includes skilling and recognition mechanisms that increase your credibility, differentiation, and readiness to deliver.
Building AI-first capability across the ecosystem
When you look at the world’s Frontier Firms, a common pattern stands out: they devote 10 to 20% of their time to skilling. In an AI-first world, skilling is the new currency.
The Partner Skilling Hub brings learning paths together into a single destination for mastering Microsoft Cloud and AI solutions. It offers learning experiences that are live, virtual, or on demand for roles across presales, sales, and technical audiences. With localized content in over 30 markets, partners can skill by role, workload, or solution area.
Partner excellence and differentiation
We continue to evolve program offerings that enable partners to differentiate themselves to customers and Microsoft sellers, including:
- Frontier Partner badge: recognizes organizations leading AI transformation through an AI-first, human-led approach that combines AI agents and human ingenuity to scale innovation and impact.
- Frontier Distributor designation: recognizes distributors that meet high standards of performance and enablement, designed to create differentiation and scale for partners serving SMB customers.
- Support Services designation: celebrates partners delivering exceptional customer experiences across Microsoft Cloud, with public badging. Begin pre-enrollment now for an eligibility assessment.
- Digital Sovereignty specialization: identifies partners qualified to assess, architect, and implement sovereign-cloud strategies across Azure, Microsoft 365, and Security.
Microsoft Marketplace continues to expand as a growth engine, including global availability of resale enabled offers, allowing publishers and channel partners to resell software solutions through Marketplace. With solutions, AI apps, and agents for every use case, a comprehensive catalog across industries, and an integrated experience from discovery to deployment, Marketplace connects customers to partner innovation at scale.
Partner Marketing Center Pro enables partners to activate ready-to-use Microsoft campaigns and assets or customize and launch demand-gen with AI. Add it to your Microsoft 365 E7 motion to quickly package a scenario-led campaign and run it against renewal, migration, and Copilot expansion target lists.
Next steps
- Read the blogs regarding today’s announcements from Judson Althoff, CEO, Microsoft commercial business, Jared Spataro, Chief Marketing Officer, AI at Work, and Vasu Jakkal, CVP, Microsoft Security.
- Join us on March 9, 2026, at 8:00 AM Pacific Time (UTC-7) for the Frontier Transformation digital event.
- Visit the Frontier Firm Partner GTM page for customer-facing resources and GTM guidance.
- Register for the Digital Partner Airlift for CSP authorized partners and SI partners on March 31, 2026, to learn more about the Agentic System of Work.
- If you are an Agent Factory provider or build your own agents, start with the Agent 365 SDK to integrate and enable enterprise customers to deploy your agents within trusted enterprise boundaries.
- Visit the Copilot Partner Directory and Agent Showcase pages to see the growing network of Copilot and Agents partners driving Frontier Firm transformations.
The first wave of AI was about efficiency, doing the same work faster. The Frontier era is about something bigger: redesigning how intelligence shows up inside work to unlock creativity, innovation, and growth. The real question customers face now is how quickly they are ready to move from experimentation to execution.
As customers evolve in their Frontier journey, Microsoft partners are uniquely positioned to enable customers to turn ambition into measurable business impact with trusted guidance, governed scale, and operational rigor.