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10 Feb 2026


Copilot AI usage surges at Microsoft

Satya Nadella cites rising adoption, but high infrastructure costs and slower cloud growth worry investors

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella highlighted the rapid growth of the company’s Copilot AI products during the latest earnings call, showcasing rising adoption even as investors remain cautious about heavy technology spending and slightly slower cloud growth.

For the quarter ending December 2025, Microsoft reported $81.3 billion in revenue and a 21 % increase in net income, primarily driven by strong cloud sales. Despite these solid results, Microsoft shares dipped, as Wall Street focused on massive capital expenditures for AI infrastructure and data centres, along with softer-than-expected growth in Azure and Microsoft 365.

Nadella emphasised that demand for AI far exceeds current capacity, framing the company’s heavy spending as an essential investment in future growth. Daily usage of Copilot AI products has nearly tripled year-over-year, he said. Microsoft 365 Copilot now has 15 million paid seats, while GitHub Copilot has 4.7 million paid subscribers, demonstrating strong adoption in both corporate and developer environments.

Microsoft’s AI initiatives illustrate a strong enterprise adoption trend and its commitment to expanding AI across productivity, development, and healthcare applications. While investors are closely watching capital spending and cloud performance, Nadella’s vision positions Copilot AI as a central driver of Microsoft’s technology roadmap, indicating that AI will remain at the core of the company’s growth strategy for years to come.

Beyond office productivity tools, Nadella highlighted specialised AI applications, such as Dragon Copilot for healthcare, which has been used in millions of patient interactions, illustrating Microsoft’s strategy to expand AI adoption into sector-specific workflows.

Despite these positive trends, analysts remain cautious. While Copilot adoption is rising rapidly, Azure’s growth has slowed, and the cost of AI infrastructure could weigh on margins if usage growth does not keep pace. Nadella acknowledged these pressures but insisted that cloud computing and AI remain “pushing the frontier” of Microsoft’s long-term strategy.

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