We’re thrilled to announce the public preview of the Product Change Management agent template—an AI-powered solution that transforms how manufacturers manage the process of change across equipment, products, processes, and more. Built on Microsoft Copilot Studio, the agent automates workflows and connects systems, helping teams cut approval times from weeks to days, reduce errors, and bring innovations to market, faster.

Learn how Copilot Studio can help build and customize agents that work for your operations.  

Reenergizing change management with AI

Engineering change management (ECM) is how manufacturers manage change without causing production chaos. Changes move through a complex, controlled path with requests reviewed, approved, and rolled out to multiple stakeholders and systems. Whether responding to market shifts, regulatory updates, or quality improvements, manufacturers initiate millions of change requests each year.

Today, ECM is slow. While highly collaborative, the process is easily bogged down by siloed information, manual steps, and disconnected processes. When it breaks down, costs from scrap, stoppages, and delayed product launches pile up.

The Product Change Management agent template addresses these pain points by infusing intelligence, automation, and orchestration into this otherwise manual process. The agent provides a managed solution that can be tailored to specific business needs—accelerating deployment while ensuring consistency and governance. Connecting people, data, and systems together with Microsoft AI, it simplifies execution—cutting approval times to days, improving uptime, and ensuring change traceability.

Powering AI change management end-to-end

The Product Change Management agent template is an AI-powered orchestrator, built in Copilot Studio. It autonomously manages engineering change processes through a series of specialized sub-agents, collaborating with your team to ensure every change is executed efficiently and accurately. Using Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Teams, the agent shifts manual tasks to focused reviews and refinement—delivering faster, safer changes with fewer errors and less review turmoil, while maintaining compliance and alignment. maintaining compliance and alignment.

Some key capabilities set it apart:

• Automated workflow orchestration. Accelerate approvals by coordinating the entire change process, from request to closure, autonomously. Embedded into Microsoft 365 Copilot and Teams, the agent initiates impact analysis, routes approvals, and updates records—keeping stakeholders informed.
• System of record synchronization. Keep engineering and operations systems aligned. The agent ensures updates are consistently reflected across product lifecycle management (PLM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms, eliminating rework and maintaining alignment from design through delivery.
• Collaborative stakeholder engagement. Simplify communication across engineering, quality, and operations with natural language interfaces and intelligent routing. This ensures that the right people are engaged at the right time, reducing bottlenecks and accelerating approvals.
• Data-driven impact analysis. Evaluate proposed changes across inventory, suppliers, and production. The agent surfaces real-time insights to guide decision-making and flag potential risks early—empowering teams to act.
• Built-in compliance and traceability. Document and audit changes at every step. The agent enforces governance policies, tracks decisions, and supports regulatory compliance without adding complexity.

In short, product change management lays the agentic foundation for manufacturing digital threads—enabling agility, transparency, and reliability for every stakeholder.

Transforming change management at Coca-Cola Beverages Africa

Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) is the eighth largest authorized Coca-Cola bottler in the world by revenue, and the largest on the continent—operating in 14 countries. Serving more than 800,000 customers, CCBA accounts for 40% of all Coca-Cola ready-to-drink beverages sold in Africa through a host of international and local brands.

With thousands of stock keeping units (SKUs), multiple packaging formats, and a relentless focus on sustainability, CCBA runs one of the most complex beverage supply chains in Africa. Agility is critical especially when managing formulation and packaging changes that ripple across multiple production lines, inventory systems, and financial models.

Every year, CCBA makes more than 1,000 changes to its bottle molds alone, often driven by material availability or sustainability initiatives. Historically, these changes relied on manual workflows: engineers drafting requests, planners emailing spreadsheets, and multiple handoffs across departments. This process was slow, error-prone, and risky. A single misalignment could mean production downtime, inaccurate cost data, or compliance gaps. The Product Change Management agent template from Microsoft is transforming this process.

Acting as a digital orchestrator, the agent brings intelligence, speed, and reliability to the CCBA change lifecycle. Here’s how:

• Smart initiation. When a planner or engineer triggers a change, such as switching a supplier or updating a packaging component, the agent immediately identifies all affected products and plants. It auto-drafts the request, applies the standard template, and fills in known details like part numbers and descriptions—eliminating repetitive manual work.
• Automated routing. The agent ensures the request moves to the right reviewers in the correct sequence, removing guesswork and delays. Notifications flow through familiar tools like Teams and Outlook, alerting stakeholders when action is required.
• Instant system updates. Once approvals are complete, the agent updates Microsoft Dynamics 365 in real time, syncing bill-of-material data. It confirms changes immediately, rather than days of manual checks.

The Product Change Management agent is streamlining equipment management across CCBA’s capital assets and products, enabling faster identification of impact areas and responsible individuals, and improving operational efficiency

—Joshua Motsuenyane, Chief Information Officer, CCBA

While this strategic collaboration is still new, CCBA is already seeing results. Actions that once took days of back-and-forth now happen in hours or less. Product change management also represents a major milestone in its Frontier Firm journey—making change management a focus across one of Africa’s most dynamic manufacturing networks.

Creating the future of change management in manufacturing, together with partners

AI-powered change management is now imperative. As changes proliferate across more assets and systems, manufacturers need governed, AI-guided workflows to maintain speed and quality. Discrete manufacturers—building complex products from computers to cars—feel it the most: disconnected systems and manual handoffs slow adoption, raise error rates, and suppress productivity. PTC and Microsoft are changing that.

Together, we’re building an agentic architecture that bridges operations and engineering systems, enabling faster decisions with enterprise visibility. Enabled by technologies such as model context protocol (MCP), native PLM agents in Windchill and ERP agents in Dynamics 365 interoperate to surface problem reports, collate data from multiple systems, and drive automation in PLM workflows such as change impact analysis, where data governance rules are established, ensuring AI agents work in the right context and within the right controls.

Ready to simplify change and accelerate execution?

Product Change Management agent template

Join the public preview

In combining Microsoft for Manufacturing with expertise from partners, we can deliver better, more comprehensive industry solutions. As we expand this ecosystem, manufacturers will gain even broader interoperability, deeper insights, and more resiliency across their value chain.

Shaping the manufacturing Frontier

With the Product Change Management agent template, manufacturers gain a trusted technology partner in navigating every engineering change. Part of a broader vision to enable intelligent digital treads across manufacturing, product change management is about empowering teams to innovate with confidence, backed by data and AI automation.

Industrial AI can accelerate product design and engineering outcomes. Learn how with our latest Signals Report.

The post Accelerate innovation with AI: Introducing the Product Change Management agent template appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

What is a Frontier Firm?

Microsoft defines a Frontier Firm as a human-led but AI-operated organization that integrates AI agents as core team members—enabling rapid scaling, agile operations, and enhanced productivity through hybrid human-agent collaboration and on-demand intelligence.

Microsoft identifies four key pillars of AI transformation:

1. Enrich employee experiences: Empower people with AI tools that remove friction and unlock creativity.
2. Reinvent customer engagement: Deliver transparency, personalization, and trust at scale.
3. Reshape business processes: Automate and optimize operations for speed, safety, and sustainability.
4. Bend the curve on innovation: Move beyond pilots to bold, repeatable frameworks that accelerate transformation.

Microsoft mining and metals customers Ma’aden, Petrosea, and Outokumpu bring these pillars to life and drive efficiency, productivity, cost reduction, safety, and sustainability. I’ll talk more about each one below.

From reactive to proactive: How AI and agents transform mining operations

Frontier Firms are deploying AI and agents across the mining value chain—not just to automate tasks, but to enable supervised autonomous systems that can monitor, reason, and act. AI-powered innovations are already delivering measurable results. For example, BHP and Microsoft have partnered to use advanced AI and machine learning technologies to enhance copper recovery at the world’s largest copper mine. AI-powered systems adapt in real-time to more variability. This optimizes recovery rates, improves throughput, and grade control. It also reduces downtime, waste, water usage, energy consumption, and costs.

With AI and agents, mining companies are not only addressing today’s challenges but are also building resilience and agility for the future—empowering their workforce, optimizing operations, and accelerating progress toward sustainability and growth.

