The skills gap is widening, and it is our collective responsibility to bridge it. Business leaders and professionals are exploring ways to build and enhance critical skills within their teams, and Microsoft is leading the charge. 

In addition to launching ambitious skill-building initiatives such as the upcoming Microsoft AI Skills Fest, we’re also eager to spotlight innovative organization like Founderz, a groundbreaking online learning platform that has gone from a bold idea to a leader in AI skilling in just a few years. Their story is worth sharing not only because of their emerging role in ensuring the workforce is prepared for the future, but because it’s a testament to the power of innovation, perseverance, and the impact of just one company believing in a vision.  

One “yes” can change everything 

Co-founders Anna Cejudo and Pau Garcia-Mila had a simple but powerful idea: what if online business education could capture the depth, collaboration, and networking of the world’s top business schools—but in a way that was scalable, accessible, and built for the AI-powered future? 

“We felt there is still a big gap between the experience we have when we go to an on-site business school—where you meet the best professors, the best content—and the way we learn online,” explained Pau Garcia-Mila, Co-Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder.

They spent years building the technology behind Founderz, investing in AI-powered learning models that would make online education engaging, interactive, and deeply effective. But by 2023, they were at a breaking point. Funding had run out, and they needed a breakthrough.

In a final effort, they sent three emails to companies at the forefront of AI—hoping one of them would see what they saw: a future where AI education was truly transformative. Only Microsoft responded. 

Founderz was accepted into the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub, which provided access to industry-leading AI services, expert guidance, and essential technology to supercharge their growth. Entering the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub at Tier 4 also unlocked USD150,000 in Microsoft Azure credits, enabling the company to scale their platform, refine their AI-powered learning model, and start delivering high-quality AI education at scale. 

Today, Founderz itself is helping change lives.

“In 2024, we had roughly 10,000 users learning AI with Founderz,” recalled Anna Cejudo, co-CEO and co-founder. “By the end of the year, we were at 50,000. And now, by the beginning of March, we reached 100,000 users training in AI. The real revolution isn’t AI—it’s education,” added Anna, highlighting the fundamental role of learning in driving change. They’ve also become a Microsoft Training Services Partner, making the decision to offer training exclusively on Microsoft AI technology.  

AI skilling done differently 

Founderz is far from being just another online course provider. Pau, Anna, and their growing team are rethinking how AI is taught by blending structured learning with real-time collaboration, personalized AI-powered support, and a hands-on approach to applying AI in real-world scenarios. 

At the heart of the Founderz learning experience are high-quality, cinematic-style lectures. Unlike traditional online courses that rely on static, slide-based presentations, Founderz films its courses in a MasterClass-style format, featuring top AI experts from Microsoft and beyond. This approach allows learners to hear directly from the people shaping the future of AI. 

Expert content in student’s native language 

But Founderz goes beyond delivering engaging content—it’s about accessibility. A core mission is to provide top-tier AI education in students’ native languages. Next-generation lip-syncing technology ensures that learners experience AI-powered content seamlessly, without language barriers.

“I can watch a Responsible AI class from Microsoft’s Mihaela Vorvoreanu in my language,” says Pau Garcia-Mila. “She speaks in first person, saying, ‘When we built this Responsible AI model at Microsoft.’ I’d love to be able to learn from the source in my mother tongue.”

Small group collaboration  

While putting “thousands of people in a virtual room” enables Founderz to pay the best professors at a lower per-student cost, the company also sought to build a platform that supported meaningful collaboration. AI-powered tools match students into small, diverse learning circles, where they tackle real-world AI challenges, share insights, and build lasting professional networks. 

Multilingual student support around the clock 

To further support its rapidly growing user base, Founderz’ team of AI-powered teaching assistants or “Fellows” provide real-time multilingual support, allowing learners to receive help in their native language while keeping operations efficient for the human support team.  

As Pau Garcia-Mila explained, “The Fellows are speaking any language in the world, but our human team sees everything in English,” ensuring seamless interaction across different languages. 

These AI-powered teaching assistants provide real-time feedback, analyze student interactions, and escalate complex questions to human instructors when needed. Whether a learner is a complete beginner or an experienced professional, Founderz ensures they receive the support they need to succeed. 

Education means opportunity

Founderz’ journey from a bold idea to an emerging AI skilling leader is proof that AI education is more than just accessing information—it’s about unlocking potential. Its pioneering efforts continue to inspire countless organizations to embrace AI education and drive meaningful transformation worldwide.

As Anna Cejudo puts it, “Education means opportunity, and if we can deliver high-quality education to as many people as possible, we’re giving them the chance to change their lives and control their futures.” 

At Microsoft, we couldn’t agree more. Microsoft’s mission has always been about creating technology that empowers others to innovate and solve real-world problems. This holds true in the age of AI. Our commitment to skilling is not just about technology adoption, it’s about people development. Over the past year, Microsoft has trained and certified over 23 million people across more than 200 countries in digital skills, with the goal of ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to succeed in a world where AI will be commonplace and a natural extension of everything we do.  

Unlock the future—Join the Microsoft AI Skills Fest 

As part of our ongoing investment in global skilling, Microsoft is bringing AI skilling to everyone with the Microsoft AI Skills Fest—a global event designed to bring together customers and partners, tech and business professionals, and AI enthusiasts to help build the skills we all need to thrive in the AI economy.  

Beginning April 8, 2025, we’re kicking off the fun with an attempt to set a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for the most users to take an online multi-level artificial intelligence lesson in 24 hours. After that, we’re inviting everyone to continue building their skills with 50 days to explore Microsoft’s AI apps and services.  

Let’s make history together.

Microsoft AI Skills Fest

A global event designed to bring learners across the globe together to build their AI skills

Register now

¹IDC InfoBrief: sponsored by Microsoft, 2024 Business Opportunity of AI, IDC# US52699124, November 2024.

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In a recent playbook, Accelerating sustainability with AI: Innovations for a better future, we outlined our five plays to advance sustainability, providing insight into our work at Microsoft and how business leaders around the world are creating a new path forward.

The reason to choose AI for this work? It has three unique abilities that can help organizations overcome key bottlenecks. AI can: (1) measure, predict, and optimize complex systems, (2) accelerate the development of sustainability solutions, and (3), empower the sustainability workforce. These capabilities make AI a critical enabler of progress.

Accelerate sustainability with AI

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How can business leaders harness AI to accelerate resilience, efficiency, and sustainability in their organization?

I recently met with Lindsay Myers, Vice President, Commercial Cross Solutions at Microsoft, who leads our Commercial Sustainability business, to talk more about this guidance and how business leaders can harness AI to accelerate resilience, efficiency, and sustainability in their organizations.

Toby: Hi Lindsay, before we dive into the playbook, can you share your thoughts on how organizations are adopting AI to address these interconnected goals of resilience, efficiency, and sustainability?

Lindsay: It’s important to highlight how interconnected these goals are in many organizations today. We often see initiatives started by sustainability teams result in significant cost savings for organizations. This might be efficiency gains for existing operations, or entirely new approaches like digital twins that enable rapid iteration before initial prototypes are built. When companies choose an approach like digital twins, it can reduce the materials needed for physical models—saving time and costs—while improving resilience through agility.

Explore customer and partner examples of AI innovation

Toby: Can you give me some examples of customers and partners who are doing this work today?

