In this blog, we’ll lay out the latest and greatest of our curated Fabric skilling paths on Microsoft Learn to help your team drive transformative business outcomes. We’re also announcing a new certification exam available with a 50% discount! And of course, we’ll dive into our exciting upcoming in-person event, FabCon, where we’ll have even more surprises in store, plus a chance for you to connect with industry experts and the larger data-analysis community. Let’s get started!

Get certified as a Fabric Data Engineer

Learning Microsoft Fabric equips aspiring engineers with skills to streamline workflows, handle large-scale data processing, and integrate advanced AI tools. As a Fabric Data Engineer, you’ll have the chance to design and manage cutting-edge data solutions that move AI-powered insights. That’s why we’re thrilled to announce the general availability of our new certification for Fabric Data Engineers. 

By earning your Microsoft Certified: Fabric Data Engineer Associate certification, you’ll be equipped with an industry-recognized credential to set you apart in the growing field of data and AI. But you don’t have to do it alone. We’ve convened two live and on-demand series of expert-led walkthroughs to help you either get started with Fabric or build on your existing skills. Designed with Fabric Data Engineers in mind, these Microsoft Fabric Learn Together sessions (available in four time zones and three languages) are intended to give you the knowledge and confidence to ace your certification exam and take your data engineering career to the next level.

Want to explore the ins and outs of Fabric on your own time? We also have an official plan on Microsoft Learn featuring everything you’ll need to learn to pass the DP-700 Fabric Data Engineer Associate certification exam, including: 

• Describe the core features and capabilities of lakehouses in Microsoft Fabric.

• Use Apache Spark DataFrames to analyze and transform data.

• Use Real-Time Intelligence to ingest, query, and process streams of data.

• And much more! 

There’s more: For a limited time, you can get 50% off the cost of the DP-700 Fabric Data Engineer Associate certification exam. To be eligible, either attend one of the Learn Together sessions, complete the Plan on Microsoft Learn, or have previously passed the DP-203 exam. You have until March 31, 2025, to request the discount voucher, so get started fast-tracking your data engineering career today!

Join a community of Fabric users and experts at FabCon Las Vegas 

No matter your role or skill level, you can connect with other Fabric users and experts at the Fabric Community Conference from March 31-April 2, 2025, in Las Vegas. Join us at the MGM Grand for the ultimate Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, SQL, and AI event featuring over 200 sessions with speakers covering exciting new Fabric features and skilling opportunities. 

Connect one-on-one with community and product experts, including a dedicated partner pre-day, all-day Ask-the-Experts hours, a bustling expo hall, and plenty of after-hours social events. Workshops will also be available on March 29th, 30th, and April 3rd, making this the most comprehensive Microsoft Fabric learning experience to date. 

Don’t miss out! Register today to grab the early bird discount and use code MSCUST for $150 off registration. 

Build AI apps faster with SQL databases in Fabric 

Fabric’s capabilities and versatility are always expanding. We recently introduced a public preview of SQL databases to make building AI apps faster and easier than ever. SQL Database in Microsoft Fabric provides a unified, autonomous, and AI-optimized platform that accelerates app development by up to 71%, empowering businesses to innovate faster and gain a competitive edge in the AI era. 

To enhance your skills in working with SQL databases in Fabric, we’ve designed a new learning path called Implement operational databases in Microsoft Fabric. This course will guide you through the process of creating and managing SQL databases within the Fabric environment. You’ll also learn how to provision an SQL database, configure security settings, and perform essential database operations.

The course covers important topics such as data modeling, query optimization, and performance tuning specific to Fabric’s SQL capabilities. By completing this learning path, you’ll gain hands-on experience with Fabric’s SQL features and be better equipped to design and implement efficient database solutions.

You can also watch on-demand sessions of a recent SQL Database in Fabric Learn Together series to see how to build reliable, highly scalable applications where cloud authentication and encryption are secured by default. 

Unlock AI-ready insights and transform your data 

There’s always more to discover on Microsoft Learn, including a plan to help you harness AI and unify your intelligent data and analytics on the Fabric platform. With the Make your data AI-ready with Microsoft Fabric plan on Microsoft Learn, you’ll find out how to implement large-scale data engineering, build a lakehouse, and explore warehouse solutions.

This free, curated, and self-paced plan guides you through key learning milestones:

• Ingesting data through shortcuts, mirroring, pipelines, and dataflows. 

• Transforming data using dataflows, procedures, and notebooks. 

• Storing processed data in the lakehouse and data warehouse for easy retrieval. 

• Exposing data by creating reusable semantic models in Power BI, making transformed data accessible for analysis. 

Kick off your data and AI journey at Microsoft Learn 

If you’re looking to expand your Microsoft Fabric expertise and accelerate your professional development, we have everything you need:

• Get started on the path to becoming a Fabric Data Engineer Associate with our official plan on Microsoft Learn: Get Certified! Become a Fabric Data Engineer.

• Attend one of the Microsoft Fabric Learn Together sessions.

• Request a 50% discount voucher for the DP-700 Fabric Data Engineer Associate certification exam.

• Connect with Fabric experts at the Fabric Community Conference from March 31-April 2, 2025, in Las Vegas.

• Enhance your skills in working with SQL databases in Fabric with the Implement operational databases in Microsoft Fabric learning path.

• Harness AI to unify your data and analytics with the official plan on Microsoft Learn: Make your data AI-ready with Microsoft Fabric.

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Across the Microsoft Security portfolio, our innovations, together with world-class threat and regulatory intelligence, will help give security experts the advantage they need in the era of AI. From our signature Pre-Day to hands-on demos and one-on-one meetings, join the Microsoft experience at RSAC 2025 designed just for you.

Microsoft at RSAC

From our signature Pre-Day to hands-on demos and one-on-one meetings, discover how Microsoft Security can give you the advantage you need in the era of AI.

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Kick things off at Microsoft Pre-Day

The Microsoft experience at RSAC 2025 begins with Microsoft Pre-Day on Sunday, April 27, 2025, at the Palace Hotel, just around the corner from the Moscone Center. For the fourth year running, the keynote speech held on Microsoft Pre-Day will kick off the full lineup of Microsoft events and activities throughout RSAC 2025. By joining us on Sunday, you’ll have the chance to hear directly from Microsoft Security business leaders—including Vasu Jakkal, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Security Business; Charlie Bell, Executive Vice President, Microsoft Security; Sherrod DeGrippo, Director of Threat Intelligence Strategy; and other Microsoft Security leaders as they share reporting on emerging cyberthreat trends and the product innovations designed to protect against them. Vasu will also take the RSAC 2025 stage on Day 1 for the conference keynote.

At Pre-Day, attendees will hear Microsoft Security threat intelligence on emerging trends, explore new AI-first tools, demos, and best practices, and attain a better understanding of how Microsoft can help them secure and govern their AI deployments. Attend to discover how the adaptive, end-to-end security platform from Microsoft, including Microsoft Security Copilot, can help your team catch what others miss, speed up remediation, lower your total cost of ownership, and boost—rather than burden—you and your teams.

Stick around after Pre-Day for the reception—an evening of fun, networking, and entertainment, celebrating the vibrant security community. This is a unique opportunity to meet Microsoft security leaders, expand your professional network, and learn how others are addressing the latest security trends and challenges. Light refreshments will be served. Chief information security officers (CISOs) who register to attend Microsoft Pre-Day will automatically be invited to a Microsoft Pre-Day Security Executive Dinner with Vasu Jakkal.  

Make sure to register for Microsoft Pre-Day to join in on all the day’s activities.

Dedicated calendar of events for CISOs

Microsoft will be hosting a number of events tailored to CISOs throughout RSAC 2025. To kick off the week, Microsoft will be hosting a Pre-Day, followed by the exclusive Microsoft Pre-Day Security Executive Dinner on April 27, 2025. Following, there will be daily lunch and learn opportunities that address some of the primary challenges facing CISOs organizations:

• Monday April 28, 2025: Innovating Securely CISO Lunch—Learn insights concerning secure innovation centered around the new AI regulations, including the EU Act, Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), and more.
• Tuesday April 29, 2025: SFI Executive Lunch—Open to all and focused around the needs of Latin America-based CISOs, this lunch will bring together leaders and experts interested in understanding the latest Secure Future Initiative (SFI) progress and exchanging their thoughts on related best practices.
• Wednesday April 30, 2025: Embracing Cyber resilience CISO Lunch—Attendees are invited to network, learn, and exchange their insights regarding cyber resilience as the AI landscape evolves.

Finally, CISOs who attend RSAC 2025 are invited to stay through the end of the conference to attend the Microsoft Post-Day Forum at the Microsoft Experience Center at Silicon Valley on Thursday, May 1, 2025, from 9:00 AM PT to 1:00 PM PT. The day will be full of insightful presentations, interactive discussions, networking opportunities, and a curated CISO roundtable session. This informative day will also include an immersive tour of the unique state-of-the-art Microsoft Experience Center, which highlights larger-than-life solutions that show Microsoft’s cutting-edge technology solving many of today’s challenges. This experience is facilitated by envisioning specialists who spark inspired conversations, creative ideas, and new opportunities for leaders to participate in before returning home.

Sign up for Microsoft experiences at RSAC, including the Pre-Day, the Microsoft Pre-Day Security Executive Dinner, CISO lunch, and the Post-Day Forum. Request a one-on-one meeting with Microsoft experts to discuss your most pressing questions here.

Discover solutions to your challenges during the keynote speech and Microsoft sessions

As part of the RSAC agenda, Vasu Jakkal will take the stage on Monday, April 28, 2025, at 4:40 PM PT. During the speech, she will discuss the potential of agentic workflows to dramatically reshape the security landscape. Agentic AI has the power to enable more complex problem-solving, deeper agent collaboration, and iterative learning. All of this leads us toward a previously unheard-of new paradigm for security. Join Vasu Jakkal for an imaginative look at the future of AI security agents and how the people of our security teams will work alongside them to change the game.

​After the keynote and throughout the conference, attendees will be able to split their time between the Microsoft Security sessions included in the RSAC 2025 agenda, live demonstrations at booth #5744 in Moscone North, and a variety of roundtables, one-on-one meetings, and presentations at the Microsoft Security Hub at the Palace Hotel.