The Frontier Firm in action: Empowering people with Microsoft Copilot and agents

Ma’aden, a leading mining and metals company, aimed to transform into a Frontier Firm by using digital innovation and AI to stay competitive in a resource-intensive industry while supporting sustainability and growth.

The company faced pressure to modernize operations without disrupting workforce roles—balancing efficiency gains with its commitment to empower employees rather than replace them and ensuring adoption of AI tools aligned with cultural and operational needs.

Ma’aden deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot and agentic AI capabilities across workflows—integrating generative AI into collaboration and decision-making. The focus was on augmenting human expertise, enabling employees to automate routine tasks, and free time for strategic thinking.

The transformation improved productivity, saved time, and enriched employee experiences—positioning Ma’aden as a Frontier Firm in mining. Employees reported higher engagement and confidence, as AI functioned as a trusted assistant, not a substitute—driving faster decisions, better collaboration, and sustainable growth.

“We intentionally gave Copilot to early adopters—people who are excited about technology—because they would act as change agents for the rest of their teams.”

—Khalid AlMutairi, Vice President, IT at Ma’aden

Turning obstacles into intelligent opportunities

Petrosea, a leading Indonesian mining and energy services firm, faced intense price wars and operational inefficiencies. To sustain growth and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments, it needed to differentiate beyond cost and embrace innovation.

Legacy batch processes and limited data access hindered real-time decision-making. Remote sites and rising sustainability requirements amplified complexity, requiring a shift to advanced digital capabilities for competitive resilience.

Petrosea launched its 3D strategy: diversification, digitalization, and decarbonization—deploying the Minerva Digital Platform on Microsoft Azure, integrating Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, predictive analytics, and digital twins. It adopted Microsoft Azure OpenAI, Copilot Stack, automation agents, and advanced security.

The company achieved a 15% increase in productivity, a 9% reduction in operational costs, improved safety, and was selected by the World Economic Forum to join its Global Lighthouse Network. Petrosea transformed adversity into innovation, building competitive differentiation as a Frontier Firm through AI-powered workflows.

The integration of IoT sensors, predictive maintenance, and a Remote Operations Center reshaped their business processes—shifting from manual, site-based oversight to centralized, data-driven control that improved efficiency and safety.

“All these innovations led to a 9% reduction in operation costs, decrease in incidents, and enhanced safety measures with real-time corrective actions.”

—Krishna Nawacandra, Digital Project Manager, Petrosea

AI-powered sustainability as strategy

Outokumpu, a global stainless-steel leader, faced mounting pressure to meet ambitious climate targets and comply with Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) reporting while embedding sustainability into its core strategy. Steel accounts for 10% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, making decarbonization critical.

Manual, fragmented sustainability reporting hindered transparency and efficiency. Outokumpu needed a unified, intelligent data approach to accelerate green value creation and explore AI-powered ESG innovations for competitive advantage.

Outokumpu partnered with Microsoft to deploy the Intelligent Data Platform, Microsoft Fabric, and Sustainability Manager—automating environmental data processes, enabling advanced analytics, and training leaders through the AI data-driven green value creation program.

Outokumpu achieved up to 75% lower carbon footprint versus industry average, launched Circle Green® stainless steel with 93% lower carbon footprint, and helps customers cut 10 million tons of CO₂ annually. Data and AI now fuel new business models, cost savings, and sustainable growth.

By using Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform and AI capabilities, Outokumpu is not just improving sustainability reporting—it is bending the curve on innovation by accelerating the development of new low-emission products and unlocking green business models that deliver both environmental and commercial impact.

“We have set a very clear goal for ourselves. We want to achieve something remarkable.”

—Heidi Peltonen, Vice President of Sustainability at Outokumpu

Advancing the Frontier for mining organizations

Across these three customer stories, a common thread emerges: transformation is not accidental—it is intentional. Frontier Firms combine human ambition with AI, Copilot, and agents to create scalable impact. Ma’aden reimagined productivity, while Petrosea transformed adversity into innovation, and Outokumpu turned data into a strategic asset.

What sets these leaders apart is discipline: they do not stop at adoption. They measure outcomes, codify frameworks, and scale with intent. Technology is a purpose multiplier, enabling safer operations, faster innovation, and sustainable growth.

As Frontier Firms continue to redefine what’s possible in mining, the horizon is filled with opportunities for AI-powered solutions—from predictive maintenance and autonomous operations to intelligent exploration, workflow automation, and sustainability platforms—each poised to unlock new levels of efficiency, safety, and innovation across the industry. The Microsoft GenAI for Energy Permitting Solution Accelerator applied to mining represents a promising step for Frontier Firms seeking to transform permitting from a bottleneck into a strategic advantage. Built on the Microsoft Cloud, the accelerator aims to help mining companies accelerate permitting timelines, improve compliance confidence, and enhance transparency with regulators and communities.

With these and other innovative solutions, the future belongs to Frontier Firms. Are you ready?

Discover solutions

Using Copilot in energy and resources

Explore the possibilities of AI transformation

Learn more

• Visit Microsoft for energy and resources and Microsoft for the mining industry.
• Explore Azure Arc.
• Learn more about Microsoft Security for enterprise.
• Discover over 1,000 AI customer use cases in the blog AI-powered success—with more than 1,000 stories of customer transformation and innovation.
• Read the latest International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2025.

The post Transforming mining: How Frontier Firms lead with AI and agentic innovation appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

“Gartner^® predicts that 40% of agentic AI projects will be cancelled by 2027.”¹ While AI technology is transformative, adoption alone does not guarantee desired results. It’s important to have a plan that meets your organization’s unique needs, goals, and capabilities.

Studies show how finding the right strategic lever for AI is becoming table stakes for retail organizations. By 2030, personal AI shopper agents could influence over half of global consumer spending, having a massive effect on marketing strategies.² Retailers who fail to adapt, risk being left behind.

How do we resolve this paradox? The answer lies in specificity. Success depends on understanding where AI agents can drive impact in retail and consumer goods organizations, mapping innovative opportunities to the most pressing challenges, and measuring results with rigor. Starting with clear use cases tied to real business outcomes. This is how small proof points evolve into large cross-organizational impact.

The new demands of retail and consumer goods marketers

On the customer-facing side of retail and consumer goods, the pressure to deliver is intense. Chief marketing officers (CMOs), loyalty leaders, and customer experience executives are asked to orchestrate hyper-personalized campaigns while also delivering seamless support throughout the customer journey. Communications, pricing, promotions, placement (brand engagement), post-purchase care—each of these touchpoints require speed, consistency, and delight. Yet in many organizations, insights are fragmented, campaign cycles are slow, and service costs are rising.

This is where agentic AI can create a flywheel. Consider marketing campaigns. With AI analyzing consumer data for insights, generating creative content variations, and orchestrating campaigns, marketing executives can move from static plans to dynamic, always-on engagement. These same systems can feed reports to marketers managing campaign effectiveness, closing the loop between insights and agility.

With the agility offered by AI, other customer-facing roles are also enabled. Customer service leaders are empowered with insights on customers who have interacted with the brand, and frontline workers are empowered with faster time to knowledge and service.

Retailers such as Albert Heijn, featured in our new e-book, show how forward-thinking retailers are already deploying AI on the store floor, to help employees serve customers faster and more effectively.

Operations as a growth driver

If marketing and customer service comprise the front face of retail, operations and merchandising are its backbone. A delayed shipment, a stockout, a mistimed promotion aren’t operational issues; they’re revenue leaks.

AI agents reframe operations, from support to strategy. For chief operating officers (COOs) and supply chain and logistics leaders, AI agents can forecast demand, sense disruptions, and adjust supply chains before problems escalate. This goes beyond efficiency into protection of revenue, risk management, and brand trust. For merchandising executives, AI agent capabilities enable localized assortments, dynamic pricing, and promotion planning that adjusts in near real-time. What once took weeks of manual coordination can now be automated to maximize sell-through and reduce carrying costs.

The cumulative effects are profound. Agentic AI brings agility to the functions that keep retail running, turning them into engines of competitive differentiation. This example from Pets at Home illustrates how retailers are applying tools to match demand with precision, protect margins, and optimize execution across stores and channels.

