The use of automated detection and response systems can help tip the scale in favour of defenders by using risk-based algorithms and anomalous activity detection to flag events that require human expertise to investigate further. This helps security analysts detect patterns and behaviours that are not obvious to the human eye, with more precision and speed than human defenders alone.

The background to “cognitive cyber”

As advances in dynamic and adaptive cyber defence systems become reality, what do organisations need to do to become ready for cognitive cyber, and what exactly is it?

Cognition refers to the mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension. Cognitive cyber attempts to simulate that process with the application of self-learning algorithms, natural language processing, and big-data mining techniques as applied to the cybersecurity domain. It uses cognitive system overlays to traditional artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) models to achieve something greater than the sum of the parts. 

To recap:

• Classic/traditional AI and ML​ detects and classifies, and can work on vast amounts of data for use in real-time applications and automation of capabilities. ​Traditional AI is strong when it comes to looking at a large field of data and finding patterns or continuations (like making recommendations).
• Generative AI (GAI), often powered by generative pre-trained transformers (GPT), effectively understands and creates content. It works on relatively small chunks of data – text, images, sounds, videos. Large language models (LLMs) are a kind of GAI that work on text.​ LLMs are good at understanding language, summarising, and translating concepts, for example from language to code or vice-versa. ​

Clearly, linking these models makes for a much more powerful narrative. And, by using the compute power, scalability, and richness of the cloud, we can build entire systems of intelligence that can reason over vast amounts of information – structured and unstructured.​

Our name for this intelligence-based cognitive capability? Microsoft Copilots. These are experiences that use generative AI to help humans with complex cognitive tasks.

Introducing Microsoft Security Copilot

Built specifically to augment human security expertise, Microsoft Security Copilot is a combination of the most advanced GPT4 model from OpenAI, with a Microsoft expert-driven, security-specific LLM model.

Most LLMs are trained on corpuses of written human language. Security Copilot is trained on security logs, attack telemetry and threat intelligence, the outcome of which is the first AI/ML model trained specifically for security.

But the capability is much more than just the large language model. Built into the product are specific cyber skills and promptbooks informed by our global threat intelligence, which runs on Azure’s hyperscale infrastructure. This means that the models inherit Microsoft’s comprehensive approach to security, compliance, and privacy. When it comes to the data Copilot is reasoning across, your data remains your data.

Security Copilot democratises defender skills by allowing natural language for querying rather than having to learn complex querying languages like Kusto Query Language (KQL). This lowers the barrier to entry for new analysts, which helps address the cybersecurity skills shortage. We’ve launched an Early Access program for qualified candidates to explore the capabilities of Security Copilot. Reach out to your sales representative to get more details.

Use cases for Microsoft Security Copilot

Human ingenuity and expertise will always be an irreplaceable component of defence, so we need technology that can augment these unique capabilities to improve the analyst experience all-up. For this reason, initially we are focusing on security operations centre (SOC) use cases.

The three primary use cases are security posture management, incident response, and security reporting.​

• Security posture management: Security Copilot delivers information on anything that might expose an organisation to a known threat. It then gives prescriptive guidance on how to protect against those potential vulnerabilities.​ A query such as: ‘How can I improve my security posture?’ will return evidence-based recommendations.

• Incident response: Security Copilot can quickly surface an incident, enrich it with context from other data sources, assess its scale and impact, and provide information on what the source might be. Again, it will support the analyst through the response and remediation steps with guided recommendations.

• Security reporting: Security Copilot can deliver customisable reports that are ready to share and easy to consume to keep managers and other stakeholders in the loop. What this means tactically is you can ask Security Copilot in natural language: ‘Summarise this incident in a single PowerPoint slide’, and it will do just that.

Preparing for cognitive cyber defence: 3 steps

In the future, our vision with Security Copilot is to support use cases across security, identity, management, compliance and more, leveraging skillsets across Microsoft and third-party products. In the meantime, and whilst Security Copilot is not yet publicly available, there are things organisations can do to prepare for these cognitive cyber defence capabilities:

Step 1: Secure your identities, especially privileged identities, and SOC members. Attackers will frequently target these individuals to gain access to critical information and systems to elevate the impact of a successful compromise.

Step 2: The age of AI is also referred to as the age of platforms. Integrating your security signals into an observability platform brings huge security gains in terms of visibility and automation. 

Step 3: Initially, Security Copilot is integrated with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, and for an even better experience, deploy Microsoft Sentinel and Intune. Going forward, Security Copilot will integrate with third-party products.  

Finally, prepare for the risks. As with any new technology, there are both risks and rewards. To help organisations navigate the risk/reward balance, we’ve released guidance, frameworks, and tooling. 

More information, including links to the risk assessment framework, the Counterfit tool and the Adversarial Threat Matrix (MITRE ATLAS) can be found in our Security blog post Best practices for AI security risk management. 

For information on our commitment to build trustworthy and responsible AI, please read Responsible and trusted AI and Building AI responsibly from research to practice.

Cognitive and AIML technologies are here to stay. While they have the power to bring immense potential for improving our defenders’ experience, securing our organisations, and protecting society, we must also be mindful of potential vulnerabilities on an equally large scale and defend against that risk.

Find out more

Introducing Microsoft Security Copilot

Microsoft Security Copilot Early Access Program

News Center: Microsoft brings the power of AI to cyberdefense

Microsoft Security Copilot: Empowering defenders at the speed of AI

About the author

Previously lead investigator for Microsoft’s detection and response team (DART), Lesley Kipling has spent more than 17 years responding to our customers’ largest and most impactful cybersecurity incidents. As Chief Cybersecurity Advisor, she now provides customers, partners and agencies around the globe with deep insights into how and why security incidents happen, how to harden defences and more importantly, how to automate response and contain attacks with the power of the cloud and machine learning. She holds a Master of Science in Forensic Computing from Cranfield University in the United Kingdom.

The post Cyber defence in the age of AI appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Yet for many business decision-makers, the biggest question continues to be: “How do I start the journey?”

To help answer this question, I want to outline some practical applications of AI that can help your team achieve more today. I’ll then end with some high-level implementation tips.

First, a few words about preparing for the road ahead.

Nurturing (and protecting) your new “learning culture”

As your organisation implements AI, you’ll embark on a change-management journey in which departmental and data silos tend to disappear. In fact, you’ll get the best out of AI by nurturing:

• Organisation-wide participation, so all staff can contribute new solutions to business problems
• Two-way communication, right across a diverse and inclusive team
• Experimentation, including opportunities to learn from mistakes

Your new AI-driven “learning culture” will increasingly be powered by data, with richer insights and new analytical tools. To support this major shift, we’ve developed an end-to-end analytics solution, Microsoft Fabric, unveiled at Microsoft Build 2023. Infused with the Azure OpenAI Service at every layer, Fabric integrates the most advanced D&A tools – from Data Factory to Power BI and Synapse – in one place. Enabling you to surface business insights faster than ever.

Responsible AI by design

It will also be important to consider the ethical, cultural and compliance aspects of deploying AI technology. You can rest assured that, in designing AI solutions, Microsoft puts people and principle first. Our team of researchers, engineers and policy experts is guided by our AI principles and  Responsible AI Standard, along with decades of research on AI, grounding and privacy-preserving machine learning.

Our design process ensures Microsoft AI systems are scrutinised for potential harms and mitigations. We also make it clear how a system makes decisions by noting its limitations, linking to sources and prompting users to review and adjust content based on their subject-matter expertise.

5 ways to start implementing AI at work

The following scenarios highlight how Microsoft AI can help you work smarter and faster, using natural language to cut through the drudgery of search and manual compilation. Our solutions put technology, AI, data, cybersecurity and advanced usability through natural language at your disposal.

1. Transform workloads with an AI copilot

Imagine next-generation AI embedded into the Microsoft 365 apps you use at work each day – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and more. That’s Copilot in Microsoft 365.