Here are two sessions not to miss:

• Tuesday, April 29, 2025, at 9:40 AM PT: Shaping the Future of Security with Agentic AI​—In a time of rapidly evolving cyberthreats, agentic AI is emerging as a transformative force in security. Join Dorothy Li, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Security Copilot and Marketplace, to discover how autonomous decision-making is reshaping our approach to cybersecurity. This session will reveal how agentic AI empowers organizations to proactively mitigate risks, enhance operational efficiency, and elevate the effectiveness of your security tools. Attendees will gain actionable insights and practical strategies for harnessing the potential of agentic AI. Prepare to rethink the future of security and position your organization at the forefront of innovation.​
• Wednesday, April 30, 2025, at 9:40 AM PT: Accelerate AI Adoption with Stronger Security—AI adoption is accelerating, creating both new opportunities and security challenges. Led by Neta Haiby, Partner Product Manager at Microsoft​, this session covers key AI adoption trends, emerging risks, and common cyberthreats. Discover actionable steps to secure and govern AI, from establishing a dedicated security team for AI to adopting AI-specific solutions, ensuring your organization can innovate with confidence.​

Other well-known Microsoft experts will host session sharing what they’ve learned from their work pioneering and securing AI:

• Wednesday, April 30, 2025 at 8:30 AM PT: Guardians of the Cyber Galaxy: Allies Against AI-Powered Cybercrime by Sean Farrell, Assistant General Counsel, Digital Crimes Unit.
• Monday, April 28, 2025 at 1:10 PM PT: AI Era Authentication: Securing the Future with Inclusive Identity by Abhilasha Bhargav-Spantzel, Partner Security Architect, and Aditi Shah, Senior Data and Applied Scientist.
• Tuesday, April 29, 2025, at 8:30 AM PT: AI Safety: Where Do We Go From Here? by Ram Shankar Siva Kumar, Principal Research Lead, AI Red Team Lead.
• Tuesday, April 29, 2025, at 2:25 PM PT: Lessons Learned from a Year(ish) of Countering Malicious Actors’ Use of AI by Sherrod DeGrippo, Director, Threat intelligence strategy.

View live demonstrations and discover engaging ways to learn at booth #5744

At the Microsoft booth, attendees will have the chance to engage with experts, discover ready-to-go security and governance tools built for generative AI, and watch theater sessions showcasing the latest products, innovations, and industry perspectives from Microsoft. They’ll also get to enjoy a fun and interactive gaming experience. 

Microsoft product and partner experts will be on hand to showcase the newest advancements through captivating demonstrations, informative videos, and valuable resources. 

Visit the Microsoft booth theater for exclusive 20-minute demos and expert-led sessions on the latest in security and AI. Explore strategies to protect, govern, and secure AI. Listen in to insights on identity, compliance, privacy, threat defense, data protection, and more. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from industry leaders and stay ahead in the ever-evolving security landscape.

Meetings and connections at the Microsoft Security Hub

The historic and luxurious Palace Hotel is home base for Microsoft during the week. RSAC 2025 attendees are invited to meet with Microsoft experts and executives, attend thought leadership sessions and roundtable lunches, and join networking opportunities. Detailed information about individual sessions can be found on the Microsoft Security Experiences at RSAC 2025 Landing Page.

Customers are also invited to deepen their understanding of the latest cybersecurity threats, trends, and developments by discussing their most important security product and threat intelligence questions directly with Microsoft security experts through scheduled one-on-one meetings, held from Monday, April 28, 2025, to Wednesday, April 30, 2025, at the Palace Hotel. Request your meeting directly through the Microsoft Security Experiences at RSAC 2025 Home Page.

Microsoft Intelligent Security Association featured partners

The Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA) will once again have a considerable presence at RSAC 2025. MISA partners will be featured in the Microsoft Booth #5744 and included in other events happening throughout the week. Additionally, the sixth annual Microsoft Security Excellence Awards, presented by MISA, will be held at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco on April 28, 2025, celebrating our finalists and announcing winners in nine award categories as well as enjoying a time of connecting. 

Activities include:

• MISA demo station: Stop by the Microsoft Booth to explore the innovative solutions developed by MISA members, which integrate Microsoft Security technology.
• Theater sessions: Attend one or more of our five theater sessions at the Microsoft booth, led by MISA members, focusing on partner strategies and solutions for cyberthreat protection.
• View the MISA demo and theater schedule.
• MISA Partner awards: MISA members are invited to attend the Microsoft Security Excellence Awards on Monday, April 28, 2025, where winners will be announced in nine security award categories.

Get the most by staying through Microsoft Post-Day

Microsoft Post-Day Forum is a unique experience designed to help customers, CISOs, and security leaders dive deep into new concepts, ask questions they need answered about product features, and prepare to realize and enable the AI-first, end-to-end security concepts they’ve learned about throughout RSAC 2025. The Microsoft Post-Day Forum, hosted by Microsoft Security executives, will be held on Thursday, May 1, 2025, from 10:00 AM PT to 1:00 PM PT, at the Silicon Valley Experience Center. Pick up for the event will be held at the Palace Hotel at 8:00 AM PT, with drop off organized for 2:00 PM PT.

We look forward to seeing you at RSAC 2025!

Learn more about the Microsoft experience at RSAC 2025

Customers and partners can register for the events highlighted in this blog as well as other Microsoft ancillary events and more here.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and X (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

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It’s no secret that India is well-positioned to be a global leader in the AI era, having embraced the power of AI to reshape industries, drive innovation, and unlock new opportunities across the nation. Boasting a vast talent pool, proactive government initiatives, and a thriving startup ecosystem, India is uniquely equipped to leverage AI to solve pressing societal and business challenges and optimize operations across a wide array of civic and business verticals.

A long-standing partner in India’s technological growth, Microsoft has solidified its commitment with a US $3 billion investment to expand AI and Azure cloud infrastructure in the country. This initiative is designed to accelerate AI adoption across industries, empower businesses to integrate AI into critical processes, and nurture local talent to meet the evolving demands of the tech ecosystem. These efforts underscore Microsoft’s confidence in India’s position as a global leader in AI innovation and technological advancement.

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Local ingenuity was on full display during the Microsoft AI Tour stop in Bengaluru and New Delhi, where organizations showcased how they are leveraging AI to tackle complex challenges, streamline workflows, and drive transformative efficiencies across industries.

MakeMyTrip powers the future of travel with AI

MakeMyTrip (MMT), India’s leading online travel company, is at the forefront of enhancing the travel shopping experience with generative AI. Over its 24-year journey, MMT has served more than 77 million users, offering comprehensive travel booking services. A standout feature powered by generative AI is Myra, their conversational bot. MMT is integrating an AI-powered workflow within Myra to assist users seamlessly at every stage of their travel journey—from pre-trip planning to in-trip support and post-trip follow-up. Built using large language models (LLMs) and orchestrated via Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, these services ensure smooth assistance throughout the travel process. As one of the early adopters of generative AI in travel tech, MMT is leading the next generation of travel experiences.

Persistent Systems improves contract management with AI-powered agent

Persistent Systems, one of the world’s fastest-growing digital engineering and enterprise modernization service providers, faced recurring challenges surrounding their contract management: inefficient workflows and lengthy negotiation cycles were causing bottlenecks in an otherwise agile organization. Persistent turned to the power of generative AI and Microsoft’s technology stack to reimagine their approach to contract management, developing ContractAssIst, an AI-powered agent built using generative AI and Microsoft 365 Copilot, to transform collaboration and streamline internal contract negotiations. Built to help ensure security and access controls, the tool helps to enhance collaboration, streamline workflows, and accelerate decision-making. 

As a result, ContractAssIst has reduced emails during negotiations by 95% and cut navigation and negotiation time by 70%, a task that currently takes approximately 20 to 25 minutes. Persistent has deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot to nearly 2,000 users and plans to extend it to a broader audience.

LTIMindtree unlocks data management with Microsoft 365 Copilot

LTIMindtree, a global technology consulting and digital solutions company with more than 84,000 employees in more than 30 countries, is leveraging AI in innovative ways to drive digital transformation and enhance business and IT operations. They have demonstrated how Microsoft 365 Copilot technology and AI agents are transforming their critical business functions, such as pre-sales, resource management, and cyber security. For example, custom built AI agents assist the resource management teams to quickly find the right employees with relevant skills and match them to specific projects; and help pre-sales and account managers create high-quality responses using historical data to incoming requests for proposals (RFPs) and requests for information (RFIs). They are also using Microsoft Security Copilot to create a unified command center for investigations, threat intelligence, and incident response, empowering them to build a next-gen Security Operations Center (SOC). As a result, LTIMindtree has seen a 30% increase in overall employee efficiency, with 20% less time spent on emails and day-to-day task allocation.

Streamlining health claims with ICICI Lombard’s AI-powered solution

ICICI Lombard, a leading private insurer in India, has developed an innovative solution to streamline health claims processing. Traditionally, claim adjudicators manually filed claims, a time-consuming process involving the review of 20 pages of documents. Leveraging Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Azure AI Document Intelligence, and Azure AI Vision OCR service, ICICI Lombard’s new solution extracts relevant information from these documents, providing adjudicators with a consolidated view of the diagnosis and treatment. This innovation has reduced the time required to process claims by more than 50%.

eSanjeevani transforms healthcare access with innovative AI solutions

eSanjeevani, India’s National Telemedicine Service by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has integrated AI-enabled tools to enhance care quality and streamline teleconsultations, promoting equitable access to healthcare across the country. Powered by Azure, it offers secure, scalable, and accessible doctor-to-doctor and doctor-to-patient teleconsultations. eSanjeevani is advancing its AI journey with Microsoft AI, enhancing productivity, data analysis, and user experience. These innovations are helping eSanjeevani set new benchmarks in telemedicine and digital healthcare services. It is also developing a proof of concept with Microsoft Copilot to transcribe doctor-patient conversations in real time for advanced speech analytics, aiding data-driven decisions. Serving more than 330 million patients, 98% from rural areas, eSanjeevani is today the world’s largest telemedicine initiative in primary healthcare.