Combining your insights to out-innovate at scale

Beyond day-to-day execution, the consumer goods industry faces another pressing challenge: the speed of innovation. Product lifecycles are shrinking. Consumer preferences shift quickly. Data is fragmented and siloed. For research and development (R&D) leaders, this creates inefficiencies that delay launches and increase costs.

AI agents have the potential to rewire this process. By unifying consumer insights, market trends, and operational data, they can accelerate product development cycles and empower collaboration. Manufacturing leaders gain predictive visibility into bottlenecks. Product officers can simulate demand and orchestrate workflows across teams. The net effect is faster time-to-market, lower risk of failed launches, and greater alignment between what consumers want and what companies can deliver.

Estée Lauder used AI to unify datasets and accelerate innovation. It underscores how agentic AI can serve as a catalyst for growth beyond the core of retail operations.

Learn how retail and consumer goods leaders use AI agents

Get the e-book

Where will you pilot agentic AI?

AI agents aren’t a one-size-fits-all answer, but embracing AI agents today will help future-proof your organization and empower functions across your retail and consumer goods businesses. Its greatest impact emerges when part of a broader strategy, deployed against specific challenges, and with clear measures of success. Whether enabling agentic shopping experiences or efficient operations, retail and consumer goods companies that take advantage of marketing, customer service, merchandising, operations, and R&D opportunities to embrace AI can reimagine these functions as growth drivers for the business.

¹Gartner^® Press Release, Gartner Predicts Over 40% of Agentic AI Projects Will Be Canceled by End of 2027, June 25, 2025. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-06-25-gartner-predicts-over-40-percent-of-agentic-ai-projects-will-be-canceled-by-end-of-2027

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark and IT Symposium/Xpo is a trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. 

²Cognizant, Consumers Who Embrace AI Could Drive $4.4 Trillion in Spending Over Five Years, 2025. 

The post How retail and consumer goods leaders empower their workforces with AI agents appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Every patient image tells a story, and radiologists play a critical role in unlocking insights from the pixels to inform downstream care. By delivering timely, accurate, and complete reports, radiology teams help bridge the gap between diagnosis and action, accelerating time to treatment and supporting better outcomes. Microsoft is deepening its commitment to healthcare by working closely with radiologists to deliver a unified AI experience for their reporting workflow. As radiologists face increasing demands for speed, accuracy, and efficiency in reporting, this is a pivotal moment for helping them unlock new levels of productivity and efficiency through generative, multimodal, and agentic AI.

At the 2025 Radiological Society of North America Conference and Annual Meeting (RSNA 2025), Microsoft is extending the value of its flagship AI clinical assistant, Microsoft Dragon Copilot, specifically for radiologists. Now in preview, Dragon Copilot integrates directly into familiar workflows to help radiology teams focus on their interpretations.*

Serving as a companion for PowerScribe One, Microsoft’s leading reporting solution and trusted by thousands of radiologists, it delivers a unified workflow that streamlines reporting, surfaces information, and automates tasks.

Delivering generative, multimodal, and agentic AI without disrupting existing workflows

Every day, radiologists face a relentless tide of images, data, and documentation—each with varying degrees of complexity and urgency. And every moment a radiologist spends wrestling with fragmented technology is a missed opportunity to make a difference when it matters most.

This challenge extends into the AI landscape where fragmentation occurs when tools address narrow problems but create extra steps and poor integration into broader clinical workflows. Yet, hope is on the horizon. With many radiologists relying on the proven capabilities of PowerScribe One, like speech recognition to accurately dictate their report content and generative AI for generating draft impressions, organizations are looking for ways to integrate AI without altering the entire reporting experience.

For radiologists, Dragon Copilot works with PowerScribe One to deliver generative, multimodal, and agentic AI in a secure, scalable, and extensible way. It brings cloud-native features and AI directly into the radiologist’s workflow. By integrating with PowerScribe One, Dragon Copilot can further streamline report creation without interrupting the radiologist’s interpretation.

As we embrace the next frontier of AI, we know that having cloud-based solutions that work seamlessly with our existing products and systems is paramount. Having Dragon Copilot as a companion for PowerScribe One gives me confidence that I can test and benefit from the latest AI advancements with minimal disruptions and distractions.

—Sean Cleary, MD, Vice Chair of Informatics for Imaging Sciences University of Rochester Medical Center

AI capabilities tailored for radiologists

Prior report summarization: Radiologists often rely on prior reports to provide essential context for interpreting current studies. Prior report summarization in Dragon Copilot distills relevant prior reports and associated metadata into concise bullets, helping improve speed and accuracy in diagnostics. It assists the radiologists in interpretation of the current exam by clearly highlighting findings from prior reports requiring follow-up or ongoing attention.

Chat with credible sources: During an interpretation, radiologists may have questions or need to do additional research on a specific topic. A chat experience in Dragon Copilot routes questions to the appropriate agent or plugin to deliver relevant, reliable responses backed by credible sources with patient context—helping radiologists work more efficiently and intelligently without having to toggle between windows and other applications.

Report optimization for billing and beyond: Dragon Copilot can use third-party AI insights from partners to check the report content to help radiologists improve accuracy and quality, helping to prevent downstream issues like claim denials. By surfacing important details and helpful reminders directly inside the reporting workflow, radiology teams can optimize their reports for billing and beyond.

AI draft report content: With Dragon Copilot, organizations can accelerate the path to intelligent, draft-first reporting by integrating self-developed and third-party multimodal AI models. Radiologists can receive AI-generated draft report content from image analysis, which they can then review, test, and validate.

Accelerating innovation with new models and a rich partner ecosystem

Many organizations are experimenting with testing, fine-tuning, and building AI models tailored to their specific needs. With the rise of multimodal AI models that can analyze medical imaging, genomics, clinical records, and more, customers and partners are leading the next wave of innovation and exploring new use cases.

Collaborating on this work allows us to assess models like CXRReportGen that support grounded report generation based on image analysis from chest X-rays. With these new capabilities comes the challenge of how to surface model output into clinical workflows in ways that can add value. This has given us the opportunity to collaborate on AI interoperability with Microsoft in concert with other partners like Epic and Sectra to test how multimodal AI can work across systems to optimize clinical workflows and improve patient care.

—Dr. Richard Bruce, Professor and Vice Chair of Informatics, Department of Radiology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

Microsoft Foundry offers a growing catalog of more than 50 first- and third-party healthcare AI models across modalities like radiology, pathology, dermatology, and protein analysis. Key models include MedImageInsight for image embedding, MedImageParse for segmentation, and CXRReportGen for drafting imaging reports.

Building on this foundation, Microsoft now provides premium versions of two proprietary AI models—CXRReportGen Premium and MedImageInsight Premium—trained on high-value datasets for superior accuracy and task-specific performance. These models allow developers and ISVs to create advanced imaging solutions without starting from scratch, supporting use cases such as image quality checks, image-to-image search, exam parameter classification, and metadata analysis.

Most importantly, our partners are also pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and offering radiology-specific AI apps and agents that can surface directly in Dragon Copilot.

• Lunit, a global leader in AI-powered cancer screening and diagnostics, brings advanced AI-powered image analysis for mammography exams to Dragon Copilot, allowing radiologists to receive real-time insights directly within their reporting workflow. Lunit’s comprehensive breast screening data assists radiologists in classifying and correlating abnormalities. By integrating Lunit’s algorithms, Dragon Copilot helps surface critical findings and optimize report accuracy without disrupting clinical interpretation—supporting diagnostic efficiency and better patient care.
• Zotec extends the value of Dragon Copilot by integrating revenue cycle management and billing intelligence directly into the radiologist’s workflow, helping ensure reports are complete, compliant, and satisfy quality measures before final sign-off. This seamless connection reduces the risk of missed billing information and the need for addenda, saving time and improving reimbursement accuracy. By making Zotec’s expertise available, Dragon Copilot empowers radiology teams to focus on clinical care while automating complex administrative tasks.

Lunit and Zotec are part of a broader ecosystem of partners bringing new AI innovations to Dragon Copilot customers. The collaborative innovation between Microsoft and its partners keeps solutions adaptable, secure, and tailored to the evolving needs of healthcare professionals.