Lindsay: AI is making a real difference in helping organizations prepare for climate risks, innovate for maximum efficiency, and solve complex challenges. For example, in Germany, where urban flooding is a major concern, cities are searching for innovative ways to mitigate the impacts of heavy rainfall and its impact on communities and infrastructure. Esri, a global leader in geographic information system (GIS) software is helping cities unlock the power of digital twins driven by geospatial data and AI. This solution helped the City of Stuttgart cut its reality mapping time from five months to 24 hours, enabling local government and public safety staff to understand potential impacts and make decisions faster.

Stadtwerke München (SWM), the municipal utilities company serving Munich, has made it its mission to drive every aspect of the city’s energy, heating, and mobility transition forward. To accomplish this, it needed maximum-efficiency processes, such as predictive infrastructure maintenance and optimized operations planning. It has turned to Microsoft Azure and Azure IoT to efficiently provide power to its public transport fleet of 100% electrified vehicles.

Unlock new possibilities with data and AI

Toby: Those are inspiring examples; they give a real sense of AI’s potential. The playbook outlines 5 plays, or ways that organizations can unlock this potential. Could you describe some of these?

Lindsay: Let’s talk first about the first two plays and how they work together.

Investing in AI solutions to measure, predict, and optimize complex systems can drive both innovation and efficiency, helping companies focus on the most strategic priorities for business resilience.

For example, Mitiga Solutions, a global leader in climate risk intelligence and a Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund investment leverages AI, high-performance computing, and advanced climate models to predict the impact of physical climate hazards on any asset, anywhere in the world, from now until the end of the century. This helps infrastructure, commercial real estate, insurers, and companies across industries comply with climate disclosure regulations while proactively strengthening their resilience.

 With AI-powered solutions, businesses can swiftly tackle complex challenges across their own supply chains and for their customers. This not only positions companies as leaders in sustainability but can also unlock new market opportunities and enhance their competitive advantage.

It’s crucial to build a strong digital and data infrastructure to maximize AI’s potential—your AI is only as good as the data it relies on. That’s why having high-quality, representative data and the right processing infrastructure is essential. It enables teams to make informed decisions and provides accurate input for AI applications.

For many of our customers and partners, these two plays are closely linked. The foundational work involves bringing all the necessary data together in one place, like in Microsoft Fabric. What’s amazing about Fabric is it lets you reason over both internal and external data, which is incredibly helpful for things like regulatory reporting.

Once your data is set up properly, your team can use solutions such as Microsoft Copilot to ask questions of their data, generate reports, and learn from industry best practices. Copilot streamlines these tasks, reducing manual work and enabling practitioners to focus their time on new strategic initiatives.

Minimize resource use in AI design and operations

Toby: When I talk to organizations looking to adopt AI, customers and partners often want to learn more about what Microsoft is doing to reduce the environmental impact of AI. Could we talk a bit about that?

Lindsay: Absolutely. Let’s talk about play 3 and how that relates to our work at Microsoft.

AI has its own energy and water demands, so it’s crucial to minimize resource use and move toward powering AI systems with carbon-free energy. In addition, since AI infrastructure is often concentrated in specific regions, it is essential to support the local communities where datacenters are located. At Microsoft, we’re innovating across three critical areas to continue to advance the sustainability of cloud and AI services:

1. Optimizing datacenter energy, water, and waste efficiency while protecting ecosystems.
2. Advancing low-carbon materials and creating global markets to promote industry-wide sustainability.
3. Enhancing the energy efficiency of AI and cloud services.

Many of our customers and partners want to know not only what we’re doing, but also what they can do to manage resource use. Our Well-Architected Framework sustainability guidance provides a great starting point, as well as small language models that perform specific tasks using fewer resources than larger models.

Build workforce capacity to use AI for sustainability

Toby: The pace of innovation in this domain is incredible. Is there anything more you’d like to add in terms of how your team helps leaders move their ideas from concept to implementation?

Lindsay: The way forward on this journey is through people working together, and this is an area where we can help customers and partners make progress. Let’s talk about the final play first:

For companies to be able to put AI’s three game-changing capabilities to work, they must have skills to use AI effectively. Microsoft has training programs focused on building AI fluency, supporting nonprofits, businesses, and governments in advancing workforce AI technical skills and promoting safe and responsible AI development.

Microsoft’s AI learning hub can empower customers on their AI transformation journey, and customers can also use Copilot to connect with their data in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability and sustainability data solutions in Microsoft Fabric. With these tools, employees can quickly gain insights, understand gaps, and identify what’s needed to move initiatives forward.

Toby: Thank you, Lindsay!

Transform business using generative AI

For business leaders wanting to put these plays in action and guide their organizations through effective AI adoption, we’ve published the 2025 AI Decision Brief: Insights from Microsoft and AI leaders on navigating the generative AI platform shift. This report is packed with perspectives from top Microsoft leaders and insights from AI innovators, along with stories of companies across industries that have transformed their businesses using generative AI.

2025 AI Decision Brief

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The post Harnessing AI for resilience, efficiency, and sustainability appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

Beyond the tools that empower businesses to shape their future with AI in a rapidly evolving market, our leaders at Microsoft are shaping our own organization with this technology. In this series, FYAI, we’ll highlight leaders from around Microsoft that are driving forces in our AI strategy for their unique perspective on our AI transformation; for your AI information, if you will.

Insights from Sarah Bird, Chief Product Officer (CPO) of Responsible AI

In this edition, we hear from Sarah Bird, Microsoft’s Chief Product Officer (CPO) of Responsible AI, ahead of her appearance at South by Southwest (SXSW) where she’ll be discussing the evolving safety practices for generative AI.  

In this Q&A session, Sarah shares her insights on various aspects of responsible AI, including her journey and dedication to responsible AI, her role as Chief Product Officer, the importance of integrating responsible AI early in the development process, and her insights on future AI breakthroughs and their safety implications. 

Let’s explore Sarah Bird’s experiences and perspectives on the evolving landscape of AI and discover how Microsoft is building trustworthy AI systems. 

FYAI: Responsible AI with Sarah Bird

 Who influenced you to pursue a career in responsible AI?

“For me, it’s less about who influenced me to pursue this career and more about who I’m helping every day through my work. AI is one of the most empowering technologies we have, but we can’t unlock its full potential without solving for responsible AI. That’s what makes this work so important—it’s about ensuring AI is safe and beneficial for everyone. And to do that, we have to work across boundaries. It reminds me of my grad school days—responsible AI is the ultimate group project, bringing together technology, society, and law to tackle these complex challenges in a meaningful way.” 

What does the role of chief product officer, responsible AI, actually mean? Tell us what your day-to-day looks like. 

“No two days are the same, and that’s what keeps me energized. At the core, my team is focused on three key things: spotting new risks, figuring out how to tackle them—especially when they’re things we’ve never seen before—and making sure our solutions are scalable so others can apply them easily. That framework guides us, but the reality is, AI is evolving fast. So a big part of our work is staying nimble—triaging issues in real-time, applying what we learn in practice, and adapting quickly to test and deploy new systems. It’s a mix of strategy and problem-solving, which is what makes it exciting.”

Where are you noticing gaps in companies’ implementation of AI safety practices?

