AI Meets Marketplaces: Parallel Transformation

AI is driving explosive growth in cloud marketplaces, and Microsoft's numbers are proof. Their AI/ML solution page have seen 🔺7X more visits, with 6️⃣ million consumers in total flocking to MSFT marketplace every month.

This surge reflects broader market trends: businesses need to rapidly embrace AI, and they're increasingly using cloud marketplaces to deploy and discover AI and software solutions.

֎The AI-fication of the Technology Stack

At the recent Microsoft Build conference, Anthony Joseph, VP, Microsoft Cloud Marketplace & ISV Journey, explained 3 key reasons why its cloud marketplace is experiencing impressive acceleration:

“We've committed like we haven't in the past in building capabilities, functionality that make it easier for partners to build their products and deploy them on the marketplace.

Customers also are finding it easy to discover and deploy items on the marketplace. And then, obviously, there's the massive development in the last year that no one will be surprised about, which is AI.”

Joseph compared the new wave of AI transformation with the previous wave of cloud adoption, calling it the “AI-fication of the stack.” With its investments in the cloud marketplace and AI, Microsoft positions its marketplace at the center of this major transition.

“We're now looking at what I would call the AI-fication of the stack.

Which is you can come to Microsoft Cloud and come to our marketplace, and whether it's

infrastructure solutions that give you access to GPUs to build your AI applications,

or it's plugins that allow you to develop your applications to extend Copilot

or create a Teams app that actually plugs into our Teams ecosystem,

we have a broad cross-section of capability for you to connect to.”

🎯 Marketplace: The Parallel Shift

Microsoft's vision is ambitious. It aims to build a complete AI stack, viewing its commercial marketplace as an integral extension of this vision.

But there's more. Beyond the AI-driven shift to build smarter applications, a marketplace transformation is redefining how these applications are discovered and transacted.

As Yvonne Muench, Senior Director at Microsoft, described at the Build conference:

“We've talked a lot at Build about the AI era creating a transformation in how apps are built and the capabilities of what those apps can do," highlighted Muench.

"And there's actually a parallel transformation in how applications are discovered, bought, and sold. So that is a powerful shift towards digital platforms that enterprises are preferring as a way to discover, try, and buy applications.”

Cloud marketplace now enables multiple buying patterns. From a simple unassisted purchase, where the customer self-serves and figures out what they need, to the most complex sales.

Cloud marketplace now includes customized pricing, negotiated terms, and long sales cycles that many didn’t realize marketplaces could support.

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