Expanding what cloud, data, and AI can do for radiology

The power of our ecosystem extends beyond Dragon Copilot. At RSNA 2025, we’re extending that innovation across the broader Microsoft Azure ecosystem, showcasing partners who are transforming imaging workflows and data management in the cloud.

• Merge by Merative, from first click to final read, accelerates imaging workflows in the cloud.
• CitiusTech helps organizations consolidate their medical imaging on Azure with their digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) migration suite.
• Qumulo allows for intelligent retention and lifecycle management of imaging data in one unified file system on Azure.
• Milvue delivers both automated X-ray measurements and pathology detection for chest and appendicular skeleton imaging, supporting both pediatric and adult patients.

PowerScribe One

Harness AI to achieve new levels of reporting accuracy and quality.

Learn more

Learn more about AI adoption in radiology

• See Dragon Copilot and our radiology solutions, including partner innovations, live at RSNA booth #1311.
• Not attending RSNA 2025? Contact your account executive to schedule a demo.
• For advice on how you can accelerate AI adoption in your organization, explore the 2025 AI in Healthcare Decision Brief.

*Dragon Copilot for radiology is currently in preview for PowerScribe One customers. 

The post Driving a unified AI experience at RSNA 2025: Microsoft Dragon Copilot expands to radiologists, transforming the reporting workflow appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

At Microsoft, we’re proud to partner with governments and innovators globally to advance AI-powered infrastructure. The latest Smart Cities World Trend Report, developed in collaboration with Microsoft, highlights how cities are moving from reactive planning to proactive resilience, using AI to anticipate, adapt, and act.

Moving from prediction to preparedness in Jakarta’s flood management 

In Jakarta, Indonesia, flooding has long posed a threat to millions of residents. The Jakarta Smart City program, in partnership with SAS,¹ deployed an AI-powered analytics platform that forecasts flood risks up to six hours in advance. By integrating data from rainfall sensors, river gauges, and weather services, the system lets authorities close floodgates, activate pumps, and issue alerts through the JAKI app before disaster strikes.

This shift from reactive to preventive action exemplifies how AI strengthens resilience. As Hannah Prior, Climate Resilience Lead for Microsoft’s Worldwide Public Sector, explains:

“We’re now entering an era where we genuinely don’t know what’s going to happen next… In the past, city planners would have said, ‘Let’s plan for a one-in-100-year flood.’ But those kinds of events have become far more common and therefore more difficult to plan for.”

Enhancing operations with AI: Evergy’s utility transformation 

In the United States, Evergy, a public utility serving 1.7 million customers across Kansas and Missouri, has embraced AI and automation to transform its operations. Using Microsoft Power Platform, Evergy developed over 275 automation solutions that save more than 120,000 hours annually. From drone image processing for power line inspections to intelligent data extraction for inventory management, AI is helping Evergy improve efficiency, reduce errors, and enhance resilience across its energy infrastructure.

These innovations not only streamline internal processes but also support Evergy’s transition to cleaner energy generation, with workforce adaptability and operational continuity in a rapidly evolving energy landscape.

Strengthening water resilience for future challenges 

In southern France, the Société du Canal de Provence (SCP) is tackling water stress through its REImu program, an intelligent water network initiative powered by Microsoft Azure technologies. By integrating IoT sensors, smart meters, and big data platforms, SCP can monitor consumption, detect leaks, and forecast demand across a 6,000-kilometer distribution network. The system also combines meteorological and agricultural data to provide adaptive irrigation advice and enhance drought preparedness.

The next phase will use AI to refine consumption forecasts and detect inefficiencies automatically, turning water networks into climate-resilient, data-driven systems.

Adopting a system-of-systems approach to plan for uncertainty

Beyond individual use cases, cities are beginning to adopt a system-of-systems approach, integrating data across water, energy, transport, and environmental domains to model complex interactions and plan dynamically. Platforms like Sentient Hubs in Australia exemplify this shift, allowing for near real-time scenario planning and collaborative decision-making.

“It’s really about moving from a static, five-year flood plan sitting in a PDF on a shelf to a dynamic, living plan that exists as a digital platform… People can access it at any time to understand, in near real time, what’s happening across their systems.”

—Hannah Prior, Climate Resilience Lead for Microsoft’s Worldwide Public Sector

This approach transforms resilience planning into an active, adaptive process, one that evolves with every new dataset and empowers cities to respond to uncertainty with confidence.

Advancing sustainability and efficiency through AI

AI’s value extends beyond resilience; it also helps cities meet sustainability goals. In Munich, Germany, the municipal utility Stadtwerke München uses Microsoft Azure IoT and Azure AI to optimize electric bus operations, forecast energy demand, and reduce waste. Ninety percent of Munich’s electricity already comes from renewable sources, and AI is helping the city move closer to full carbon neutrality.

In Singapore, the Smart P.U.B. initiative uses thousands of sensors and AI analytics to detect leaks and optimize water distribution, achieving 5% water savings and near-zero pipe bursts.² These examples show how AI can reduce emissions, conserve resources, and improve service delivery.

Building responsible, inclusive infrastructure for all

As cities scale AI-powered infrastructure, governance and fairness must remain central. Seattle’s 2025–2026 AI Plan sets a benchmark for responsible deployment, grounded in principles of innovation, accountability, fairness, and transparency.³ The plan mandates human oversight, bans harmful applications, and introduces a Proof of Value Framework to assess AI projects for responsible impact.

Used responsibly, AI can democratize resilience, making forecasting affordable and accessible, reducing bias in decision-making, and ensuring that infrastructure serves all communities equitably.

Microsoft for government operations and infrastructure

Deliver flexible, secure, and sustainable operations and infrastructure in an increasingly digital world

Explore solutions

Join us at Smart City Expo World Congress November 4–6

The journey toward resilient, sustainable infrastructure is underway, and AI is at the heart of it. From Jakarta to Kansas City, from Provence to Munich, cities are showing what’s possible when technology meets purpose.

To learn more about how Microsoft and our partners are helping cities build future-ready infrastructure, join us at the 2025 Smart City Expo World Congress. Discover the latest innovations, connect with global leaders, and explore how AI can help your city thrive amid uncertainty.

¹ https://www.sas.com/sas/partners.html

² High Fidelity Digital Twin-enabled Anomaly Detection and Localization in Singapore | The Year In Infrastructure | Bentley Systems

³ Seattle launches responsible AI implementation plan – Smart Cities World, September 25, 2025

The post How cities build resilient infrastructure with trusted AI appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

As banks compete aggressively with AI, many are gravitating toward the concept of the Frontier Firm—a new kind of enterprise that doesn’t just use AI, but rearchitects itself around it. Frontier Firms view AI agents as digital colleagues, empower employees to act as agent bosses, and operate with intelligence on tap to work smarter, scale faster, and create new value.

Characteristics of the Frontier Firm in banking

The speed of transformation sparked by generative AI is unprecedented, leaving banks precious little time to make critical decisions. Across industries, 82% of leaders say 2025 is a pivotal year to rethink their organizational strategy, and 81% expect AI agents to be deeply integrated into their workforces within the next 12 to 18 months. In banking, 70% of companies that have adopted AI are realizing cost savings.² The challenge is to forge a strategy that delivers immediate ROI while also fostering long-term transformation.

The Frontier Firm concept brings clarity and a workable blueprint to this high-stakes challenge. It blends machine intelligence with human judgment, resulting in systems that are AI-operated but human-led. The Frontier Firm features the following characteristics:

• Intelligence on tap: AI capabilities are embedded across workflows and decision-making.
• Work chart versus org chart: Teams form around outcomes, not departments.
• Agent–boss mindset: Every employee manages and collaborates with AI agents.

With these principles in mind, banks can advance their innovation efforts without waiting for perfect conditions. Most banks are already well positioned to make quick strides.

The Frontier Firm in banking: Three-phase AI transformation journey

The journey to becoming a Frontier Firm plays out in three phases, each phase representing a deeper integration of AI into business operations. Organizations may operate in multiple phases at the same time, depending on function and maturity.

Phase 1: Human with assistant

In this phase, the goal is to empower employees with AI agents such as copilots and digital assistants that help improve productivity, generate efficiencies, and reduce drudgery.

