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IT AI Index
Index › Products › Microsoft › Alternatives · October 2026 Edition
One category · what the models named instead

Alternatives to Microsoft, as AI models named them

In the October 2026 Edition, 88 of the 252 answers collected in the one category where Microsoft holds a standing named it neither as a first choice nor as an alternative. These are the products those answers put first, category by category and buyer by buyer. The output is the models' output.

Named instead, most often
First choices in the 88 answers that did not name Microsoft, every category and segment above added together; a product can be counted in several. Each category below keeps its own denominator.

Video conferencing

IT operations and endpoint. Six framings, fourteen models, one answer each per buyer segment; an answer counts here when Microsoft is not its first choice or an alternative in it.
Small businessMicrosoft is #2 of 10 here at 17% of first choices, 68 labels.

Thirty of the eighty-four answers did not name Microsoft; it was the first choice in twelve. The first choices in those thirty answers, seven products in all:

The full small business standing →
Mid-marketMicrosoft is #2 of 9 here at 24% of first choices, 68 labels.

Thirty-four of the eighty-four answers did not name Microsoft; it was the first choice in fifteen. The first choices in those thirty-four answers, eight products in all:

The full mid-market standing →
EnterpriseMicrosoft is #1 of 6 here at 57% of first choices, 69 labels.

Twenty-four of the eighty-four answers did not name Microsoft; it was the first choice in forty-one. The first choices in those twenty-four answers, three products in all:

The full enterprise standing →

How to read this

A category is asked six ways of each of fourteen models on behalf of each buyer segment, so a segment is eighty-four answers. An answer belongs on this page when the judge labeled Microsoft neither its first choice nor an alternative in it; the products listed are the first choices those answers made, counted once per answer. An answer that named nothing first, or named Microsoft only in passing, is in the denominator and adds to no product. The counts are not the category standing, which is on the category page with its share and rank; they are the same record read from Microsoft's side.

Every answer and every label behind these figures is in the record, sent on request. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index, and a product named instead of Microsoft was named by a model, not endorsed by anyone.