Frontier Partners: Turning AI into real business value in 2026
As more organizations invest in AI to transform how they work and compete, Microsoft partners are making it possible to maximize the return on these investments. We’ve had the opportunity to speak with many partners in recent months about how they are evolving their businesses. In this blog post, I’d like to share some of what we’ve heard.
Microsoft Copilot identifies partners’ "superpowers"
“Partners are really leaning into AI, going deeper by industry, and delivering outcomes that help customers,” says Alexa Easley, Marketing Manager at Microsoft. Our podcast team took that basic concept and converted it into an AI exercise. The team asked Copilot to identify a unique “superpower” for a selection of Microsoft partners. The AI responses show the depth and breadth of how our partners are using AI to build on their organizational strengths, including:
- Security-centric delivery that customers trust as a foundation. For example, AdaQuest uses the Zero Trust Framework for high-level security protection. The organization uses Copilot to help customers ask questions about the value of Zero Trust.
- Operational readiness that prepares data, governance, and platforms for AI-era work. BlueVoyant is educating customers about successful Copilot deployment and why Microsoft 365 Copilot should be deployed alongside our security suite.
- Agentic orchestration at scale that can deliver measurable operational savings. NTT DATA listens to clients and works on solutions for their clients based on trends such as optimizing and reducing costs.
Exploring the superpower question was a simple way for the podcasting team to integrate AI into an existing process. That reflects a larger point we’ve been hearing from our partners: AI works best when it’s integrated into a process.
Building better solutions and experiences with AI
Across the ecosystem, partners like you are applying AI in ways that address big ambitions while demonstrating tangible value. We’ve heard many fantastic partner success stories—here’s just a sample of what our partners are doing:
In short, you’ve told us that AI works best when it’s embedded where people already work and is aligned to clear outcomes that customers can measure. One of the best ways to explore this is to try out new ideas internally. We refer to this as becoming Customer Zero, a practice used regularly at Microsoft.
Learning from personal experiences
Many of you have already adopted the Customer Zero approach of rolling out new offerings internally before making them publicly available; you’re trying out new ideas and solutions, refining how they work, measuring gains, and adapting workflows in a real-world environment. The result: a deeper, more credible story to share with your customers.
Our Enterprise Partner Solutions (EPS) leaders Lori Borg and Tony Surma offer this advice based on their own experiences leading Customer Zero initiatives for go-to-market and technology teams:
- Be Customer Zero: start as an individual.
- Reimagine workflows altogether; don’t just automate.
- Share wins proudly with customers.
When partners build confidence internally, customers see partners not just as vendors but as trusted advisors.
Applying lessons learned in your own business
At the beginning of this blog, I described how our podcast team asked Copilot to describe our partners’ superpowers. Now we can reveal our own superpower: you. Executing together produces measurable value and impact for our customers. That’s the thread across every conversation: know your superpower, anchor it to the Frontier pillars, prove it by being Customer Zero, and move faster through trusted collaboration.
Ready to find your own partner superpower? Here are three ways you can put it into practice today to build on the momentum:
- Focus on one key workflow to optimize with AI. Pick a high-value area where AI can reduce friction or unlock new outcomes and build a repeatable solution around it.
- Strengthen your security foundation. Security is the trust layer that supports customers in adopting AI at scale. This should be a priority internally and with customers.
- Be purposeful with community. Tap into peer groups and shared knowledge. Your next idea might start with another partner’s experience.
To learn more about the work being done across the Microsoft partner space, visit our Microsoft Americas Partners YouTube channel.