The event brought us many surprises, so just in case you couldn’t tune in live, let’s walk through some of the key announcements.

Azure AI

With the continual advancements being made in AI, solutions are rapidly changing to meet the needs of users. Microsoft Azure AI Service has several new capabilities to help customers increase productivity, efficiency and content safety for customers.

Updates to Azure OpenAI Service, now in preview, will include enhancements like Azure AI Studio, which will better enable organisations to combine Azure OpenAI Service with their data; a Provisioned Throughput Model, which will offer dedicated/reserved capacity; and plugins that will simplify integrating external data sources and streamline the process of building and consuming APIs.

Azure AI Content Safety, a new Azure AI service, will empower businesses to create safer online environments and communities. Models are designed to detect hate, violent, sexual and self-harm content across languages in both images and text. The models assign a severity score to flagged content, indicating to human moderators what content requires urgent attention.

Vector search for Azure Cognitive Search, the retrieval system for new large language models (LLM) apps, is coming soon in preview. Vector search allows developers to easily store, index and search by concept in addition to keywords, using organisational data including text, images, audio, video and graphs.

New capabilities, now in preview for Azure Cognitive Service for Language, will include the ability for developers to customise summarisation, in addition to the entity recognition, text classification and conversational language understanding (CLU) features already announced, and are all powered by Azure OpenAI Service.

Azure Machine Learning drastically improves machine learning professionals’ ability to operationalise responsible generative AI solutions by enabling evaluation at all phases of the model lifecycle. Updates to Azure Machine Learning include:

• Prompt flow, in preview soon, will provide a streamlined experience for prompting, evaluating and tuning large language models. Users can quickly create prompt workflows that connect to various language models and data sources and assess the quality of their workflows with measurements, such as “groundedness,” to choose the best prompt for their use case.
• Support for foundation models, in preview, will provide native capabilities to fine-tune and deploy foundation models from multiple open-source repositories using Azure Machine Learning components and pipelines.
• Responsible AI dashboard support for text and image data, now in preview, will enable users to evaluate large models built with unstructured data during the model building, training and/or evaluation stage. This helps users identify model errors, fairness issues and model explanations before models are deployed, for more performant and fair computer vision and natural language processing (NLP) models.
• Model monitoring, in preview, will enable users to track model performance in production, receive timely alerts and analyse issues for continuous learning and model improvement.

Azure Data

Microsoft Fabric, now in preview, delivers an integrated and simplified experience for all analytics workloads and users on an enterprise-grade data foundation. It brings together Power BI, Data Factory and the next generation of Synapse in a unified software as a service (SaaS) offering to give customers a price-effective and easy-to-manage modern analytics solution for the era of AI.

Power BI has several new updates that will empower organisations to turn data into insights immediately with an industry-leading BI platform and include:

• Copilot in Power BI, in preview, will infuse the power of large language models with an organisation’s data to help uncover and share insights faster.
• Power BI Direct Lake, in preview, is a new storage mode within Power BI datasets that will allow organisations to unlock massive data without having to replicate it, by seeing straight through to the data in the lake.
• Power BI Desktop Developer Mode, in preview, will enable developer-centric workflows through Git integration for Power BI datasets and reports.

Azure Cosmos DB is introducing a range of new enhancements to optimise costs, performance and developer productivity. These enhancements demonstrate Microsoft’s commitment to improving the user experience for app developers.

Azure SQL Database Hyperscale elastic pools is introducing a shared resource model for Hyperscale databases, now in preview. This update will help developers build and manage new apps in the cloud and scale multiple databases that have varying and unpredictable usage demands.

Developer Community

Microsoft is launching a variety of training and documentation on Microsoft Learn to help people leverage the power of AI.

The newly released content helps technology professionals build expertise and gain new skills in the latest AI innovations, including how to:

• Use Azure OpenAI Service to summarise text, get code suggestions and generate images for a website.
• Add intelligence to apps – and find insights – by creating tailored AI models within Power Apps.
• Use Power Virtual Agents to build adaptable chatbots that use AI.
• Code suggestions with GitHub Copilot to take projects to the next level.