Using Copilot in Word, you can now quickly create a first draft to edit and develop using a language prompt. Want more help? Copilot will shorten, rewrite or give feedback on it.

You’re always in control. You can (and should) review, fact-check and fine-tune content yourself.

Creating a presentation? With Copilot in PowerPoint, you can easily bring in slide content from any previous deck. And Copilot in Excel will help you rapidly analyse trends and create data visualisations.

Create reports in seconds

With our Business Chat AI tool, you can use a natural language prompt (such as “Tell the CEO how we’ve updated the campaign strategy”) to instantly create a status update, based on your relevant meetings, documents, emails and chat threads.

2. Detect cybersecurity threats faster 

For security operations and response teams, constant vigilance against threats can drain resources and exhaust individuals.

Microsoft Security Copilot reduces the burden. It uses AI to integrate insights and data from security tools, detecting vulnerabilities earlier and shutting down cyberattacks.

Microsoft Security Copilot provides intelligent guidance informed by 65 trillion daily signals.

It also puts your people first by improving usability. To understand functions, users can simply ask for step-by-step guidance.

As with all our AI solutions, Security Copilot strictly follows our AI principles and Responsible AI Standard. It also runs on Azure’s hyperscale infrastructure for a fully privacy-compliant experience.

3. Reinvent search with an AI copilot for the web  

Our new AI-powered Bing search engine and Edge browser tools are like a copilot for the web. They give you more complete search answers, a new chat experience, and the ability to generate content.

“We’ve launched Bing and Edge powered by AI copilot and chat, to help people get more from search and the web.”

Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft

With the chat experience, you can easily fine-tune your search by asking for more details and clarity. You’ll get relevant links to follow up, too.

Merging search, browser and chat opens up exciting possibilities. Need the highlights of a long annual report? Just ask for it using the Edge Sidebar. Want to compare it to a competitor and see them side-by-side in a table? Just use the chat function.

Even as AI transforms search, the privacy policies of Bing and Edge AI ensure your user identity and behaviour are safe and protected.

4. Improve services and solve problems with AI

Rapidly improve your customer service and data insights by tapping into the power of generative AI models, including GPT-4, Codex, and DALL-E 2. All are available through the Azure OpenAI Service, backed by built-in Microsoft Azure security, compliance and data privacy and the Responsible AI Standard.

Solve your business problem in seconds

Looking to speed up clinical communications or automate an accounting process? Any team member can now do it using AI and low-code. We’ve added Copilot to Microsoft Power Platform, so you can create apps, flows and bots in seconds through natural language. And whatever you build, you can easily query the data for instant, actionable insights.

You can develop Power Automate workflows in 50% less time with Copilot.

5. Unite teams, communicate and collaborate in one place

We’ve also improved usability. Instead of having to keep an eye on your chat while presenting in Teams, you can use Copilot to auto-answer any questions – and save time to collaborate.

Copilot finds Teams notifications, messages and information rapidly and helps you manage work with personalised suggestions. Asking Copilot for a summary can help reduce that Monday morning weekly-status stress by putting you one step ahead.

Implementing AI at scale: 4 practical steps

Scaling your AI journey can be confusing with so many technical, business, cultural and ethical considerations. To move smoothly from experimenting to implementing, follow these steps.  

1. Think business transformation

Approach AI as a business change programme, with tech as a key component. AI will transform your culture, so this might help you think big. It will also stop you seeing AI as belonging solely to IT. 

2. Get your people onboard

Take the time to explain to stakeholders the reasons for change. Highlight the benefits they can expect. No-one should feel they’re having AI “done to them”.   

3. Identify a problem to solve

Scope a business problem, then plan how AI can help solve it. That way, your solution can create measurable value. Don’t use a new business problem – start with one you know and understand.

4. Build an organisation-wide strategy

Create a strategy that allows AI to scale organically. Businesses that focus on scale do better than those hoping multiple, smaller projects will automatically lead to scale.

Over to you

Integrating AI into your business shouldn’t be a daunting process. We’ve designed our AI solutions to fit in with the way you work, not the other way round. This includes applying robust ethical AI principles at every step, and it’s why Copilot automatically adopts your organisation’s security, compliance, and privacy policies and processes. It also protects your tenant, group and individual data.

As Microsoft AI creates a new workplace interaction between humans and computers, I hope this blog has inspired you to take the first step. I look forward with excitement to seeing how AI helps you unleash innovation, unlock productivity and expand skills across the team.

Find out more

Visit the Microsoft AI hub

Accelerate competitive advantage with AI

Build an AI strategy with our Digital Transformation Playbook

Microsoft Responsible AI principles

About the author

As National Technology Officer, I lead Microsoft’s technology vision and model its culture of learning, while developing strategies to protect and extend Microsoft Cloud into complex regulated markets. My goal is to inspire leaders of state and enterprise, as well as regulators and customers, on how best to leverage innovation to drive digital transformation.

The post AI starter pack: 5 ways to implement AI into your business appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

We know from the latest IPCC report on climate change that we have a very narrow window of time to ensure we achieve our global goal of operating within a 1.5-degree climate rise. The impact of not doing so will have devastating consequences for global temperatures, drought impacting food security, and flooding and sea level rises putting lives at risk and destroying precious ecosystems. 

We need to achieve our aim of becoming a global net-zero economy and prevent the worst effects of climate change – before it’s too late. As a business community we can, and must, work together to stay on track with our sustainability goals, even in the face of considerable market instability.

Transforming net-zero commitment into strategy

Last year, world leaders left COP26 having made a series of commitments that we pledged to translate into corporate and employee action – and, crucially, deliver on. Yet our own research shows us that half of all UK organisations won’t hit the 2050 net zero target. Additionally, there’s a number of disruptive global events ranging from the war in Ukraine, to fuel, food, and cost of living crises, and, of course, the ongoing recovery from COVID-19 that have challenged overall progress. As a result, there is very real concern that progress may stall even further.

However, despite the significant challenges we face, there have been green shoots of progress, with a variety of organisations already implementing successful sustainable strategies – but we must keep going.

Microsoft’s sustainability journey

At Microsoft, we too are on this same journey, with lots still to learn. Like others, over the last year we have reported both successes and challenges, but we continue to innovate and apply learnings quickly to our business and our industry. 

We’re two years into our 10-year plan to be carbon negative by 2030 and by 2050 to remove more carbon from the environment than we have emitted since 1975. We’re also striving to be water positive, zero waste and to protect and restore more land than we use.

So, how has our strategy evolved and what learnings can we share?

• We set the tone from the top. Sustainability is part of our brand commitment, fully supported by the leadership team and sits at the core of our business. We are a company that pursues profit by solving the problems of people and the planet. ​And that means making sustainability part of everyone’s role, no matter what that role is.

• We set ambitions based on science. The best available science indicates that every organisation needs to do even more in far less time than we previously thought. That means we need to set goals that align with the science, and we need to be more ambitious.

• We hold everyone accountable for progress and put a governance structure in place to track progress in real time. Governance and accountability are essential here. At Microsoft, we hold our business groups accountable for their carbon emissions. We set measurements and scorecards for each business group’s sustainability commitments across the company and review progress twice a year.

• We report on everything, not just progress. When things go well, we share it alongside guides to help other organisations achieve similar results. And if things go less well, we share that too, so we can all learn and grow together. Our most recent report was published in March, with several important lessons worth reading.

While these are all great steps forward, we’re just a small fraction of total global emissions. So beyond delivering on our own commitments, we must help reduce the remaining 99.97 percent.

The net zero opportunity

In the UK, 60 per cent of FTSE 100 companies are committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

From our own research, we know that 64 percent of UK business leaders say cutting their carbon footprint is part of their organisation’s environmental sustainability strategy. However, the same research revealed that:

The top challenge faced by leaders wanting to move from a position of ambition, to one of action, was the lack of an organisational sustainability strategy.

