A recent LinkedIn post by Microsoft’s Satya Nadella really crystalized for me the realities of how partner ecosystems are repositioning in the AI era.
Nadella’s focus on ‘real marginal cost’ really cuts across the actors in the tech industry who are focused on ecosystems as a core part of their technical and business models, both operators of an ecosystem, as well as participants in an ecosystem.
Real marginal cost can slice both ways for the operator. When a partner builds an AI agent on a platform, that now carries a true cost, whereas in the past another seat or partner cost the provider nothing. For the operator, this real cost will not be absorbed by the platform, it will be passed along to the partner.
For the participating partner, the more success they have (customers, users) the more it costs them. More capacity to scale means more they have to pay the platforms. This affects the ‘running’ cost but also the acquisition cost in their GTM (evals, toolkits); many of the things that used to be ‘free’ at scale now have AI associated costs for them.
Microsoft’s solution is to continue to deeply support their top of the pyramid partners driving real value, and providing self service to the longer tail of participants. The middle area, which makes up most of these large ecosystems (Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program has over 500K companies) is where things get a little murky and for most, the playbook has not been written yet.
No matter which side you are on (operator vs participator) building the next generation ecosystem programs and associated benefits are of the utmost importance, as the platforms can’t absorb it all, and the participants need to determine their own best methods to accelerate with the right platform players. These have real costs and real impact on the business opportunities in this new era we all have just walked into.
This is exactly why we have built Align Growth Global.
Our team has designed, built and scaled the most successful ecosystem programs for some of the most successful platform products in the tech industry’s history.
When you work with AGG, you are working with the team that has worked together across Microsoft and Red Hat and we lead the three major disciplines that will turn an ecosystem strategy into a core growth engine: programs, GTM and value recognition.
Our proprietary, AI-built methodology, Platform Intelligence, maps where a company, product and relationships sit and which are accelerating or degrading. And we are launching a new set of AGG Ecosystem Jump Starts which engages our founding team in your business to put Platform Intelligence to work in weeks, not quarters.
Whether you operate an ecosystem, are considering one or are a participant in an ecosystem, AGG is here to help you optimize your product relationship with today's platforms.
Align Growth Global. Intelligence that is not artificial.
Click here to read Satya Nadella's post on LinkedIn.
Mike Werner - Platform Strategy and Intelligence
Co-Founder & Managing Director
Align Growth Global. Boston. London.
·
Sep 3, 2026, 1:41:59 PM
