0.1 Current AB-731 Exam Facts
Key Takeaways
- Exam AB-731 is the proctored assessment for Microsoft Certified: AI Transformation Leader, listed at Beginner level, with 45 minutes to complete the assessment and a passing score of 700 or greater on a 1 to 1,000 scale.
- Microsoft does not publish a fixed AB-731 question count, and the fee is based on the country or region in which the exam is proctored.
- Delivery is through Pearson VUE, the session is proctored, and Microsoft says you may have interactive components.
- After a first failure, Microsoft’s retake policy requires a 24-hour wait; register with a personal Microsoft account (MSA) so records are not lost if you leave an employer.
- The skills list in force is dated July 22, 2026; most questions cover general availability (GA) features, and Preview features may appear if they are commonly used.
0.1 Current AB-731 Exam Facts
Quick Answer: Exam AB-731 is Microsoft's proctored exam for Microsoft Certified: AI Transformation Leader. Microsoft lists the credential at Beginner level, gives 45 minutes to complete the assessment, and requires a scaled score of 700 or greater out of 1,000. Microsoft does not publish a fixed question count, and the fee is based on the country or region where the exam is proctored.
Exam AB-731 is the current exam code for Microsoft Certified: AI Transformation Leader. Microsoft's certification page, last updated 22 July 2026, tags the credential as Beginner, aimed at the Business Leader role, with artificial intelligence as the subject. The skills Microsoft measures are about leading transformation with Microsoft 365 Copilot and Foundry Tools. You are not expected to write any code.
This is a decision-maker exam, not a developer exam and not a daily-operator exam. You sit it if your job is to see where AI should change a process, choose among Microsoft's AI apps and services, fund the work, and keep the organization inside responsible-AI guardrails. A colleague who lives in Outlook, Word, Microsoft Teams, PowerPoint, and Excel with Copilot is preparing for a different Beginner credential: Exam AB-730, Microsoft Certified: AI Business Professional. Both credentials are useful; they test different work.
What Microsoft publishes versus what blogs invent
Logistics belong on two Microsoft Learn pages you should bookmark: the AI Transformation Leader certification page and the Study guide for Exam AB-731. Score rules live on Exam scoring and score reports. Retakes live on the exam retake policy. If a prep site disagrees with those pages, the Learn page wins.
| Fact | What Microsoft publishes | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| Credential name | Microsoft Certified: AI Transformation Leader | Certification page |
| Exam code | AB-731 | Study guide and certification page |
| Level | Beginner | Certification page |
| Assessment time | 45 minutes to complete the assessment | Certification page |
| Passing score | 700 or greater on a scale of 1 to 1,000 | Scoring reports page |
| Delivery | Proctored; schedule through Pearson VUE | Certification page |
| Interactive items | You may have interactive components | Certification page |
| Question count | Not published for AB-731 | Certification page |
| Price | Based on the country or region of proctoring | Certification page |
| Blueprint date | Skills measured as of July 22, 2026 | AB-731 study guide |
| Account | Personal Microsoft account (MSA) recommended | Certification page |
Assessment time and seat time
The certification page is the AB-731-specific clock: 45 minutes to complete this assessment. Microsoft's exam duration and exam experience article distinguishes exam duration (time to answer) from seat duration (instructions, the Microsoft Certification Exam Candidate Agreement, and optional comments). For Microsoft's 45-minute exam type, that article lists 65 minutes of seat time. Block the longer window on your calendar. Pace the questions against 45 minutes.
Do not plan to browse Microsoft Learn inside AB-731. The same duration article says in-exam Learn is for associate or expert exams and is not available on Fundamentals exams or GitHub exams. AB-731's 45-minute assessment time matches the Fundamentals duration row. Unless the overview screens on exam day say otherwise, treat AB-731 as a closed-book, proctored session.
Scaled scores, guessing, and the score report
Microsoft reports technical exam scores on a scale of 1 to 1,000. Passing is 700 or greater. Microsoft states that a scaled score may not equal 70 percent of the points. The cut score reflects competence and item difficulty. There is no penalty for guessing: a wrong answer simply earns no point. Some items may be unscored pretest questions. You will not be told which ones, so answer everything.