AI for everyone in India

India’s AI journey is not just about innovation, it’s about transformation across industries and lives. From travel to healthcare, banking to engineering, the case studies showcased here demonstrate the immense potential of AI when paired with the right tools, partnerships, and vision. Microsoft’s investments and technologies have enabled organizations in India to tackle challenges, streamline processes, and unlock new levels of efficiency and growth. As India continues to lead in the global AI revolution, these examples serve as a testament to how AI can create meaningful impact, fostering a future where innovation drives progress for everyone.

Find the resources to support your AI journey

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• Advance your AI transformation with AI business resources

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In the current AI landscape, inspiration and information are more important than ever for security professionals to stay ahead of threat actors. So if you’re looking to boost your skills and stay ahead of the threat landscape, join Microsoft Security at the top cybersecurity events in 2025.

Whether you join us at an industry staple like RSAC or one of our own events like Microsoft Secure, you can benefit in several key ways:

• Get insights and strategies needed to overcome obstacles and drive your security initiatives forward with confidence.
• See live demos of the latest products, product features, skills, and tools you can use in your work. Be among the first to hear about Microsoft Security innovations, such as Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative and XSPA (cross-site port attack) updates attendees of Microsoft Ignite 2024 heard.
• Learn from Microsoft Security experts on global threat intelligence.
• Network with other like-minded security pros, learn best practices from your peers, and meet one-on-one with our experts.

Whatever your role, there’s an event for you and a path to successfully safeguarding your organization.

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Conferences to inspire and engage everyone

Security professionals of all levels can benefit from attending one of the biggest cybersecurity events, including RSAC, Black Hat, plus two premier Microsoft events—Microsoft Secure (virtual) and Microsoft Ignite (in-person and virtual). If you love being the first to hear about Microsoft product innovations, don’t miss these Microsoft events with insights every security professional can put to good use.

Microsoft Secure

Date: April 9, 2025
Location: Online only

Microsoft Secure is Microsoft’s cybersecurity conference. This year’s one-hour digital showcase will spotlight AI-first, end-to-end security innovations with clear use cases and customer stories of how they use our tools daily. Attendees will deep-dive into cybersecurity products and strategies along with thousands of other cybersecurity professionals.

RSAC

Dates: April 27-May 1, 2025
Location: San Francisco, CA

RSAC 2025 is a can’t-miss security conference, bringing together more than 40,000 security professionals to discuss the latest cybersecurity challenges and innovation with the best of the best. With the theme of “Many Voices. One Community,” RSAC will feature keynotes, track sessions, interactive sessions, networking opportunities, and an expo designed to foster advanced security strategies.

Throughout RSAC, Microsoft Security will showcase end-to-end security innovations and share world class threat and regulatory intelligence to give you the advantage you need in the era of AI. From our signature Pre-Day to hands-on demos and one-on-one meetings, discover how Microsoft Security can give you the advantage you need in the era of AI.​ Check out the full Microsoft at RSAC experience.

Black Hat

Dates: August 2-7, 2025
Location: Las Vegas, NV

The Black Hat Conference is a premier learning event in the cybersecurity industry, known for its in-depth technical sessions and cutting-edge research presentations on topics like critical infrastructure and information security research news.

Microsoft is a key sponsor of the conference each year, where we showcase our latest discoveries and AI research on real-world problems and solutions. Last year, our AI Red Teaming in Practice training sessions and our AI Summit roundtables were a hit. Black Hat is also known for its security community celebrations, including the Cybersecurity Woman of the Year Awards and the Researcher celebrations, which we take part in every year.

Microsoft Ignite

Dates: November 17-21, 2025
Location: San Francisco, CA, and online

Microsoft Ignite is Microsoft’s biggest annual conference for developers, IT professionals, business leaders, security professionals, and partners. Thousands of security professionals like you attend every year to hear the biggest security product announcements from Microsoft Security and gain training and skilling to prepare for future advancements in AI. Security professionals of all levels can join interactive labs, workshops, keynotes, technical breakout sessions, demos, and more, led by Microsoft Security leaders and experts.

Over the past few years, we’ve really boosted Microsoft Security experiences at Microsoft Ignite. Last year, we hosted the Microsoft Ignite Security Forum for security leaders and two workshops on AI red teaming and Microsoft 365 Copilot deployment. Plus, we hosted more than 30 sessions demoing new features to help you secure your environment, use your favorite Microsoft tools safely and securely, and make sure your organizational processes prioritize security first.

If you attend Microsoft Ignite in person this year, you won’t want to miss our Security Leaders Dinner or the security community party. If you’re not able to attend in person, you can register for our virtual event.​ Sign up to learn more.

Events for security leaders and decision-makers

Microsoft AI Tour

Dates: Through May 30, 2025
Location: Multiple worldwide

The Microsoft AI Tour is a free, one-day event for executives that explores the ways AI can drive growth and create lasting value in multiple cities around the globe. Whether you’re a functional decision-maker who evaluates investments, an IT team member charged with security, or a CISO revamping your security strategy, there will be valuable security content tailored to your needs.

Microsoft Security’s top business leaders attend AI tour locations worldwide to share with you how Microsoft Security Copilot lets you protect at the speed and scale of AI. They are also available to meet with you.

Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit

Dates: June 9-11, 2025
Location: National Harbor, MD

The Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit (Gartner SRM) explores trends in cybersecurity risk management, including the integration of generative AI, being an effective CISO, the importance of balancing response and recovery efforts with prevention, combating misinformation, and closing the cybersecurity skills gap to build a resilient workforce.

Microsoft Security executives host sessions at Gartner SRM to help you ensure the security of AI systems and adopt AI to drive innovation and efficiency. Our most popular topics center around securing and governing AI.

Events for technical and security practitioners

Security teams look for conferences that provide specialized knowledge on the industry in which they work or on a narrow cybersecurity topic.

Legalweek

Dates: March 24-27, 2025
Location: New York, NY

Legalweek is a weeklong conference where approximately 6,000 members of the legal community will gather to network with their peers, explore emerging trends, spotlight the latest tech, and offer a roadmap through industry shifts. Topics explored at past Legalweek conferences include the ethical and regulatory impact of using your data to train AI, litigation in the age of cybersecurity, and maximizing efficiency and legal automation.  

This year, we’ll be sponsoring three sessions on AI and one on collaboration in complex litigation. As in years past, Microsoft is hosting an Executive Breakfast at Legalweek from 7:30 AM ET-8:45 AM ET on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. RSVP today and stop by Booth #3103 in New York Hilton Midtown Americas Hall 2 to learn more about the latest Microsoft Purview innovations. If you’d like to meet with our team while at Legalweek, sign up for a one-on-one meeting.

Identiverse

Dates: June 3-6, 2025
Location: Las Vegas, NV

Limiting access to AI, apps, and resources to those with the proper permissions is a crucial part of security. The Identiverse conference provides education, collaboration, and insight into the future of identity security. More than 2,500 attendees will share insights, develop new ideas, and advance the state of modern digital identity and security.

The event features sessions on best practices, industry trends, and latest technologies; an exhibition hall to showcase the latest identity solution innovations; and networking opportunities. Microsoft will host a booth where attendees can connect with Microsoft Security experts and leaders.

Events for developers

The cybersecurity talent shortage is requiring many to step up even if cybersecurity isn’t in their official job description. If you are an IT professional being tasked with cybersecurity or someone with an eagerness to learn cybersecurity tactics, join our Microsoft events aimed at helping you uplevel your cybersecurity skills.

Microsoft Build

Dates: May 19-22, 2025
Location: Seattle, WA

Security is a team sport and developers are increasingly the first string team members who build security into the development of applications. Microsoft Build Conference 2025 is Microsoft’s developer-focused event. It will showcase exciting updates and innovations from Microsoft Security for developers to create AI-enabled security solutions for their organizations.

The event includes connection opportunities, demos, and security-focused sessions. Past topics have included using AI to accelerate development processes, tools for enhancing the developer experience, and strategies for building in the cloud. Stay up to date on Microsoft Build news and find out when registration is open.

Find your inspiration at an event this year

Cybersecurity events foster a culture of continuous learning and adaptation, empowering you to stay ahead of emerging cyberthreats and maintain a resilient security posture. The ideas will flow freely at these events. Whether you attend one of the biggest conferences of the year or a smaller event (or both), you’ll be in good company. Microsoft Security will be there be, too, excited to share and eager to learn.

Hope to see you at a future event!

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and X (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

The post Hear from Microsoft Security experts at these top cybersecurity events in 2025 appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

This time last year, I was having conversations with retailers around the world who couldn’t wait to tap the seemingly unlimited potential of AI. For many of them, though, translating that promise into bottom-line impact took time. While many retailers were already deploying AI tools to drive increased revenue and reimagine cumbersome business processes, most were still figuring out where to begin and how specifically AI could help them gain an edge in the market. Today, the conversations I have are more sharply focused on identifying AI use cases that can help retailers grow revenue and increase profitability across the value chain. To achieve these goals, retailers are beginning to develop a rich agentic world marked by a vivid tapestry of AI agents. In addition to agents for app development, compliance, information security, and other broad, cross-organizational business process needs, retailers are already deploying custom agentic solutions to improve core retail scenarios, like shopping and store operations. A new era of AI is here.

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This year at NRF 2025, we’re excited and proud to demonstrate how our data solutions, Copilots, and customizable retail agents are helping to lead this shift across every retail segment. We’re just as eager to showcase how easy we’ve made it for retailers to maximize the success of their AI investments on the Microsoft Copilot and AI stack—the most advanced platform for creating AI solutions that drive retail growth and profitability. Used by over 100,000 organizations worldwide, Microsoft Copilot Studio offers over 1,400 prebuilt plugins and connectors to integrate all of your data, APIs, and other third-party services. And with the unveiling of Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, organizations can simplify and scale their AI workloads with confidence. The same AI platform that we build our Microsoft Copilots on is now available to retailers. With the most versatile stack of AI development tools, we are committed to helping our customers push the frontiers of what’s possible with agentic retail and be ready for whatever the future may hold.   

In short, our mission is to help our customers become Retail Ready.  