Power Platform

Next-generation AI in Power Pages is revolutionising how customers build and launch data-centric websites for their businesses. With Copilot in Power Pages, now in preview, users can increase productivity and speed up the website building process by generating text, creating complex forms, contextual chatbots and web page layouts and creating and editing image and site design themes for rapid visual setup and customisation. This is possible in minutes using natural language input and intelligent suggestions.

Power Virtual Agents continues to help developers create more intelligent chatbots using the latest AI capabilities. New features include the ability for Power Virtual Agents to generate dialogue and complete actions, Azure conversational language understanding (CLU) integration, and the expansion of previously announced features, including conversation boosters in Power Virtual Agents.

Catalog in Power Apps, a new feature within Power Platform now in preview, will give developers and makers a place to publish and share the building blocks that underlie their apps. With every new app that developers create, their organisation will enjoy the benefits of a robust catalog that reduces the time and cost of each new app.

With Power Virtual Agents (PVA), users can easily author an intelligent Microsoft Teams bot using natural language to build and point to any website available within the tenant and Teams users. This update, now in preview, will democratise building company-wide help desk bots, such as human resources bots, and department/team-wide bots, such as onboarding bots.

And more!

This is just a small selection of announcements from Build 2023! Be sure to check out the Book of News to see everything, which includes announcements on AI, Security, Windows and more.

Missed the show? Check out the sessions you might have missed in the Session Catalogue, and follow the conversation on the UK Twitter channel, @MSDevUK, as well as on the #MSBuild hashtag!

The post A look at the announcements from Microsoft Build 2023 appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Many believe that it’s difficult to get started with Azure DevOps, but that’s really not the case.

Azure DevOps can deploy to any cloud on-premise, and you can bring any code to our tooling. This means it’s not just for Windows developers, or .NET developers, but for everyone – be it multi-platform, open source, or your on-premise environment.

One thing it’s really great for is CICD – or Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery – and it does this with automation. So things like infrastructure code, using third-party tools like Terraform, or deploying ARM templates into Azure, can all be done automatically. You can even look at automating your actual code with your developers using Azure pipelines.

Azure DevOps can also manage projects and tasks. It’s great for project managers to know what tasks exist, when they’re being assigned to each person, and when they’ve been completed. It’s also possible to see which tasks are creating blockers, so you can manage your workflow more effectively.

To help you along your DevOps journey, we’re taking a look at some of the best free ebooks from Microsoft. Enjoy!

Azure DevOps explained

Deliver quality applications efficiently and at scale with Azure DevOps tools for every phase of the development lifecycle. Get this e-book to help you plan projects, collaborate on code development, and build and deploy applications faster. Also, explore ways to increase quality and customer satisfaction with continuous software delivery.

In Azure DevOps explained, you’ll find DevOps principles and follow tutorials to learn how to:

• Manage projects with Kanban boards and securely manage source code with repositories.
• Enable continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) by creating build and release pipelines with fully integrated package management.
• Send applications faster by using GitHub and Azure DevOps together.
• Improve code quality and manage project testing lifecycles with Azure Test Plans.
• Set up CI/CD pipelines for .NET-based applications and container-based infrastructures with step-by-step instructions.

Visualise your DevOps workflow

Visualising your end-to-end DevOps workflow can be tough. Being able to see your workflow will allow you to see your strengths and where you have room to optimise your tooling. The DevOps Workflow Generator will allow you to configure and visualise your specific workflow – exportable in one easy-to-read report that you can download on demand.

Additionally, we’ll be taking the aggregated, anonymous data from this tool and reporting the latest trends that we find to you. We’re looking forward to learning more and to sharing our findings with you.

6 tips to integrate security into your DevOps practices

DevOps proven practices illustrate how collaboration between developer and operations teams leads to faster software delivery. Now, the issue facing digital leaders is the security and compliancy of their code, workflows and infrastructure. The logical next step: integrate your security team with the existing DevOps team – breaking down another organisational silo. In this e-book, you will learn how to:

• Develop a security-first company culture to drive DevSecOps adoption
• Proactively secure your code, workflows, infrastructure and software supply chain against vulnerabilities
• Provide your teams with shared tooling and best practices to enable end-to-end visibility and traceability
• Leverage improved insights and policy automation to realise continuous compliancy

Securing Enterprise DevOps Environments

Download the Microsoft & Sogeti e-book, Securing Enterprise DevOps Environments, to learn to fortify all three attack surfaces of enterprise DevOps environments and implement the culture changes necessary to thrive in our dangerous new world. We’ll explore the ideal secure and regulatory-ready setup of Enterprise DevOps tools and practices, focusing on three specific areas:

• Secure the developer environment.
• Secure the DevOps platform environments.
• Secure the application environments.