Most organisations are using offline spreadsheets to organise their data across a myriad of siloed sources. That’s why I’m excited for the general availability of the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability which helps address these problems. 

Unify your data to drive sustainability and operations

Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability helps unify your data and record, report and reduce your organisation’s environmental impact through a common data model, automated data connections and actionable insights. This improves visibility across your value chain, which can account for up to 90 percent of the average organisation’s resource footprint.

By bringing together first-party and third-party capabilities, it can help build a more sustainable IT infrastructure. Solutions like Microsoft Sustainability Manager can help you monitor and manage your environmental sustainability journey end to end, or the Emissions Impact Dashboard application provides transparency into emissions produced from your use of Microsoft cloud services.

And through our work with partners using advanced analytics, machine learning, and virtual models in the cloud, we’re also helping your organisation reduce the environmental impact of operations and create sustainable value chains.

Together with our partners, we’re providing the foundational intelligence and data management capabilities you need to face complex capital allocation decisions with agility and confidence, while weighing ESG commitments, growth, and shareholder value criteria.

Combine culture and technology for a successful strategy

Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability creates a common carbon language and broad technology ecosystem needed to support your sustainability strategy. It can also help you develop better data assets and use better digital tools to drive digital modernisation.

But it’s not just the solutions that will help you reach your sustainability goals. It’s also a culture of transparency and accountability. As leaders, we have a role to play in creating the right type of environment. We must follow through with action to trigger the changes we need to see in the world. 

No matter where you are in your journey, the right culture and the right tools will help all of us go further and faster when it comes to sustainability. 

Find out more

Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability

Accelerate sustainability progress and business growth

Resources to empower your development team

Sustainable software engineering learning path

About the author

Musidora joined the Microsoft UK Senior Leadership Team in February 2022 as Chief Sustainability Officer. She is accountable for driving sustainability outcomes for our customers, partners and internally. Prior to that, Musidora spent three years at Salesforce setting up and leading the Energy and Utilities Go to Market. She has extensive experience of the technology industry across hardware, consulting and software sales, over the past twenty years.  

She featured on Computer Weekly’s list of most influential women in technology in 2021, was named one of the top 100 female future leaders in 2020 by INvolve and Yahoo Finance UK, and was included in Kindness & Leadership’s Rising Star list for 2020. 

Musidora is passionate about D&I and particularly in supporting more women in the STEM industries. She is an active coach, mentor and sponsor both inside and outside of the industry.  

The post How to turn your sustainability ambition into action appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

And organisations are responding to these ambitions. According to the ESO, 2020 was the greenest on record. And 2021 looks like it is readying to exceed this. In fact, in early April, almost 80 percent of the grid was powered from low-carbon sources.

We recently hosted a roundtable with Accenture and Utility Week. This brought together energy firms, regulators and partners to answer an important question: Are energy organisations doing enough now to meet these goals?

At the roundtable, topics included the need to build a cohesive roadmap that covers the entire energy system, taking advantage of digital technology, and change the way consumers interact with energy. Perhaps most importantly, the need to cross-collaborate internally and externally with other utilities, regulators and third-party tech providers was agreed. Here are the four most important topics that came out of the discussion:

1.      Reduce silos and focus on collecting better data

Energy firms are collecting more and more data. But as the roundtable asked – are they collecting the right data?

Often in utility companies, like many industrial environments where systems have built up over time, data is siloed between departments. The billing department sees customer-centric data, while field operations see a different type. However, these silos can be barriers to an energy firm’s innovation and sustainability ambitions. By connecting data and reducing silos, utilities can ensure the right data is collected. This creates more visibility over energy demand, and even opens new business models to monetise data.

Organisations need to not only think about the present, but also the future. For example, data may be being collected around current methods of green energy consumption. But organisations must consider the type of data needed to take advantage of any possible future energy sources, such as geothermal. By futureproofing data, they will be in a better space to drive innovation and keep up with change at pace.

2.      Build partnerships and share open data to reach net zero

Taking those data silos one step further – the net-zero carbon goals are our collective responsibility. So, to reach them, must involve collaboration across industries, governments, and regulators. Open data sharing was a big topic for the roundtable, highlighting the importance of multi-disciplinary action on it.

An open data plan reduces silos across companies and in the sector. This builds creating innovation, and allowing us to transition quickly to a low-carbon future. However, there are some challenges to this. Organisations are at different stages of their journey, with varying datasets, data governance strategies, and often using different data standards.

Energy firms and regulators need to work together to create standardised data formats. This is already in motion, with activities such as the Modernising Energy Data Access (MEDA) competition. Set up by Innovate UK and the Modernising Energy Data group, the aim is to help develop the concept of a Common Data Architecture (CDA) for the Energy Sector. As organisations move to the cloud, data standards and sharing in a secure way can be driven forward, leveraging AI and machine learning to deliver insights. For example, cross-industry partnerships could build digital twins of energy networks or even cities, gaining insights to optimise operations.

For example, we are working in collaboration with Accenture and Avanade to help energy firms such as SSE to reach the UK’s net-zero carbon goals. By using open data, the partnership aims to provide secure, consistent and accessible information. This will drive efficiency, support cross-industry innovation around new markets and improve asset performance and optimisation.

“The scale of the net zero challenge is so great and the significance of achieving it so important, we need all-hands-on-deck. The energy system – electricity in particular – must be completely decarbonised very quickly, so that trickier sectors like heat and transport can reach zero carbon emissions. The answer to all the technological, market and regulatory challenges that result, cannot possibly come from a single organisation or sector. Partnerships, like the one between Microsoft and Accenture, are essential in bringing together an electricity utility like SSE with business and digital technology transformation specialists,”

Rachel McEwen, Chief Sustainability Officer at SSE Renewables.

3.      Personalise customer experiences

This cross-industry approach can not only help drive net-zero carbon, but better serve communities. By collecting and sharing the right data, energy demands can be better responded to. For example, a cold spell in the north might use more resources, so energy companies can work together to respond quickly. It can help organisations better identify vulnerable customers and help as, or even before, needed. Open data will also help identify disengaged users, creating more competition within the energy marketplace. Reducing silos internally and externally will ensure customer service teams can access insights to personalise customer experiences. As a result, they can respond better to customer’s needs.

Energy firms rolling out smart meters will collect better insights around energy usage. At the same time, it empowers customers to take control of their personal sustainability journey. A large percentage of users want smart homes, so long as it is at an acceptable price point. This is a great opportunity for energy companies to drive new value. By collaborating with other industries, this aim can be achieved, opening new revenue streams and data sources.

4.      Reach net zero by supporting the new energy system

By 2030, the energy system will be more decentralised. There is expected to be more small-scale generation (some estimates as much as 30 times), such as solar and wind farms. Additionally, there’s an increase in domestic and grid storage, and a growth in renewable gas, more heat networks, heat pumps and hybrid generation. These changes could mean a shift to two-way systems that generate and store energy locally. This could see distribution networks becoming active managers, helping the system remain stable and secure. Enabling data sharing will make this transition smoother.

Moving to a new energy system means a need for more collaboration and partnerships. Also, organisations need to support employees with new skill sets. Everyone, from frontline workers to data teams, needs access to support and information to help drive new insights, workflows, and experiences for customers.

A chance to start building partnerships and achieve net zero

When it comes to net-zero, the roundtable participants agreed that the energy industry is thinking big. But there needs to be more action. The government and regulators need to incentivise and create policy that mandates the embedding of digital technology into projects, and encourages open data sharing. However, organisations shouldn’t sit back and wait. There is real opportunity to act now and drive cross-industry collaboration, build partnerships, support employees, and connect data silos to help drive the new energy system.

Find out more

Accelerate the energy transition

Transform your digital supply chain

Harnessing innovation to accelerate the transition to net zero

Powering a sustainable future podcast with Darryl Willis

Innovate with a modern data strategy

About the authors

Rik leads Microsoft’s industry strategy across manufacturing, energy and resources in the UK. Responsibilities include working with the government and regulators, industry bodies, industry partners, and largest customers to ensure Microsoft enables sectoral needs. Rik sits on multiple industry boards for energy, manufacturing, research, digital twins and digital skills. His focus areas include the energy transition, sustainability, cyber security and digital technologies for operational environments.

