Microsoft’s model-agnostic AI strategy earns praise from Jefferies

Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s enterprise artificial intelligence strategy received a positive assessment from Jefferies following the company’s annual Build developer conference, with the analysts writing that the competitive focus in AI is increasingly shifting beyond foundation models toward the software infrastructure used to manage, evaluate, and deploy them.

After attending the event in person, the analysts wrote that Microsoft’s model-agnostic approach, integrated enterprise platform, and governance capabilities position it well as businesses seek greater flexibility in deploying AI applications.

The analysts argued that enterprises are placing more emphasis on the ability to switch between different AI models and optimize performance using their own proprietary data and evaluation systems. In that environment, Microsoft could benefit from offering access to both OpenAI and Anthropic models while combining them with its broader software ecosystem.

Jefferies compared the…