--- title: "Microsoft’s Attempts to Sell AI Agents Are Turning Into a Disaster" description: "As The Information reports, Microsoft's Azure salespeople are seriously struggling to meet some extremely ambitious sales growth targets." date: "2025-12-03" modified: "2025-12-03" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/microsoft-sell-ai-agents-disaster" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" --- # Microsoft’s Attempts to Sell AI Agents Are Turning Into a Disaster ![As The Information reports, Microsoft's Azure salespeople are seriously struggling to meet some extremely ambitious sales growth targets.]() *Getty / Futurism* For many months now, AI companies have made a huge deal out of "AI agents," meaning autonomous software systems that can make decisions and take actions on behalf of humans with minimal intervention. But when that ambitious vision will turn into a reality remains anybody's guess. The current crop of agentic AI models is still getting easily tripped up, often requiring humans to jump in, effectively undercutting their purpose. The numbers remain dismal. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University [found earlier this year]() that even the best-performing AI agent, which was Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro at the time, failed to complete [real-world office tasks]() 70 percent of the time. And this summer, OpenAI [released its ChatGPT agent](), promising that it can "do work for you using its own computer, handling complex tasks from start to finish." But in reality, users found the experience lackluster, calling it "[not very useful]()," "[shaky]()," and "[slow]()." As such, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Microsoft is struggling to sell its enterprise clients on its own take on agentic AI. As [*The Information* reports](), the company's Azure salespeople are seriously struggling to meet some extremely ambitious sales growth targets, cutting quotas by up to 50 percent earlier this year. Microsoft's stock sank over 2.5 percent on Wednesday, showing that investors are unimpressed by the tepid sales results. Meanwhile, the tech giant went into damage control mode, with a spokesperson [telling *Bloomberg*]() in a statement that "*The Information*’s story inaccurately combines the concepts of growth and sales quotas" and that "aggregate sales quotas for AI products have not been lowered." Regardless, the dustup suggests that enterprise customers are far from convinced that large AI agents are ready to autonomously complete complex multistep tasks. It's yet another indication that companies are [struggling]() to convert the enormous hype surrounding generative AI into actual revenue, a concerning trend considering the billions of dollars AI companies are burning through right now with no end — or [return on investment]() — in sight. It's not like Microsoft's clients are being unreasonable. Generative AI continues to struggle with the absolute basics, and hallucinations [remain a major pain point](). Multiply the potential for an AI to make up facts as it attempts to complete a more nuanced, multistep project, and the chances of it tripping up rise even further. In short, the future that's being sold to these customers simply hasn't materialized. And that could hamper AI companies' sky-high expectations when it comes to monetizing the tech. Then there's competition ratcheting up the pressure for Microsoft. In June, [*Bloomberg* reported]() that workers preferred to use OpenAI, which was cutting into its ability to sell its Copilot. Fortunately for Microsoft, most of its current revenues come from renting out cloud computing infrastructure to AI companies, not selling AI products to enterprise customers, as *The Information* notes. Nonetheless, the cracks are starting to show, indicating sales could continue to lag behind goals as customers realize they might be being sold a vision of a distant future. **More on Microsoft:** [*Windows Users Furious at Microsoft’s Plan to Turn It Into an “Agentic OS”*]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]() ## More - [Windows Users Furious at Microsoft’s Plan to Turn It Into an “Agentic OS”]() - [Microsoft Stock Takes Most Massive Single-Day Loss Since Pandemic as Its AI Efforts Flail]() - [Microsoft Debuting AI-Powered Employees for Companies]() - [Microsoft’s AI Efforts Are Faceplanting]() - [As Microsoft Stuffs Windows With AI, New Update Prevents Users From Turning Off Their PCs]() - [AI Is Killing Microsoft]() - [Car Dealerships Are Replacing Phone Staff With AI Voice Agents]() - [Microsoft Added AI to Notepad and It Created a Security Failure Because the AI Was Stupidly Easy for Hackers to Trick]()