MLOps with Azure Machine Learning

Not every organisation’s machine learning DevOps (MLOps) requirements are the same. The MLOps architecture for a large, multinational enterprise is unlikely to fit a small startup. Organisations start small and build up as their maturity, model catalogue, and experience grow.

Microsoft aims to meet organisations where they are on their ML/AI journey. Our leading technologies and robust MLOps capabilities can help you accelerate the machine learning lifecycle and empower data scientists and developers to build, train, and deploy models on a secure, trusted platform that supports a wide range of productive experiences and is designed for responsible machine learning.

Useful Links

• An introduction to DevSecOps
• Get stuck into more DevOps on Microsoft Learn
• How to get started with Microsoft certifications
• View live and on-demand sessions on Azure and more on Microsoft Learn TV

The post Improve your DevOps practices with these ebooks appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

This year’s Microsoft Build has come to a close, but despite the event being over there’s still plenty of content for you to enjoy. There are a wealth of on-demand sessions and supplemental content that cover everything from announcements to tech deep-dives, so it’s absolutely worth your time to dig into the session catalogue.

What our MVPs thought

With so many sessions available, it might be hard to know where to start. Fortunately, we had the perfect group of people to ask for pointers!

Following the conclusion of this year’s Microsoft Build, we spoke to some of the Microsoft MVPs in the UK about what they thought about the event, as well as their personal highlights.

Kevin McDonnell, Microsoft 365 Solutions Architect and co-host of the GreyHatBeard podcast, said:

Options are what helps us feel better mentally, and Build brought those in abundance. Whether it was to enjoy from the comfort of home or to head into TVP to attend in person (including a great choice of food). Whether it was to focus on dev in Azure, GitHub pipelines, the best of Graph or the magic of Power Platform. Whether it was tech content, how to build a community or the emotional Humans of IT track. There was content for all and how you wanted it. I learnt, I chatted with old friends and I met new people – exactly what I want from a conference!

Chris Hoard, Partner Education Lead at Vuzion, said:

This year’s Microsoft Build was the first major post-pandemic event which truly embraced hybrid, and one which I think will be the template for events moving forward. On the one hand, we had the digital core delivered out of the Microsoft Media Hub in Redmond, and on the other we had regional spotlights where you had the opportunity to meet up and attend sessions in person. Whether you want to watch remote, attend in real life or even watch sessions remotely whilst being there in real life: this event showed us that the choice is yours, which is far more inclusive and personalises how each of us like to consume content.

Attending in person, I met many of my friends and fellow MVPs, we enjoyed street food and had a great time delivering and supporting each other’s sessions. The hospitality was second to none, the atmosphere and organisation was second to none – and at the end of the day it was easy to be without – let’s admit – all the drawbacks and cost of the old events. Looking forward to Build 2023!

Thomas Thornton, Azure Technical Specialist at Kainos, said:

It was an awesome event for my first in-person event after two+ years! There was a great mixture of content for all, and a lot of getting to meet those who I have spoken to/communicated with for over two years and not met! A really great event – looking forward to the next!

It terms of being a hybrid event, it worked well. The expert sessions in particular had a good collaboration between both those online and in-person.

Marcel Lupo, Cloud Solutions and DevOps Architect at Avanade, said:

The event was awesome!! Great content and speakers, plus it was great to just get together and meet so many people from the community and other MVPs I’ve not spoken to in person. As a connection zone speaker at the event, I think the hybrid sessions went down really well. The event was super awesome and I’m looking forward to doing this again!