Early innovation with generative AI in banking was limited, focused primarily on internal needs and designed to evaluate the technology and its impacts. These initial use cases quickly demonstrated both the immediate value and long-term potential of AI.

For many banks, an especially powerful productivity driver has been the adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot, which embeds generative AI into everyday apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. In the UK, for example, with Copilot, Hargreaves Lansdown reduced the time required to record customer meeting notes from an average of four hours to just one. In Australia, Copilot helped Bank of Queensland cut the time required to produce drafts of internal manuals by 99%, marketing content by 88%, and human resource documents by 75%.

Complementing Microsoft 365 Copilot are a set of role-based agents that support specific job functions, one of which is Microsoft Copilot for Finance. Designed to help streamline operations and make faster decisions, Copilot for Finance connects with financial systems such as Dynamics 365 Finance ERP and even third-party platforms. At Microsoft, it delivered 22% in cost savings on reconciliation tasks for our corporate Treasury organization, doing in 10 minutes what previously took more than an hour. 

A key lesson here is that integrating AI into familiar productivity tools and daily workflows promotes quick adoption, as opposed to introducing new applications or interfaces. To amplify the impact, Copilot solutions can be enhanced to seamlessly work with a bank’s internal data and key partner connectors. For example, Wells Fargo built an agent for 35,000 bankers across 4,000 branches to help its employees find information to better assist customers. As a result, 75% of searches now happen through the agent, and query response times have gone from 10 minutes to just 30 seconds.³

Elsewhere, Barclays deployed Copilot to 15,000 users, and the results soon led to an expansion to 100,000 employees worldwide, incorporating the bank’s broad ecosystem of collaboration tools, portals and online resources. Likewise, using Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Search, Swiss bank UBS developed a set of “Smart Assistants” to help client advisors deliver more personalized insights by synthesizing 60,000 documents, plus a Legal AI Assistant (LAIA) that transforms how teams search a repository of 26 million multilingual legal documents.

An important counterpart to embedded copilots is an emerging class of personal agents within the Microsoft 365 Copilot suite, which can tackle deeper, domain-specific tasks. The Researcher Agent delivers in-depth insights by synthesizing internal and market data to support functions like strategic planning, compliance, and competitive analysis. The Analyst Agent works like a virtual data scientist, transforming raw data into forecasts, customer behavior visualizations, and automated reports.

Becoming a Frontier Firm: AI in financial services

See real-world examples of how Frontier Firms are leading with AI.

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Phase 2: Human–agent teams

In the second phase, AI agents take on specific tasks under human direction. Employees delegate tasks to them, review outputs, and intervene only for exceptions.

Some banks are now developing powerful agents to assist employees across a broad range of key tasks such as reconciling transactions, performing KYC checks, or conducting background verifications. Agents can also, help manage onboarding journeys, verify documents, and deliver training. The net effect is to free employees to focus on higher-value work at a greater scale.

For example, Dutch ABN AMRO Bank replaced its legacy chatbots with two new AI-powered assistants, Anna and Abby, that autonomously manage employee and customer conversations using Azure AI Language for intent recognition. Employees delegate routine tasks to the agents, which escalate to humans only for exceptions. This reduced drop-off rates, improved Dutch language accuracy by 7%, and now supports more than 3.5 million conversations annually.

Beyond customer service, banks are deploying agents to streamline complex, high-volume processes. In mortgage lending, agents can automate document verification, income validation, and regulatory checks—reducing cycle times and improving transparency. This helps lessen or eliminate bottlenecks caused by manual dependencies, accelerating approvals and improving customer satisfaction.

AI innovation in financial services is moving to a more powerful agent-based model in which AI serves as a collaborative tool. Financial services provider Virgin Money built a new contact center agent called Redi that triages customer inquiries, executes predefined journeys, and seamlessly escalates sensitive exceptions, such as bereavements, to human agents. Designed with input from customer center staff to emulate live interactions, Redi embodies the idea of “human-in-the-loop” governance, where AI handles the bulk of execution, but employees retain control over edge cases. Staff now view Redi as “another colleague” that supports them by triaging tasks and enabling them to focus on empathy and relationship-building.

Phase 3: Human-led, agent-operated

In this advanced phase, AI agents do more than assist or collaborate, they own and execute complete business processes. Humans provide direction, oversight, and exception handling, but day-to-day operations are managed by agents.

Agentic systems can reason, plan, and act independently to achieve goals. For example, an agent that can shop for clothing, plan a vacation, or buy groceries based on a consumer’s preferences and limits. This is the vision behind a new AI-powered platform that enables agents to “find and buy” on behalf of users.⁴ Features such as tokenized digital credentials, which confirm that an agent is authorized to act on a consumer’s behalf, foreshadow new ways agentic AI can deliver seamless, secure, and personalized experiences, and create new value.

Agentic AI-powered commerce and payments are driving a new suite of tools being developed by PayPal, designed to help developers build AI agents that can transact, manage invoices, and track shipments using PayPal’s APIs.⁵ As part of a unified platform for commerce, these tools let agents autonomously execute end-to-end commerce workflows using natural language.

Many banks are exploring innovation in agentic AI with scenarios spanning a broad range of business services, including advisory and customer service support; channels, like kiosks, online, social, and contact center; and operations, such as trading, payments, treasury, and more.

A key enabler of the Microsoft vision is the unique role of Microsoft’s global partner ecosystem, which encompasses an unparalleled range of independent software vendors (ISVs), global systems integrators (GSIs), and advisory firms. Our partners are building domain-specific Copilots, workflow agents, and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) dashboards and regulatory compliance tools embedded within Microsoft AI, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Azure. By incorporating agents into everyday tools and workflows, they are enabling the advanced real-time decision making, personalized customer engagement, and intelligent operations that make human-led, agent-operated AI a reality for banks.

The key role of governance in advanced AI

The promise of the Frontier Firm is to reimagine banking in ways that advance competitiveness and customer value. This can only happen with effective governance frameworks, which help ensure that all AI is developed and deployed safely and responsibly.

AI must be trustworthy, auditable, and aligned with corporate governance frameworks, so businesses can utilize its power without losing control. While many providers focus narrowly on compliance, Microsoft embeds governance into every layer of our AI stack, grounded in Responsible AI principles—fairness, reliability, privacy, inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability—and operationalized through centralized councils, cross-functional oversight, and tooling like Microsoft Purview.

For banks, this means AI systems that are not only compliant but also auditable, explainable, and aligned with regulatory expectations. We deliver governance at scale with a blueprint for responsible transformation and safeguards that protect customers, reputations, and regulatory standing.

Concurrently, a secure foundation is also critical. As your employees and customers interact with AI services, it is emerging as a new attack surface that requires world-class protection. Microsoft provides a comprehensive security platform, Microsoft Security Copilot with Microsoft Sentinel, which is fully integrated into our AI platform.

Learn more and explore Agentic AI

Helping banks chart their unique, comprehensive journey to becoming a Frontier Firm is central to our work at Microsoft. We build long-term relationships with customers, technology partners, data providers, and industry stakeholders to help banks create new value and customer relationships.

We have developed a five-step maturity journey and a set of foundational elements for any bank to become a Frontier Firm. To explore how your organization can move forward, start by engaging with your Microsoft representative or service provider.

• Visit Microsoft for financial services to learn more about how Microsoft empowers financial services organizations to achieve more. 
• To see how leaders in financial services are successfully using AI to transform complexity into opportunity, watch Leading at the Frontier: AI in Financial Services. 
• Get a practical transformation framework and see how Frontier Firms lead with agentic AI in our Becoming a Frontier Firm: AI in Financial Services e-book.
• Learn more about using Copilot in Financial Services and download the Financial Services scenarios kit.

¹ Forbes, The Future of AI in Financial Services, October 3, 2024

² KPMG, Intelligent banking report, February 2025

³Microsoft Work Trend Index Annual Report – 2025: The year the Frontier Firm is born, April 23, 2025

 ⁴ Visa, Find and Buy with AI, Visa unveils new era of commerce, April 30, 2025

⁵ PayPal Newsroom, PayPal brings together developers, AI leaders to power agentic commerce, April 29, 2025

The post The Frontier Firm in banking: A blueprint for advanced AI innovation appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Asia-Pacific’s electric utility sector is undergoing rapid transformation. With nearly 5 billion people—the region accounts for more than half the world’s population,¹ half of global electricity consumption,² and three-quarters of the planet’s coal production and consumption.³ Rising urbanization, economic growth, and climate commitments are driving utilities to modernize infrastructure, expand energy access, and decarbonize grid operations.