What does it mean to be Retail Ready?  

In today’s rapidly evolving retail landscape, being “Retail Ready” means more than just keeping up with trends. It’s about being forward-thinking and making smart technology investments with the power to grow the topline while improving the bottom line. Together with our partners, Microsoft Cloud for Retail provides AI that is built for the future, ready now. With our deep customer relationships and comprehensive partner network, we are uniquely positioned to help retailers across all segments find new value with AI. Our solutions enable retailers to transform the shopper journey, empower the retail workforce of the future, create agile, sustainable supply chains, and unlock the potential of their data.

Personalized Shopping Agent improves the shopping experience for consumers with a context-aware conversational assistant to help them find the perfect products for their needs. Store Operations Agent puts safe, company-governed generative AI in the hands of store associates so they can spend less time searching for product information or answers to store policies and procedures and more time helping customers. And retail data solutions in Microsoft Fabric give retailers the power to unify and enrich a wide range of retail data sources, enabling real-time, actionable insights.

To learn more about how Microsoft’s retail agents and AI solutions are helping customer become Retail Ready, read AI-powered retail: Elevating customer experience and operational efficiency.

Transform the shopper journey

In today’s highly competitive retail landscape, personalization has become the standard. Bain Consulting Group estimates that retailers can increase revenue by 5% to 10% through AI personalization tools.³ But the stakes can be high. As the technology becomes more common, customers are beginning to expect tailored experiences and reacting more strongly to ineffective personalization. To deliver the optimal customer journey, retailers are increasingly turning to generative AI-powered solutions that help them answer shopper inquiries, manage virtual shopping carts, tailor marketing and product recommendations, deliver enhanced search capabilities, elevate customer service interactions, and more. By engaging with customers early in their shopping journey, conversational commerce agents and other AI personalization tools are boosting customer satisfaction and driving top-line growth.

• A prime example of the success of gen AI-powered conversational commerce is Walmart’s integration of OpenAI’s GPT-4 into its voice order and Text to Shop features. This innovation allows customers to search for items, place orders, and schedule pickups or deliveries with human-like, interactive responses throughout the entire buying journey.
• Recognizing that up to 80% of tire purchases start with a visit to a retailer’s website, Canadian Tire Corporation built a conversational commerce app using OpenAI Service and OpenAI’s GPT-4. Named CeeTee, the app helps customers identify the right tires for their needs early in the shopping journey, increasing opportunities for conversion and boosting brand loyalty.
• Retailers like Natuzzi and Gardens Alive are leveraging Dynamics 365 Contact Center and Dynamics 365 Customer Service to transform customer service with generative AI. These solutions enable personalized customer journeys by answering inquiries, tailoring recommendations, and streamlining operations, creating seamless self- and assisted-service experiences that win customer loyalty.
• The Dynamics 365 platform is enabling gourmet chocolatier Venchi to deliver a personalized omnichannel shopping experience to customers and improve clienteling at the point of sale.

Join Kathleen Mitford, Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Global Industry Marketing on Monday, January 13, 2025 on the Big Ideas stage at NRF 2025 for Transform the shopper journey to learn more from Thilina Gunasinghe, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Bath and Body Works, Fabio Tormen, Chief Information Officer at Venchi, and Kathie Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer at Sitecore.  

Empower the retail workforce of the future  

At Microsoft, we’re dedicated to developing AI tools that enrich the employee experience with the access and insights they need to deliver exceptional customer interactions. Whether through the use of our Store Operations Agent or through a custom partner-developed implementation, retailers now have the power to elevate their retail workforce, making them more agile and responsive to customer needs, and employees are ready for AI. The 2024 Work Trends Index found that 84% say AI helps them be more creative and focus on the most important work.²  

I’m really excited about the unique and innovative ways our customers are deploying AI to empower their retail workforces. Here are a few notable examples:  

• Swedish retailer Lindex custom designed its Lindex Copilot to understand store associate roles and responsibilities and provide tailored guidance that helps employees deliver contextually relevant and personalized support.
• With their custom ChatCTC employee digital assistant, Canadian Tire Corporation is saving its 3,000+ corporate employees 30 to 60 minutes a day, freeing them from mundane tasks to focus on higher-value customer experiences.
• Using Store Operations Agent, employees at leading Nordic retailer Kappahl can now use generative AI to securely surface product information and store policies and procedures in seconds, increasing store associate productivity and upleveling the shopping experience for customers. 
• MediaMarktSaturn’s MyBuddy voice-navigated in-ear AI agent—developed in partnership with Accenture/Avanade and leveraging Personalized Shopping Agent—enables store associates to “shop” the store catalog for the best products for the customers. This solution boosts customer confidence and enhances employees’ product knowledge to make the most of conversion opportunities at the point of sale.   

Join me on Sunday, January 12, 2025 on the Big Ideas stage at NRF 2025 for Retail ready: AI built for the future, ready now, to hear from Walmart and Aaron Berg, Vice President, Digital Transformation at Walmart, and Cari Covent, Head of AI and Emerging Technology at Canadian Tire about the opportunities and challenges for organizations bringing generative AI to their workforces. 

Create an agile, sustainable supply chain

Reducing out-of-stocks isn’t the only way retailers can get ahead. Many retailers are discovering the benefits of a more sustainable supply chain, from increased customer satisfaction to growing supply chain resilience. Not surprisingly, IDC Retail Insights found that supply network optimization was the second-fastest growing digital transformation use case among retailers in the Americas, with a compound annual spending growth rate of 21.6%.⁴ 

Let’s look at a couple of the top supply chain focused retailers using AI. 

• The Netherlands’ largest grocer, Albert Heijn, set out to reduce food waste by (among other things) improving the efficiency and precision of its supply chain. Using generative AI tools that help food arrive to the point of sale at maximum freshness and dynamically discounting prices to encourage shoppers to buy before that food is no longer fresh, Albert Heijn is helping save more than 250,000 kilos of food from going to waste.
• SPAR ICS, the independent IT unit of SPAR Austria Group, created an award-winning, AI-enabled demand forecasting system. With the new system, SPAR Austria Group is optimizing its supply chain and achieving 90 percent inventory prediction accuracy.
• Leading Australian retailer Coles has launched a five-year strategic partnership with Microsoft to expand Coles’ world-leading edge computing platform, Intelligent Edge Backbone (IEB). Coles and Microsoft will co-innovate to explore how the IEB can connect and manage IoT devices across Coles’ supply chain and into stores to advance Coles’ sustainability goals, improve customer experiences, reduce stock loss, and boost team member productivity and safety.

Join Gina Claxton, Microsoft CVP, US Retail and Consumer Goods, Avanade, and 1-800-Flowers.com on Monday, January 13th on the Big Ideas stage for Selling roses: Avanade presents – the 1-800-Flowers story to learn how the business has flourished by staying agile and innovative, moving early to thrive in the .com era, and now doing the same in the AI age with the help of Microsoft and Avanade. 

Unlock the potential of your data

For retailers seeking to understand their customers, it’s hard to overstate the value of a data platform that enables them to leverage all of their data while minimizing risk through robust security and governance. In their 2024 Global Retail Survey, IDC Retail Insights saw data emerge as “the main internal concern for retail organizations as leveraging data for operational efficiency and customer experience personalization becomes key to competitiveness.”⁵ Conversely, the AI opportunities are seemingly limitless for the retailers who are able to unify and secure their retail data and turn it into customer value.  

Here’s how some of our customers are using Microsoft’s data platform and AI solutions to unlock the potential of their data: 

• The ASOS team is using Azure AI Foundry to develop custom AI solutions that pull and embed knowledge of trends as they surface, enabling them to curate and share items with shoppers based on a deep knowledge of the latest trends.  
• Saucony optimized customer acquisition during Black Friday and Cyber Monday via a custom AI model developed in partnership with Yobi, leading to a strong surge in new customers in just weeks.
• With the help of the Microsoft Fabric data platform, Chanel is deploying generative AI securely for critical tasks like content creation, personalization, quality monitoring, supply chain management, real-time translations, and sales aftercare.  
• Microsoft Azure’s suite of tools helped Brazilian retail chain Fast Shop prepare their data estate for AI transformation via improved data reliability, faster data delivery, enhanced data governance, security, and self-service access for its lines of business. 

Join Keith Mercier, Microsoft Vice President, WW Retail and CG Industry on Tuesday, January 14, 2025 on the Big Ideas stage at NRF 2025 for The future of AI in retail to hear how Microsoft, Lenovo, and Intel are equipping customers and partners with the solutions they need to implement AI at the edge. 

Eager to learn how you can become Retail Ready? Visit the Microsoft booth at NRF 2025 to see our AI demos in action, including hands-on experiences in the Copilot Agent Zone. And download Microsoft’s 2025 retail report The AI Advantage: How retailers are shaping customer experiences with data-driven insights, produced in conjunction with Cascade Insights.  

Learn more  

• Read about how Microsoft is empowering responsible AI practices.  
• Attend a Microsoft AI Tour event in a city near you.  
• Establish an AI Center of Excellence. 
• Follow Microsoft Cloud on LinkedIn.
• The Future of Retail with Dynamics 365 AI-Powered ERP and Service solutions
• AI-powered retail: Elevating customer experience and operational efficiency

¹ Yahoo Finance, Walmart is the 2024 Yahoo Finance Company of the Year, December 2024.

² Microsoft, 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report, May 2024.  

³ Bain & Company, Retail and Gen AI: Now Scale Those Terrific Early Returns, May 2024.   

⁴ IDC, Retail Insights’ Industry Digital Transformation Market Forecast, 2024, doc #US50764024, July 2024.

⁵ IDC, Retail Insights’ Global Retail Survey, 2024: Findings and Implications, doc #US51558623, November 2024. 

The post Retail Ready: Agentic AI built for the future of retail—ready now appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

• Toyota is deploying AI agents to harness the collective wisdom of engineers and innovate faster
• BMW Group innovates with Azure for 10 times more efficient data delivery
• How CarMax organized and scaled innovation with Microsoft AI solutions

The platform for AI-enabled innovation

A wave of profound transformation is driving rapid progress in automotive, mobility and manufacturing, fueled by advancements in software and data. In automotive for example, vehicles are now defined as much by their digital as their physical content, a trend further accelerated by advancements in AI. Generative AI and agentic AI are revolutionizing how vehicles are designed, manufactured, sold, and used, including the development of software-defined vehicles (SDV), advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous driving (AD), and in-vehicle customer experiences.