Thoughts from other viewers

During the two-day event, viewers from all over the world were sharing their thoughts on the #MSBuild hashtag on Twitter. Here’s a small selection of what sessions and announcements people were talking about:

#PowerPages the new hero in @MSPowerPlat! 🤩 Handy links:
1⃣Power Pages new docs site – https://t.co/PPCwmYX20C
2⃣Power Pages go live checklist – https://t.co/EloaRsgPJ5
3⃣New Power Pages community site – https://t.co/MqsOXfazH4
4⃣Watch #MSBuild session – https://t.co/Up3KRHorcS pic.twitter.com/JdISZuHeZj

— Elaiza Benitez #LetsAutomate (@benitezhere) May 24, 2022

This must be the coolest session from #MSBuild @stevensanderson teaches you about running .NET on WASM and WASI.
You can even run ASP .NET Core server apps, client side in the browser, not Blazor 🤯

Check it out here: https://t.co/DHWI9KuJt7 pic.twitter.com/yyIotMlQEJ

— Niels Swimburger.NET 🍔 (@RealSwimburger) May 26, 2022

My writeup of #MSBuild this week. I was particularly impressed by the #AI dev software, which comes from @OpenAI. Can see this eventually being used to create complex next-gen web software like metaverse. https://t.co/LWvOralKLu

— Richard MacManus (@ricmac) May 27, 2022

THE BEST video of #MSBuild I've seen so far is @danroth27 demo'ing a single C# based codebase running in Web, iOS, Android, PC, MacOS and then mixing in native controls. Blazor+MAUI=INSANE. https://t.co/CtQD2gpMBA

— Lee (P )?Richardson 🚨 (@lprichar) May 27, 2022

From developer flow to the metaverse, I highlighted 10 technologies at #MSBuild that are coming together as one powerful platform to help developers build what’s next. You can watch my keynote here: https://t.co/OWqPAGbfVL pic.twitter.com/46WqJ7m7I3

— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) May 24, 2022

With over 300 sessions it’s impossible for us to cast a spotlight over each and every one, however the session catalogue is a great way of finding the right talks for you. With filters for session language, type and solution area, you’ll be able to find sessions to boost your existing skills, as well as kickstart new ones. Be sure to check it out!

Useful links

• Watch Build 2022 on-demand today!
• A look at the announcements from Microsoft Build 2022
• New Azure features and functionality for May​ 2022 – Microsoft Build edition
• Catch-up on the conversation on @MSDevUK, as well as on the #MSBuild hashtag!
• Check out Microsoft Learn TV

The post What to catch up on from Build 2022 appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

There have been many times in my career when I felt it necessary to pivot. I can’t give you evidence of a strong indicator of why I felt that way, just that things needed to change. Sometimes it was a wholesale change; sometimes it was just a slight modification. But with each adaptation I’ve learned and grown, and I guess it worked because I’m still here, still in love with technology.

With all my accumulated years as a technology worker, it could have been a sort of technology awareness, knowing that I’d spent too many cycles in a focus area and that the area was almost spent. Maybe I was just in tune with the technological cosmos, but those times – when I’ve accepted them and reacted – have been some of the most monumental and rewarding.

Talking with others through my interactions at conferences, events and in communities, I know that many have also felt this tug throughout their career, but many even more recently. I believe we are at another one of these junction points. I’ve personally been trying to expand my scope of knowledge in areas where I’m uncomfortable and I know that my efforts will help me to grow again and stay a resilient technological citizen for even more years to come.

One of the best ways to approach this potential lane change is to delve into areas you’re not immediately comfortable with and locate available resources for learning. In doing so, you are much better able to identify the new lane you want to be in, and you’ll start to find new areas of interest. Pivoting doesn’t have to be torturous. Adding new expertise shouldn’t feel like a punishment. You’ll quickly identify a new area where you feel a new cosmic harmony. Find it and stick with it.

As a security person at Microsoft, I can tell you that security threads throughout everything you work with each day. If there were one single area I would propose you focus on, it would be security – particularly how the Microsoft Security platform integrates and interacts with your hybrid environment. This is a very good place to be right now and an awesome career path. And, while you may feel comfortable with the overall security for devices, applications, services and users you manage, building deeper knowledge in these areas is important and can help ease that hunger for change.

Here’s some recommended areas that might be slightly out of your comfort zone that you can use to test the waters:

• SC-200: Mitigate threats using Microsoft 365 Defender
• SC-300: Implement an identity management solution
• SC-400: Implement Information Governance in Microsoft 365
• Protect on-premises identities with Microsoft Defender for Cloud for Identity

Good luck in your endeavours and hopefully our cosmic technology paths will cross one day.

