Monthly Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program update
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What’s new for Solutions Partner designations, specializations, and other Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program offerings and benefits.
- Impacted audience
- Partners enrolled in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program
Summary
This month’s updates continue to enhance partner differentiation and readiness across high-demand solution areas. Key changes include specialization updates that integrate AI capabilities, revised skilling and performance requirements, and streamlined qualification frameworks to support partner growth and agility.
Details
AppSource is renamed to Microsoft Marketplace
The AppSource platform is renamed to Microsoft Marketplace. The https://appsource.microsoft.com link now redirects to https://marketplace.microsoft.com.
Partner University Retirement Update
Partner University will be retired effective 15 June 2026, impacting partners aspiring to enroll in the Modern Work Solutions Partner designation and two Modern Work specializations.
Here’s what partners need to know:
- Existing Partner University user linkings will continue to be honored. Partners will receive credit and skilling score for these linkings until June 2027.
- After June 2027, all Partner University assessments will be fully retired and will no longer be used for reporting, skilling score calculation, or as a program requirement.
- No new user linkings to Partner University will be allowed after 15 June 2026.
- The current Partner University user experience available through the Learn profile page in Membership will also be retired as part of this change.
- In the coming months, Partner University assessments will be complemented by a new set of skilling requirements. These new requirements will be added as an OR condition alongside the existing Partner University assessments during the transition period.
Changes to Specializations and Solutions Partner Designations
As of March 27, 2026, the Small and Midsize Business Management specialization performance criteria is updated to better support partners as their Business Central practices grow. Based on partner feedback, the required MAU growth threshold is reduced from 35% to 15%, while the deployment requirement has increased from 10 to 15 deployments.
Coming soon
More skilling options are coming to the below specializations and designations in April 2026:
- The Calling for Microsoft Teams specialization is adding the Microsoft 365 Certified: Collaboration Communications Systems Engineer Associate certification as a skilling option to address the retiring of the Teams Calling Technical Assessment
- The Meetings and Meeting Rooms for Microsoft Teams specialization is adding the Microsoft 365 Certified: Collaboration Communications Systems Engineer Associate certification as a skilling option to address the retiring of the Teams Meetings and Meeting Rooms Technical Assessment
- The Modern Work Solutions Partner designation is adding the Microsoft 365 Certified: Collaboration Communications Systems Engineer Associate certification as an Advanced skilling option to address the retiring of the Teams Meetings and Meeting Rooms Technical Assessment. This change applies to both the Enterprise and SMB tracks
- The Modern Work Solutions Partner designation is adding the Microsoft 365 Certified: Copilot and Agent Administration Fundamentals certification as an Intermediate skilling option to address the retirement of the Microsoft 365 Fundamentals certification. This change applies to both the Enterprise and SMB tracks
- The Digital & App Innovation Solutions Partner designation is adding the GitHub Actions, GitHub Administration, GitHub Advanced Security, and GitHub Copilot certifications as Advanced skilling options. This change applies to both the Enterprise and SMB tracks.
Certifications and Applied Skills are regularly updated throughout their lifecycle, which can affect specializations and Solutions Partner designations. In the case of a retiring certification or applied skill impacting a specialization or Solutions Partner designation, the following are true:
- Skilling achieved before its retirement remains valid for one year
- New skilling will be added, if the replacement skilling is applicable to those specializations and designations
- We’ll detail the new requirements in Partner Center as they go into effect
The Teamwork Deployment specialization is being updated to the Secure AI Productivity specialization in April 2026.
- With the shift towards AI, the Teamwork Deployment spec is updating to help partners prepare their customers for AI by centering on foundational workloads from Microsoft 365 E3.
- The name of the specialization is being updated to the Secure AI Productivity specialization
- Partners must hit their 2,500 monthly active usage (MAU) growth on at least 3 of 8 separate Microsoft 365 workload services:
- Exchange Online
- SharePoint Online
- Microsoft Teams
- Microsoft 365 Apps
- Microsoft Entra ID P1
- Intune
- Defender for Endpoint
- Microsoft Information Protection
Additionally:
- At least one of the workloads meeting required growth must come from the productivity workloads: Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 App
- At least one of the workloads meeting required growth must come from the identity, security and management workloads: Entra ID P1, Intune, Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Information Protection
- The 20% growth requirement is being removed
- The number of new customer tenants required is being lowered from 12 to 5.
The Adoption and Change Management specialization will be retired in the coming months.
The Adoption Change Management specialization is being retired. Rather than have a standalone specialization, adoption & change management capabilities will be embedded within product-aligned specializations, ensuring change management is evaluated in the context of specific solutions while we retire this more general-purpose specialization.
Three new specializations will be created by merging existing specializations in the coming months. Stay tuned for more information on these exciting new offerings!
- The Analytics on Microsoft Azure, Data Warehouse Migration to Microsoft Azure, and Business Intelligence specializations are merging into a new Analytics on Microsoft Azure specialization
- Low Code Application Development and Intelligent Automation specializations are merging into a new specialization
- Kubernetes on Microsoft Azure and Migrate Enterprise Applications to Microsoft Azure specializations are merging into a new App Modernization on Microsoft Azure specialization