Rina leads several commercial businesses within Microsoft UK including Manufacturing, Utilities, Life Sciences and the Built Environment Sector. In this role, she is responsible for supporting customers to accelerate their digital transformation with Microsoft technologies. She supports the enablement of this through partnerships with integrators, regulators, government and industry bodies.

Rina has over 25 years’ experience in the IT industry. She has spent 14 of these in diverse roles across Microsoft. This included Chief of Staff for the UK CEO and EMEA President, where she was a core part of the cultural transformation of Microsoft as part of the broader transformation that Satya Nadella has led for the business.

Before joining Microsoft, Rina held several business development and marketing-related roles within smaller IT and start-up organisations. She lives in Wokingham with husband and enjoys the moments of being a mum again when her children visit from university.

The post How utility firms can help the UK reach net zero by 2025 appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

We’ve always had accessibility standards ensuring we use closed captions and subtitles but we needed to think beyond that. Like many organisations, our accessibility journey is ongoing. It adapts as we learn and get feedback from our employees, partners, and customers. As Storytelling & Digital Destinations Lead, I continually challenge myself and my team to reimagine our websites, pushing to create great experiences that everyone can access.

Through our AI for Good cohort, we were made aware that for over 70 million Deaf people globally, their first and preferred language is sign language. Sign languages are structured differently from spoken and written language. As a result, some Deaf people have difficulties understanding content in written form. Many rely on friends and family to access the information they need. For example, getting a COVID vaccination is not a simple task when booking and follow-up information is in written text and healthcare staff are wearing facemasks (reducing the ability to lipread).

Despite our focus on accessibility and ensuring all content has subtitles and closed captions, this identified that our content was still inaccessible to a broad group of people.

“BSL is not the same as spoken English or written English, says Tim Scannell, Signly ambassador. “A lot of companies say English is good enough, because they think that Deaf people can understand English like a first language. We’re trying to show that the Deaf grassroots BSL community don’t necessarily understand English well.”

As part of the Deaf BSL community, Tim and Signly have been researching into the impact of the lack of BSL services. “They [BSL users] would always talk about having to bother somebody who is hearing that they knew.” Tim says. For some, this may be the children of Deaf adults, which then changes their relationships and increases stress and anxiety for both. “It also took Deaf people sometimes long time to understand.” For example, if a hearing customer had an issue with their bank, they could go into the branch, or call and get it sorted quickly. “A Deaf customer, however, will go into the branch and the bank would give them written information to read, or they [the bank] wouldn’t know about booking an interpreter or very rarely that would happen. But most don’t know how. They just apologise and say they couldn’t. A Deaf person just wants better communication.”

Learning about Signly

Technology has the power to help everyone. Therefore, it’s clear that we need to make sure that no one gets left behind. That’s why at Microsoft, we’re always looking at ways we can improve accessibility.

We were introduced to Signly when they became part of our AI for Good programme. Instantly, I knew they’d be a key partner to help us further our inclusion goals.

What do Signly do? Their technology translates written text to sign language. It removes this barrier, making content more accessible and is all run on Azure.

“A lot of firms think about just providing the typical accessibility features and think it’s okay, and it’s always because of the wrong perception that Deaf people are okay with English,” says Tim. “If people only think about the options they’ve set up. That’s not going to work. They need to think sometimes outside of the box.”

And Signly thinks innovatively. Signly allows users to self-serve, view or request sign language translations on webpages. The AI for Good programme helped Signly scale their app. Lloyds Bank became the first UK organisation to offer a translation website in British Sign Language.

“Signly covers the fixed information you have on a website so that you make less calls to need an interpreter,” says Tim.

With only around 1000 interpreters in the UK, it’s important we use technology to assist them in their roles while empowering BSL users. Both the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) and the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI) express how machine learning or AI signing avatars should not be used when the information being delivered is live, complex or of significant importance to the lives of Deaf citizens. Signly helps free up BSL interpreters to focus on those moments, while giving BSL users equal access to the information when they need it.

Improving access for everyone with sign language

The Microsoft Apprenticeship Network was built to help connect apprentices and organisations together. To bridge a digital skills gap, the UK needs over three million people in tech careers by 2025. Apprentices are key to this.

At the same time, we need to ensure that our new talent is diverse and inclusive. According to the NHS, people who are Deaf or experience hearing loss are more likely to be unemployed. And in employment, 74 percent surveyed felt that their employment opportunities were limited because of their hearing loss. This means we’re missing out on diverse perspectives, building new talent and driving inclusive innovation. We’re also missing out on the potential economic output. If we don’t address these employment rates by 2031 the UK economy will lose £38.6 billion per year.

The low code tech behind the solution

The beauty behind Signly is its simplicity. As a low code solution, it can be easily added to any website. You can translate the pages like we did. So, when you launch you are automatically accessible for everyone. The service also works on demand. Users can request websites to be translated when they need it.

“We use Azure to create a ‘Signing Studio,’” explains Mark Applin, Signly CEO. “It grabs the English straight from the website and fires it straight into the teleprompter for the Deaf translator working from a home studio.”

From there, the video goes back to Azure, and straight onto the web page. And when you update your website, a notification is automatically sent to Signly to update that section. This means all your users are getting the right information at the right time.

The BSL user experience

When Tim showed the website to other BSL users, he said they were amazed and relieved. As one Signly user said: “Wow. That’s wonderful, that’s really beautiful. I’ve had a problem with all kinds of things, whether it’s doctors or banking and nobody will help me with the English. And I don’t know any of that in English… I have to go to Citizen’s Advice. There’s just barriers everywhere. All the companies just won’t help you.”

“People were getting emotional just to see something in their language.”

– Tim Scannell, Signly ambassador

The future of our accessibility journey with sign language

Working with Signly has shown me the massive opportunity it has in democratising access to everyone. Our values are right there on our website. We aim to help everyone achieve more. And we want to not just talk the talk but to walk the walk. Signly helps us achieve this goal. This is the start of a journey. This pilot is a good first step to see how we can scale the technology across other websites. In the future we can even perhaps scale it to our partners and customers.

“I think with Microsoft being such a massive leader, it could have a huge impact on so many other firms and organisations and what can be done. Every website should have sign language content. It makes deaf people feel accepted,” says Tim.

Another Signly user agrees with Tim. “It [BSL on websites] would be a massive benefit. Less stressed, I’d know how to communicate. I wouldn’t constantly have to ask what does this mean, what does that mean. It would give us equality. I can learn at the same time.”

How Signly could transform other industries

It’s also a great opportunity for the public sector to deliver important information to BSL users. For example, the NHS could use it to provide fixed information around vaccinations, as suggested by a Signly user: “They [The NHS] send me a leaflet about the vaccine, and I said, ‘I just can’t read it’. I’ve not had any information about the vaccine. I keep saying ‘where is the interpreter?’ They’re all wearing masks and I can’t lip read them. If I had a bad reaction, I don’t know what to look out for.”

Media companies can also leverage the technology, to provide more equitable access to news and content. “You miss things on the news…The BBC website should have sign language on the news [page]. And the NHS,” adds a BSL user.

Your accessibility journey will be constantly evolving as you learn. It’s important to remember that implementing inclusive designs in your services and products is not a ‘one and done’ job. It’s a continuous process that you must update and approach in new ways. And working with companies like Signly, you can easily scale out these innovations. This endeavour is a stepping stone for us at Microsoft. It’s one we are proud of and hope to expand on.