Learn more

• This article was written for the Monthly TechNet UK IT Pro Newsletter – sign up today!
• How to get started with Microsoft certifications
• A look at new Windows Server Hybrid certification
• New Azure features and functionality for April 2022

The post How to pivot as an IT Pro appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Join the Learn Live Azure Hybrid Cloud Study Hall on Microsoft Learn TV!

At Microsoft we strongly believe that Hybrid Cloud is an important concept for our customers and partners. When it comes to our Azure Hybrid Cloud offerings, we are not just offering a one size fits all solution, we are offering a set of different services and solutions that our customers can leverage depending on their needs. We offer a whole range of solutions, including Azure Stack Hub, Azure Arc, Azure Stack HCI and many more.

To learn more, you can join us for the new Azure Hybrid Study Hall series. This fourteen-part weekly series will answer your questions live, walk through how to configure, deploy, manage your hybrid cloud resources using services and hybrid cloud technologies, and walk through Microsoft Learn modules focused on Azure Arc and Azure Stack HCI.

You will learn how you can manage your on-premises, edge and multi-cloud resources, and how you can deploy Azure services anywhere with Azure Arc and Azure Stack.

The series will kick off on April 14th and will have two new episodes every Thursday. Join us then!

Learn more

• This article was written for the Monthly TechNet UK IT Pro Newsletter – sign up today!
• New Azure features and functionality for March 2022
• How to get started with Microsoft certifications

The post Learning Azure Hybrid Cloud skills with Learn Live on Microsoft Learn TV appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Here in the UK, our AI for Good accelerator programme is being run in London by Microsoft and Social Tech Trust. It will support purpose-driven ventures working on solutions to help make a positive impact on the world and our community. The four-month accelerator will give the companies a curriculum jointly designed by Microsoft for Startups, the Social Tech Trust and the Microsoft UK AI team, of which I’m part of.

In 2019 we saw 11 great cohort members graduate, and this year we have welcomed another 12 which we are looking forward to taking through the process.

They’ll get access to workshops and data and AI hacks that will help develop their products and bring them to the market. Also, they will hear from inspiring speakers and take part in Q&As.

When I think about the kind of skills can equip businesses with to develop AI for good capabilities, I wanted to ensure these were relevant across sectors and business sizes. I also want it to be easier for all types of organisations to adopt responsible technology initiatives.

This year there is a focus on execution. We aim for every one of the 12 start-ups to have integrated AI. Moreover, this integration will be done in a very meaningful and responsible way.

“To thrive in their digital transformation, institutions and organisations have to embrace tech intensity. Not only do they have to become fast adopters of best in class technology, at the same time they have to build their own digital capability. I am proud to see the concept of tech intensity come to life through in this year’s AI for Good cohort. From aiming to empower every person to participate in the digital economy through accessibility, supporting humanitarian action and preserving as well as enriching cultural heritage, or solving the some of the world’s biggest health and sustainability challenges; we are proud to support and foster these bold ambitions and make a difference to the world we live in, today.”

Derrick McCourt, General Manager, Customer Success Unit Microsoft UK

1.    Get clear on the fundamentals

To help our cohort members infuse their solutions with AI, it’s necessary to build a baseline level of technical knowledge across the group. Our curriculum trace’s official certification paths that are relevant to most of the cohort. These are also available for anyone interested in learning more about AI and its integration with modern AI-infused applications.

• Designing and Implementing an Azure AI Solution
• Designing and Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure

Throughout this curriculum, the technical members of the cohort will be able to explore AI solution development with data science services in Azure. They will also publish machine learning experiments with Microsoft Azure Machine Learning services.

The more advanced part of the curriculum is split into two parts:

1. The fundamentals covering AI foundation, operationalising AI, and responsible AI
2. Deeper dives on specific use-case with individual cohort members, including hands-on workshops.

By offering a mix of foundational and more advanced modules, the course content stays relevant to both technical and non-technical founders.

2.    Move from theory to operational reality

We are seeing AI solutions across all verticals. However, one of the challenges we see when working with organisations of all sizes is their ability to operationalise AI. At Microsoft, we have a mature and battle-tested way of doing this – we call this MLOps, this is built into our machine learning services such as AutomatedML. Customers who prefer to use Python can opt to use our MLOps for Python.