“It’s been really inspiring to see how much more mature customers are getting with their responsible AI roadmaps and deployment. There’s real progress happening. That said, people are still learning, and the level of maturity varies across industries—some are further along than others. If there’s one thing I could shout from the rooftops, it’s that responsible AI can’t be an afterthought. It needs to be built into the entire development process from the start, not just bolted on at the end. It’s about putting all the pieces together to create a complete, responsible AI lifecycle.”

When do you think the next AI breakthrough is going to happen and what does that mean for safeguards?

“As an engineer, I’m focused on problem-solving rather than predicting when the next big breakthrough will happen. But I will say—it’s an exciting journey, especially with the pace of innovation. And while we still need another major leap before we can talk about the reality of what’s next, what’s really exciting about this space is that the breakthrough isn’t just the technology itself—it’s how we apply it. The real magic happens at the intersection of tech and people, and figuring out how to bridge that responsibly is what makes this work so fascinating.”

Why do you feel safety and innovation go hand in hand? 

“A goal of ours as a company is to help people do more with AI. We are constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and doing so in a safe, trusted way. As I’ve said, safety is not just a ‘nice to have’ bolted on at the end of a project, but a critical piece of developing high-quality AI systems. I look at safety issues as a measure of quality – is your AI performing as well as it should be? We can’t innovate and drive meaningful progress if we don’t solve for this.” 

2025 AI Decision Brief

Gain insights from thought leaders at Microsoft to advance AI and drive consistent AI value in your org

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Learn more about Microsoft’s responsible AI work 

At Microsoft, we’re committed to the responsible advancement and use of AI. Our approach is guided by principles that ensure AI development maximizes benefits and minimizes potential harms. We incorporate responsible AI practices from the beginning by training our employees to evaluate risks and collaborating with experts to review and test technologies. 

We believe that advancing safe, secure, and trustworthy AI requires a mix of industry commitments, policies, and global governance. Responsible AI is an ongoing journey that involves continuous learning and collaboration.

Sarah Bird is at the forefront of ensuring that AI technologies are developed and deployed responsibly, and her team is dedicated to building tools that test AI systems rigorously to ensure they work as intended and are safe, inclusive, and beneficial for everyone. As she highlights, by integrating responsible AI practices from the start, we can unlock the full potential of AI while maintaining the highest standards of safety and innovation. 

Want to learn more?  

• Are you attending SXSW? Check out Sarah’s panel on Wednesday, March 12: Building Trustworthy AI: Evolving Safety Practices for GenAI. 
• Visit our Understanding AI at Microsoft page to catch up on the latest content from our Building AI Responsibly blog series.
• Read Grow Your Business with AI You Can Trust to discover how safe and secure AI business practices can enhance performance and effectively drive impact.

The post FYAI: The role of responsible AI with Microsoft CPO Sarah Bird appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. In this age of generative AI, we’re committed to sharing what we’ve learned to help further this mission. That’s why we wrote the 2025 AI Decision Brief: Insights from Microsoft and AI leaders on navigating the generative AI platform shift. 

This report is packed with perspectives from top Microsoft leaders and insights from AI innovators, along with stories of companies across industries that have transformed their businesses using generative AI. It’s also full of pragmatic tips to help your company with its own AI efforts. 

Here’s a more detailed look at what you’ll find in the report.

The state of generative AI today 

The world has embraced generative AI with unprecedented speed. While it took seven years for the internet to reach 100 million users, ChatGPT reached those numbers in just two months.¹ And although generative AI is relatively new to the market, adoption is rapidly expanding. In fact, current and planned usage among enterprises jumped to 75% in 2024 from 55% in 2023, according to an IDC study.²  

Put another way, AI is rapidly evolving into what economists call a general-purpose technology. But getting to the point where everyone on the planet has AI access and takes advantage of that access will require some effort, including: 

• Committing to responsible, trustworthy AI.
  For all people, organizations, and nations to embrace AI, it must be responsible, ethical, fair, and safe. As Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith says in this report, “Broad social acceptance for AI will depend on ensuring that AI creates new opportunities for workers, respects enduring values of individuals, and addresses the impact of AI on local resources such as land, energy, and water.” 
• Overcoming adoption challenges.
  Organizations face several challenges in adopting generative AI, such as skill shortages, security concerns, and regulation and compliance issues. Training employees to use AI and building data privacy, security, and compliance into your AI adoption plan are essential.
• Understanding the winning formula.
  There’s a striking difference between customers in the AI exploration stage and those who have fully embraced it. The highest-performing organizations gain almost four times the value from their AI investments than those just getting started. Plus, those high performers are implementing generative AI projects in a fraction of the time.²

Where generative AI is headed

AI capabilities are doubling at a rate four times that of historical progress.² This exponential growth tells us that the effects of AI-powered automation, scientific discovery, and innovation will also accelerate. We expect generative AI to revolutionize operations, enable new and disruptive business models, and reshape the competitive landscape in many ways, including:

• The future of work.
  As the use of generative AI in companies continues to grow, employees are starting to collaborate with AI rather than just treating it as a tool. This means learning to work with AI iteratively and conversationally. “Effective collaboration involves setting expectations, reviewing work, and providing feedback—similar to managing an employee,” explains Jared Spataro, Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer, AI at Work. 
• The organizations leading innovation.
  Startups, software development companies, research organizations, and co-innovation labs where startups and software giants collaborate on solutions will all continue to shape AI innovation.  
• Sustainable AI.
  Generative AI is helping build a more sustainable future thanks to tools that integrate renewable energy into grids, reduce food waste, and support socially and environmentally beneficial actions.

How to advance generative AI in your organization 

As we help companies move from talking about AI to translating it into lasting results, we’ve gained a unique perspective on the generative AI strategies that drive business impact. You’ll find many of them in this report, including:

• Best practices for using generative AI at scale.
  Get tips for developing a scalable AI strategy that best suits your organization, implementing your AI adoption plan, and managing your AI efforts over time. 
• Ways to accelerate your AI readiness.
  Get checklists for creating your organization’s AI business strategy, technology and data strategy, implementation strategy, cultural and mindset shift, and governance plan. 
• Customer success stories.
  See how businesses across industries—including healthcare, energy, transportation, and finance—are demonstrating what’s possible with AI now, and in the future. Plus, explore which Microsoft and AI tools they’re using to succeed.

Maximize generative AI with insights from Microsoft leaders

We couldn’t be more excited about the promise of generative AI. Whether you’ve already begun using AI at your organization or are just getting started, we’re here to help you ease the journey and maximize your results.

Get The 2025 AI Decision Brief now for Microsoft AI leadership perspectives on: 

• Empowering the future: AI access for us all—Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President.
• How AI is revolutionizing IT at Microsoft—Nathalie D’Hers, CVP Microsoft Digital (IT).
• Learnings on the business value of AI from IDC—Alysa Taylor, Chief Marketing Officer, Commercial Cloud and AI.
• The future of work is AI-powered—Jared Spataro, Chief Marketing Officer, AI at Work.
• Microsoft’s commitment to supporting customers on their AI transformation journey—Judson Althoff, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer.
• How software development companies are paving the way for AI transformation—Jason Graefe, Corporate Vice President, ISV and Digital Natives.
• How to stay ahead of emerging challenges and cyberthreats—Vasu Jakkal, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Security Business.

