AI Agents vs Copilots: Who Monetizes Faster and How? - 2025-26 Earnings Insight

🚀 Explore the rapid monetization race between AI agents and copilots in leading tech companies with detailed financial insights and growth metrics from 2025 to 2026 earnings reports. 📊

Deep Research

box, inc. (BOX)

2026-Q2

verint systems inc. (VRNT)

2026-Q1

"“AI agents” vs “copilots” — who’s monetizing faster, and how are they measuring it?"

Comparative Report: “AI agents” vs “Copilots” — Who’s Monetizing Faster, and How Are They Measuring It?

Across the companies analyzed, copilots monetize fastest when sold as per‑seat add‑ons to large, existing user bases. Microsoft’s Copilot family exemplifies this with visible seat growth and ARPU uplift tied to M365/E5 and GitHub Copilot.
AI agents are also monetizing rapidly, but typically via ARR, bookings/ACV, and consumption metrics rather than per‑seat pricing. Adobe, Five9, Verint, and Box report meaningful AI ARR, strong AI growth rates, and increasing AI mix—clear evidence of accelerating agentic monetization.
Measurement frameworks differ: copilots emphasize seats, ARPU, and deployment scale; agents emphasize AI ARR, bookings mix, capacity/consumption, and platform usage—complicating apples‑to‑apples comparisons.
Bottom line: In Microsoft’s ecosystem, copilots are monetizing faster and more transparently today. Across independent vendors focused on agentic automation (Adobe, Five9, Verint, Box), agents show strong, quantifiable monetization momentum with double‑digit to >40% growth in AI‑related revenue/ARR. 🚀

Definitions and Scope

Copilots: Per‑user assistants embedded in productivity or developer suites (e.g., Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot), monetized primarily via per‑seat pricing and ARPU uplift.
AI agents: Autonomous or semi‑autonomous systems performing tasks end‑to‑end across workflows (CX, marketing, document processes, data governance), monetized via ARR, consumption/capacity, or price‑tier uplifts.

Monetization “speed” is evaluated through: revenue/ARR growth rates, per‑seat uplifts, AI share of bookings/ACV, MAU/usage trajectories, and breadth of enterprise adoption.

Comparative Monetization Snapshot

Microsoft

Primary AI Motion: Copilots (M365, GitHub); Agents platform (Foundry, Copilot Studio)

Pricing/Monetization Model: Copilots per-seat; agents/platform via usage and build

Key Monetization Signals: Copilot: large enterprise seat rollouts (Barclays 100k; UBS all employees; multiple 25k+ deals), M365 paid seats +6% YoY, 100M+ MAU across Copilot apps; GitHub Copilot 20M users, Fortune 100 penetration

How It’s Measured: Seats, ARPU uplift, MAU; for agents: agents created (3M), platform usage (500T tokens), broad F500 adoption

Pace Verdict: Copilots monetizing faster with clear per-seat revenue; agents show strong platform usage but limited explicit revenue disclosure

Adobe

Primary AI Motion: Agents across Creative Cloud & Experience Cloud (AI Assistant, GenStudio, Firefly, AEP)

Pricing/Monetization Model: Subscription/ARR; heavy AI‑influenced ARR

Key Monetization Signals: AI‑influenced ARR > $5B; AI‑first products > $250M ARR; GenStudio/Workfront/Frame/AEM Assets/Firefly Services > $1B ARR growing >25% YoY; 70% eligible AEP customers use AI Assistant

How It’s Measured: ARR levels and growth; product adoption and consumption (e.g., 29B Firefly generations)

Pace Verdict: Rapid agentic monetization with large, disclosed AI ARR bases

Box

Primary AI Motion: AI agents (Enterprise Advanced)

Pricing/Monetization Model: Per-seat suite uplift; 20–40% price increase vs Enterprise Plus

Key Monetization Signals: Enterprise Advanced deals doubled QoQ; 20–40% per‑seat uplift; RPO $1.5B (+16% YoY); NRR 103%

How It’s Measured: Per‑seat uplift, RPO/billings, NRR

Pace Verdict: Fast agentic monetization via price/mix uplift within suites

Five9

Primary AI Motion: Agentic AI Agents for CX (Genius AI)

Pricing/Monetization Model: Consumption/capacity; advanced agents ~25% higher ARPU vs core

Key Monetization Signals: Enterprise AI revenue +42% YoY; AI = 10% of Enterprise subscription revenue; AI >20% of Enterprise new logo and net‑new ACV bookings

How It’s Measured: AI revenue growth, ACV mix, ARR expansions

Pace Verdict: Strong, accelerating agentic monetization with clear growth and mix metrics

Verint

Primary AI Motion: AI bots/agents for CX automation

Pricing/Monetization Model: Subscription/AI ARR; usage overages included

Key Monetization Signals: AI ARR $354M (+24% YoY), ~50% of subscription ARR; expected AI ARR growth >20% for year; large AI TCV deals ($13M, $14M)