During this process the cohort will learn about AI and infusing it into their applications. They will also have hands-on experiences to operationalise the entire process end to end.

During the foundational part of the curriculum, we will also cover the following courses:

• Evaluate text with Azure Cognitive Language Services
• Process and translate speech with Azure Cognitive Speech Services
• Build AI solutions with Azure Machine Learning service
• Process and classify images with the Azure Cognitive Vision Services
• Create Intelligent Bots with the Azure Bot Service

[msce_cta layout=”image_right” align=”right” linktype=”blue” imageurl=”http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-gb/industry/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2019/02/MS_AI_Development_007.jpg” linkurl=”http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-gb/industry/blog/cross-industry/2018/12/04/how-to-implement-an-ethical-framework-in-ai/” linkscreenreadertext=”How to build an ethical framework for your AI applications ” linktext=”Build an ethical framework for your AI apps” imageid=”8266″ ][/msce_cta]

3.    Define what responsible AI looks like to your business

A huge part of our curriculum is the Microsoft Framework for Responsible AI, where they will learn the ethical implications of AI in business. We will share our guidelines to develop a governance model with resources, best practices and tools. As useful as AI is, we must be realistic about the challenges that AI will also raise.

As our President Brad Smith sets out in our eBook The Future Computed; “We don’t believe that we can afford to look at this AI future with uncritical eyes.”

We believe that the development and deployment of AI must be guided by the creation of an ethical framework. Four core principles of fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, and inclusiveness. These are underpinned by two foundational principles of transparency and accountability.

Discover how you can be intentional when building AI solutions to focus on the ethical aspects, and how we can build a framework around it:

4.    Deep dive on specific AI use cases

At Microsoft we believe in tech intensity for our customers and partners, enabling them to “become technology organisations and, in the process, placing themselves at the forefront of technology innovation in their industries,” according to Deb Cupp, Microsoft CVP of Worldwide Enterprise and Commercial.

Getting your hands dirty is the best way to achieve tech intensity. At Microsoft, we run software engineering hacks with developers, DevOps engineers and architects to simplify complex projects are part of our culture – so much so that we have formalised a process of doing this with customers though our OpenHacks on Azure.

From the third workshop onwards, the cohort will be going deeper on their specific use cases. They will ensure their applications are integrated with Azure ML and AI in a meaningful way. By the time they graduate, AI will be infused in their application to drive the right impact.

[msce_cta layout=”image_center” align=”center” linktype=”blue” imageurl=”http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-gb/industry/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2019/03/MS_AI_Development_009-1.jpg” linkurl=”https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/paths/responsible-ai-business-principles/” linkscreenreadertext=”Take your skills to the next level with AI Business School’s Responsible AI module” linktext=”Build your skills with AI Business School’s Responsible AI module” imageid=”9544″ ][/msce_cta]

We’ll also continue to share what we’re learning in our own AI journey. We recognise that we don’t have all the answers. But, we hope we can provide some useful perspectives though our journey with the AI for Good cohort in our shared mission to make the world a better place for humanity and generations to come.

Find out more

Register for the Azure Fundamentals training day

AI for Good Accelerator Programme

[msce_cta layout=”image_center” align=”center” linktype=”blue” imageurl=”http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-gb/industry/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/MS_AI_Agriculture_DataVis_002.jpg” linkurl=”https://info.microsoft.com/UK-DIGTRNS-CNTNT-FY20-10Oct-07-AcceleratingcompetitiveadvantagewithAI-AID-3001579-SRGCM3020_01Registration-ForminBody.html” linkscreenreadertext=”How to accelerate your competitive advantage with AI” linktext=”Accelerate your competitive advantage with AI” imageid=”17037″ ][/msce_cta]

About the author

Pratim is Head of Solutions Architecture, where he runs a team focused on Data & AI for the Customer Success Unit. Prior to that he was at AWS, as a Specialist SA for Big Data & Analytics, where he advised customers on big data architecture, migration of big data workloads to the cloud, and implementing best practices and guidelines for analytics. Pratim is particularly interested in operational excellence for petabyte to exabyte scale operations, and design patterns covering “good” data architecture including governance, catalogue, and lineage. He’s also passionate about advanced analytics, planet scale NoSQL database like Cosmos DB, and using the right mix of technology, business, and pragmatism to ultimately make customers successful.