2025 AI Decision Brief

Empower your organization and learn how AI is reshaping businesses through insights shared by Microsoft leaders

Get the full report

¹ Benj Edwards, “ChatGPT sets record for fastest-growing user base in history, report says: Intense demand for AI chatbot breaks records and inspires new $20/mo subscription plan,” Ars Technica, February 1, 2023.

² IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Microsoft, 2024 Business Opportunity of AI, IDC# US52699124, November 2024.

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Although every organization’s AI transformation is unique and blueprints are scarce, we’ve learned that having the right skills across the organization is key. By implementing skill-building initiatives throughout the company, we’re reimagining how we work at Microsoft and aligning those initiatives to the functions that are critical to how we do business.

Through this process, we’re constantly uncovering valuable insights on how to lead by learning—often developing the playbooks from scratch. By applying these insights, we advance our AI transformation and benefit our workforce, customers, and partners around the world. We’re glad to share our findings with you to help your teams skill up to make the most of AI for innovation, growth, and opportunities.

Developing crucial AI skills for organizational transformation

Organizational transformation now requires AI-first skills; yet it can be challenging to plan modern and effective skill-building programs.

We understand the importance of providing our employees—both technical and non-technical—with the AI skills to grow and evolve with the business and the technology, along with the ability to apply these skills every day. Teams across Microsoft have established innovative and effective AI training programs that cater to specific roles in marketing, sales, engineering, and beyond.

Although there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to AI training, our experience has yielded some widely applicable takeaways which can be helpful to organizations that want to build AI skills. Our new e-book, 10 Best Practices to Accelerate Your Employees’ AI Skills: Lessons and experiences from Microsoft’s skilling initiatives, highlights some of the vital lessons we’ve learned that can help support you in implementing skill-building programs crucial to your AI transformation.

Sharing highlights from our AI learning experience

The e-book explores many of the lessons we’ve learned in our ongoing AI evolution. Our experiences can help inspire and inform your path forward, too, as you and your teams get skilled up and ready to power AI transformation with the Microsoft Cloud. In particular, the e-book showcases stories from AI skill-building initiatives implemented by four Microsoft teams:

• Microsoft Marketing, a diverse collective of professionals, ranging from creative roles to business strategists and technical experts.
• MCAPS Academy, the team responsible for training sellers globally within the Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions (MCAPS) organization.
• Worldwide Learning Engineering, the team tasked with architecting and building apps and platforms that support MCAPS and some of the Microsoft skill-building offerings for customers and partners.
• The Microsoft Garage, an innovation platform that enables collaboration and experimentation through hackathons, workshops, talks, training sessions, and more.

Here’s what we learned.

1. Give space for exploration

Encourage a culture of learning by providing employees with the time and tools to explore AI.

Our Worldwide Learning Engineering team has dedicated time to delve into AI, and this fosters an environment where curiosity and innovation can thrive. Additionally, The Garage’s experiments, such as the SkillUp AI Challenge, provide employees with a sandbox for practical AI applications, encouraging both personal and professional growth.

2. Make learning fun

Create a low-pressure, engaging environment where employees can learn at their own pace.

The Garage’s SkillUp AI Challenge incorporates fun, interactive exercises that make AI relatable and enjoyable for all skill levels. Similarly, the Marketing AI practitioner hub offers gamified learning paths that enable marketers to integrate AI into their daily workflows in an entertaining way.

3. Provide clear, structured learning paths

Simplify the learning experience with structured paths tailored to different skill levels and roles.

MCAPS Academy Flight Plans offer role-specific learning paths, helping to ensure that technical and non-technical sales teams alike have clear directions for their AI learning. Moreover, the Marketing Learning team has developed a curriculum that supports marketers in becoming regular AI practitioners through well-defined learning stages.

4. Make it role specific

Adapt AI training programs to the unique needs of each role within the organization.

The Worldwide Learning Engineering team focuses on providing engineers with opportunities for deep technical engagement through dedicated learning time and advanced AI tools. At the same time, the MCAPS Academy addresses the specific needs of a different job role—sales—by blending foundational knowledge with real-world applications to enhance AI fluency.

5. Start with foundations

Begin AI training with foundational knowledge to help ensure that all employees have a solid understanding of AI basics.

The Marketing Learning team introduces marketers to AI through simple, foundational concepts before progressing to more complex applications. Likewise, the MCAPS Academy provides basic AI training to new hires before guiding them through more advanced, role-specific learning paths.

6. Have a plan to update the content regularly

Maintain the relevance of AI training programs by regularly updating content.

The Worldwide Learning Engineering team continuously refreshes its training materials to keep up with the latest advancements in AI technology. Meanwhile, The Garage schedules regular updates for its skill-building exercises to help ensure that they remain engaging and current.

7. Drive awareness and continued adoption

Promote ongoing AI learning and adoption through awareness campaigns and reinforcement.

The Marketing AI practitioner hub provides regular touchpoints to encourage consistent AI practice among marketers. Similarly, the MCAPS Academy uses newsletters and internal communications to keep the sales force informed and engaged in AI learning.

8. Set clear guidelines for responsible use

Establish and communicate guidelines for the responsible use of AI to maintain standards.

The Marketing Learning team’s curriculum emphasizes the importance of responsible AI use, providing clear guidelines and best practices. The Worldwide Learning Engineering team also integrates responsible AI principles into its training sessions, highlighting the significance of these considerations in AI development.

9. Let employees learn from each other

Facilitate peer-to-peer learning opportunities to enhance AI skills through collaboration.

The Garage hosts show-and-tell sessions where employees share their AI projects and insights. For engineers, the Worldwide Learning Engineering team organizes knowledge-sharing workshops to promote collaborative learning.

10. Leverage existing resources

Take advantage of available resources to support AI skill-building initiatives.

The MCAPS Academy makes the most of existing training platforms and materials, integrating them into its AI learning paths. And The Garage draws on external AI tools and resources to complement its interactive learning programs.

AI learning hub on Microsoft Learn

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Building a foundation for the future of AI skilling

Our experiences as customer zero for AI training have been transformative—and we’re just getting started. By empowering our teams with the right skills, we’re not only driving innovation within our organization but also setting a strong foundation for the future, supporting our employees and customers, creating business value and growth, and fostering innovation.

As organizations around the world look to build AI skills and to scale this powerful technology throughout their business, we’re glad to share these insights to support your AI transformation. Together, we can lead in the AI-powered world and unlock new levels of value for our workforce, customers, and partners—today, tomorrow, and beyond.

The post Accelerate employee AI skilling: Insights from Microsoft appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

This blog outlines the key lessons from the whitepaper, practical tips for AI red teaming, and how these efforts improve the safety and reliability of AI applications like Microsoft Copilot.

What is AI red teaming?

AI red teaming is the practice of probing AI systems for security vulnerabilities and safety risks that could cause harm to users. Unlike traditional safety benchmarking, red teaming focuses on probing end-to-end systems—not just individual models—for weaknesses. This holistic approach allows organizations to address risks that emerge from the interactions among AI models, user inputs, and external systems.

8 lessons from the front lines of AI red teaming

Drawing from our experience, we’ve identified eight main lessons that can help business leaders align AI red teaming efforts with real-world risks.