How It’s Measured: AI ARR (defined), TCV, pipeline (+30% YoY)

Pace Verdict: Material, measurable agentic monetization embedded in ARR

AvePoint

Primary AI Motion: Governance for copilots/agents (multi‑cloud)

Pricing/Monetization Model: ARR via platform modules; cross‑sell

Key Monetization Signals: ARR $367.6M (+27% YoY); net new ARR +42% YoY; NRR 112%; governance is fastest‑growing area tied to Copilot/agent rollouts

How It’s Measured: ARR, NRR/GRR, channel mix

Pace Verdict: Indirect monetization tied to copilot/agent production rollouts; strong ARR momentum

Company Analyses

Microsoft: Copilots vs Agents

Copilot monetization:
- Large enterprise seat expansions: Barclays scaling to 100,000 employees (from 15,000); UBS expanding to all employees (from 55,000); Adobe, KPMG, Pfizer, Wells Fargo each purchased 25,000+ seats.
- Paid M365 commercial seats grew 6% YoY; ARPU expansion driven by E5 and M365 Copilot.
- Scale signals: 100M+ monthly active users across Copilot apps; 800M+ MAU across AI features. GitHub Copilot at 20M users; enterprise customers +75% QoQ; 90% of the Fortune 100 use it.
- Measurement: per‑seat adds, ARPU uplift, MAU, suite mix (E5), and associated cloud revenue mix.
Agent/platform monetization:
- Strong platform adoption and usage signals: 3M agents created via SharePoint and Copilot Studio; Foundry Agent Service used by 14,000 customers; 80% of Fortune 500 use Foundry; >500 trillion tokens served; notable production use cases (e.g., Nasdaq board prep time reduced up to 25%).
- Healthcare agent (Dragon Copilot) with 13M physician‑patient encounters in the quarter; measurable time savings at Mercyhealth.
- Measurement: customers using agent services, agents created, tokens served, and production outcomes. Explicit revenue attribution for agents is not disclosed.
Verdict: Copilots are monetizing faster and more transparently via per‑seat pricing and ARPU growth. Agents show robust adoption and usage that implies monetization potential, but with less direct revenue disclosure.

Adobe: Agentic Monetization at Scale

Monetization signals:
- AI‑influenced ARR surpassed $5B; ARR from new AI‑first products (Firefly, Acrobat AI Assistant, GenStudio for performance marketing) exceeded a $250M target.
- Combined ARR for GenStudio, Workfront, Frame, AEM Assets, Firefly Services, and GenStudio for performance marketing > $1B, growing >25% YoY.
- Adoption/consumption: 70% of eligible AEP customers use AI Assistant; Firefly usage at scale (29B generations; video generations +~40% QoQ; services consumption +32% QoQ; custom models +68% QoQ).
Measurement: ARR milestones, product‑specific AI ARR, and usage/consumption metrics.
Verdict: Rapid, clearly measured agentic monetization across Creative and Experience Cloud with disclosed ARR levels and growth.

Box: AI Agents via Enterprise Advanced

Monetization signals:
- Deals for Enterprise Advanced doubled sequentially; price per seat uplift of 20–40% vs Enterprise Plus.
- Revenue +9% YoY; RPO $1.5B (+16% YoY); NRR 103%; churn 3%.
Measurement: per‑seat price uplift, RPO/billings growth, NRR/churn, suite mix (suites = 63% of revenue).
Verdict: Fast monetization through agent‑enabled suite tiering with tangible per‑seat ARPU uplift.

Five9: Agentic AI in CX

Monetization signals:
- Enterprise AI revenue +42% YoY; AI = 10% of Enterprise subscription revenue.
- AI accounted for >20% of Enterprise new‑logo and net‑new ACV bookings; multiple multi‑million ARR wins and expansions.
- Pricing: consumption‑based (Agent Assist, Workflow Automation) and capacity‑based (AI Agents); advanced agents ~25% higher ARPU than core AI agents.
Measurement: AI revenue growth, AI mix of ACV/bookings, ARR by customer.
Verdict: Strong and accelerating agentic monetization with clear pricing levers and mix shift.

Verint: AI ARR as the Core Metric

Monetization signals:
- AI ARR $354M (+24% YoY) and ~50% of subscription ARR; expected AI ARR growth >20% for the year vs ~8% overall ARR growth.
- Large AI‑driven TCV deals ($13M, $14M); pipeline +30% YoY.
Measurement: AI ARR (explicitly defined), TCV wins, pipeline growth, free‑cash‑flow linkage to ARR.
Verdict: Measured, material agentic monetization embedded within subscription ARR.