The post 4 skills organisations can embrace to use AI for social good appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Here are some of the key skills that will be needed to synergise with AI in the future digital workplace – from digital skills around computer science, to more human skills like storytelling and decision making.

Modern computer science skills

As new innovations come to life, the skillset we need to fulfil our roles and work alongside technology is continuously evolving. With each day comes new skills to learn in the area for computer science. One of the key modern computer science skills that’s needed for the digital workplace is known as AI engineering – the ability to bring together a solution from pre-built machine learning models, like the Azure Cognitive Services.

In this new world of AI tooling, computer science and engineering skills are often the most straight forward to find online material for helping you to learn.

Microsoft has a certification called the ‘Azure AI Engineer’ for people who want to develop into this role. If you want to start your journey there’s a wealth of learning content available at Microsoft Learn.

Maths and statistic skills

1. Bias detection and handling

Bias lives, captured, in your data. Being able to detect and handle it appropriately is crucial to ensure the fairness of decision-making. This is a statistical skill very closely related to model selection for transparency, and is a key skill for data scientists.

The approach we take is to document every step in a team’s solution development journey. From how they see the problem they are trying to solve to who is on the team and what data has been used. This way we have a clear path to accountability and steps to correct should any issues be uncovered.

2. Societal and environmental impact assessment

These skills, which include those of triple bottom line economics, can most readily be found within the social sciences and economists. They’re not always taught to data scientists. A key question for the next phase of AI is how we integrate these interdisciplinary skills into organisations.

3. Data-driven decision-making and storytelling

The leaders within your organisation need a level of data literacy that enables them to take advantage of the new knowledge data delivers. The skills of data-driven decision-making must be learnt; it doesn’t come naturally to many who are used to working on ‘gut feel’ and ‘experience’. Data scientists working with you should also learn how to tell which data-driven stories could be successful. This includes introducing ethical clarity.

Business skills

1. Lifelong learning

There are many resources for learning the skills necessary to bring data and AI into the heart of organisational digital transformation. However, this still requires everyone within the organisation to be a lifelong learner. Doing so helps employees adapt to the digital workplace, and take full advantage of the new tools and data available. The key to success lies in bringing your employees along the journey and creating a learn-it-all culture.

2. AI collaboration

New AI tools have and will always get smarter. Organisations must learn how to integrate these tools into their teams. It’s not about keeping these new tools separated; it’s about bringing them into the heart of your organisation and working with them. This means everyone – from the Board, through the C-suite, to the front-line workers – needs to learn how to integrate AI into their work, how the technology augments their role, and the benefits it brings.

3. Empathy, awareness and digital sociology

Data and AI require the dual approach of technical and human skills. Having spent 15 years as a programmer, those technical skills come naturally. The machine is what mattered. With the advent of AI, I’ve had to learn to have greater empathy for employees affected by new technologies. As part of this, I’ve learnt to increase my awareness through interdisciplinary study, learning about ethical considerations and how to consider the impact of my technical work on the world around me. The new field of Digital Sociology is one of the most exciting fields of study. Passionate people are studying how our digital and social life integrate. They are the ones who help us see the impact of our decisions before it the negative outcomes are made real – because, in data, human skills are the most important skills to succeed.

Find out more

Explore the AI Business School 

Download the report: Accelerating competitive advantage with AI 

Discover how we’ve created a learn-it-all culture at Microsoft

About the author

Phil is a big, beardy data geek who loves working with data and solving interesting data problems. He’s especially interested in soft skills for technical people in data, empathy, ethics and in the impact of data on what people know and how they know it. Starting his career with a BA in AI, Phil has worked in a wide range of industries from architecture to advertising. He was also CTO and technical founder of a data start-up. Phil now works at Microsoft as a Cloud Solution Architect for Data & AI in One Commercial Partner.

The post The technical and soft skills needed to succeed with AI in 2020 and beyond appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Hiring the right talent is critical to success and businesses mustn’t forget about those who are early in their career. Apprentices, interns and graduates can bring a wealth of value to a business, offering fresh perspectives and creativity.

Our Microsoft Aspire Experience gives graduates a pathway into the working world to shape them into the digital leaders of tomorrow. And you can be part of that experience too.