Find out more

Learn more about Signly

Our accessibility commitment

Help Signly and take part in their social impact research

Resources to empower your development teams

Accessibility fundamentals

Learn the basics of web accessibility

About the author

Great stories demand heroes, emotions, and insight. As Storytelling & Digital Destinations Lead at Microsoft UK, Victoria Oakes places these principles at the heart of Microsoft UK’s content output. In this role, she drives to unify messaging and content across Microsoft using insights at the heart. Through her passion for engaging copy, visual storytelling, and data-driven insights, she truly cares about content being useful, interesting and easy to digest. As a philanthropy advocate, Victoria strongly believes in using technology for social impact, strengthening empowerment and inclusion for all and environmental sustainability.

The post How to empower even more people by challenging accessibility standards appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Therefore, the water sector requires new thinking and greater collaboration than ever before. Data, and digital technology has the power to unlock this opportunity. It can also unlock new approaches and processes that can support consumers, create a new universal system, and help us reach our collective net-zero goals. At a recent roundtable with Utility Week, we discussed how the water sector can transform sustainably. We talked about how sharing data can transform the water sector. As a result, we created a graphic of our main outcomes from the roundtable discussion.

Open data platforms and data sharing in the water sector

A centralised, accessible universal system can help water organisations better manage demand and unlock new insights. However, to do this we need to get the basics right. Water organisations need to ensure they are collecting the right data and that data needs to be of good quality. You need to reduce silos internally before looking outwards. By taking advantage of apps such as Microsoft Dynamics 365, you can start taking steps to reduce business silos.

We also need unified data standards and governance. This is easier said than done, as there’s no national body leading this and no means of enforcing standards. Also, organisations could risk spending too much time and effort deciding on what standards to use instead of focussing on immediate priorities. A practical approach could be to choose a non-competitive aspect you can collaborate on. This will establish de facto standards that can be adopted further as collaboration progresses. For example, Azure Data Share helps organisations securely share data in a common standard, while taking advantage of AI and machine learning to drive new insights. This data can be used to create a digital twin of the UK’s water network to help plan for the future, run scenarios, and gain even more insight.

Fostering and accelerating water sector partnerships and ecosystems

Sharing data helps drive new partnerships and relationships. It will also help us collectively manage water supply demands, sustainability goals, and support consumers. As previously mentioned, there’s no national body. This means the onus is on organisations to communicate and collaborate with each other and regulators. For example, we’re working with Accenture on a five-point plan for utilities that aims to speed up the UK’s mission to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

A good way to start, is to focus locally. Connect with other organisations who are geographically close and then start building out towards a national approach. By sharing environmental data, water supply information, and other types of data, you can build more resilient systems, react with agility to demand periods, and even identify and support vulnerable customers.

Digital technology in ecosystems and the water supply chain will help deliver insights and data. Using IoT across water networks can help detect leaks, plan predictive maintenance or adapt to demand. For example, Anglian Water introduced smart meters to consumers. This gives consumers the ability to monitor their own water-saving journey. At the same time, it also gives Anglian Water the insights to better plan water supply and respond to demands. As a result, they’ve delivered an eleven percent reduction in demands across households.

Building digital skills in the water sector

The PR19 stresses the importance of ‘resilience in the round’. This focus is not just on infrastructure resilience but operational, financial and corporate resilience. This means as water organisations look to use digital technology such as AI, IoT, and machine learning to optimise and support operations, they need to ensure their employees can use these technologies effectively.

This can also help them attract new talent and retain current talent. According to Energy and Utility Skills, English/Welsh water organisations will have needed to replace (by volume) their entire workforce by 2024. Despite that, the water industry had the lowest number of utility apprenticeship starts and completions in 2013/14.

By ensuring you have a culture that focusses on learning, you can open up innovation and new value chains, become more resilient, and empower the next generation of employees.

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Accelerating sustainability in the water sector

The water sector relies on a healthy environment. Therefore, it’s important for water organisations to have robust plans on how they are supporting and improving the ecosystem. PR19 commits water companies to reduce water leakage by 16 percent and empower customers to use 13 percent less water by 2025. At the same time, Microsoft has committed to reach net-zero.

Data and digital tech will help us build sustainability. By sharing data across the industry, introducing smart meters and even connecting with other industries such as energy, we can better manage demand, fix leaks, and support the maintenance of water treatment centres.

Building sustainable water systems

The time is now for water organisations to start working together, with regulators and other industries to build cross-collaboration. By creating an open data system, organisations will be in the right spot to help support the UK’s transition to net-zero. At the same time, they will build resilience, agility and innovation. Also important to this is ensuring your employees have the digital skills and tools to support this move.

Find out more

The role of data sharing in water transformation

Discover how to harness the power of data

Accenture and Microsoft collaborate to help accelerate UK’s transition to net-zero carbon emissions

Learn how to drive innovation with data and analytics

Build digital skills with these resources

About the author

Rik leads Microsoft’s industry strategy across manufacturing, energy and resources in the UK. Responsibilities include working with the government and regulators, industry bodies, industry partners, and largest customers to ensure Microsoft enables sectoral needs. Rik is a board member in techUK’s Smart Energy & Utilities working group, techUK’s Digital Twin steering board, UK Research & Innovation Manufacturing Made Smarter, and a member of the BIM4Water Digital Skills steering group. His focus areas are the energy transition, cyber security and digital technologies for operational environments. He is also an independent technology strategy advisor to a super major.

Read more blogs from Rik.

Carrie works with Energy and Utilities customers and partners in the UK. She aligns industry needs to digital capabilities to drive innovation with business leaders. Passionate about learning, she has spent the last four years at Microsoft empowering organisations to upskill employees to adapt to new ways of working with digital technology. In order to inspire the next generation, Carrie volunteers as a STEM Ambassador and has guided others to realise and exceed their potential through mentoring schemes.

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For Microsoft, sustainability has been at the heart of our business for quite some time. We plan to be carbon negative, have zero waste and replenish more water than we consume by 2030. In addition, we are also aiming to use data and AI to help us address biodiversity issues. Mando is a Microsoft partner who uses Azure to help utilities, telecoms, manufacturing and financial services organisations deliver better customer experiences.

In a recent webinar, we discussed the new consumer expectations on utility suppliers around sustainability. Consumers want their suppliers to help them make a difference and create a greener society. It’s no longer about organisations steadily progressing towards meeting sustainability goals. It’s quickly becoming about streamlining and revolutionising your existing processes to ensure you’re positively contributing towards a greener society.

But how can your organisation do this? And how can you support customers on their sustainability journeys? Here we are sharing the five most important points organisations need to consider when building a sustainability strategy.

1.      Streamline and reduce operations

Perhaps the first thing you need to do is to understand your impact on the environment. This is where your data comes into power. You can use data to gain deep insights of how much your organisation relies on carbon, water, and more. We’d recommend starting with the Microsoft Sustainability Calculator, which can help you gain insights and understand your organisation’s carbon emissions. It can help you start the process of improving them and tracking them along your journey. AI for Earth helps organisations solve environmental challenges by harnessing AI and the cloud. You can leverage a range of open source tools that will help accelerate operations, such as analysing land cover or machine learning APIs to spot wildlife.

You can also take advantage of tools like Dynamics 365 to combine your data and reduce organisational silos. Power Platform is a no/low code solution to help streamline operations and reduce paper waste. Machine learning and AI is a great way of reducing paper-based workflows, while improving insights and reducing errors.

Take SSE, for example. They’re deploying analytics, AI and data visualisation capabilities on Microsoft Azure. This means they can scale and gain insights faster, empowering them to generate actionable operational and commercial insights from diverse data sets. They are also using AI to ensure wildlife aren’t negatively affected by new windfarms.

2.      Improve your supply chain

For utilities, sustainability is about more than just providing renewable energy for your customers. It’s about the whole supply chain. Customers expect services that are built with sustainability in mind. The use of circular supply chains are becoming more common, so much so that a 2020 Gartner survey found that 70 percent of supply chain leaders are planning to invest in their circular economy in the next 18 months.

