Microsoft throws $2.5 billion dollars and 6,000 people at an AI implementation unit

[Canopy]

Microsoft announced a new unit with 2.5 billion dollars in funding and 6,000 employees dedicated purely to helping customers understand and implement AI. Not building models, not selling GPUs, just getting the stuff actually working inside enterprises. CNBC notes they are the latest big tech company to stand up a business like this

To me this is the most honest admission yet of where the industry actually is. Every survey for two years has said the same thing, companies bought the licences, ran the pilots, and the pilots died in committee. If deploying this technology were as easy as the keynotes suggest, you would not need a 6,000 person army to hold customers' hands

The cynic in me also sees this as consulting revenue dressed up as innovation, straight from the IBM playbook of the 2000s. Accenture and Deloitte have been printing money on AI transformation projects and Microsoft clearly wants that margin in house rather than letting partners capture it

The interesting question for people here is what this does to the smaller integrators and consultancies. If Microsoft is doing implementation directly, the partner ecosystem that built the last 20 years of their business gets squeezed hard. Anyone in that world seeing this coming down the pipe already?

Microsoft commits $2.5 billion and 6,000 employees to new AI implementation unitwww.cnbc.com