Discover what it means to be a Microsoft UK graduate as we go behind the scenes with our Microsoft Aspire Experience grads to find out their highlights, the skills they’ve learnt along their journey, and advice on how you can excel as a graduate at Microsoft.

Meet…

Chester Broad, Marketing and Communications Manager

Hi! My name’s Chester – I’m 22 and from Brighton. After graduating from the University of Bath, studying Management with Marketing, I joined Microsoft’s Experiential Marketing team, delivering events and brand experiences. Even in the small amount of time I’ve been here, finding my feet, I’ve already got one highlight: at Future Decoded, I got the opportunity to host two live-streamed interviews, discussing creativity in AI with WPP and chatting to OceanMind about how they use AI to combat unsustainable fishing around the world.

Chester’s tips to success as a Microsoft graduate:

• Make sure you really understand Microsoft’s culture and values and weave them into the work you do on a daily basis.
• Look for opportunities to learn new things in the business – and be vocal about your eagerness to learn.
• Always say yes to a good opportunity – even if it makes you nervous. Going outside of your comfort zone is key to development.

Meet…

Freddie Saunders, Technical Specialist

Since joining Microsoft last year, I’ve been continuously challenged to get out of my comfort zone. I began working as Surface Technical Specialist, joining a team of Surface sellers to increase our hardware and device footprint. I was even responsible for proving the technology, and guiding our customers with their technical decision-making.

This experience has led to learning new skills, as well as being valued for the opinions and ideas I have when tackling the role and serving my customers best. However, my biggest highlight has been visiting Seattle and Las Vegas for training. This included my first solo presentation and workshop with a customer, and talking at a partner event about how the industry could best make use of Surface.

Since then, I’ve been given the exciting opportunity to move into our new Power Platform team as a Technical Specialist.

Freddie’s top tip:

• Be yourself. At Microsoft we value people based on who they are, their passions and their potential. You don’t need to have all the answers, you just need to have the hunger to always learn and never stop.

Meet…

Holly Boothroyd, Software Engineer on Cortana for Windows

My journey started back in Seattle, the home of Microsoft’s HQ, before I moved to England five years ago to study Computer and Information Technology. I previously worked on Microsoft Paint 3D and Xbox – in fact, my code is currently on over 900 million devices world-wide! In my role as a software engineer on Cortana for Windows, I develop features on the client side that enhance the user’s productivity and interactions with Windows.

Collaboration is a key skill here: I work closely with designers to make sure designs are feasible from an engineering perspective. For me, it’s all about creating the best user experience.

My top highlight at Microsoft has been attending the Grace Hopper Celebration conference in Orlando. For years, I’d dreamt of going, so it was a real wish come true to join other STEM-ettes at the event.

Holly’s 3-step guide to make the most of your experience: 

1. Seek out new communities – don’t get locked into communities strictly focused on your ‘day job’; go beyond that to broaden your skills and network.
2. Find a mentor – when you’re early in your career, it’s important to find someone with experience who can not only teach you new skills, but provide inspiration and drive.
3. Lock into your USP – Find a gap in your team’s skillset and fill it. Identify a cross-section between the technologies you love and the skills your team needs. Make it your unique selling point, as it’ll push you to learn new things, make you an invaluable asset, and give you expertise, which leads to personal development and career growth.

Meet…

Lucy Bloodworth, Enterprise Channel Manager – Health

I joined Microsoft last September. Now, I’m an Enterprise Channel Manager in the One Commercial Partner program. Prior to this, I studied Business and Management at the University of Reading, where I also completed a one-year internship at General Electric.

My first year at Microsoft has been an invaluable experience. You’re given real responsibility from day one, and encouraged to take on a ‘fail fast’ mentality. However, you’re fully supported at the same time and people are always happy to help. For me, just being at Microsoft is a highlight. I love working here because every day is different and you get a real sense of accomplishment.

Learnings from Lucy’s journey:

• Always ask questions – there’s always support and resources available
• Never stop learning
• Be proactive and jump at any opportunity that comes your way

To find out more about what it’s like to receive training alongside Microsoft UK professionals and the amazing opportunities you can get involved in as a Microsoft graduate, visit the Microsoft Aspire Experience site and our Student and Graduates career page.

The post Secrets and skills: Behind the scenes with Microsoft UK graduates appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.