A circular supply chain model encourages organisations to achieve cost efficiencies, facilitate product innovation, create less waste and ultimately, minimise their environmental impact. This is key for your sustainability strategy.

Underpinning this supply chain will be technology. The cloud, IoT, machine learning and automation all have their place to drive transparency while delivering insights. Take Recycleye, for instance. They have goals to improve recycling in the waste management industry. They do this by using machine vision, AI and robotics to detect everything on a waste management facility’s conveyor belt and send it to the right place. For utilities, you can leverage this technology for predictive maintenance and real-time insights to manage customer demand.

3.      Educate and improve customer experiences

According to a 2020 BCG report, 76 percent of respondents think that environmental issues are just as – or more – concerning than health issues. When you announce or share your sustainability goals, you need to make sure you stick to them and stay accountable. For example, after we shared our ambitions in January 2020, we released a progress report a year later to share our journey and learnings with our customers and partners.

One unique position that utility organisations have is the ability to educate their customers on their own sustainability. Anglian Water provides over six million customers with a vital service. They use Azure to help track and manage water supply services to customers. They also have been trialing a smart metering scheme so customers can track their own water usage. As a result, they’ve seen an 11 percent reduction in demands on households. Customers were able to identify leaks and modify their behaviours. At the same time, Anglian Water have more insights to understand their customer’s needs.

4.      Include cross-industry collaboration in you sustainability strategy

For the world to become more sustainable, everyone needs to work together. This includes collaboration at every touchpoint to improve access to new technologies and renewable energy. This will help us be successful in our collective goals. Part of this means sharing data and looking at co-innovation and investment. It’s also about working with regulators to achieve and surpass goals.

This is why Microsoft is working with Accenture and Avanade. We bring together our collective knowledge in cloud, data, AI, IoT and digital twins to help utility and energy companies support the UK’s low-carbon ambition. SSE Renewables is working with the companies to leverage technology to be more cost effective and increase the reliability and life of its assets.

This is a key opportunity for organisations to consider in their sustainability strategy. Rather than just meeting expectations and new regulations you can become ‘best in class’ and shine. A way to do this is to collaborate with other industry experts and create smart cities. By connecting a city through intelligent cloud technologies, you can build resilience, manage critical infrastructure, and make better and more sustainable decisions.

5.      Build a sustainable culture as part of your sustainability strategy

How can we best embed sustainability goals and values into the organisation? By making it part of the culture. To do this, you need to take a top-down approach. We’ve seen organisations bring Chief Sustainability Officers on to take part in key board meetings. Others have strong programmes that focus on sustainability champions to educate internally.

Talking about education, a key factor in leveraging technology that improves your sustainability is to ensure your employees have the skills and ability to do their best work. A strong digital skills programme will democratise skills across the whole organisation. Tools that make working remotely secure and productive can help reduce on-premises energy strain. For example, Centrica use Windows Virtual Desktop to be more agile, and only use the computing power they need, when they need it.

Build your sustainability strategy with authenticity and integrity

Culturally the mindset to be sustainable is there. And the technology to do it is there. From what we’ve seen in the last year businesses can quickly pivot and learn how to use new technology to help them stay connected and productive. When you look internally at your sustainability strategy and outwardly commit to these goals, you can show your customers your commitment authentically. And by using digital technology, you can meet and exceed these, while innovating, improving processes and meeting evolving customer expectations.

Find out more

Get the Sustainability Executive Playbook

Watch the webinar to learn how to be net zero by 2030

Read more on Microsoft’s work

About the authors

Danielle is experienced in enabling Energy organisations to use digital technologies to achieve industry focussed outcomes. It is such a pivotal time for the industry to transform, with renewable energy, sustainability and decarbonisation being at the heart of many of her customer conversations. She’s excited and fortunate that her role at Microsoft allows her to bring together our digital solutions and net-zero aspirations to help create the future of sustainable energy.

Luke helps companies to understand and realise the value that digital services can bring in improving their customers’ experience, reducing costs within their business, and simplifying the lives of their customers and employees.

Mando is a digital agency and Microsoft Gold Partner based in Liverpool. They work with ambitious leaders who need big ideas to create change in a digital world, whilst simultaneously taking care of people and the planet. With a specific focus on getting customers doing more online, they use Microsoft’s .NET, Azure and Cognitive Services platforms to deliver seamless customer experiences. This helps their clients to increase their agility and digital maturity and build value in their business using digital technology.

The post 5 ways to build a sustainability strategy to improve customer experience appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

A 2018 study found that humanitarian crises are increasing in number and duration. These trends all emphasise the need for multi-stakeholder action to effectively face these societal challenges. At Microsoft, our new United Nations representation office found that successful progress requires two elements:

• International cooperation among governments
• Inclusive initiatives that bring in civil society and private sector organisations to collaborate on solutions.

To do this, we need to take advantage of technology. AI for Humanitarian Action is part of the Microsoft AI for Good programme. It aims to help unlock the power of data and AI to address some of the biggest challenges facing society today. The five-year AI for Humanitarian Action commitment aims to help change the way frontline relief organisations anticipate, predict and better target response efforts related to disaster recovery, the needs of children, promotion of human rights, and protection of refugees and displaced people.

I personally want to share four real-life examples of technology being used to deliver better response efforts and how it is helping communities around the world.

1. Information-driven peace operations and humanitarian action

By 2025 the estimated volume of the global datasphere will total 175 zettabytes, or 175 trillion gigabytes. Paired with increasing access to the internet across the world and the availability of scalable computing powered via the cloud, means that more organisations can integrate AI and machine learning with data to improve decision making.

Using AI and analytics means you can have 24/7 monitoring for not just real-time insights, but to predict. This makes it easier to prepare or engage in humanitarian action pre-emptively, resulting in less impact on the local community. For example, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre has an open source data platform that collects data and analytics to identify and implement solutions. It can also be used on the field to help frontline workers streamline services to the community. Forus Health uses a portable AI device that can help eliminate preventable blindness by identifying people at risk so they can seek treatment from an ophthalmologist.

Of course, it’s important to ensure AI is used responsibly. That’s why we’ve embraced responsible AI principles to ensure a people-centered approach to the research, development, and deployment of AI.

2. Empowering frontline staff and communities

For humanitarian action, interacting with communities in person helps cause direct and effective change. However, this can mean that staff and volunteers are often on the ground in war-torn regions and countries where secure internet connectivity and technology safeguards are scarce.

Aimed at eradicating poverty through sustainable development and partnerships the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has a fleet of around 3,000 vehicles to help deliver aid. They equipped  their cars with IoT devices to help increase the safety, security, and efficiency of their staff. They can see when a vehicle has arrived safely, or if something has changed. It immediately alerts the team when a car has broken down, ensuring quick recovery.

“With this solution, we can track driver behaviour and see where a car is right now, at any time. All this contributes to safer roads, safer drivers, and safer passengers,” says Vera Kirienko, Asset Management Specialist.

Using tools that help frontline workers engage and deliver the services they need quickly is extremely important in humanitarian action. For example, when an emergency strikes, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) sets up operations in countries within 72 hours. By using collaborative tools such as Microsoft 365, they have a secure and seamless environment to share ideas and brainstorm fixes to on-the-ground challenges.

“The faster you provide services, the faster you help people of concern, and the more people you serve. It’s a matter of humanity being lost or saved. That’s why it’s critically important to have IT systems in place as soon as possible—and that’s what we’re doing with Windows 10.”

Arthemon Nkunzumwami, Information and Communication Technology Officer, UNDP

Microsoft 365 also has automatic translating and subtitle tools. This makes it easier for cross-nation groups to communicate together and on-the-ground staff better serve the community with less delay.

To ensure everyone can access these tools successfully, organisations need to invest in re- and up-skilling their employees. They can then share these skills with the community to increase resilience in the community. We have a resource hub with links to free and paid training and learning paths.