The versatility of software-defined vehicles and AI have been proven to boost competitiveness, operational efficiency and create new revenue opportunities. A key to this acceleration is effectively integrating software-driven product lifecycles into automotive product design and development. Leveraging the Microsoft Azure platform to modernize engineering systems can help navigate this revolution, enabling shorter development vehicle development timelines, reduce cost, and improved quality and collaboration.

Powering change across automotive, mobility, and manufacturing

Microsoft and our partners are enabling transformation across automotive, mobility, and manufacturing in four focus areas:

1. Design and engineering

Addressing the needs for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers to design, build, test, and validate new vehicles, and deliver them to the market.

• Modern design and engineering in the cloud
• SDVs
• Connected fleets and products
• Automated driving
• In-vehicle and digital cockpit

2. Factory

Improving factory utilization through proactive system-wide visibility and management, to enhance workforce efficiency and safety.

• Connected workforce
• Factory process optimization
• Modernized factory edge

3. Supply chain

Building resiliency and sustainability into the extended automotive supply chain to aid in sourcing and selection, shipping, and warehousing.

• Visibility and risk management
• Forecasting and planning
• Warehousing and fulfillment

4. Customer experience

Creating engaging, differentiated services and connected experiences both inside and outside the vehicle to deliver long-term customer value and satisfaction.

• In-vehicle connected services
• Consumer and commercial marketing and sales
• Warranty, service, and repair

Automotive industry highlights for CES 2025

For CES 2025, we are focusing on design, engineering and vehicle experience in automotive. Below is a selection of recent announcements and collaborations, including CES and Microsoft Ignite.

Design and engineering—supporting the automotive development process with engineering and toolchain support, including improvements in requirements and specifications.

• PTC: Integrating AI into their application lifecycle management (ALM) solution, PTC Codebeamer with Codebeamer Copilot, focused on requirements authoring and analysis.
• Siemens: Siemens and Microsoft bring AI-enhanced NX X to Azure for advanced product engineering.
• NVIDIA: Live sessions and showcase at CES.
• Ansys: Meet your engineering goals with the speed and scale of Ansys Access on Microsoft Azure, a new cloud engineering solution for seamless scalability.
• Kontrol, TÜV SÜD, and Ansys: A virtual homologation toolchain to redefine how automotive manufacturers meet global regulatory compliance and safety standards.
• A2MAC1: Providing OEMs with a solution to speed development and meeting sustainability goals through enhanced supplier selection based on sustainability criteria.

Software defined vehicle, automated driving, and engineering toolchain—(SDV), autonomous driving, in-vehicle/digital cockpit:

• Eclipse Software Defined Vehicle: Automotive Open-Source Summit May 2025.
• Blackberry QNX: Accelerating building, testing and development of software defined vehicles in the cloud for automakers.
• Cognata and Ansys: Collaborating on a web-based virtual environment to test and validate automated driver assistance systems, and autonomous vehicle functionalities that mimic real-world conditions.
• dSpace: In collaboration with GitHub on generative AI usage for software-in-the-loop (SIL) testing and virtual electronic control unit (V-ECU) development to aid in more efficient validation pipelines.
• Excelfore: Enhancing long-term product lifecycle management through generative AI supported automotive over-the-air (OTA) campaigns for vehicle software updates and features.
• Harman Automotive: Collaborating on new software products to power the future of Automotive.
• Bosch: For safer roads: Bosch teams up with Microsoft to explore new frontiers with generative AI.

In-vehicle—digital cockpit and advanced AI assistants for driver safety, convenience, and enhanced experience.

• Cerence: Introduces pioneering embedded small language model, purpose-built for automotive.
• TomTom: For specialized areas at CES: Driver Experience, Future of Driving, Orbis Maps and enterprise.
• Pioneer: Connected motorcycle and smart dash with video AI analysis for driver operation support and crash detection.

Security—Vehicle cybersecurity and lifecycle management

• CyberArk & Device Authority: Creation of a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reference architecture for Internet of Things (IoT) security to ensure robust factory and edge environment security, access management, and device lifecycle protection.
• Cymotive Technologies: Announcing a new automotive vulnerability management system available on the Azure Marketplace.
• VicOne: Collaborating to provide developers of vehicle software with proactive security of vehicle firmware to ensure end-to-end protection across the automotive software lifecycle.

New adapted AI models for industry

Adapted AI models, developed in collaboration with industry partners, expand our industry capabilities and enable organizations to address their unique needs more accurately and effectively.

Adaptive cloud

At Ignite 2024, Microsoft made a variety of exciting announcements regarding how customers can gain a competitive advantage with a unified approach to data and AI: collect data from any source, process and analyze that data locally and globally for AI-enabled insights anywhere, and securely share those insights with employees and the ecosystem.

New industry reference architectures—providing a faster path to value

At CES 2025, we are announcing six new reference architectures, and updates to previously released reference architectures. Learn more about our reference architectures.

New AI Agent reference architectures for 2025

• Autonomous vehicle operations 
• Digital cockpit
• Mobility agents 
• Connected mobility
• Software defined vehicle 

Updates to previously released reference architectures

• Azure innovation accelerator
• Digital selling  
• Unified view of the customer  
• Product lifecycle management (PLM) on Azure 

Industry-aligned reference architectures are available through our partner ecosystem and Microsoft Industry Solutions Delivery. They provide essential guidance for engineers and architects to leverage a defined framework, supporting a wide array of scenarios, ultimately providing a faster path to value.

Microsoft in mobility and manufacturing industries

Learn more about Microsoft in Mobility and Manufacturing.

Learn more about Microsoft reference architectures for Mobility and Manufacturing, including our Mobility reference architecture updates for CES 2025.

The post CES 2025: Advancing the future of automotive and mobility appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

BlackRock’s move to the cloud

BlackRock’s tech platform, Aladdin, is a pivotal tool for investors. For years BlackRock had been pouring resources into maintaining its data center operations to support it. 

Five years ago, we began working on a strategy to move them into the cloud on Microsoft Azure. Today, all BlackRock’s technology platform clients and services are hosted in the Azure cloud, and as Lance shared with me onstage, it has been a profound unlock for the firm’s business processes that has allowed them to work more efficiently and get to market quicker. New rollouts now take weeks instead of quarters to complete. Their operations are secured with data encrypted at rest and in transit. 

With so much of the firm’s success driven by markets, the ability to manage through stress tests like index rebalances is also critical. With Azure, BlackRock is seeing significant improvements in performance during its most demanding moments. 

The pillars of AI Transformation

BlackRock has been developing AI solutions for years with predictive analysis, pattern recognition, and machine learning—even starting an AI Lab in 2018—but with the emergence of generative AI there were hundreds of considerations for how they could transform their business. Like most organizations and companies, the big question was where to begin.

Both internally at Microsoft and with our customers and partners, we have been using four pillars as the framework for AI Transformation to help prioritize projects that will deliver business outcomes.

1. Enriching employee experiences: Will you get more productivity out of your workforce? Will you attract better talent because you have the right assets that help people reach their potential faster? Will your employees feel more satisfied because they are eliminating tedious tasks from their day-to-day work?
2. Reinventing customer engagement: Will you generate more top-line revenue? Will your customer experiences be better? Will people come back for more as a result of the AI capability you have released?
3. Reshaping business processes: Will you improve your operations with AI-first thinking? How can AI technology make a process go faster? Or even better, how can a process be re-designed?
4. Bending the curve on innovation: Will you create products faster, get them to market quicker, respond and refine based on customer feedback, and design your offerings in a more differentiated way because of the AI capability that you are implementing?

My challenge has been that if the scenario does not fall neatly into one of these pillars with strong ROI justification—and projects can certainly span multiple pillars—then you should probably reconsider. This is the frame that we used together with BlackRock.

AI Transformation at BlackRock

According to Lance, BlackRock’s employee experience is being transformed in two key areas: one in productivity and the other in supporting investment signal analysis—what is known in the investing world as “alpha.” 

Identifying the alpha investment signal is all about driving more data into the investment life cycle with richer models that can find the signal in the data. For relationship managers, this translates to finding the right product for a given client’s investment strategy at the right market moment. Driving that signal is supported by Azure Machine Learning and the firm’s foundation models. 

On productivity, BlackRock believes that every job family can be supported through AI, helping employees with first drafts of an email, a pitch or code. In that spirit, the company has implemented Microsoft 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot. BlackRock is now reshaping business processes with bespoke workflows for different functions within the business.

BlackRock is bending the curve on innovation not just using AI internally with Copilot Studio to build agents and copilots while measuring their Azure consumption, but also using tools like GitHub Copilot to help infuse AI into product capabilities. My favorite example of this is the work they are doing to reinvent customer engagement.

The company has traditionally delivered its investment platforms through a set of user and application programming interfaces. But with the launches of the Aladdin and eFront copilots, they are now delivering a set of natural language interfaces—meaning customers can now have a conversation within an Aladdin environment with responsible AI safeguards built in.

Imagine asking your investment software questions like: “What is my exposure to companies building AI processors?” Before, this may have required a lot of searching and ultimately a phone call to the advisor. The ability to ask the Aladdin platform specific operational questions makes inquiries to support investment decisions much more efficient and satisfying. BlackRock technology clients are already using this capability today. 

Co-innovation with our customers and partners

I am grateful for Microsoft’s partnership with BlackRock, and Lance and I believe that both Azure and Aladdin are stronger for the collaboration. 

BlackRock has pushed us to make Azure better for all our customers around the world and that helped us successfully take the Aladdin offerings to market. Microsoft is fueling BlackRock’s internal transformation with solutions like Dynamics 365, customer relationship management business applications, and copilots to improve the work experience for their employees and customers.

Microsoft is co-innovating with thousands of the world’s most forward-thinking organizations, helping them realize the value and ROI AI is delivering today.

