REDMOND, Wash.—With financial services among the targeted sectors, Microsoft and EY have announced a $1 billion partnership aimed at helping companies accelerate artificial intelligence adoption by combining engineering support with industry consulting expertise.
According to Microsoft, the initiative will bring together Microsoft’s Forward Deployed Engineers and EY professionals to help organizations move AI projects from pilot stages into broader enterprise deployment.
“AI is quickly moving from experimentation to a core driver of business performance, and the companies pulling ahead are those scaling AI transformation,” Judson Althoff said in a statement released by Microsoft.
Althoff said the collaboration combines Microsoft’s AI platform and engineering capabilities with EY’s industry experience to help companies improve decision-making and generate measurable business outcomes.
‘Client Zero’
Microsoft said EY has served as a “Client Zero” for the initiative by deploying Microsoft’s Microsoft Copilot to approximately 150,000 users internally. According to Microsoft, EY reported a 15% productivity increase, with those gains redirected toward client work and employee learning.
Microsoft also said EY plans to expand use of Copilot through Microsoft 365 E7: The Frontier Suite across its workforce of more than 400,000 employees worldwide. The companies said the effort is intended to embed agentic AI capabilities throughout the organization.
According to Microsoft, the partnership’s initial focus areas will include finance, tax, risk management, human resources and supply chain functions.
Targeted Sectors
The companies said early target sectors include:
- Financial services
- Industrial and energy
- Consumer and retail
- Government
- Healthcare
The announcement comes as companies continue increasing AI investments while many employees report limited preparation for using the technology in their daily work.
Separate research cited by Microsoft found many workers feel underprepared to effectively use AI tools despite growing adoption across industries.
Microsoft said the partnership is intended to help organizations scale AI deployment while integrating those technologies into existing business processes and operations.