1. Understand system capabilities and applications

AI red teaming should start by understanding how an AI system could be misused or cause harm in real-world scenarios. This means focusing on the system’s capabilities and where it could be applied, as different systems have different vulnerabilities based on their design and use cases. By identifying potential risks up front, red teams can prioritize testing efforts to uncover the most relevant and impactful weaknesses.

Example: Large language models (LLMs) are prone to generating ungrounded content, often referred to as “hallucinations.” However, the impact created by this weakness varies significantly depending on the application. For example, the same LLM could be used as a creative writing assistant and to summarize patient records in a healthcare context.

2. Complex attacks aren’t always necessary

Attackers often use simple and practical methods, like hand crafting prompts and fuzzing, to exploit weaknesses in AI systems. In our experience, relatively simple attacks that target weaknesses in end-to end systems are more likely to be successful than complex algorithms that target only the underlying AI model. AI red teams should adopt a system-wide perspective to better reflect real-world threats and uncover meaningful risks.

Example: Overlaying text on an image to trick an AI model into generating content that could aid in illegal activities.

3. AI red teaming is not safety benchmarking

The risks posed by AI systems are constantly evolving, with new attack vectors and harms emerging as the technology advances. Existing safety benchmarks often fail to capture these novel risks, so red teams must define new categories of harm and consider how they can manifest in real-world applications. In doing so, AI red teams can identify risks that might otherwise be overlooked.

Example: Assessing how a state-of-the-art large language model (LLM) could be used to automate scams and persuade people to engage in risky behaviors.

4. Leverage automation for scale

Automation plays a critical role in scaling AI red teaming efforts by enabling faster and more comprehensive testing of vulnerabilities. For example, automated tools (which may, themselves, be powered by AI) can simulate sophisticated attacks and analyze AI system responses, significantly extending the reach of AI red teams. This shift from fully manual probing to red teaming supported by automation allows organizations to address a much broader range of risks.

Example: Microsoft AIRT’s Python Risk Identification Tool (PyRIT) for generative AI, an open-source framework, can automatically orchestrate attacks and evaluate AI responses, reducing manual effort and increasing efficiency.

5. The human element remains crucial

Despite the benefits of automation, human judgment remains essential for many aspects of AI red teaming including prioritizing risks, designing system-level attacks, and assessing nuanced harms. In addition, many risks require subject matter expertise, cultural understanding, and emotional intelligence to evaluate, underscoring the need for balanced collaboration between tools and people in AI red teaming.

Example: Human expertise is vital for evaluating AI-generated content in specialized domains like CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear), testing low-resource languages with cultural nuance, and assessing the psychological impact of human-AI interactions.

6. Responsible AI risks are pervasive but complex

Harms like bias, toxicity, and the generation of illegal content are more subjective and harder to measure than traditional security risks, requiring red teams to be on guard against both intentional misuse and accidental harm caused by benign users. By combining automated tools with human oversight, red teams can better identify and address these nuanced risks in real-world applications.

Example: A text-to-image model that reinforces stereotypical gender roles, such as depicting only women as secretaries and men as bosses, based on neutral prompts.

7. LLMs amplify existing security risks and introduce new ones

Most AI red teams are familiar with attacks that target vulnerabilities introduced by AI models, such as prompt injections and jailbreaks. However, it is equally important to consider existing security risks and how these can manifest in AI systems including outdated dependencies, improper error handling, lack of input sanitization, and many other well-known vulnerabilities.

Example: Attackers exploiting a server-side request forgery (SSRF) vulnerability introduced by an outdated FFmpeg version in a video-processing generative AI application.

8. The work of securing AI systems will never be complete

AI safety is not just a technical problem; it requires robust testing, ongoing updates, and strong regulations to deter attacks and strengthen defenses. While no system can be entirely risk-free, combining technical advancements with policy and regulatory measures can significantly reduce vulnerabilities and increase the cost of attacks.

Example: Iterative “break-fix” cycles, which perform multiple rounds of red teaming and mitigation to ensure that defenses evolve alongside emerging threats.

The road ahead: Challenges and opportunities of AI red teaming

AI red teaming is still a nascent field with significant room for growth. Some pressing questions remain:

• How can red teaming practices evolve to probe for dangerous capabilities in AI models like persuasion, deception, and self-replication?
• How do we adapt red teaming practices to different cultural and linguistic contexts as AI systems are deployed globally?
• What standards can be established to make red teaming findings more transparent and actionable?

Addressing these challenges will require collaboration across disciplines, organizations, and cultural boundaries. Open-source tools like PyRIT are a step in the right direction, enabling wider access to AI red teaming techniques and fostering a community-driven approach to AI safety.

Next steps: Building a safer AI future with AI red teaming

AI red teaming is essential for helping ensure safer, more secure, and responsible generative AI systems. As adoption grows, organizations must embrace proactive risk assessments grounded in real-world threats. By applying key lessons—like balancing automation with human oversight, addressing responsible AI harms, and prioritizing ethical considerations—red teaming helps build systems that are not only resilient but also aligned with societal values.

AI safety is an ongoing journey, but with collaboration and innovation, we can meet the challenges ahead. Dive deeper into these insights and strategies by reading the full whitepaper: Lessons From Red Teaming 100 Generative AI Products.

The post Enhancing AI safety: Insights and lessons from red teaming appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

Nonprofits embody innovation. Sometimes their limited resources inspire a creative solution, leading to better outcomes than conventional action. Other times, nonprofits’ close ties to impacted communities—in other words, people in the field prompt insights. These days, mission-driven organizations that embrace innovation through technology have the tools to further increase their impact.

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AI is particularly well suited to accelerate the values many nonprofits promote, such as inclusion and equity. Two mission-driven organizations we partner with at Microsoft Tech for Social Impact exemplify this dedication. Arapahoe Libraries, a library system in Colorado serving residents across 800 square miles through its eight community libraries, jail library, and Bookmobile, and the McKnight Foundation, a private family foundation based in Minnesota dedicated to climate action and racial equity, are both early adopters of Microsoft 365 Copilot. They are using the AI assistant on two important fronts. Firstly, they are walking the walk of their missions by applying Copilot to increase inclusion internally. In addition, they are leveraging AI to boost productivity and creativity, freeing up staff to innovate for greater progress. 

As social impact organizations tackle a host of persistent challenges, AI is a valuable tool to experiment, promote justice, and include a wealth of perspectives. As McKnight Foundation Senior Communications Officer Trisha Harms says, “We need to steward our resources effectively and responsibly. Copilot is one tech solutions we use that allows everyone to connect, align, and move forward on our mission.”

Advancing inclusion internally

Both Arapahoe Libraries and the McKnight Foundation are deeply committed to ensuring their staff and partners can equally participate in and contribute to their important work.

“We know every single person in this organization has a diverse, important perspective that helps them serve our patrons.”

Anthony White, Arapahoe Libraries Director of Innovation and Technology

Built-in features across the Microsoft stack, including Copilot, help Arapahoe Libraries comply with a recently enacted Colorado accessibility law and advance the organization’s internal accessibility framework. The organization invested in Copilot licenses for every employee so they can all benefit from the AI assistant.

Staff use Copilot to search across internal platforms, including Microsoft SharePoint, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams. Complex questions used to take 3 to 5 minutes to answer; now the AI assistant surfaces answers in less than 15 seconds. Similarly, Copilot recaps content across Teams and users’ inboxes into “easily digestible, not overwhelming” summaries. These time-saving uses help all staff apply their talents and expertise to their jobs.