As companies embrace their own AI Transformation, we are here to help. Recently we’ve launched new resources to help business leaders explore some of the most common and impactful AI use cases, and to help organizations assess their AI readiness.

The post How BlackRock is finding new alpha as AI Transformation becomes a critical business driver appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

Generative and other types of AI are transforming radiology from the reading room to the research lab. Sometimes, generative AI looks like a more efficient meeting for the tumor board. Other times, it’s a draft impression that reminds you to include details you might have missed. In all instances, it looks like empowered radiology teams, working more efficiently to improve patient outcomes.

At RSNA 2024 we showcased the expanding opportunities for radiology teams to access responsible AI, delivered at scale.¹

Giving time back to radiologists

Most radiologists still spend a significant amount of their time on tasks outside of image interpretation and report creation. From supporting a tumor board conference to drafting a grant proposal, it’s important work, but it’s time consuming.

It’s also the kind of work that Microsoft 365 Copilot can help accelerate.

Microsoft 365 Copilot, with over 400 million users, is boosting productivity worldwide. By securely connecting and graphing the data across your applications and web activity, Copilot has the context it needs to provide more personalized and intelligent responses.

When entire radiology teams automate, search, summarize, and create with Copilot to address their everyday tasks, the minutes they save quickly add up.

Applying AI—including generative AI—inside the reading room

In 2023, we shared how Precision Imaging Network, part of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, makes it easier for radiology teams to integrate third-party AI into their reporting workflows.

Precision Imaging Network offers a single point of access to a collection of third-party AI models that have gone through security, compliance, and technical reviews. There are triage AI models that work to identify imaging with critical findings and help ensure radiologists read the most urgent cases first. Detection and measurement AI models assist radiologists with image interpretation by highlighting abnormalities.

In his white paper, “A platform for healthcare enterprise AI and digital transformation,” neuroradiologist and medical AI expert Dr. Reza Forghani explains how Precision Imaging Network facilitates scalable, efficient AI model deployment in weeks, not months.

“Precision Imaging Network is designed to help healthcare organizations, regardless of size, participate and lead in an AI revolution. Its framework facilitates effective and seamless integration of imaging AI models that can help them deliver better patient care.”

Dr. Reza Forghani, MD, PhD, Neuroradiologist and medical AI expert

Beyond seamlessly integrating third-party AI into their workflow, radiologists can harness generative AI to help automate report creation.

PowerScribe Smart Impression, which won the AuntMinnie award for Best New Radiology Software 2024, uses generative AI to automatically create a draft impression in the radiologist’s own style of dictation, using order metadata, approved AI inputs, and dictated findings. It is trained on millions of reports and delivers a range of benefits—from greater efficiency to increased job satisfaction.

Dr. Janusz Kikut is Professor of Radiology and Division Chief at the Nuclear Medicine Department of Radiology at University of Vermont. He’s found that three-quarters of the radiologists in his department using PowerScribe Smart Impression believe it has made them more efficient. “It also helps them not to forget things […] and contributes to their satisfaction at work,” says Dr. Kikut.

At Microsoft, we’re focused on making AI available to more individuals which is why PowerScribe Smart Impression is now included with PowerScribe One.² Best of all, it’s natively embedded in the workflow with no additional integrations required.

Making AI innovation safer and simpler

We’re also committed to helping healthcare customers, developers, and partners build and use AI that’s guided by our security, safety, and privacy principles. Our recently announced healthcare agent service in Microsoft Copilot Studio is a great example. It allows healthcare organizations to create their own generative AI-powered agents with state-of-the-art healthcare-specific chat, clinical, and compliance safeguards. This empowers them to innovate responsibly with AI. To help improve the patient experience and streamline workflows. This empowers them to innovate responsibly with AI to help improve the patient experience and streamline workflows.

Another way we’re helping organizations experiment with AI is through the pretrained, multimodal healthcare AI models in Azure AI Foundry. The teams at University of Wisconsin-Madison and UW Health have been using their database of 2.5 million chest x-rays to fine-tune a model that generates draft reports with visual grounding techniques. The radiologist can click on the report content to see where the referenced areas are located directly on the chest x-ray.

“Grounded report generation from medical images is a new frontier. Collaborating with Microsoft allows us to explore the potential of these models to enhance radiology reporting and improve patient care.”

Dr. Richard Bruce, Vice Chair of Informatics, Radiology at University of Wisconsin-Madison

This story is just one of many. Healthcare visionaries are applying our multimodal foundational models to address challenges from transforming radiology workflows to accelerating advancing clinical research, drug discovery, and patient care.

Supporting our partners to build a brighter future

At RSNA 2024, we shared how our collaboration with Sectra underscores our commitment to advancing healthcare through AI. By collaborating with Sectra, we are combining their leading expertise in medical imaging with our AI capabilities to develop advanced solutions that help radiologists and clinicians make faster, more informed decisions, driving improvements in healthcare outcomes. 

At our booth, we showcased a stellar lineup of partners with Azure-hosted and aligned solutions. These included Flywheel’s medical imaging data management platform, Volpara + Lunit’s AI solution for detecting lesions suspicious for breast cancer on mammograms, and Merge by Merative’s enterprise imaging workflow solution. We also featured Niramai’s AI-based breast cancer screening using AI over thermal scans, NVIDIA’s DGX™ Cloud serverless AI model building, and Paige’s AI software for cancer diagnosis in pathology. Additionally, we shared how CitiusTech’s Azure DICOM Migration Suite is using Azure Health Data Services and Microsoft Fabric to help ensure reliable data migration with high availability and disaster recovery.

A look forward to AI in radiology

AI continues to significantly transform radiology—expanding the realm of possibilities. Importantly, it can streamline workflows, enabling radiologists to focus on what matters most—improving patient care with high-quality reporting. As more radiology teams adopt and advance AI innovation, we eagerly anticipate an inspiring year ahead.

Copilot livestream for radiology

See the power and potential of AI as your copilot to work smarter, not harder

Watch live or on-demand

¹Microsoft products and services (1) are not designed, intended or made available as a medical device, and (2) are not designed or intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or judgment and should not be used to replace or as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or judgment. You are responsible for ensuring solutions comply with applicable laws and regulations.

²PowerScribe Smart Impression available for PowerScribe One versions 2019.8 and 2023.1 Service Pack 2.

The post RSNA 2024: AI’s impact inside and outside the reading room appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

Tech Community Live: Microsoft Security

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AI transformation requires security transformation 

Before Microsoft Ignite officially began, hundreds of security and IT professionals gathered early for the Microsoft Ignite Security Forum to hear from Microsoft Security product leaders about Microsoft’s threat intelligence and AI research, among other security strategy topics. Then on Day 1 of Microsoft Ignite, the event kicked off with an exciting keynote speech that dove into how Microsoft is creating powerful new opportunities across its platforms as the era of AI takes shape—including in security. Microsoft Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Satya Nadella kicked off the keynote’s discussion of security innovations by highlighting changes coming to Microsoft Purview.

“In the age of AI, data governance takes on an even more critical, central, important role,” said Nadella.

The keynote ended with Executive Vice President of Microsoft Security Charlie Bell, joined by Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Security Business, Vasu Jakkal. The two gave an overview of today’s security landscape and the innovations Microsoft Security is driving to help defenders rise to its challenges.

“Security is job number one in the age of AI,” said Jakkal, highlighting that one of the most critical use cases of trustworthy AI is supporting security professionals. Microsoft itself recently put generative AI in the hands of its security teams with Microsoft Security Copilot and used generative AI developed in its research labs to identify potentially-exposed credentials that could have been used by cyberthreat actors. These security leaders also shared how securing and governing AI and the data it uses can help empower AI innovation and to help unify and simplify security for all. 

Among the most exciting news was the announcement that Microsoft Security Exposure Management is now generally available. This new innovative solution provides security professionals with a graph-based approach to proactive threat protection. It dynamically creates a comprehensive view of the entire attack surface, allowing the exploration of assets and their changing relationships with login credentials, permissions, and other ways users connect to company data. This enables more thorough assessments of your organization’s security posture and exposure. 

Microsoft also shared the latest report on the Secure Future Initiative (SFI), prioritizing security above all else, establishing leading governance and frameworks to manage threats at scale, and better deterring even the most powerful and well-funded cyberthreat actors in the world. In part, this will be done through minimizing excessive permissions, reducing credential-related risks, and establishing and maintaining comprehensive asset inventories. 

There was also a lot of interest around Microsoft Security Copilot. Nearly 70% of the Fortune 500 already use Microsoft 365 Copilot.¹ The Copilot stack has already begun empowering users to build even more ambitious products, and this trend is likely to continue with the announcement of Azure AI Foundry, which gives organizations the power to design, customize, and manage next-generation AI apps and agents at scale. Microsoft Security Copilot is now embedded in the Microsoft Entra admin center, delivering new identity management capabilities. The solution will also be adding new capabilities across Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Purview, Azure Logic Apps, and across the Microsoft Partner Ecosystem. 

And during the Microsoft Security General Session, entitled Security Innovation to Strengthen Cyber Defense in the Age of AI, speakers Joy Chik, Rob Lefferts, Michael Wallent, Herain Oberoi, and Vasu Jakkal discussed how AI can be used to enhance cyber defense mechanisms by predicting, detecting, and responding to cyberthreats more efficiently. AI-driven cyberthreat detection, for instance, is already helping to identify patterns and anomalies in network traffic. AI can also enhance automated incident responses to further minimize negative effects on organizations. The session also explored potential future trends in AI and its evolving role in cyber defense strategies. 

Join us for the Microsoft Security Ask Microsoft Anything (AMA) series

Now that the news from Ignite is out, Microsoft Security is keeping all the wonderful conversations started throughout the week going with the Tech Community Live: Microsoft Security edition series of AMA sessions. These sessions will be held on Tuesday, December 3, from 7:00 AM to 11:30 AM PT, and will feature Microsoft subject matter experts—all of whom will be prepared to share in-depth content in their areas of expertise and to answer your technical questions. Each session will be streamed for viewers across LinkedIn, X, and YouTube, but if you have a burning question you want the experts to answer, make sure to add the sessions to your calendar to join the discussions live on Tech Community.  

