Microsoft Marketplace revamped to introduce new partner growth opportunities

Microsoft Marketplace has been revamped, bringing together AppSource and Azure Marketplace and aiming to unlock new growth opportunities for partners. 

A new category, with more than 3,000 AI apps and agents, is designed to meet customer demand and spotlight partner innovation, and for partners building agents, simplified publishing guidance accelerates time-to-market.

This fiscal year, Microsoft said it has already seen a 2x growth in customers purchasing AI products through Marketplace, and to meet demand, over 3,000 AI-focused solutions are now listed as part of this launch. 

The 'reimagined' Marketplace also boasts expanded discoverability and improved co-sell opportunities, with distributors now able to bring Marketplace solutions into their platforms, bundled with services, software, and hardware for added customer value.

Distributors including Arrow, Crayon, Ingram Micro, Pax8, and TD SYNNEX have integrated Microsoft's catalog into their marketplaces, enabling them to support customers with solutions pre-configured to work with Microsoft Cloud. Marketplace solutions are vetted for compatibility with Microsoft products, which streamlines implementation and accelerates impact.

For software companies building cloud solutions, AI apps, and agents, Microsoft claims this opens new routes to market by publishing once and reaching customers at scale through Marketplace, Microsoft products and partner marketplaces.

Another new feature is resale enabled offers, currently in private preview and expected to be broadly available later in 2025, designed to unlock more global opportunities for channel-led business.

With resale enabled offers, partners with cloud solutions, AI apps, and agents can authorise their channel to sell on their behalf by geography. This authorisation aims to streamline scale and repeatability and can be adjusted or removed at any time.

When a solution is Azure benefit eligible, sales also count toward customer cloud commitments, allowing customers to unlock competitive pricing on Azure infrastructure and opening doors to larger, long-term deals that can span up to five years.

Based on feedback, Microsoft has also accelerated growth motions through features such as CSP private offers and multiparty private offers, with strong alignment between co-sell and Marketplace.

This is the third notable partner-relevant update Microsoft has revealed in 2025.

In May, Microsoft announced significant upcoming changes to its Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program, including updates to CSP authorisation requirements requiring FY26 direct bill partners to have minimum US$1 million in CSP billed trailing twelve months (TTM) revenue.

In August,  Microsoft unveiled a number of updates to its Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, including an evolution of solution areas, enhancements to benefits and incentives and more.