By Lee Chong Ming
Publication Date: 2025-11-13 10:06:00
Microsoft is rethinking how it charges for software — and it’s all about bots.
CEO Satya Nadella said in an episode of the “Dwarkesh Podcast,” published on Thursday, that Microsoft is reimagining how it prices software as AI becomes part of everyday work.
Instead of charging “per user,” Nadella said the company is thinking about “per agent” — a reference to AI systems that can perform tasks and make decisions autonomously.
Rather than building software solely for a human worker, Microsoft is shifting its focus toward provisioning software for an AI coworker.
“Our business, which today is an end-user tools business, will become essentially an infrastructure business in support of agents doing work,” Nadella said.
“The way to think about the per-user business is not just per user, it’s per agent,” he added.
Nadella’s comments reflect a broader transformation underway across the industry, as AI systems begin to use software instead of merely being powered…