Here’s a quick summary of each AMA session, including when it will be taking place and what will be covered: 

7:00 to 8:00 AM PT: Security Copilot   

We’ll be jumping into Microsoft Security Copilot bright and early. Find out how to respond to cyberthreats quickly and assess risk exposure in minutes. The product team will also be sharing how to help you configure Security Copilot and process signals at machine speed, while saving time for any questions you need answers to.

Take a look at these Ignite sessions that might interest you about Security Copilot:

• Optimize with Security Copilot: Real-world insights and expert advice 
• Transform your security with GenAI innovations in Security Copilot 
• One goal, many roles: Microsoft Security Copilot use cases for all 
• Security Partner Growth: Harness the Power of AI in Security Copilot 

8:00 to 8:30 AM PT: Microsoft Entra Suite  

Next up, you can join our panel of experts ready to field questions about the Microsoft Entra Suite. Whether you want to secure access for your employees and extend Conditional Access across your cloud-native and on-premises apps or want to retire old VPNs and automate your organization’s identity lifecycle workflows, our panel will be ready to share insights, best practices, and how Microsoft identity and network access solutions can help.   

Explore Ignite sessions about Entra Suite:

• Security Innovation to Strengthen Cyber Defense in the Age of AI 
• Secure access for any identity to any resource with Microsoft Entra 
• Secure access for your workforce with the new Microsoft Entra Suite 
• Security Partner Growth: The Power of Identity with Entra Suite 

8:30 to 9:00 AM PT: Microsoft Defender for Cloud  

By mid-morning, we’ll have a panel of experts diving into the latest Microsoft Defender for Cloud recommendations and answering your feature-specific questions.  

Ignite sessions worth checking out for Defender for Cloud:

• Mitigate threats using Microsoft Defender for Cloud 
• Secure Azure services and workloads with Microsoft Defender for Cloud 
• Future-proofing AI-driven migrations with Microsoft Defender for Cloud 

9:00 to 9:30 AM PT: Security Service Edge (SSE) 

Join us to explore Microsoft’s Security Service Edge (SSE) partner ecosystem, where we collaborate with top industry leaders to deliver integrated, identity-centric solutions for enhanced security and seamless connectivity. Ask Microsoft Anything about Global Secure Access, learn how our partnerships are simplifying security and networking, and gain insights related to supporting your hybrid workforce effectively.  

Check out these relevant Ignite sessions and blogs covering SSE:

• Microsoft partners for new SASE ecosystem | Microsoft Community Hub 
• Microsoft and Netskope: Unified, identity-centric security | Microsoft Community Hub 
• Accelerate your Zero Trust Journey: Unify Identity and Network Access

9:30 to 10:30 AM PT: Microsoft Security Exposure Management   

Microsoft Security Exposure Management can help experts responsible for maintaining a strong security posture at their organization gain a unified view of their cyberattack surface, investigate cyberattack paths, manage exposure, and better safeguard critical assets. Learn how to get ahead of cyberattackers in this AMA. 

Must-see Ignite sessions featuring Exposure Management:

• Microsoft Ignite Keynote 
• Security Innovation to Strengthen Cyber Defense in the Age of AI 
• Proactive security with continuous exposure management  

10:30 to 11:30 AM PT: Security for AI  

AI adoption is a popular and important topic this year, so join us to prepare your infrastructure to securely adopt AI, to learn the best ways to protect your AI stack and sensitive data, or if you have your own important AI security questions. Microsoft experts on this panel will help you confidently embrace the age of AI with industry-leading cybersecurity and compliance solutions. 

Ignite sessions you may have missed highlighting Security for AI: 

• Security Innovation to Strengthen Cyber Defense in the Age of AI 
• Secure and govern custom AI built on Azure AI and Copilot Studio 
• Secure and govern data in Microsoft 365 Copilot and beyond 
• Scott and Mark learn responsible AI  

Learn more with Microsoft Security

Whether you were at Ignite or not, this live, interactive Tech Community event is one not to miss. And remember that you can also listen in as part of our cross-platform audience or watch any of the sessions at a later time, on-demand.  

And if you’re curious to learn more about the security news and solutions we shared at Ignite, check out the security session recordings.  

​​To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and X (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity. 

¹Ignite 2024: Why nearly 70% of the Fortune 500 now use Microsoft 365 Copilot, Nov 19, 2024

The post ​​Follow-up on Ignite with Ask Microsoft Anything: Microsoft Security edition​​ appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

As we gather for Microsoft Ignite 2024, we invite you to explore the latest advancements in AI and discover how these innovations can transform your business. With AI-powered agents, organizations can analyze vast amounts of data, adapt to changing environments, and execute complex processes, bringing efficiency and intelligence to your operations. Whether it’s automating customer service interactions, optimizing supply chain logistics, enhancing personalized shopping experiences, or driving sustainability efforts, the potential applications are vast and impactful.

Join us on this journey to unlock the potential of AI and pave the way for a more intelligent, connected, and sustainable world. Together, let’s embrace the future of innovation and drive exceptional value for our customers.

Innovating with new adapted AI models and agents

Adapted AI models are transforming industries by enabling new applications and driving business outcomes such as increased accuracy, enhanced efficiency, better decision-making, and improved customer experiences. These models are designed to meet specific industry needs and tasks, addressing unique challenges more accurately and effectively. By using customized AI for their needs, organizations can enhance their digital presence, improve customer engagement, and streamline operations. With a focus on trustworthy AI, which includes safety, security, and privacy, our AI solutions adhere to high standards of integrity and responsibility, offering a secure approach to advancing industry capabilities. These adapted AI models enable the creation of custom AI solutions within Azure AI Studio and can also be used to configure agents for specific industry scenarios in Microsoft Copilot Studio scenarios. 

We are collaborating with several partners across multiple industries on these adapted and fine-tuned AI models, which are available through the Azure AI model catalog, empowering organizations to build custom AI solutions to address their most pressing needs. Bayer, for instance, offers the E.L.Y. Crop Protection model to enhance sustainable crop protection in the agriculture sector. Cerence provides the CaLLM™ Edge model for in-vehicle digital assistant technology, while Rockwell Automation’s FT Optix Food & Beverage model supports asset troubleshooting in manufacturing. Saifr introduces models for regulatory compliance in financial institutions, and Siemens Digital Industries Software offers a copilot for NX X software leveraging an industry model to optimize the design process. Sight Machine’s Factory Namespace Manager standardizes factory data for AI readiness, and open-source models from Hugging Face are available for summarization and sentiment analysis of financial data. 

Microsoft also provides AI agents designed for various industry scenarios through Copilot Studio. These agents can be customized to meet the specific needs of different organizations. For example, retailers can use the Store Operations Agent to assist store associates, and manufacturers can utilize the Factory Operations Agent to enhance production efficiency. The new release of Agent Builder (preview) in Copilot Studio enables users to create agents directly in Business Chat and SharePoint by defining the agent’s purpose, configuring its knowledge base, and setting up starter prompts. With a user-friendly design requiring only low-code skills, Agent Builder allows integration of diverse data sources to customize agents with industry-specific knowledge and capabilities, improving their effectiveness in addressing key use cases for each industry. 

To learn more about the new adaptive AI models for Industry that are available in Azure AI model catalogue and directly through our partners, visit Azure AI model catalog.

Financial services

Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services are leading the generative AI revolution in financial services, empowering industry professionals to securely and easily incorporate rich industry data and specialty data sets into their everyday activities while providing enhanced security and compliance at the same time. Microsoft has dedicated itself to generating strong partner momentum across the financial services space, including through creating and offering the tools Microsoft partners need to drive innovation, mutual growth, and success both now and as the capabilities of generative AI continue to evolve. LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group), among others, has already built pioneering new solutions aligned to this initiative.

Built in collaboration with LSEG, Financial Meeting Prep (see the recent announcement using the preview name, Meeting Prep for Financial Services) aims to streamline client meeting preparation for investment banking professionals. Combining LSEG Workspace, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft 365 Copilot, the solution will consolidate important data, introduce organization-specific insights, easily refresh content as new data becomes available, and enhance relationship manager productivity and decision-making. General availability of Financial Meeting Prep is expected by the end of 2024.

Financial Insights Agent in Copilot Studio

Gathering insights from online sources and proprietary financial documents is crucial for making investment decisions, strategizing, and conducting assessments. However, finding the right data can be time-consuming for financial services professionals, and reviewing the vast amounts of relevant information is nearly impossible.

With the Financial Insights Agent, now available in Copilot Studio, financial services professionals can quickly and easily gather information from financial news and regulatory reporting websites. And because this agent comes ready-made and is easily customized agent, you don’t need advanced development skills to get started.

The Financial Insights Agent gives high-quality results and works best when integrated with the financial document analysis skill for agents (preview), available in Azure Marketplace, which makes it possible for users to gain info and insights from financial documents provided by their organization, such as analyst reports and other complex financial documents that are stored in-house—even when the data is found in complex financial tables, graphs, or charts. This skill not only works with the Financial Insights Agent, but it can also be integrated into custom agents. For example, Reflexivity has been integral in helping Microsoft understand challenges in the industry. Within their own platform, they use this skill for certain document flows, helping financial services professionals derive insights from both structured and unstructured data more efficiently so they can make informed decisions faster.

Financial Services landing zones

Microsoft has recently developed and is now ready to introduce a new Financial Services landing zone. Based on the Azure landing zone—a secure, scalable cloud foundation tailored for compliance needs—the Financial Services landing zone is an infrastructure-as-code solution that provides the baseline governance, resilience, security, automation, and prescriptive guidance that Microsoft industry partners and other financial services organizations need in order to comply with the industry’s strict, mission-critical regulations. As the Financial Services landing zone also provides financial services organizations of all kinds a robust and compliant cloud environment, the solution represents a powerful means to accelerate digital transformation initiatives.

Manufacturing

The manufacturing industry is experiencing a dynamic transformation, with opportunities for growth and innovation despite challenges like economic uncertainty and supply chain disruptions. Microsoft and its partners are at the forefront of this evolution, empowering manufacturers with cutting-edge solutions that help enable intelligent factories, resilient supply chains, and enhanced customer experiences.