Small and medium businesses (SMBs) using Copilot experience or anticipate an 18% increase in employee satisfaction on average. This rings true for Arapahoe Libraries. Assisting with repetitive and manual tasks enables library staff to cut through information overwhelm and add their unique perspectives. AI also enables them to easily locate the resources they need to do their jobs to the best of their ability.

“We see so much time savings, it’s creating a level of transparency and accessibility across all our teams that we didn’t have before.”

Anthony White, Arapahoe Libraries Director of Innovation and Technology

Similarly, the McKnight Foundation is using Copilot to democratize organizational knowledge. Staff can now more easily search for, synthesize, and add to the foundation’s documents. This allows staff to learn from each other and contribute their expertise, which in turn becomes more easily findable for others.

Copilot also suggests ways to improve the accessibility of presentations, graphics, and documents. For example, Copilot will recommend adjusting the colors used in a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation to make it more accessible to colleagues who are low-vision or color blind. This coaching helps staff who are less familiar with accessibility guidelines to create content that enables the participation of all staff and partners.  

“We really do care about making sure every staff person feels included and like they belong, technology is one part of our holistic approach to making sure everything we do drives our mission forward.”

Trisha Harms, Senior Communications Officer, McKnight Foundation

Promoting equity in communities

Arapahoe Libraries and the McKnight Foundation are dedicated to promoting equity in their communities. Arapahoe Libraries is working to eliminate gaps in access to library services, for example by bringing books to incarcerated individuals, automatically providing students library cards so they can access digital content, and placing library “Lending Machines” in locations with limited library access.

To further identify and bridge gaps, Arapahoe Libraries is using Copilot to categorize and find themes among 64,000 pieces of patron feedback. These evaluations, comments, and requests used to be siloed by branch and program. Now, the AI assistant is working through the treasure trove of information to distill ways to improve across the library district. The organization will use the data to best meet the community’s changing needs and ensure all community members can benefit from the libraries’ services.

In addition, Arapahoe Libraries directed Copilot to review its policies for accessibility concerns. For instance, the organization is planning to roll out AI-enhanced Surface laptops for checkout. The Copilot review identified disparities in some patrons’ ability to travel to physical library locations, pinpointing opportunities to improve technology access across the district. In short, “Copilot has helped us identify gaps in our policies so we can better serve our patrons,” White says.

The McKnight Foundation is also dedicated to equity, both locally and across the world. The foundation supports projects that empower Native nations through renewable energy infrastructure, increase home ownership for diverse communities, cultivate resilient food systems globally, and much more. The foundation’s ethical AI journey prioritized using a tool that would not plagiarize intellectual property. The foundation chose Copilot, which runs on a model that does not draw from the public domain. This enables the McKnight Foundation to apply the benefits of an AI assistant without appropriating others’ output.

The McKnight Foundation has found that Copilot has made an enormous difference for the nonprofit by saving time and kickstarting the creative process. By streamlining day-to-day operations and overcoming creative blocks, the AI assistant helps staff focus on their mission—from advancing climate justice to fueling economic mobility.

The foundation is far from alone in this benefit, which also affects budgets and therefore resources available for mission-focused activities. More than half of SMBs report that their operating costs have decreased 1% to 20% since adopting Copilot. “Any way we can increase efficiency and productivity means we can do more for and with our grantee partners,” Harms says.

The more dedicated energy and time staff invest in mission-advancing projects, the greater impact they can have on equity locally, regionally, and globally. As Harms says, “It makes a big difference for how much effectiveness we can have outside our walls.”

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Learn more about how Microsoft is supporting nonprofits, see how other organizations are using AI to drive impact, and get more information about how you can safely and securely deploy AI to support your business needs.

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The Business Case for Responsible AI: Read the new whitepaper from Microsoft and IDC

At Microsoft, we are dedicated to enabling every person and organization to use and build AI that is trustworthy, which means AI that is private, safe, and secure. You can learn more about our commitments and capabilities in our announcement about trustworthy AI. Our approach to safe AI, or responsible AI, is grounded in our core values, risk management and compliance practices, advanced tools and technologies, and the dedication of individuals committed to deploying and using generative AI responsibly.

We believe that a responsible AI approach fosters innovation by ensuring that AI technologies are developed and deployed in a manner that is fair, transparent, and accountable. IDC’s Worldwide Responsible AI Survey found that 91% of organizations are currently using AI technology and expect more than a 24% improvement in customer experience, business resilience, sustainability, and operational efficiency due to AI in 2024. In addition, organizations that use responsible AI solutions reported benefits such as improved data privacy, enhanced customer experience, confident business decisions, and strengthened brand reputation and trust. These solutions are built with tools and methodologies to identify, assess, and mitigate potential risks throughout their development and deployment.

AI is a critical enabler of business transformation, offering unprecedented opportunities for innovation and growth. However, the responsible development and use of AI is essential to mitigate risks and build trust with customers and stakeholders. By adopting a responsible AI approach, organizations can align AI deployment with their values and societal expectations, resulting in sustainable value for both the organization and its customers.

Key findings from the IDC survey

The IDC Worldwide Responsible AI Survey highlights the importance of operationalizing responsible AI practices:

• More than 30% of respondents noted that the lack of governance and risk management solutions is the top barrier to adopting and scaling AI.
• More than 75% of respondents who use responsible AI solutions reported improvements in data privacy, customer experience, confident business decisions, brand reputation, and trust.
• Organizations are increasingly investing in AI and machine learning governance tools and professional services for responsible AI, with 35% of AI organization spend in 2024 allocated to AI and machine learning governance tools and 32% to professional services.

In response to these findings, IDC suggests that a responsible AI organization is built on four foundational elements: core values and governance, risk management and compliance, technologies, and workforce.

1. Core values and governance: A responsible AI organization defines and articulates its AI mission and principles, supported by corporate leadership. Establishing a clear governance structure across the organization builds confidence and trust in AI technologies.
2. Risk management and compliance: Strengthening compliance with stated principles and current laws and regulations is essential. Organizations must develop policies to mitigate risk and operationalize those policies through a risk management framework with regular reporting and monitoring.
3. Technologies: Utilizing tools and techniques to support principles such as fairness, explainability, robustness, accountability, and privacy is crucial. These principles must be built into AI systems and platforms.
4. Workforce: Empowering leadership to elevate responsible AI as a critical business imperative and providing all employees with training on responsible AI principles is paramount. Training the broader workforce ensures responsible AI adoption across the organization.

