Biz Apps Partner Podcast: Microsoft’s Alexandre Pombo on Market Impacts, AI, Partner Opportunities

In this episode of the Biz Apps Partner Podcast, John Siefert hosts Alexandre Pombo, WW Sales Leader, Business Applications, Corporate & SMB, Microsoft, to discuss major impacts on customers and the market, Microsoft’s AI opportunities, and the role of partners and the C-Suite with the rise of AI.

Key Takeaways:

• Big trends impacting the market and customers: Pombo has been able to gain insights from partners, customers, and sellers. AI has had a huge impact, becoming disruptive in a positive way. “Personally, I cannot live without AI anymore,” he shares. “It makes your life way more productive.” Companies are quickly shifting toward investing in agents because they can optimize the ability to run workflows more efficiently.
• Microsoft and AI: Microsoft is one of the major providers leading the pack with AI. The company hasn’t been doing this as a reactive action to something that happened, but it has been doing this by design. “We’ve been working on this since 2016 [or] 2017 in a very intentional way to really transform all our products.” Being a growth mindset company, Microsoft has fostered a culture of trying to better serve its customers and working closely with partners to go there.
• Conversations with the C-Suite: “Nobody can afford to be complacent,” Pombo says. It’s vital to take the opportunity to have conversations at levels that we didn’t have before. Now, Microsoft is elevating the conversation around applications to be with the CEO and chairman. “These leaders are being asked by their own board what they are doing in order to bring AI to our business.” They see the opportunities that AI is going to bring, not only as a way to reduce costs and expand profits, but also as a tool to retain talent and better serve customers.
• The role of partners: The opportunity that partners have is not limited anymore to the project transformation and the implementation of the technology. Pombo predicts that the opportunity of partners involves the transformation of processes and change management, more so than just the technology piece.
• Biz Apps Partner Executive Summit: Pombo will lead a session at the Biz Apps Partner Executive Summit on Wednesday, July 23, titled “FY26 Microsoft Field Priorities & Opportunities.” Each year brings new adjustments dependent on the opportunities being addressed. The event is an important outlet for people to understand exactly how the field will be organized, Pombo notes.