At Enlit Asia 2025 in Bangkok earlier in September, more than 12,000 energy professionals gathered to explore these challenges and opportunities. As a proud sponsor, Microsoft—alongside its customers and partners—showcased how AI and digital technologies are helping utilities to build smarter, more resilient electricity networks.

By uniting AI, data, and cloud technologies, we’re committed to driving digital transformation and empowering the energy workforce across Asia-Pacific. Today, we’ll explore key trends shaping the region’s utilities and highlight solutions that are already powering the new energy future with AI.

Five trends shaping Asia-Pacific utilities

Asia-Pacific’s electric utility landscape is shaped by vast geographic diversity and varying levels of market maturity—from advanced economies like Japan and Australia to rapidly developing energy systems in Southeast Asia. Despite these differences, several shared trends are emerging that redefine how utilities plan, operate, and innovate across the region.

1. Population and demand growth

Asia-Pacific’s demographic scale continues to drive electricity demand. Utilities are under pressure to expand capacity, improve reliability, and add renewables—all while managing aging infrastructure and grid complexity.

2. Economic expansion and energy use

Global electricity demand rose by 4.3% in 2024, with continued growth projected through 2027.⁴ Developing economies account for around 85% of additional global electricity demand, with China providing more than half of these gains.⁴ Southeast Asia also remains a key driver with strong industrial and commercial momentum. This growth is tightly linked to gross domestic product (GDP) performance, with emerging markets—primarily in Asia-Pacific, projected to average 4.06% GDP growth through 2035.⁵

3. Carbon intensity and fossil fuel dependence

Coal remains dominant, accounting for 57% of the region’s electricity generation in 2022.⁶ Asia-Pacific has the highest carbon dioxide intensity globally—590g CO₂/kWh versus the global average of 460g CO₂/kWh.⁶ Interest in nuclear and small modular reactors has risen sharply in recent years, as utilities explore low-carbon baseload generation sources.

4. Renewable energy expansion

In the next three years, low-emissions generation is set to rise at twice the annual growth rate between 2018 and 2023.⁷ Solar, wind, and hydro investments are accelerating, supported by policy reforms and regional power trade initiatives.

5. Grid modernization and decentralization

Utilities are investing in smarter grids to accommodate Distributed energy resources (DERs), electric vehicles (EVs), and digital technologies. The shift from centralized to decentralized generation is reshaping utility operations, requiring new approaches to cybersecurity, forecasting, and customer engagement.

Microsoft’s global energy partnerships and powering the new energy future with AI

Microsoft is partnering with leading utilities and technology providers across the region to deliver AI and digital solutions that address operational, regulatory, and grid modernization challenges.

Here are five examples of how we’re helping energy organizations transform:

1. Enterprise knowledge advisor for power plant operations

In partnership with JERA, Japan’s largest power generator, Microsoft helped deploy an AI-powered enterprise knowledge advisor to enhance thermal plant efficiency. Using generative AI, the solution surfaces insights from historical data and maintenance logs, allowing for faster decision-making, predictive maintenance, and real-time troubleshooting.

2. Generative AI for permitting

Permitting clean energy projects can take years and cost millions of dollars. Microsoft’s generative AI for Energy Permitting Solution Accelerator automates document drafting, regulatory analysis, and pre-submission reviews. The solution generates complete environmental filings ready for human refinement—reducing time, cost, and complexity across multiple regulatory environments.

3. Distributed energy resources management (DERM) with Schneider Electric and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)

Together with Schneider Electric and PG&E, Microsoft enables advanced DERMS to orchestrate solar, battery, and EV infrastructure. The joint solution adds Schneider’s advanced distribution management system (ADMS) and Azure AI to optimize DER participation, forecast grid conditions, and support wholesale market operations. The Grid AI Assistant provides operators with real-time guidance and AI-powered resolution strategies.

4. Visual anomaly detection and predictive maintenance

Microsoft’s multimodal generative AI orchestration (MGO) framework combines image recognition, sensor data, and historical records to detect anomalies in grid assets. Energy companies in Asia have deployed this solution to reduce safety incidents, improve response times, and enhance asset reliability—supporting both field crews and control room operators.

5. AI for forecasting and decision support

AI-powered forecasting and decision management solutions are helping utilities in Asia-Pacific streamline operations across asset management, trading desks, and customer engagement. These solutions include advanced renewable forecasting to reduce curtailment and avoid regulatory penalties, generative AI trading platforms to make better-informed decisions in dynamic wholesale markets, and behind-the-meter load management platforms to optimize demand-side resources.

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Shaping the future of energy

As Asia-Pacific utilities face rising demand and decarbonization pressures, Microsoft is proud to partner with industry leaders to deliver scalable, secure, and intelligent solutions. From optimizing plant operations to streamlining permitting and managing DERs, our technologies are helping utilities unlock new value and accelerate the energy transition. Together, let’s power the new energy future with AI.

Learn how Microsoft can support your organization’s journey

• Watch our latest webinar, AI for Grid Operations: Smarter Planning and Modeling with Microsoft and ThinkLabs, on demand.
• Read Microsoft’s Work Trend Index Annual Report, 2025: The year the Frontier Firm is born.
• Listen to Darryl Willis, Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Energy and Resources Industry, most recent podcast episode with EPRI Chief Executive Officer Arshad Mansoor.
• Listen to the EPRI Current Podcast with Bilal Khursheed: The Inflection Point: Accelerating Efficiency with AI.
• Explore the possibilities of AI transformation with Microsoft.
• Visit Microsoft for Energy and Resources.
• Read the new International Energy Agency report, Energy and AI.
• Learn more about Microsoft Security for Enterprise.

¹ Population and Development Data, Demographic Changes in Asia and the Pacific, ESCAP
² International Renewable Energy Agency, Asia and Pacific
³ “Asia digs up and burns three-quarters of the world’s coal,” The Economist, April 22, 2019
⁴ Demand, Electricity 2025 Analysis, IEA
⁵ “Emerging Markets: A Decisive Decade,” S&P Global, October 16, 2024
⁶ “Coal dominates Asia Pacific’s generation mix in 2022,” Asian Power
⁷ Executive summary, Electricity 2024 Analysis, IEA

The post Powering Asia-Pacific’s energy future: AI and digital innovation for utilities appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

It’s also transforming the way we shop. Increasingly, we’re embracing AI shopping tools that more easily help us find products. But that’s just the start of what conversational commerce can do. Just like consumers want in store, online they’re seeking recommendations that reflect their sense of personal style.

Enter Ask Ralph, a new AI-powered styling companion that not only helps with product discovery but also inspires consumers with Ralph Lauren’s unique and iconic take on style.

Ask Ralph: A style companion powered by AI

Ask Ralph is a conversational AI shopping experience built on Azure OpenAI and available in the Ralph Lauren app in the US. You can interact with Ask Ralph just like you would a stylist in a Ralph Lauren store by asking simple, conversational questions or using prompts to find the perfect look for any occasion.

Whether you’re refreshing your wardrobe for fall or wondering what to wear to a concert in the park, Ask Ralph responds with curated, fully stylized, visually displayed, and shoppable outfits from across the Polo Ralph Lauren brand, tailored to your unique prompts.

The delight of conversational commerce

Ask Ralph is part of a broader movement—one where AI doesn’t just assist, it inspires.

Using natural language, Ask Ralph interprets open-ended prompts, asks clarifying questions, and delivers beautifully visualized outfit recommendations that are tailored to your query—all based on Ralph Lauren’s real-time available inventory.

Built for the future, grounded in legacy

For nearly 60 years, Ralph Lauren has been a pioneer in creating transportive and cinematic retail experiences. Twenty-five years ago, Microsoft and Ralph Lauren teamed up to launch one of fashion’s first e-commerce platforms, setting an industry standard—and now, together, we are again redefining the shopping experience with Ask Ralph.