Read the whitepaper: The Business Case for Responsible AI

Advice and recommendations for business and technology leaders

To ensure the responsible use of AI technologies, organizations should consider taking a systematic approach to AI governance. Based on the research, here are some recommendations for business and technology leaders. It is worth noting that Microsoft has adopted these practices and is committed to working with customers on their responsible AI journey:

1. Establish AI principles: Commit to developing technology responsibly and establish specific application areas that will not be pursued. Avoid creating or reinforcing unfair bias and build and test for safety. Learn how Microsoft builds and governs AI responsibly.
2. Implement AI governance: Establish an AI governance committee with diverse and inclusive representation. Define policies for governing internal and external AI use, promote transparency and explainability, and conduct regular AI audits. Read the Microsoft Transparency Report.
3. Prioritize privacy and security: Reinforce privacy and data protection measures in AI operations to safeguard against unauthorized data access and ensure user trust. Learn more about Microsoft’s work to implement generative AI across the organization securely and responsibly.
4. Invest in AI training: Allocate resources for regular training and workshops on responsible AI practices for the entire workforce, including executive leadership. Visit Microsoft Learn and find courses on generative AI for business leaders, developers, and machine learning professionals.
5. Stay abreast of global AI regulations: Keep up-to-date with global AI regulations, such as the EU AI Act, and ensure compliance with emerging requirements. Stay up-to-date with requirements at Microsoft Trust Center.

As organizations continue to integrate AI into business processes, it is important to remember that responsible AI is a strategic advantage. By embedding responsible AI practices into the core of their operations, organizations can drive innovation, enhance customer trust, and support long-term sustainability. Organizations that prioritize responsible AI may be better positioned to navigate the complexities of the AI landscape and capitalize on the opportunities it presents to reinvent the customer experience or bend the curve on innovation.

At Microsoft, we are committed to supporting our customers on their responsible AI journey. We offer a range of tools, resources, and best practices to help organizations implement responsible AI principles effectively. In addition, we are leveraging our partner ecosystem to provide customers with market and technical insights designed to enable deployment of responsible AI solutions on the Microsoft platform. By working together, we can create a future where AI is used responsibly benefiting both businesses and society as a whole.

As organizations navigate the complexities of AI adoption, it is important to make responsible AI an integrated practice across the organization. By doing so, organizations can harness the full potential of AI while using it in a manner that is fair and beneficial for all.

Discover solutions

• Read the whitepaper: The Business Case for Responsible AI.
• Watch the webinar: The Business Case for Responsible AI.
• Learn more about Microsoft’s commitment to responsible AI.

¹IDC’s 2024 AI opportunity study: Top five AI trends to watch, Alysa Taylor. November 14, 2024.

IDC White Paper: sponsored by Microsoft, 2024 The Business Case for Responsible AI, IDC #US52727124, December 2024. The study was commissioned and sponsored by Microsoft. This document is provided solely for information and should not be construed as legal advice.

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Sydney, Australia, recently played hosts to the Microsoft AI Tour, bringing together innovators, industry leaders, and government representatives to reinforce the extraordinary opportunity AI represents for Australia and discuss how we can shape the future of the country’s AI economy.

Microsoft also launched the first New Zealand hyperscale cloud in Aotearoa with major sustainability and skilling investments. Microsoft signed a long-term renewable energy contract and will run the latest water-free technology to cool the datacenter. The cloud region offers local data residency, enhanced security, and reduced latency, empowering New Zealand to leverage technology more efficiently at an unprecedented scale. The opening of Microsoft’s hyperscale cloud region marks the most significant milestone in the company’s nearly 40-year history in New Zealand and brings unprecedented opportunities for local organizations. 

As captured in a recent IDC study, the business potential of AI continues to accelerate across the globe, with generative AI adoption surging from 55% in 2023 to 75% in 2024. Companies are seeing a remarkable $3.7 return on investment for every $1 spent on generative AI, with deployments delivering value faster than ever—often within 13 months.¹ Recognizing AI’s transformative power, organizations are rapidly advancing their strategies, shifting from pre-built solutions to sophisticated, custom-built AI workloads within two years—highlighting AI’s pivotal role in shaping the competitive edge of the future.

Despite this rapid growth, a lack of technical and practical AI skills remains the top barrier for Australia, highlighting the need for targeted skilling to unlock AI’s full potential. Australia’s government and business leaders are both committed to closing that gap, partnering with Microsoft to provide AI and digital skills training to 1 million Australians and New Zealanders by 2026.

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AI for everyone in Australia

As Australia emerges as a leader in the global AI economy, the nation’s strengths in applications, AI datacenters, and data position it to drive transformative growth across industries. The AI Tour highlighted that AI transformation is not just about technology—it’s a collaborative effort.

From redefining insurance through the Suncorp’s AI-powered customer support tools to advancing retail innovation with Coles’ AI-as-a-service platform and improving public safety through AI solutions with the Australian Federal Police, Australian organizations are leveraging AI to reshape how they operate and serve their communities.

Businesses, governments, educators, and not-for-profits must work together to ensure AI serves all Australians safely and responsibly. With the right focus on infrastructure, skills, security, and responsible AI, the possibilities are limitless.

Brisbane Catholic Education rolls out Microsoft 365 Copilot to 12,500 educators

Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE) has announced the world’s largest generative AI rollout in kindergarten through twelfth grade education, with a plan to provide Microsoft 365 Copilot to 12,500 educators and support staff. In an initial trial, educators reported saving an average of 9.3 hours per week by streamlining administrative tasks, information searches, and lesson planning.

BCE leveraged Microsoft Copilot Studio to create a generative AI tool that helps educators integrate Catholic traditions and values into the classroom. Drawing from BCE’s Catholic identity site, theological database, and religious education curricula, the tool ensures all staff, regardless of their Catholic background, can easily access guidance for applying a Catholic lens to lesson planning and life skills discussions with students.

Coles Group leverages AI to reimagine the grocery experience

Coles Group is revolutionizing the grocery business by leveraging advanced AI and cloud technologies to redefine operations and elevate customer experiences. Confronted with rising competition and shifting customer expectations, Coles turned to AI.

Among its standout AI initiatives is Tell Coles, a generative AI model that deciphers customer feedback to offer actionable insights for store managers, ensuring swift and meaningful improvements. Meanwhile, digital chef delivers hyper-personalized recipes and cooking tips in real time, powered by Microsoft Azure machine learning models.

Internally, Microsoft AI copilots provide team members with intuitive, real-time tools that streamline workflows and enhance productivity, enabling precision in inventory and operations across 850 stores, and resulting in heightened customer engagement, improved sustainability practices, and a blueprint for digital excellence in retail.

Petbarn’s AI assistant brings personalized pet care to customers

Petbarn has introduced PetAI, a generative AI solution designed to help pet owners keep their pets happy and healthy. Built with Azure OpenAI Service, Azure AI Search, and Azure App Service, PetAI acts as an intelligent assistant, offering personalized pet care advice and tailored product recommendations.

Launched on Petbarn’s website in October 2024, PetAI quickly gained traction, with thousands of customers embracing its functionality. Now integrated into the new Petbarn App, it provides a comprehensive, AI-powered approach for managing pet wellbeing, setting a new standard in personalized pet care.

Suncorp accelerates AI revolution in the insurance industry

Suncorp Group is transforming the insurance industry with AI integration across its operations. Leveraging the latest Microsoft AI capabilities at scale, Suncorp has more than 120 AI use cases in development to enhance both customer experience and employee satisfaction.

Among these innovations is Smart Knowledge, which analyzes thousands of articles to deliver relevant information to Suncorp’s contact center team, enabling faster and more accurate customer support. Additionally, Suncorp has implemented an Azure OpenAI Service-based solution that provides claims managers with a unified view of each insurance claim, reducing time spent tracking information across systems and shortening claim lifecycles by 9%.