3. Staying secure while providing humanitarian action

Organisations that provide humanitarian action are often dealing with vulnerable people’s sensitive data. That means they have a duty to ensure that information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. But out in the field, it can be difficult to ensure devices get updated regularly. UNHCR uses the Windows 10 optimisation feature to deliver updates. This means just one device in a network must connect to the internet to download the update. It can then share it to the rest of the network, preventing bandwidth clogging and allowing the worker to continue delivering aid. This feature will also save UNHCR high costs, as satellite connectivity in remote areas is roughly 60 times more expensive than broadband in developed regions.

Save the Children’s contractors, employees and field staff need secure seamless access to centralised resources from some of the most remote corners of the globe. To ensure they keep vulnerable children’s data secure, they use Azure and Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) suite of tools. This allows employees worldwide to work seamlessly from all their devices while ensuring maximum control and security on the back end.

4. Streamline operations

We’ve already talked about how data and analytics can provide insights for aid organisations to quickly adapt to changing environments. But it can also be used to streamline supply chains or operations, saving money, time, and increase sustainability.

For example, UNHRC staff can connect new devices to the cloud quickly. In less than an hour, they can be ready to serve refugees. “Rather than waiting hours, days, or even weeks to get working equipment, we’ll be able to be up and running within 40 minutes,” Plumb says. “That means people of concern will get access to services like shelter, psychological help, cash disbursements—any protection the UNHCR provides—quicker,” says Matthew Plumb, Information Systems Officer.

The UNDP use the IoT in their vehicles to collect data, informing them on ways to group routes together or carpool with other agencies in the same area. This reduces financial and environment costs.

Human Development Foundation Pakistan (HDF) have seen that using Office 365 applications, like Forms, Planner, Teams, OneDrive, and Skype for Business ensures everyone can be part of planning and implementation of projects, no matter where they are.

“We have been able to transform our conventional ways of working to positively impact organisational productivity, while also introducing our staff to a significant set of new skills. We can now focus on empowering the underserved and realising positive social change.”

Zahid Ali Shah, IT manager, HDF

A people-led approach to humanitarian action

One common thread throughout this approach is the focus on people. All these solutions came out of the desire and focus to support people and local communities. That’s why we focus on supporting and promoting cooperation for the UN and other humanitarian aid organisations to achieve more, using computer and data science.

This year at the 75^th UN General Assembly, we committed to collaborating to advance seven priorities:

1. Human rights
We’re working to advance protection and respect for human rights around the world in an era of emerging technologies and challenges. Discover more resources.

2. Environmental sustainability

We’re committed to harnessing the power of technology to help everyone, everywhere build a more sustainable future and preserving and protecting the biodiversity and health of the world’s ecosystems. Find out more about our AI for Earth initiatives.

3. Defending democracy and cyberpeace

We want to promote strong democratic institutions and electoral systems as well as advocating for clear rules for state actors in cyberspace. Learn more about digital peace.

4. Decent work and economic growth

We’re helping 25 million people worldwide acquire the digital skills needed in a recovering economy. Our GetOn campaign aims to help 1.5 million UK citizens build tech careers.

5. Quality education

We are launching global platforms to support remote learning and help address the education crisis. Find out about remote learning.

6. Broadband availability and accessibility

We’re building out internet access to 40 million people across Africa, Latin America and Asia by 2022 to help increase prosperity. Read our blog on the initiative.

7. Digitally empower UN organisations

We’re working with the UN to provides solutions to help them deliver their mission to build inclusive and prosperous societies. We’ve created a central repository of digital learning resources to enable continuous learning and digital capacity-building for UN staff and stakeholders. Discover the UN Digital Academy.

The world faces rapidly changing circumstances, bringing new and longer challenges. Now is the time to think more broadly and reimagine what effective, inclusive global governance can do for society, and to strengthen the systems and institutions that are tasked with this work.

Find out more

Microsoft and the United Nations

AI for Good

About the author

Great stories demand heroes, emotions, and insight. As Storytelling & Digital Destinations Lead at Microsoft UK, Victoria Oakes places these principles at the heart of Microsoft UK’s content output. In this role, she’s driven to unify messaging and content across Microsoft using insights at the heart. Through her passion for engaging copy, visual storytelling, and data-driven insights, she truly cares about content being useful, interesting and easy to digest. As a philanthropy advocate, Victoria strongly believes in using technology for social impact, strengthening empowerment and inclusion for all and environmental sustainability.

The use of the United Nations name or emblem or any abbreviation thereof does not imply that the UN endorses any of the Microsoft (or its affiliates’) products or services described herein.

The post How a people-first approach to AI and technology can help empower humanitarian action appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

AI has slowly become part of many organisations’ cloud strategies. And it makes business sense – our AI Skills in the UK report found that UK organisations embracing AI-ready cultures are outperforming the competition by 11.5 percent. Organisations who haven’t already leveraged AI have started to make investments into the technology to be more resilient and innovative.

To be successful in implementing AI, organisations need to address their skills gaps and culture. Our report found over a third of UK leaders believe there will be an AI skills gap in the next two years. 28 percent believe we are already experiencing one.

Successful journey to an AI-ready culture

We have learned from our experiences at Microsoft and WPP and are sharing these to help organisations achieve their goals. We believe those ready for successful change are those which have strategy, performance, and democratisation present and symbiotic in its AI usage.

Strategy: What differentiates you from competitors?

Outcomes: What is your end-goal?

Democratisation: How will you ensure everyone can access AI, including skills?

We strongly feel that without democratisation, you can’t have the other two successfully. Focus on the skills of the people using the technology instead of the technology itself. This will empower change in culture to be more innovative and agile. Take a look at our learnings on how to build an AI-ready culture.

1 – Assess your business

What does your skills mix look like? Compare your business to others at a similar stage and those further ahead of AI maturity. Based on our AI Skills in the UK report, 93 percent of senior executives at AI-leading firms globally say they are actively building the skills of their workers or have plans to. Nearly 70 percent of employees believe they are confident their employers are preparing them for the AI-enabled world.

2 – An AI-ready culture puts people first

It’s all about the people! Incentivise and empower staff at all levels to learn about AI. Our research finds that those firms that gain the most from AI have also invested in skilling their employees and building a positive, innovation-oriented culture. Share your plans to implement AI and how you will help give employees the skills they need. Listen to feedback and act on it.

3 – Identify ‘champions for change’ genuinely invested in AI

Champions are the front line of change management, your eyes and ears, your feedback loop. Seek people who are naturally interested and enthusiastic. Give them the support they need.

4 – Develop a flexible learning and development program

Give employees the time and freedom to choose how to upskill in AI. Build a programme with a mixture of formal and experienced-based training.

WPP are running two programmes: the AI Academy where they’ve committed to upskill 5,000 data scientists by the end of the year, and the Demystifying AI programme which plans to upskill 50,000 people. Microsoft also runs AI skills programmes, which are available for everyone. The AI Business School helps business leaders understand the value of AI for their industry and the AI School lets you build your own learning path to ensure you develop the skills you need, including no-code and low-code paths.

5 – Create an ongoing culture of experimentation

Encourage employees to try new things without judgement and learn from the results. Share knowledge, successes, and even failures with the whole organisation. It’s also important that AI is built ethically, with guidelines to ensure people are creating AI to be responsible towards society. Take a people-centred approach to the research, development, and deployment.

Human ingenuity is at the heart of an AI-ready culture

AI disruption is inevitable. And if done properly, can lead to performance gains and agile organisations. Keep people at the heart of your AI strategies. Investing in their skills, and keeping curiosity and creativity as core values. Then, you can start realising your full potential and build a successful AI-ready culture.

Find out more

Uncover the value of AI with the AI Business School

Create a learning path to develop your AI skills

Download the report: AI Skills in the UK

Find out more about WPP and their skilling programmes

Join the conversation at Envision

Digital technology is changing not just how organisations operate but how leaders lead. Join us at Envision, where executives across industries come together to discuss the challenges and opportunities in this era of digital disruption. You’ll hear diverse perspectives from a worldwide audience and gain fresh insights you can apply immediately in your organisation.