As Naveen Seshadri, Ralph Lauren’s Chief Digital Officer, shared in a recent interview, “At Ralph Lauren, our focus is always on the consumer. We harness innovative technologies to create an elevated, personalized experience that draws customers into Ralph’s iconic world at every interaction. The launch of Ask Ralph is a continuation of that commitment.”

To hear more from Naveen on the vision behind Ask Ralph, watch the Ralph Lauren customer video.

Agentic AI: The new frontier

Ask Ralph is powered by Azure’s agentic AI capabilities—intelligent systems that plan, reason, and act. These agents are transforming retail by enabling immersive, personalized experiences at scale.

“At Ralph Lauren, our focus is always on the consumer. We harness innovative technologies to create an elevated, personalized experience that draws customers into Ralph’s iconic world at every interaction. The launch of Ask Ralph is a continuation of that commitment.”

—Naveen Seshadri, Chief Digital Officer at Ralph Lauren

Confidence, creativity, connection

At its heart, Ask Ralph is about inspiration. It’s about helping people find new ways to express their personal style.

This is just the beginning for Ask Ralph, which will continue to evolve with new features and offerings to offer an even more personalized experience, as well as expand across markets, platforms, and additional Ralph Lauren brands.

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Ready to transform the shopping experience with AI?

With Azure AI, retailers have the power to build immersive, intelligent shopping experiences that scale, adapt, and inspire. Whether you’re looking to personalize customer journeys, optimize inventory, or empower your workforce, Microsoft’s AI platform is ready to help you innovate with confidence.

Join us for an AI.deation workshop to explore how agentic AI can elevate your business—from concept to production. Let’s co-create the future of retail, one conversation at a time.

Learn more

• Read the press release on Microsoft News.  
• Learn more about Ask Ralph and download the app on the Ralph Lauren site.
• Read the full Ralph Lauren customer story.

The post Ask Ralph: Where style meets AI—a new era of conversational commerce  appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

To make every budgeted dollar count towards economic growth, finance leaders should shift towards informed budgeting. Informed budgeting uses performance metrics, citizen needs, and economic forecasts to allocate resources more effectively. Here’s how this approach can benefit public finance agencies and economies:

• Informed decision making: Get real-time insights into budget requests and the impact of budget allocations across government programs, agencies, and the broader economy.
• Economic resilience: Ensure budgets are adaptable to shocks and capable of sustaining critical services during crises.
• Financial inclusion: Allocate funds and programs to underserved communities and businesses to ensure that growth is widely shared.
• Cross-agency collaboration: Break down silos between departments to share data and insights for coordinated, strategic investments.

Traditional budgeting approaches are no longer sufficient. Many government finance systems still operate in analog silos, where each department plans independently, making it difficult to address outcomes that span multiple sectors. Legacy systems also limit agility. Analysts spend significant time gathering supporting information and manually modeling accurate forecasts or quickly simulating the reallocation of funds in response to changing economic conditions. The result can be budgets that are misaligned with real-world needs and policy goals or that lack timely impact.

To deliver proactive, transparent, and data-driven budgeting to the public, budget and treasury agencies need to modernize budget planning and execution. Microsoft collaborates with governments globally to unlock the new opportunities and capabilities that AI advancement bring towards the goal of economic growth.

Informed decision making

Informed decision-making is critical for public finance agencies because it ensures that budget planning and execution are grounded in real-time data and insights. This approach allows for more accurate forecasting, prioritization of resources based on actual needs, and strategic allocation that maximizes impact across individuals, communities, and businesses—while also enhancing transparency, accountability, and public trust in financial governance.

• Advanced data analytics and AI for forecasting: By using AI, agencies can analyze historical economic data and run ‘what-if’ scenarios with greater accuracy. The following solutions allow officials to proactively adjust plans rather than react.
  • Predictive analytics: Forecast economic trends and simulate policy impacts.
  • Natural language processing: Analyze public sentiment and policy documents.
  • Scenario modeling: Evaluate different policy trade-offs.
• Real-time reporting and analytics: Modern reporting tools like Microsoft Power BI and Azure data analytics let agencies to build live dashboards that track spending against KPIs. Live dashboards provide near-real-time visibility into fund usage and achieved results, allowing budget officers to monitor allocations and correlate spending with economic indicators for timely adjustments. Outcome-based budgeting becomes possible, linking allocations to metrics such as gross domestic product (GDP) growth or poverty reduction. This allows continuous feedback between spending and impact.

Economic resilience

To foster economic growth and resilience, government budgeting must become more predictive, agile, and outcome-focused. Leading agencies are transitioning from static annual budgets toward dynamic forecasting and continuous re-planning with modern technologies.

• Integrated budget management systems: Modern cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance provide end-to-end budgeting, accounting, and reporting on a single platform. This integration allows seamless data flow from planning to execution to audit, reducing errors and manual work.
• Process reengineering and automation for execution: Automation ensures that budgets are executed efficiently. With low-code automation, organizations are empowered to improve fund distribution, grants management, and procurement, allowing money to move out faster and more accountably.
• Cultural change: Transitioning from annual, siloed cycles to agile, collaborative budgeting requires a cultural shift. Agencies may need to update regulations for mid-year adjustments and foster a culture of data-driven decision-making and interdepartmental cooperation. Pilot projects can demonstrate quick wins and build support.
• Upskilling the workforce: Technology adoption is effective only when staff can interpret data insights and adapt policies as needed. Agencies should invest in training finance professionals in data science, AI, and modern systems. For public finance agencies, Microsoft offers training for enhance public sector services with generative AI, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, and finance-specific use cases with Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Financial inclusion

Finance agencies are expected to allow access to funds and programs while balancing inclusivity and reach across communities and businesses. To achieve this, they need insights into real-time needs and gaps. They must establish streamlined access as well as strong eligibility checks so they can move resources securely, effectively, and quickly.

• AI-powered taxpayer-centric models: Agencies can better understand the diverse needs of individuals and businesses by mapping life events to financial touchpoints. Collaborating with banks and financial technology companies creates a seamless service delivery. Agencies that conduct gap assessments with central banks and regulators can identify underserved populations and tailor inclusive strategies.
• Streamlined intake and eligibility checks: Service interactions can be simplified through unified customer accounts and identity systems, and low-code automation. This allows instant access through intelligent portals and virtual assistants while also accelerating decision-making with automated eligibility checks.
• Transparency and citizen engagement: Informed budgeting involves engaging the public by transparently sharing plans and results. Online portals allow citizens to view allocations and provide feedback, leading to better-aligned projects and increased trust.

Cross-agency collaboration

Achieving economic growth through budgeting requires collaboration across all government sectors—not just finance ministries. For example, a nationwide upskilling program might involve the treasury for funding, the education ministry for implementation, and the labor department for outcome tracking. If departments operate in silos, programs can falter.

• Unified data sharing: Modern platforms allow departments to securely share data and insights. Cloud-based data hubs and collaboration tools such as Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform and Microsoft Teams allows for a consolidated view of economic initiatives. Planners can evaluate performance across all government sectors to inform future funding decisions.
• Cross-functional budget task forces: Some governments establish interagency teams to oversee major spending initiatives. These teams use digital project management and analytics tools to coordinate efforts. Collaboration ensures that support reaches the right beneficiaries at the right time, enhancing inclusion and growth.
• Security and compliance: Government financial data and cloud solutions require rigorous security and privacy, especially when data is shared across departments. Microsoft’s public sector cloud services emphasize compliance, identity management, and data protection, giving public finance officers confidence in the security and trustworthiness of the systems they use.

The impact of AI on informing budgeting

Government budget planning and execution is a structured process that ensures public resources are allocated effectively and transparently. From the first step to the last, the process and the people can be supported by AI.

Strategic planning and policy formulation are the initial steps where governments define macroeconomic goals and align departmental plans with national priorities. AI can enhance this phase through predictive analytics, scenario modeling, and natural language processing to analyze trends and public sentiment.

During budget preparation, ministries and agencies submit proposals that central authorities review and consolidate. AI streamlines this step by automating data validation, prioritizing projects using decision-support algorithms, and assisting users with chatbots.

