4 minBusiness
Microsoft restructures reporting segments around AI and agents
Microsoft will replace its three reporting segments with two new ones, Devices and Consumer and Agents and Infra, starting next fiscal quarter, aiming to reflect how AI is reshaping its business and provide investors with more transparency, including first-time disclosure of Azure revenue.
Microsoft is overhauling its financial reporting structure to align with the artificial intelligence era, replacing its three long-standing business segments with two new ones starting next fiscal quarter. The company will now report results under Devices and Consumer and Agents and Infra, a change that CEO Satya Nadella said mirrors how the business actually operates and where it is headed as AI transforms both technology and commerce.
The new Devices and Consumer segment will cover revenue from customer-facing products such as Xbox and Windows devices, as well as LinkedIn and search advertising. The more cryptic Agents and Infra segment will serve as a catch-all for revenue from Microsoft’s AI models, cloud infrastructure, and Microsoft 365, including its Copilot features. Notably, the restructuring means Microsoft will disclose quarterly revenue for its Azure cloud computing platform for the first time, giving investors a clearer view of one of its most important growth engines.
Nadella explained the rationale in a recent presentation, saying the update is intended to provide increased transparency to investors and to reflect how the company allocates resources. He described the shift as part of a broader move away from selling individual apps or services toward connecting the entire trajectory of a “job to be done.” The integrated architecture across agents and infrastructure, he said, is how Microsoft now thinks about engaging with customers, building products, and driving monetization.
The terminology has drawn attention for its sci-fi tone, but it is hardly the first time Microsoft has introduced unconventional corporate vocabulary. The phrase “eating your own dogfood,” or “dogfooding,” which describes companies testing their own products internally before release, was reportedly coined by Jim Harris, Microsoft’s first head of OEM sales, as early as the 1980s. More recently, the company has dealt with user-generated terms like “Microslop,” a portmanteau of “Microsoft” and “AI slop” used to criticize some of its less successful AI efforts, which it cracked down on in its Discord servers earlier this year.
The reporting change comes as Microsoft, like other major tech firms, increasingly ties its financial performance to AI-related products and services. By separating consumer-facing businesses from its AI and infrastructure operations, the company aims to give shareholders a more precise picture of where growth is coming from and how its investments in AI are paying off. The move also highlights the growing importance of “agents,” a term Microsoft uses to describe AI systems that can perform tasks autonomously, as a central part of its strategy.
Investors and analysts will be watching closely when Microsoft begins reporting under the new structure, particularly for the first detailed Azure revenue figures. The company has long been seen as a leader in cloud computing, and the new disclosure could provide fresh insight into its competitive position against rivals such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. The restructuring also signals how deeply AI has become embedded in Microsoft’s operations, from its productivity software to its underlying infrastructure.
Microsoft’s move is part of a wider trend among technology companies to adapt their financial reporting to the AI boom, as executives seek to demonstrate to investors that they are positioned to capitalize on the technology’s potential. For Microsoft, the change is both practical and symbolic, reflecting a shift in how the company sees its own future. As Nadella put it, AI represents a profound shift in both technology and business, and the new reporting structure is designed to mirror that reality.