Connect with leaders across industries to get relevant insights on leadership in the digital era.

About the authors

Di is WPP’s resident data geek. She has over 20 years of technology and data experience across media, FMCG, finance, and retail consulting for companies such as Hearst UK, dunnhumby, and Alpha XR Boots Alliance. ​

Di joined WPP in 2014 as MD of Acceleration (part of Wunderman Thompson) and left in 2017 to become a freelance Data Strategy Consultant.  She didn’t go very far away and having consulted for Wavemaker, VML, Geometry, Wunderman Thompson and MediaCom, Di joined the WPP CTO team and became Global Head of Data and AI in January 2020.​

Di is a creative thinker with proven success in finding new solutions and revenue streams for traditional companies.   She is particularly passionate about getting non-analysts excited about the possibilities of data.​

Di has an MBA from Cranfield School of Management and is a qualified Project Manager and a Neurolinguistic Programme Practitioner. This year she joined Gartner’s Chief Data Officer Group as a Governing Body member and was delighted to be included in the Data IQ Top 100 data leaders list​.

Kate is the Head of Azure Cloud Solution Architecture for Media, Telco and Professional Services at Microsoft UK, working with customers to architect end to end solutions, using Microsoft cloud technologies, with an emphasis on creating solutions that leverage data by using AI.

A behavioural neurobiologist by training, she is passionate about the intersection between technology and business, and how new technologies can shape organisations as they evolve.

In her earlier role at Microsoft, she led the Data and AI Cloud Solution Architecture team for Financial Services. Under her leadership, the team helped organisations shape their data strategies in a scalable and responsible way.

Prior to Microsoft, Kate worked at a start-up that used Big Data to predict commodity flows for Financial Services Institutions, focussing on data fusion, macro-economics, and behavioural analysis. She also holds an MSc in Molecular Biology from Bar Ilan University and a MBA from Tel Aviv University.

The post How to build an AI-ready culture: 5 steps to success appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

AI for human ingenuity

This ethos is at the heart of our AI for Good Accelerator programme, created in partnership with the Social Tech Trust, a charity that provides the investment and support needed for social tech ventures to grow and scale their social impact. It’s open to UK start-ups who are developing a solution that focusses on one of four areas: AI for Earth, AI for Accessibility, AI for Humanitarian Action and AI for Cultural Heritage.

When technology is built with inclusivity at heart, it has the ability to ensure everyone can stay empowered, especially as we rely on more digital forms of connecting. For example, Live captioning in virtual meetings can help those who are hard of hearing or are in noisy rooms.

2020 saw our world change the way we work and connect, leaning more on digital solutions. When the lockdown closed stores and in-person services in the UK, people moved to digital services. It’s important to ensure these services are accessible for everyone. Some of the members of the AI for Good cohort are directly addressing digital inclusion with their solutions.

Digital inclusion to vital services

Signly is helping people who are deaf, hard of hearing and have British Sign Language (BSL) as a first language by serving up pre-recorded, broadcast quality signed content, signed by real people, in-browser. While users can use the browser extension to request specific pages, some companies are taking the step to have pages already translated for users. Lloyds Banking Group recently asked Signly to inject sign language into their website so that deaf users had entirely equal access.

Improving communications for everyone

To reflect our multicultural society, it’s important we have the ability to easily translate information into the right language so everyone has the same understanding. Akari Translation Studio is helping employees manage workload and easily support customer’s individual needs. Users can upload multiple documents and translate it into one of 60 languages, using AI to ensure the document has the correct context. For example, a tenancy agreement can be translated into another language, as well as the communication around it.

Helping build resilience

Our increased use of technology has bought different stressors and affected people in different ways. For those remote working, they may find themselves blurring the line between work and life. To ensure employee wellbeing, it important to check up on everyone. MyCognition has built an accessible platform that helps monitor, treat and increase mental resilience. The app creates personalised on-demand programmes to help users reduce stress and improve mental health.

AI for good

These three companies are providing vital services that amplify human capability to ensure everyone is included in the digital future – a core stance of our AI for Accessibility platform.

They, along with the rest of our AI for Good cohort have two things in common: They all are creating positive social transformation and using technology to power that. GrantTree, who helps innovative UK companies find government funding, spoke to some of cohort on their What Comes Next? Podcast. Hear their stories on how they are solving some of the world’s biggest problems.

Episode 1

The start of the AI for Good series, What Comes Next? learns about how Signly improves access to websites for people who use BSL as their first language and Akari Solutions is increasing access to vital services with auto-translation. They also find out about how MyCognition is building mental resilience with AI.

Episode 2

What Comes Next? talks to Hello Lamp Post, an app that lets users interact with their built environment in order to learn or give feedback to urban planners. They also learn about how Recycleye is using machine vision to revolutionise recycling. They learn about how Baobab Connect improves access to the justice system via legal connection.

Episode 3

Learn about how BeneTalk can improve speech therapy outcomes with its unique mix of wearable app, online counselling, and eventually personalised support delivered via an AI that helps people who stutter to access training and support. Good Boost is also providing personalised water-based rehabilitation program with AI to people with musculoskeletal problems. Finally, discover how OrxaGrid uses advanced machine learning algorithms and IoT sensors to create detailed analytics about our energy networks and the demands placed upon them by next generation technologies.

Episode 4

The final episode of the series, the team learn about how miiCARE uses a combination of AI and home-monitoring tools to protect the elderly and how Ecosync harnesses AI to reduce heat and energy waste in buildings. In addition, they take a look back on the series.

Three ways you can increase digital inclusion

It’s important that whether we work remotely, or are heading back into the office to ensure we meet everyone’s needs. As part of our Resilient Operations Report, we took a look at a number of ways you can build agile teams. This included how you can ensure everyone is connected, while keeping digital inclusion at the heart:

Improve communication

Look for communication tools that let you use a mix of audio, video, and chat. That way your employees can be comfortable to communicate whatever way that suits them. Microsoft Teams has extra accessibility tools such as live captioning, screen blurring, narrations and more, to help people work in their best way.

Use tools that are accessible by design

Over 70 percent of disabilities are invisible. There’s also situational challenges that people need support or assistance for. That’s why it’s important to ensure your documents, presentations, and communications are suited for all. Have captions, providing recordings or transcripts of meetings allows your people to review and follow at their own pace. Make sure your presentations and documents are inclusive by using the Accessibility Checker in Microsoft 365.

Building inclusive tools

Building voice, vision, and other cognitive capabilities into applications will increase accessibility and usage. Your developers will be able to do this with Azure Cognitive Services.

Find out more

Resilient Operations Report

What Comes Next? Podcast,

4 skills organisations can embrace to use AI for social good

Be part of our next AI for Good cohort

Tools to empower your development team

Build accessibility into your apps

About the author

Since joining Microsoft 12 years ago, Eve has taken on numerous challenges which have continually driven her capabilities and expertise. Using her strong communications skills, she prides herself on putting customers and employees first and will always strive to ensure Microsoft’s commitment to them is met. In her role as the Responsibility manager, she creates and manages relevant CSR projects within the UK, focusing programmes where she believes we can truly deliver impact, align to our business model, and positively amplify Microsoft’s society brand. Eve works closely with key influencers across the sector, building strategic partnerships and reaching customers with relevant content that showcases the value and relevance of Microsoft technology. She manages key programmes like the AI for Good activity, Environmental Sustainability, Employee Volunteering and Giving, and Accessibility.

Eve is hugely passionate about Environmental Sustainability and the impact the ever changing modern life has on the planet. Technology has a significant role to play in reducing our impact and offering innovative solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems. She is also fascinated by the Charitable sector and the valuable contribution it makes to UK society – which is often under the radar and largely unrecognised. Coupling this with her love for technology, she is able to work in areas that keep her highly motivated and driven to exceed the targets she is challenged with.

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