During the legislative approval phase, AI tools can summarize complex documents, analyze stakeholder sentiment, and simulate the impact of proposed amendments. Once the budget is approved, execution involves fund disbursement, procurement, and project implementation. In this phase, AI supports robotic process automation, fraud detection in procurement, and real-time monitoring dashboards.

Monitoring and reporting follow, where AI detects anomalies, automates reporting, and uses geospatial tools to track project delivery. In the audit and evaluation phase, AI aids in text mining audit reports, conducting forensic analysis, and assessing program outcomes.

Throughout all stages, AI enhances transparency, interoperability, and capacity building, making the budgeting process more efficient, accountable, and responsive.

Success stories: Informed budgeting in action

• City of Columbus (US): Columbus modernized its financial management by adopting Dynamics 365 to handle its complex finances. This system oversees more than 150 departmental budgets, 3,500 capital projects, and 9,000 forecast positions with automated workflows and multi-level approvals, ensuring transparency and compliance. The city’s approach serves as a model for others upgrading legacy systems.
• City of Redmond (US): Redmond used Dynamics 365 to streamline operations and enhance financial visibility across 500 departments and 82 budget owners. The upgrade created automated workflows, centralized purchasing and accounts payable, and real-time data access. The city identified $3.6 million in savings and filled a $6 million public safety levy gap.
• Municipality of Breda (Netherlands): Breda modernized public service delivery by adopting Microsoft Copilot to address staffing shortages and heavy workloads, empowering 3,600 employees to focus on complex policy issues. Breda piloted more than 25 AI-powered use cases including document drafting, email management, and multilingual migrant support—saving up to 28 hours per employee monthly.
• Somerset Council (UK): Somerset Council used Dynamics 365 to unify five previously separate councils under a single compliant system, replacing 50 disconnected applications and four enterprise resource planning systems—all within 10 months. The council now oversees financial operations across 5,000 staff and multiple service areas with automated workflows, centralized data, and integrated reporting.
• Johor Corporation (Malaysia): JCorp used Microsoft solutions to unify its diverse business segments, eliminate silos, and accelerate data-driven decision-making across more than 500 users and more than 100 AI use cases. The organization centralized data, streamlined collaboration, and embedded AI into workflows for real-time insights, automated documentation, and scenario planning.

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Informed budgeting is transforming public finance from a reactive exercise into a proactive strategy for growth. By using data, cloud technology, and teamwork, governments can ensure public funds drive outcomes that lead to stronger economies and greater public trust.

The journey is ongoing. Microsoft and our partners are ready to assist your organization in this process. To learn more about how our technology and expertise can help your agency implement informed budgeting, visit the Microsoft for public finance page today.

The post Modernize public finance with AI: Informed budgeting for economic growth appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Manufacturers are rapidly modernizing by using Microsoft cloud and AI solutions to transform key operations—streamlining product testing with cloud-based analytics, accelerating R&D through generative AI, and optimizing factory operations with intelligent automation.

For instance, BMW has enhanced the driving experience for over 13 million active users by integrating digital services within its vehicles. The MyBMW app, modernized with Cloud services, connects drivers to a range of digital features designed to enhance convenience and engagement. For BMW Group, this approach not only streamlines repetitive processes but also provides an open-source platform to support future scalability.

The time is now for manufacturers to modernize with AI in mind

BMW Group showcases its ongoing digital transformation in manufacturing. What began with a few sensor clusters has evolved into the Industry 4.0 revolution—the coming together of IT and operational technology to solve perennial challenges in manufacturing and heavy industry. Frontier leaders have achieved outcomes like Emirates Global Aluminum subjecting 97.5% more products to quality inspection, DEXIS reducing on-site service needs by 30%, and Fischerwerke construction enhancing the service life of structures. 

Rockwell Automation describes today’s opportunity:

“Our customers are looking to us for faster delivery, new functionality, reduced time-to-value, and new ways of working[…] It’s a perfect time to bring the power of modern IT—including the cloud—to the factory floor.”

— Brian Shepherd, Senior Vice President for Software and Control at Rockwell Automation  

The next wave of transformation—the AI and automation wave—has arrived. We’re seeing early adopters achieve significant business outcomes by integrating these technologies into their daily lives and work. The following section will highlight some powerful manufacturing success stories—each in key impact areas where leaders are modernizing with AI in mind.

Transforming the product testing lifecycle

Let’s talk again about BMW, this time overviewing how it has digitally transformed their product lifecycle through Internet of Things (IoT) cloud modernization and AI. 

Cloud modernization: BMW was experiencing slowdowns due to the enormous amounts of data sent by its 3,500-car test fleet, To address this, it developed an IoT data recorder connected to Microsoft Azure cloud platform, using Azure AI services, Azure App Service, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and Azure Data Explorer. This combination was able to handle the massive amount of IoT data while modernizing the apps that monitor, manage, and analyze it. The upshot? 10 times faster data delivery and analysis handling twice the volume.

Adapting and infusing AI: BMW wanted to democratize and scale the impact of this test data, so it connected with Microsoft to see how it could adopt a generative AI chat experience. By using Azure AI services, BMW made its data available through natural language queries while Microsoft Power BI provided data visualizations to empower decision-makers across all business roles. “We can put very complex raw data into an understandable and comprehensive web interface so many BMW employees who aren’t engineers are also able to access it,” explained Heinz Gebhart, co-creator of BMW’s IoT data recorder. “Azure is the turbocharger for delivering the right data to the right person on a large scale.” 

Augmenting R&D innovation

For cutting-edge products to deliver real ROI, they need to address in-demand customer use cases. That’s why Denso, a leader in automotive parts manufacturing, embraced modernization to prepare the apps powering its advanced robotics for real-world applications. 

Cloud modernization with AI: Denso, Japan’s largest automotive parts manufacturer, is exploring new markets for expansion (like advanced automotive safety features and connected driving to factory automation and agriculture). To transform its own operations and enhance customer satisfaction, it turned to autonomous robots powered by generative AI. However, this approach would have to look different than the apps and functions that ran its traditional robotics.

“Conventional robots are inflexible machines that act based on the movements and instructions they are given. In contrast, we are developing control technology in order to realize a human-like robot that acts according to human language and can also easily correct its errors in judgment when a human points them out.”

—Keitaro Minami, Project Assistant Manager of Automation Innovation Section, Business Innovation Department, Cloud Services R&D Division, Denso Corporation

Denso rearchitected its control program to interface with generative AI using Azure OpenAI, Github Copilot, and Azure App Service. This let them significantly streamline development and allowed a container approach to address future customer use cases where robots cannot always be connected directly to the cloud. 

Optimizing factory operations

After a major company shift, powertrain solution provider Aurobay needed to rebuild their digital environment, including apps and infrastructure that ran mission—critical operational devices on the factory floor.

Cloud modernization: Aurobay collaborated with Microsoft to implement a hybrid cloud architecture powered by Microsoft Entra ID and Azure Arc. This initial migration prepared it to better manage its operational applications both on-premises and in the remote cloud using Azure Virtual Machines and Azure Kubernetes Service. 

“A specialist team from Microsoft helped us set up the full Azure tenant with all the landing zones, subscriptions, and group policies, which was critical in getting this right from the start.”

—Carol Wittgren, Head of Digital Acceleration at Aurobay

Adapting and infusing AI: With new software and architecture leadership in place, Aurobay is continuously embracing innovative methods of data modeling and management to maximize its data, taking its capabilities to the next level with Azure AI services, Azure Machine Learning, and Azure high-performance computing (HPC).

Modernize your manufacturing

Microsoft cloud and AI offerings provide end-to-end solutions for manufacturing, supporting interoperability, scalability, and modernization from backend to frontline. Azure enables manufacturers to modernize efficiently while minimizing risks and maximizing the benefits of AI-powered tools. 

We invite you to learn more about partnering with Microsoft to unlock real-world manufacturing modernization, including how to innovate by accelerating cloud and AI adoption. 

Modernize for AI innovation

Accelerate app and data estate readiness for AI innovation with Microsoft Azure

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¹Cloud Radar: Manufacturing Industry Report, Infosys, April, 10 2024.

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