AvePoint: Monetizing Governance for Copilots and Agents

Monetization signals:
- ARR $367.6M (+27% YoY); net new ARR +42% YoY; NRR 112% (FX‑adjusted); governance suite is fastest‑growing area.
- Governance for agentic AI (e.g., Microsoft 365 Copilot) drives cross‑sell and multi‑cloud expansion.
Measurement: ARR growth, NRR/GRR, channel contribution; commentary indicates spend ramps as customers move from experimentation to production in copilots/agents.
Verdict: Indirect but accelerating monetization fueled by broader copilot/agent deployments; governance products capture the spend as adoption matures.

How Monetization Is Being Measured

Copilots (seat‑centric)

Seats and ARPU: New seat adds, enterprise‑wide rollouts, seat tier mix (e.g., E5).
Usage/engagement: MAU across copilot apps; penetration within large enterprises.
Revenue linkage: Per‑seat pricing yields direct revenue attribution and faster recognition.

Agents (ARR/consumption‑centric)

AI ARR and AI‑influenced ARR: Discrete ARR for AI products (Adobe, Verint), or AI share of subscription revenue (Five9).
Bookings/ACV mix: AI share of new logo and net‑new ACV bookings (Five9); RPO and billings growth (Box).
Consumption/platform usage: Tokens served, generations, agents created, and capacity utilization (Microsoft Foundry, Adobe Firefly).
Tier uplifts: Price uplift for AI‑enabled suite tiers (Box 20–40%; Five9 advanced agents ~25% higher ARPU than core).

Synthesis: Who’s Monetizing Faster?

Microsoft ecosystem: Copilots are monetizing faster today.
- Evidence: Large, named seat deployments; M365 paid seats +6% YoY; ARPU uplift; 100M+ MAU across Copilot apps; GitHub Copilot scale and enterprise penetration.
- Agents: Significant usage and customer adoption (3M agents created, 14,000 customers, 500T tokens), but less explicit revenue reporting.
Broader agentic vendors (Adobe, Five9, Verint, Box): Agents are monetizing rapidly with clear ARR and growth metrics.
- Adobe: AI‑influenced ARR > $5B; AI‑first ARR > $250M; >$1B ARR portfolio growing >25% YoY—substantial, disclosed monetization.
- Five9: Enterprise AI revenue +42% YoY; AI >20% of Enterprise ACV; pricing leverage via advanced agents.
- Verint: AI ARR $354M (+24% YoY), ~50% of subscription ARR—agentic AI is the growth engine.
- Box: 20–40% per‑seat uplift for AI‑tier (Enterprise Advanced); deals doubling QoQ; RPO +16% YoY.
Net takeaway:
- Where copilots have direct per‑seat monetization paths into massive installed bases (Microsoft), they show faster and clearer monetization.
- In vertical/functional domains where automation outcomes drive spend (CX, marketing, content supply chain), agentic AI shows rapid, quantifiable ARR growth and improving mix.

Practical Guidance for Comparing Monetization Going Forward

For Copilots

Track: Per‑seat adoption by cohort, ARPU uplift, suite tier mix, MAU/engagement, enterprise rollouts.
Signals of acceleration: Cross‑suite upsells (e.g., E5), large named deployments, MAU conversion to paid seats.

For Agents

Track: AI ARR and AI‑influenced ARR growth, AI share of bookings/ACV, RPO/billings trajectory, consumption/capacity utilization (tokens, generations), per‑tier ARPU uplifts.
Signals of acceleration: Rising AI mix in bookings and subscription revenue, large AI TCV deals, pipeline growth, measurable workflow outcomes (time saved, accuracy improvements).

Key point: Copilot monetization is often immediate and transparent through per‑seat pricing; agentic monetization is increasingly substantial and measured via ARR/consumption, but may require interpreting multiple metrics to gauge revenue impact.

Risks and Caveats

Measurement asymmetry: Seats/ARPU (copilots) vs ARR/consumption (agents) complicates direct speed comparisons.
Data readiness and ROI variability: Vendors (e.g., Five9, Verint) note data quality and deployment approach can affect realized ROI and pace of expansion.
Disclosure gaps: Some platforms (e.g., Microsoft agents/Foundry) emphasize usage and adoption without explicit revenue breakdowns, making monetization inference directional rather than definitive.

Conclusion

Copilots are monetizing faster in per‑seat, suite‑anchored models with massive installed bases—Microsoft provides the clearest evidence.
AI agents are concurrently monetizing rapidly across CX, marketing, content, and governance, with strong AI ARR growth, rising AI bookings mix, consumption, and per‑tier ARPU uplifts—Adobe, Five9, Verint, and Box exemplify this trend.
Expect convergence: copilots will adopt more task‑completion capabilities, while agents will gain user‑facing assistive features. The winning monetization model will blend per‑seat, ARR, and consumption with clear ROI proof points and governance. ✨

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