Microsoft Eyes 7.3% Growth in 2026: CIO Survey Shows 53% of Workloads on Azure

⬤ Software Spending on the Rise — Morgan Stanley's latest CIO Survey from Q4 2025 shows software spending growth edging up from 3.7% in 2025 to 3.8% in 2026. Microsoft's positioned to capture more than its fair share of that growth, with CIOs projecting a 7.3% growth rate for the company next year—a full percentage point jump from current expectations.

⬤ Azure Dominates Cloud Infrastructure — Microsoft's cloud platform continues its stranglehold on enterprise workloads, with 53% of applications currently running on Azure. CIOs expect this dominance to hold steady over the next three years. On the AI front, 37% of CIOs plan to use Azure OpenAI Services (down slightly from previous quarters), while GitHub Copilot maintains steady adoption at 42% planning to deploy it within the next year.

⬤ Premium Office Suite Gaining Ground — About 30% of CIOs currently run the premium Microsoft 365 E5 version, dipping slightly from 32% last quarter. But the upgrade pipeline looks healthy, with 19% planning to move to E5 in the next 12 months (up from 18%). Looking further out, CIOs expect E5 adoption to jump from 31% today to 50% within three years. The AI-powered M365 Copilot is catching fire too, with 80% of CIOs planning to roll it out over the next year.

⬤ Microsoft's bet on cloud and AI is paying off. Despite some minor softness in Azure OpenAI adoption, the company's infrastructure dominance and AI integration across its product stack put it in prime position for sustained growth. As enterprises continue shifting workloads to the cloud and experimenting with AI tools, Microsoft's comprehensive ecosystem keeps it at the center of the action heading into 2026.