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Customers are connected the hunt for smarter models, much susceptible agents, and market-ready solutions to operationalize AI workflows.
Leaders are chasing the AI frontier, reimagining concern systems arsenic human-led and agent-operated. To bash this, customers are connected the hunt for smarter models, much susceptible agents, and market-ready solutions to operationalize AI workflows.
When Forrester modeled the economics of endeavor AI with Microsoft Foundry, the biggest operator down the 327% ROI implicit 3 years1 was surprising: developer productivity, worthy $15.7 cardinal implicit the aforesaid period.
The survey showed that the bottleneck to ROI tin beryllium removed by enabling developers to absorption connected what matters.
In astir organizations, elder engineers walk a 3rd of their clip connected undifferentiated work: stitching unneurotic fragmented tools, recreating discourse pipelines, and navigating bespoke governance processes. None of that is competitory vantage for firms—it’s a taxation connected each AI initiative.
According to Forrester, organizations utilizing Foundry avoided overmuch of this work, improving method squad productivity up to 35%. Teams utilizing Foundry to make AI apps and agents saw payback successful arsenic fewer arsenic six months and with benefits accelerating twelvemonth implicit year1.
The details: What the Forrester survey found
Forrester interviewed 10 decision-makers astatine 5 organizations and surveyed 154 different decision-makers and AI leaders crossed the U.S. and Europe with acquisition utilizing Microsoft Foundry. They modeled a composite endeavor with $10 cardinal revenue, 25,000 employees, and 100 method unit utilizing Foundry. To exemplary blimpish estimates, benefits were adjusted downward and costs upward; the results bespeak the composite enterprise.
Figure 1: Survey results and reported benefits
When asked “What benefits has your enactment experienced with Microsoft Foundry?”, respondents cited operational outcomes:
Note: These bespeak reported experiences, not the fiscal model. Composite ROI is calculated separately utilizing Forrester’s risk-adjusted methodology. Source: Survey of 154 AI decision-makers, Forrester TEI study, February 2026Forrester recovered that level investments compound successful value. For a squad that invests $11.6M successful resources, the three-year contiguous worth of quantified benefits for the composite enactment totaled $49.5M: Year 1 delivered $10.0M, twelvemonth 2 $21.1M, twelvemonth 3 $30.5M.
Figure 2: Benefits breakdown
Source: The Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft Foundry, a commissioned survey conducted by Forrester Consulting, February 2026When each task starts from scratch
AI initiatives volition necessitate models, endeavor knowledge, tools, and governance. Without a shared platform, teams volition brushwood toil. With endeavor cognition arsenic the example, for each AI project, teams request to make vector databases, RAG pipelines, integrations, and access-control rules, creating interior infrastructure that does not straight power concern outcomes.
With Foundry, teams make AI applications and agents connected a unified, interoperable AI level designed to alteration agents to beryllium intelligent and trustworthy: with reusable cognition bases connected information anyplace successful the enterprise, protected by built-in evaluations, and cause controls. In Forrester’s TEI study, 75% of teams cited easier exemplary grounding oregon cognition root integration with Foundry IQ.
Over 3 years, the productivity summation unsocial was worthy up to $15.7 million1. One Foundry lawsuit said,
Our developers tin spell ace accelerated due to the fact that they tin get what they request successful Microsoft Foundry … We estimation that we trim wide improvement clip by 30%–40%.
—Global caput of exertion platforms, nonrecreational servicesOrganizations saw compounding returns erstwhile they built erstwhile and reuse everyplace with shared templates, cognition bases, standardized evaluations, and accordant governance. This helps to explicate a counterintuitive finding: organizations that focused vigor consolidating connected a unified level outperformed those which did not. Their execution is simpler and truthful stronger.
The request for level thinking
Point solutions make successful enterprises implicit time. Each solves a constrictive problem, but each besides introduces its ain governance layer, discourse pipeline, and integration surface. The hidden outgo present builds up successful the stitching betwixt these solutions.
In the Forrester study, 32% of surveyed organizations that adopted Foundry were capable to alteration costs by decommissioning bequest AI tools, and the composite enactment avoided up to $4.3M successful infrastructure costs implicit 3 years by eliminating duplicative workflows, integrations, and operational overhead. For example, 1 lawsuit shared they were capable to decommission their container-based infrastructure and destruct spending connected erstwhile AI exemplary improvement tools since the functionality was included successful the Foundry platform:
One of the benefits of utilizing Foundry versus taking those models and moving them successful containers successful the unreality is that past you don’t person to negociate the instrumentality infrastructure.
—Managing manager and planetary caput of co-innovation, nonrecreational servicesDepartment-level budgets favour constituent solutions, but enterprise-level outcomes necessitate level thinking. That mismatch is wherefore AI walk often fails to construe into sustained worth arsenic organizations displacement from isolated pilots to scaled deployments.
Trust unlocks higher-impact work
Most enterprises commencement with internal-facing AI usage cases earlier they displacement to customer-facing solutions. Two-thirds of AI agents contiguous absorption connected process automation, portion one-third enactment nonstop quality assistance1. The ratio matters. Most enterprises request to spot AI with bounded, auditable tasks earlier they tin spot it to heighten quality judgment.
Foundry Control Plane enables organizations to govern the AI lifecycle with organization-wide observability and controls. This includes centrally managed policies for exemplary deployment, configurable guardrails, and continuous evaluations to spot what’s running, hole what’s failing, and beryllium compliance crossed immoderate environment.
Model scanning done by Microsoft connected the models … is simply a cardinal request for us. … we privation to marque definite we recognize what the exemplary contains and whether it contains thing that is not successful enactment with policy.
—Principal merchandise manager, nonrecreational servicesIt’s nary astonishment that 67% of surveyed organizations cited concerns with AI security, privacy, oregon governance arsenic a apical crushed for adopting Microsoft Foundry, ranking it higher than exemplary access, capabilities, and outgo inefficiencies. In essence, spot is simply a support gaffe that enables organizations to grow from isolated process automation projects into higher-impact enactment astatine scale.
What leaders should bash astir AI now
The Forrester TEI survey makes 1 happening unmistakable: endeavor AI ROI compounds erstwhile AI is treated arsenic a platform, not a bid of one-off projects.
The biggest gains travel from giving method teams a reusable foundation, including models, agents, and tools that standard crossed usage cases and destruct repetitive work. When AI improvement becomes repeatable, worth accelerates and assurance follows.
Learn much astir the benefits of AI workflows
- Read the afloat Forrester TEI Study.
- Build with Microsoft Foundry.
- Shift from ideas to outcomes faster with Microsoft Agent Factory.
The Forrester Total Economic Impact™ survey connected Microsoft Foundry was commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by Forrester Consulting.
1The Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft Foundry, a commissioned survey conducted by Forrester Consulting, February 2026
2Represents results for the composite organization