To further improve employee experiences, Suncorp has rolled out Microsoft 365 Copilot alongside its AI+U Academy, a training initiative designed to empower staff to effectively use AI tools in their daily work. These efforts not only enhance employee satisfaction but also ensure exceptional outcomes for customers, solidifying Suncorp’s position as an industry leader in AI-powered innovation.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) leverages AI to better protect Australians

Australia’s national policing agency, the Australian Federal Police (AFP), is expanding its partnership with Microsoft to develop custom AI solutions built on Azure AI services. With 7,000 staff members tasked with investigating federal crimes across Australia and the Australian Capital Territory, the AFP is leveraging AI to detect deepfake images and other problematic content. This work has shown particular promise in child protection, where AI has already enabled law enforcement to track child predators and rescue victims more effectively.

Along with 50 other Australian Public Service agencies, the AFP is trialing Microsoft 365 Copilot, which has demonstrated early gains in officers’ efficiency by automating document and report creation. Further, the agency is exploring how AI can safeguard officers’ mental health, using generative AI to create text summaries of sensitive material and modify graphic images to reduce their psychological impact.

To address ethical and community concerns, the AFP has established a Responsible and Ethical AI Framework, drawing on Microsoft’s principles to ensure AI is implemented with diligence, accountability, and strong human oversight. These initiatives position the AFP as a leader in responsible AI use within law enforcement.

Find the resources to support your AI journey

Australia is only beginning to unlock the immense potential of AI, yet the AI Tour in Sydney showcased how visionary Australian organizations are already revolutionizing industries, from education and policing to banking and insurance. Let’s embrace this opportunity, together.

• Explore Microsoft’s AI solutions 
• Catch up on core concepts with AI Office Hours 
• Read An Introduction to Generative AI and Safety
• Assess your AI readiness

¹IDC InfoBrief: sponsored by Microsoft, 2024 Business Opportunity of AI, IDC# US52699124, November 2024.

The post Collaborating for impact: How AI is transforming Australia and New Zealand industries appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

Generative AI adoption is officially on the rise in Canada. According to KPMG’s Generative AI Adoption Index, nearly half of Canadians use generative AI in their jobs—65% of those using it daily—however, only 18% of Canadian employers report having formally deployed AI tools to their workforce and putting guiding policies in place.¹ Further, Canada trails its peers in generative AI adoption and public trust, highlighting significant untapped potential.

In fact, with $187 billion in potential economic impact by 2030, plus $7 billion from innovative generative AI products and services, Canada stands at a pivotal moment in its digital transformation journey. Many leaders recognize the urgency of accelerating AI adoption to unlock this opportunity and remain globally competitive. As a result, the nation is advancing responsible AI practices, workforce development, and infrastructure growth through strategic partnerships between government, public organizations, and industry leaders like Microsoft. These collaborations aim to position Canada as a global leader in harnessing AI for both economic growth and societal progress.

This vision was brought to life at the recent Microsoft AI Tour stop in Toronto, Canada, where forward-thinking Canadian organizations showcased how they are embracing AI to tackle industry challenges and seize opportunities. Through these efforts, Canada is not only addressing present challenges but also paving the way for a future where AI drives meaningful innovation and transformation.

Ottawa Hospital turns to AI to reduce clinician burnout

The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) is the first Canadian hospital to trial DAX Copilot—a Microsoft solution that uses AI to create draft clinical notes for physicians during patient appointments. By saving physicians time and effort in preparing patient charts, the hospital hopes to increase access to care for patients and reduce physician burnout.

DAX Copilot uses advanced AI to securely record doctor-patient conversations, transcribe into medical notes for review, and upload to the hospital’s electronic health records system. Patients provide consent and can also access their appointment notes through their online patient portal. DAX Copilot reduces administrative burdens and addresses the pressing issue of clinician burnout, letting Ottawa Hospital physicians spend more time with patients. Backed by Microsoft’s responsible AI principles, it streamlines documentation for better care.

Metrolinx PRESTO payments leverages AI to attune to resident needs and enhance customer experience

Metrolinx, Ontario’s public transportation agency, is embracing the transformative power of AI to enhance operational efficiency, improve decision-making, and ensure a secure and seamless experience for commuters.

Metrolinx PRESTO is using generative AI and machine learning to analyze and categorize free-text survey responses, making it easier to understand and respond to resident feedback. This approach reduces manual effort, minimizes bias, and provides faster, more actionable insights. By streamlining data processing and simplifying deployment, the system enhances decision-making and helps Metrolinx stay flexible and customer focused.

PRESTO is further transforming customer interactions through the implementation of PRESTO’s AI-powered B2C Webchat Copilot. Designed to provide a frictionless, inclusive, and accessible experience, empowering users to easily resolve issues, payment inquiries, and additional self serve capability. Integrated into the PRESTO website and app, the chatbot addresses customer needs directly while offering seamless escalation to live agents when necessary. These agents, equipped with the Customer Service Copilot, ensure swift and accurate resolutions. This initiative reflects Metrolinx’s commitment to social equity and customer-centricity, aligning with its broader mission to enhance operational efficiency and accessibility for commuters. 

Bringing employees, partners, and key stakeholders along on their AI journey, PRESTO continues to explore and adopt AI innovation as they look to what’s next to better serve commuters. Metrolinx is setting a benchmark for how government entities can embrace AI responsibly and effectively, while positioning the agency as a leader in innovative and commuter-centric public services.

Canadian Tire Corporation boosts employee productivity with Azure AI

Canadian Tire has turned to AI to address the significant challenges related to changing demands for digital solutions, processing vast amounts of data, and achieving operational efficiencies.

During the pandemic, Canadian Tire leveraged AI and Microsoft Teams to develop a robust curbside delivery system, streamlining order management, ensuring timely deliveries, and providing a safe and seamless customer experience. Automation also played a crucial role, reducing manual errors and improving operational efficiency by handling repetitive tasks. The curbside delivery system tripled online sales during the pandemic, demonstrating Canadian Tire’s ability to adapt to shifting consumer needs. Additionally, these innovations significantly improved customer satisfaction by offering a seamless digital experience.

Looking ahead, Canadian Tire is exploring the use of AI to further personalize customer experiences, optimize supply chain logistics, and predict market trends, and plans to expand its integration of cloud technologies and machine learning models to refine inventory management and drive sustainable retail practices, ensuring it remains a leader in digital transformation within the retail sector.

AI for everyone in Canada

Now is the time for Canada to unlock its AI potential. Generative AI has the potential to add $187 billion to the economy by 2030, presenting a unique opportunity for governments, industry, and civil society to collaborate and harness AI as a force for good—driving growth, creating jobs, and shaping a better future for all Canadians.

At Microsoft, we are committed to making this vision a reality. By investing in skills, infrastructure, and partnerships, we are working to ensure the AI economy benefits everyone. From helping Canadian organizations adopt AI responsibly to advancing solutions for real-world challenges, we are dedicated to driving meaningful transformation across industries.

Through purposeful collaboration, we can maximize AI’s potential to strengthen Canada’s economy and enhance society. The time to act is now. Let’s shape the future, together.

Find the resources to support your AI journey

• Explore Microsoft’s AI solutions.
• Catch up on core concepts with AI Office Hours.
• Read “An Introduction to Generative AI and Safety”.
• Start your AI learning journey with AI Skills Navigator.

¹ KPMG, Generative AI adoption Index.

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