Microsoft Mobilizes 6,000 Workers to Help Customers Adopt AI

Microsoft Corp. is setting up a new organization with 6,000 employees to help businesses with the technical and strategic work of deploying artificial intelligence.

The division’s workers will have experience across engineering, corporate training and management, as well as within specific industries, Microsoft announced Thursday.

Working more closely with customers will help them implement AI more efficiently and inform Microsoft’s own product development decisions, Judson Althoff, chief executive officer of Microsoft’s commercial business, said in an interview.

Traditionally, software vendors have left this kind of lower-margin implementation work to consulting companies. But in the AI era, many have found that businesses need additional help deploying cutting-edge-tools. Popularized by Palantir Technologies Inc., the model of deploying engineers within customer organizations has since been adopted by vendors from Salesforce Inc. to OpenAI. Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud unit on Tuesday announced a similar effort.

The idea for the new organization came in part from customer concerns about the ballooning costs of AI, Althoff said. Microsoft can help those businesses improve the way they use AI, such as by swapping out expensive models for cheaper ones, he said.