After most exams you see a result within minutes. The report includes an overall numeric score, pass/fail, and a bar chart by skill area. Microsoft says those bars show relative strength and weakness. They cannot be added up to reconstruct how many items you got right. Microsoft does not identify the questions you missed. Use the bars only to decide what to restudy before a retake.
Unpublished numbers: item count and price
Two figures circulate constantly, and neither is Microsoft policy for AB-731.
- Question count. Microsoft does not publish a fixed AB-731 item count. The duration article notes that most Microsoft Certification exams typically contain 40–60 questions and that the number can vary. That sentence is program-level guidance, not an official AB-731 count. A local practice bank's size is a study-tool fact, not the live exam's length. Do not pace your 45 minutes against a number a blog invented.
- Price. The certification page states that price is based on the country or region in which the exam is proctored. A single worldwide US-dollar fee copied across third-party sites is not what Microsoft publishes. Read the amount Pearson VUE shows for your location at registration.
Languages, extra time, and accommodations
Microsoft currently offers AB-731 in English, Arabic (Saudi Arabia), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), French, German, Indonesian (Indonesia), Italian, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, and Spanish.
The study guide adds two rules that affect scheduling:
- Localized versions of some exams update approximately eight weeks after the English version.
- If the exam is not available in your preferred language, you can request an additional 30 minutes.
That extra half hour is a language-availability request, not the same process as disability accommodations. If you use assistive devices, need extra time for another reason, or need a modification to the exam experience, use Microsoft's accommodations request before you register.
How items are written: GA, Preview, and related topics
The AB-731 study guide prints two notes that change how you study:
- The bullets under each skill illustrate how Microsoft assesses that skill. Related topics may be covered even when they are not listed as a bullet.
- Most questions cover features that are general availability (GA). The exam may contain questions on Preview features if those features are commonly used.
GA means the feature is released for production use. Preview means Microsoft has made it available for evaluation, often with different terms. A transformation leader still needs to know what is generally available to recommend at scale, and what is commonly used in Preview so you do not over-promise a capability that is not yet the default. Related-topics coverage is why a memorized bullet list is not a complete preparation plan: if your organization already uses a widely discussed Copilot or Foundry capability, study how a leader would describe it even if the words are not on the outline.
Registration, sandbox, retakes, and renewal
Microsoft strongly recommends that you register with a personal MSA. If you register with an organizational work or school Azure Active Directory (AAD) account, your exam records can be lost and unrecoverable if you leave that organization. Connect that personal MSA to your Microsoft Learn profile so you can schedule, view credentials, and later renew.
The exam is proctored through Pearson VUE and may include interactive components. Before exam day, use the two free tools Microsoft links from the certification page:
- The practice assessment on Microsoft Learn, which Microsoft describes as an overview of style, wording, and difficulty—not the live items, and not a picture of full exam length or complexity.
- The exam sandbox, where you can click through question types, timers, review flags, and the candidate agreement in the same interface you will see on exam day. The sandbox does not turn on the real exam's secure browser.
Retake policy
For role-based, specialty, and fundamentals exams, Microsoft's retake policy is:
- After a first failure, wait 24 hours.
- After that, wait 14 days between subsequent attempts (up to five).
- You may not take the same exam more than five times in the 12 months from the first attempt. After five failures, you become eligible again 12 months from that first attempt.
- You cannot retake an exam you have passed unless the certification has expired.
- You pay for a retake if a fee applies.
Microsoft will waive a waiting period only for documented internet or equipment failure with a Pearson VUE case number. Ordinary "I want to try tomorrow" requests do not qualify.
Renewal: Beginner is not "never expires"
The AB-731 study guide points to Microsoft's certification renewal article for associate, expert, and specialty certifications: they expire annually, and you renew with a free, unproctored, open-book assessment on Microsoft Learn during a six-month eligibility window. Fundamentals certifications in the AZ-900 pattern do not expire. AB-731 is a named Beginner role credential, not that never-expire Fundamentals pattern. After you pass, watch renewal status in your Learn profile instead of assuming the badge is permanent.
Official Microsoft pages for this section
What passing score does Microsoft publish for technical exams such as AB-731?
How does Microsoft publish the price of Exam AB-731 on the AI Transformation Leader certification page?
After a first failure on a Microsoft Certification exam such as AB-731, when may the candidate retake it under Microsoft’s published retake policy?