Microsoft names 2026 partner award winners & finalists

Microsoft has announced the winners and finalists of its 2026 Partner of the Year Awards, which recognise partners across global, regional and country categories.

The awards span seven global categories: Cloud & AI Platforms, Security, AI Business Solutions, Industry, Partner Innovation, Business Transformation and Social Impact. The recognised work covers areas including AI applications and agents, migration and modernisation, data platforms, security, Microsoft Marketplace and industry transformation.

Microsoft presented the awards as a measure of how its partner network is applying Microsoft cloud and AI products in customer projects. The winners and finalists reflect a broad range of organisations, including systems integrators, software developers, channel partners and device partners.

Global Scope

Regional awards cover the Americas, EMEA and Asia, while Country Partner of the Year Awards recognise companies in individual markets. Together, they allow Microsoft to highlight both large multinational partners and firms working in local markets.

The announcement comes as technology suppliers and their partner networks try to move from pilot AI projects to broader operational use in businesses. Microsoft said the recognised partners are helping customers bring AI into routine workflows and core business processes rather than limiting deployments to isolated use cases.

According to Microsoft, the work recognised this year includes securing AI environments, updating applications and data estates, improving workforce productivity and redesigning business processes with agents. It also pointed to strategy, skills and change management as part of the support customers need as adoption expands.

Partner Role

Partners remain a central route to market for large software vendors, particularly for cloud migrations, managed services, cyber security and industry-specific deployments. In Microsoft's case, the partner ecosystem also plays a key role in translating product releases into sector-specific services and customer programmes.

The awards therefore serve not only as recognition for individual companies but also as a signal of the areas Microsoft wants to emphasise across its channel. The prominence given to AI business solutions, security and business transformation aligns with broader demand from customers seeking practical returns from digital investment.

In remarks accompanying the announcement, Microsoft highlighted the shift from experimentation to operational change. "I'm proud to congratulate our 2026 winners and finalists," said Judson Althoff, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Commercial Business.

Althoff added: "Your achievements demonstrate what Frontier Transformation looks like in practice: connecting Microsoft Cloud and AI capabilities with industry knowledge and trusted customer relationships to deliver measurable business value."

Microsoft also said the awards are intended to reflect the breadth of expertise customers need during transformation programmes, from technical work such as migration and security to organisational changes tied to AI adoption and process redesign.

Market Focus

Recognition for social impact sits alongside commercial categories, underscoring Microsoft's continued use of partner awards to showcase work beyond core technology implementation. The inclusion of business transformation and industry categories also points to the growing importance of consulting-led engagements attached to software and cloud sales.

For investors and customers, partner awards offer only a partial view of market performance, but they can indicate where a supplier sees momentum in its ecosystem. In this case, Microsoft's emphasis suggests it is seeking to show progress in converting AI interest into customer projects with clearer operational outcomes.

The awards also highlight how competition among major technology ecosystems increasingly depends on the strength of external service providers as much as on the underlying software itself. For many customers, those partners remain the main interface for planning, deployment and long-term support.

Microsoft said this year's winners and finalists offer examples of how innovation can be translated into customer value across industries and geographies. It described those achievements as spanning both the technical foundations and the execution of transformation programmes.