Manufacturing data solutions in Microsoft Fabric

During Hannover Messe 2024, we announced the preview of manufacturing data solutions in Microsoft Fabric. This solution integrates operational technology (OT) data, with information technology (IT) data, creating a comprehensive data foundation structured according to the ISA-95 information model.¹ This standardized approach enables manufacturers to break down data silos, enabling cross-domain insights, streamlined processes, and data-driven decision-making. Partner solutions from Sight Machine, Litmus, and Avanade further enhance these capabilities.

Sight Machine Factory Copilot on Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing transforms your manufacturing execution systems (MES) data into the ISA-95 standard for consumption in manufacturing data solutions in Fabric, which can be surfaced through factory agent experiences to help address operational issues on the factory floor.

Litmus Edge Manager enables a robust hybrid edge-to-cloud infrastructure, streamlining real-time machine dashboards and facilitating advanced machine learning. Litmus and the manufacturing data solutions in Fabric unlocks unprecedented efficiency and innovation, seamlessly bridging the gap between edge and cloud.

Learn how to get started with manufacturing data solutions in Microsoft Fabric and Factory Operations Agent.

Factory Operations Agent in Microsoft Azure AI

We’re excited to announce the public preview of the Factory Operations Agent in Azure AI, which empowers manufacturers to develop customized, AI-powered agents for frontline workers. These intelligent assistants leverage natural language processing and retrieval-augmented generation, making complex data analytics accessible for scenarios like root cause analysis, production loss reduction, continuous improvement, and asset maintenance. With the Factory Operations Agent, factory teams can intuitively interact with data, receive timely insights, and resolve issues more efficiently—ultimately enhancing productivity and empowering the workforce to drive operational excellence.

Avanade Manufacturing Copilot, powered by manufacturing data solutions in Fabric, helps customers to overcome OT-IT data accessibility and utilization challenges and leverage AI at-scale to make higher-quality products faster with less waste.

Learn how to get started with Factory Operations Agent in Azure AI (preview).

Factory Safety Agent in Microsoft Copilot Studio

The new Factory Safety Agent in Copilot Studio (preview) is focused on workplace safety. Factory Safety Agent provides organizations with a low code option to quickly develop a customized agent, grounded in occupational health and safety data. Whether using publicly available standards like Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or specific protocols of the organization, this agent can provide critical safety information, insights to factory workers, and streamline critical activities such as safety inspections or incident reporting to reduce risks and ultimately accidents.

Retail

As the retail industry adapts to new customer expectations and competitive pressures, Microsoft and its partners are providing tools for retailers that offer real-time insights, enhance customer engagement, and drive digital innovation.

Retail Data Solutions in Microsoft Fabric

Retail Data Solutions in Microsoft Fabric help retailers unify and standardize their data. This platform enables customers to integrate data from different systems and offers ready-to-use agents to speed up AI transformations. Currently in public preview, it includes four customizable features for retail:

• Retail Industry Data Model: Plan and design data solutions for governance, reporting, business intelligence, and analytics.
• Frequently Bought Together: Use insights to enhance upselling, shelf optimization, and store efficiency.
• Sitecore OrderCloud Connector: Standardize commerce data from Sitecore OrderCloud to gain actionable insights.
• Personalized Shopping Agent: Improve shopping experiences with tailored customer conversations.

Personalized Shopping Agent

The Personalized Shopping Agent can engage in natural language conversations to understand and respond to shoppers’ needs. It provides tailored recommendations based on the shopper’s specific requirements and preferences. Additionally, it can handle specific requests, such as finding matching items or suggesting outfits for specific occasions. The agent leverages Retail Data Solutions, using aggregated product catalogs, and AI orchestration tools to provide accurate and contextually relevant answers.   

Store Operations Agent

The Store Operations Agent revolutionizes how store associates handle daily tasks with its headless architecture that integrates into applications or websites. It offers ready-to-deploy plugins for:

• Product search or inventory search: Real-time access to product details and stock.
• Order details: Tracks order information down to the line level.
• Incident management: Resolves incidents using Copilot and ServiceNow.
• Task management: Integrates directly with tasking apps.
• Omni channel access: Provides natural language access to current prices, promotions, and information.

The agent integrates seamlessly with Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Commerce, and ServiceNow. These integrations can extend to other enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and applications with pre-built connectors and APIs. These features are continually updated, adding more plugins to help partners scale operations.

Partners can also utilize the Store Operations Agent alongside their own solutions to accelerate customer adoption. Accenture Avanade has launched a Clienteling copilot, which has Store Operations Agent embedded and assists store associates in managing daily tasks efficiently. It also offers a natural language query interface for store policies and procedures, enabling informed decision-making for store associates and managers.

Public sector

Microsoft is leading the way in helping government and regulated organizations address their compliance, security, and data sovereignty requirements while adopting modern digital technologies. With initiatives like Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty and generative AI, Microsoft offers comprehensive solutions tailored to diverse regulatory landscapes, enabling organizations to streamline their compliance processes and enhance their digital capabilities.

Citizen Services agent

Available in Copilot Studio, Citizen Services agent allows public sector organizations to create AI-powered agents using their public websites and information. The agent helps citizens navigate government services and information through a Q&A experience, providing answers from configured knowledge bases, such as responses about city plans, road closures, or service applications, offering citizens access to up-to-date information.

Get started with the Citizen Services agent in Copilot Studio.

Regulated Environment Management

Regulated Environment Management (REM) in Azure, currently in private preview, supports cloud adoption as part of Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty. REM simplifies the configuration, deployment and management of regulated environments through landing zones, policy and drift analysis. Starting November 2024, REM will shift to a subscription-level service, offering benefits like data isolation, regional boundaries, and group management of landing zone configurations. Transparency logs and the Landing Zone Account (LZA) simplify managing configurations and provide data residency. REM also includes a REST API for easier integration.

Request access in the REM private preview.  

Sustainability

With growing demands for disclosure requirements under regulatory directives like the European Union Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the pursuit of impactful initiatives such as decarbonization, and the increasing need for transparency in corporate sustainability claims, businesses are under pressure to demonstrate genuine commitment to sustainability. To address these challenges, Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability is introducing Sustainability data solutions in Microsoft Fabric and enhanced reporting in Microsoft Sustainability Manager.

Sustainability data solutions in Microsoft Fabric

Now generally available, Sustainability data solutions in Microsoft Fabric enables customers to unify environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data with organizational data, fostering innovation, process changes, and simplified reporting. With Microsoft Fabric, businesses can create a standardized sustainability data lake for their ESG needs. Features include an extensible ESG data schema, pre-built notebooks for data transformations, data pipelines for various business systems (including Microsoft Sustainability Manager), and built-in dashboards for analyzing ESG topics.

OneLake in Fabric allows businesses to enhance sustainability by building analytical insights with AI and machine learning models and using Copilot agents for autonomous workflows. Learn more about Sustainability data solutions in Microsoft Fabric.

Partners like UST Global use Sustainability data solutions in Fabric to develop flexible ESG systems of record that align with sustainability goals. Leveraging Microsoft Fabric, they craft customizable solutions for unique ESG challenges and adapt as requirements evolve.

Sustainability data solutions in Fabric offers tools to manage ESG data complexities, improve data integration and accuracy, provide real-time insights, and support compliance. This platform helps meet regulatory and stakeholder expectations and drives effective sustainability efforts across organizations.

External reporting in Microsoft Sustainability Manager

Also in general availability, the new external reporting capabilities in Microsoft Sustainability Manager (formerly Project ESG Reporting) simplifies external reporting across various standards with AI-powered insights and recommendations, making it easier for organizations to prepare and manage disclosure reports. Users can seamlessly connect, organize, review, and report data according to global standards.

Whether used as a standalone solution through the Power Platform gallery or integrated within Microsoft Sustainability Manager, it supports custom frameworks, iXBRL compatibility through partners, and offers a workflow user interface (UI) for editing and approvals. These new capabilities reduce the complexities of compliance, helping businesses stay on top of their sustainability reporting.

Using Copilot Studio with Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability

Copilot Studio is a key part of the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability toolkit, helping users create customized agents to meet sustainability and compliance goals. As compliance standards change, Copilot Studio uses large language models (LLM) to help organizations adapt quickly. It offers pre-built connectors for easy data integration, reducing the time and effort needed to manage diverse data sources and focus on actionable insights. Current features include the Sustainability Insights Agent for interacting with sustainability reports, with upcoming agents for estimating European Union Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) costs and setting goals. This tool, combined with our network of partners, helps organizations achieve their ESG goals by unifying data intelligence and streamlining sustainability management.

Shaping the future with AI

Join us on this journey to unlock the potential of AI and pave the way for a more intelligent, connected, and sustainable world. Together, let’s embrace the future of innovation and drive exceptional value for our customers. By leveraging the latest advancements in AI, we can transform industries, enhance productivity, and create meaningful experiences for everyone. Whether it’s through automating routine tasks, optimizing operations, or providing personalized services, the possibilities are endless. Let’s work together to harness the power of AI and make a lasting impact on our businesses and communities. 

Watch the Ignite 2024 sessions

Watch Accelerating industry partner growth in the age of AI with Kathleen Mitford and Satish Thomas and Delivering adapted AI models for industries with partners.

Financial Services

• Accelerate AI Innovation with Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services 
• Empowering the financial services partner ecosystem with Generative AI

Manufacturing

• Democratize data-driven decision making across factory operations with AI

Retail

• Elevate the retail experience with the Personalized Shopping Agent 
• Empower the retail workforce with the Store Operations Agent 

Public Sector

• Accelerate Cloud Adoption with Software-Defined Sovereignty 
• Collaborating with partners for digital sovereignty in the cloud 
• Deploying AI with Sovereign controls

Sustainability

• Accelerating ESG progress with sustainability data solutions in Fabric 
• Sustainability reduction and calculation compliance simplified with Copilot Studio and Microsoft Sustainability Manager 
• Building solution practices for Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability 
• Implementation best practices for Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability 

Microsoft Ignite 2024

Experience the latest innovations for AI transformation

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¹ https://www.isa.org/standards-and-publications/isa-standards/isa-95-standard

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