New business laptop setup verification issues

Question

We have a new employee, and while setting up his laptop, I was asked to enter his phone number to receive a code to prove his identity. This has not been required when setting up laptops previously. When entering his phone number and clicking 'Next", I get an error that only says "We're sorry, we ran into a problem. Please select "Next" to try again." I have ensured his phone number is in his Microsoft account, and I can't think of anything else to try.

I am unsure if the laptop is running Windows 10 or 11.