Microsoft Corp has denied a media report that it had lowered sales growth targets for artificial intelligence (AI) software products after many of its salespeople missed targets in the last financial year.
The global technology giant was responding to a story in United States–based technology news publication, The Information, that quoted several unnamed sales staff in the Azure cloud-computing unit.
Microsoft issued a statement saying the publication inaccurately combined the concepts of growth and quotas, showing a lack of understanding of the way a sales organisation works and was compensated, according to Reuters and CNBC.
“Aggregate sales quotas for AI products have not been lowered, as we informed them prior to publication,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in the statement.
The Information reported the company lowered sales growth targets for the current financial year to 25% after fewer than 20% of staff at one U.S. Azure unit achieved quotas to lift customer spending by 50% on Foundry, a tool used to build AI applications, Reuters reported in this article.
Azure is seen as the main beneficiary of Microsoft's push into artificial intelligence (AI) and is closely monitored by the market for its performance.
The rapid increase in the value of technology companies, which are driving an AI investment boom, has raised fears that it is creating a bubble that will burst like the dot.com boom of the 1990s.
Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) shares closed US$12.27 (2.50%) lower at $477.73 on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT), capitalising the company $3.55 trillion (A$5.38 trillion).
