C3.ai, Inc. AI expanded its long-standing collaboration with Microsoft Corporation MSFT by upgrading integrations across Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft Fabric and Azure AI Foundry. The enhancements allow customers to unify reasoning, data and model operations within a single, integrated enterprise AI system on the Microsoft Cloud.
Diving Deep Into AI’s Expanded Collaboration
The expanded collaboration brings deeper capabilities across Microsoft’s artificial intelligence (“AI”) platforms, as both C3.ai and Microsoft are focused on making enterprise AI easy to use, reliable and scalable for large organizations. Through this strategic move, C3.ai offers domain-specific applications through a single conversational interface in Microsoft Copilot. Moreover, the company leverages data in Microsoft Fabric and OneLake to power enterprise ontologies built on its platform.
For organizations using Azure Databases and Microsoft Fabric as their data backbone, C3.ai serves as the intelligence layer, enabling applications to reason directly on trusted data without requiring movement or duplication. Through Azure AI Foundry, the C3 Agentic AI Platform and its application agents can deploy, fine-tune and serve foundation models, creating a more seamless and scalable AI ecosystem.
Overall, the expanded integration streamlines AI operations and supports enterprises in deploying secure, production-scale AI across their business.
Focus on Strategic Partnerships Bodes Well
C3.ai’s expanding partner ecosystem has become a central driver of growth, with 73% of agreements in fiscal 2025 executed through collaborations. The company deepened its ties with hyperscalers like Microsoft, AWS and Google Cloud, leveraging their global sales forces and distribution reach to scale adoption of C3.ai’s enterprise AI applications.
Strategic customer engagements continued to scale, with Nucor expanding its multiyear partnership with C3.ai to build an enterprise-wide AI rollout. Qemetica launched its first company-wide AI program with C3.ai, and HII broadened deployments to speed shipbuilding and enhance U.S. Navy fleet readiness. In addition, the U.S. Army is adopting a contested-logistics solution built on the C3 Agentic AI Platform to support frontline operations.
C3.ai launched its Strategic Integrator Program, enabling partners to license its Agentic AI Platform for industry-specific solutions. Early interest from defense, intelligence and government sectors signals strong growth potential. With a widening network of hyperscalers, consulting and integrator partners, C3.ai is well-positioned to expand its market presence, shorten sales cycles and accelerate enterprise AI deployments across industries.
In the past three months, shares of AI have dropped 27.4%, underperforming the Zacks Computers - IT Services industry’s 4.4% decline. The company’s uneven execution, competitive pressures and costly initial production deployments continue to weigh on performance and margins. However, its strong partnerships, expanding customer base and refreshed leadership structure offer a solid foundation for long-term growth.
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AI’s Zacks Rank & Key Picks
AI currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked stocks from the Computer and Technology sector are Vertiv Holdings Co VRT and Telos Corporation TLS.
Vertiv presently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). The company delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 14.9%, on average. Vertiv stock has gained 38.4% year to date. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Vertiv’s 2025 sales and earnings per share (EPS) indicates growth of 27.5% and 44.2%, respectively, from the year-ago period’s levels.
Telos carries a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy) at present. The company delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 121.4%, on average. Telos stock has surged 60.8% year to date.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Telos’ 2025 sales and EPS indicates growth of 81.5% and 116.1%, respectively, from the prior-year levels.
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C3.ai, Inc. (AI) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Vertiv Holdings Co. (VRT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Telos Corporation (TLS) : Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
