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

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

Innovating with new adapted AI models and agents

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

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

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

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

Financial services

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

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

Financial Insights Agent in Copilot Studio

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

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

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

Financial Services landing zones

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

Manufacturing

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

Manufacturing data solutions in Microsoft Fabric

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

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

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

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

Factory Operations Agent in Microsoft Azure AI

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

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

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

Factory Safety Agent in Microsoft Copilot Studio

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

Retail

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

Retail Data Solutions in Microsoft Fabric

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

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

Personalized Shopping Agent

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

Store Operations Agent

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

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

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

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

Public sector

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

Citizen Services agent

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

Get started with the Citizen Services agent in Copilot Studio.

Regulated Environment Management

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

Request access in the REM private preview.  

Sustainability

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

Sustainability data solutions in Microsoft Fabric

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

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

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

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

External reporting in Microsoft Sustainability Manager

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

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

Using Copilot Studio with Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability

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

Shaping the future with AI

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

Watch the Ignite 2024 sessions

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

Financial Services

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

Manufacturing

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

Retail

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

Public Sector

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

Sustainability

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

Microsoft Ignite 2024

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

The post Unlocking the future: AI and data revolutionize industries at Microsoft Ignite 2024 appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services

Unlock business value and deepen customer relationships in the era of AI.

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Microsoft partners at Money20/20 USA 

Microsoft was proud to showcase powerful partnerships at Money20/20 USA, featuring many partner solutions driving AI transformation in the financial services industry.  

This included a suite of compelling demos from Microsoft partners including Temenos, Accenture-Avanade, Infosys, Backbase, Symphony AI, and Zafin. Accenture-Avanade demonstrated their Relationship Manager agent, which can improve relationship management across sales and services by freeing up capacity and enhancing client interaction quality. Additionally, Infosys’s Smart Agent and Smart Bank Assist showcased improvements to banking experiences for both employees and customers.  

Microsoft partners, including Cognizant, EY, Intellect Global Transaction Banking (iGTB), Personetics, D-iD, Integrate AI, and others, participated in theater sessions at the Microsoft booth. They presented their thought leadership around the most compelling AI-enabled use cases and deployment methods within banking and financial services. Additionally, Microsoft-sponsored panels with NVIDIA and BNY uncovered practical tips and considerations for scaling and deploying the latest AI technologies, further positioning Microsoft partners as thought leaders in the AI space. 

These collaborations reflect the Microsoft commitment to empowering partners to drive impactful, AI-powered solutions that help customers achieve their business goals and transform the future of financial services. 

Partners leading the way in delivering real-world AI value for financial services  

Taking a page from our Money20/20 USA presence, we’d like to share compelling examples where our partners are using AI to transform the banking experience, empower employees, help manage risk and compliance, and modernize core banking. These partnerships are not just exploring the possibilities of AI—they’re delivering concrete, measurable outcomes in the financial services space today.  

Transforming the banking experience 

Partners are transforming the banking experience by unlocking opportunities to enhance customer engagement. Backbase is delivering more compelling customer experiences around omni-channel for banking and wealth management based on their Engagement Banking Platform powered by Microsoft Azure AI. Capgemini, the Microsoft Global Financial Services Partner of the Year, has also driven AI innovation on the Microsoft platform, improving productivity and elevating the customer experience at financial services organizations worldwide.

“Capgemini and Microsoft have collaborated on enhancing business processes with Copilot Studio and Azure OpenAI Service, helping banks and insurers better serve their customers. For instance, Capgemini recently helped a major Global bank streamline and accelerate its customer onboarding process with Microsoft Intelligent Document Processing, using AI Builder for structured documents and Azure OpenAI Service for unstructured documents. These technologies have saved an enormous amount of time developing impactful solutions for our customers.”

Vivek Desai, VP and Global Head, Microsoft CoE for Financial Services.

Additionally, global financial services solutions provider, VeriPark, is advancing custom agents that span 40 use cases across corporate and retail banking. 

 “[Collaboration] allows us to deliver cutting-edge AI solutions that not only enhance operational efficiency but also empower banks to provide personalized, real-time services to their clients.”

Özkan Erener, CEO, Veripark 

Empowering employees 

There are also meaningful opportunities for AI to empower banking employees to be more effective trusted advisors to their customers. Using Microsoft Fabric and Copilot, Finastra’s Assist.AI, powered by Azure OpenAI, is boosting trade finance employee productivity with intelligent features that enable users to better prioritize and more efficiently complete everyday lending tasks. In addition, Tata Consulting Services (TCS) is modernizing how they engage with customers via an agent designed to optimize communication between banks and their users across all customer engagement channels. 

Managing risk and compliance 

When it comes to mitigating risk and crime, partners are delivering new intelligent approaches. ASC is providing institutions with more decision-making power around managing fraud and risk, while SymphonyAI is consolidating enterprise-wide risk and compliance across their Sensa Investigation hub solution, powered by Microsoft Azure and Azure Open AI. Additionally, partners like Holistic AI are helping customers such as Mapfre identify and mitigate risks associated with AI, while harnessing their data to ensure transparency, fairness, and compliance.  

Modernizing core systems 

Microsoft partners are also using AI in the mission-critical task of modernizing payments and core banking for greater efficiency, transparency, and high-value outcomes such as unlocking new revenue streams, reducing operational costs, and enhancing customer satisfaction. Temenos is delivering banking-specific solutions to provide agility, security, and innovation—to help banking customers reduce operational costs and uphold responsible AI standards via their commitment to explainability, secure operations, and safe deployment practices. Zafin advanced their leading software-as-a-service transformation and modernization platform for banks with Azure AI; this includes their de-risked implementation process that generates a 50% reduction in time to market¹. 

“The introduction of generative AI and Microsoft Fabric from a data standpoint are crucial…”

Chris Dickin, Executive Vice President, Zafin 

Additionally, the collaboration among Microsoft, our partner Quantexa, and European bank Novo Banco has delivered advanced banking data estate modernization in the era of AI. 

Learn more about financial services solutions from Microsoft 

Whether you joined us in person at Money20/20 to see the latest AI innovations from Microsoft and our partners, or are just now discovering the difference our technologies and partners are making in the industry, we invite you to collaborate with us on your own transformative AI experiences. 

• Learn more about Microsoft solutions in the financial services industry and our work with key partners by visiting Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services.  
• Learn how our partners are delivering industry-specific solutions faster with Microsoft Industry Clouds. 
• Visit our Solutions Partner learning path (which includes Microsoft Learn documentation, a playbook, and FAQs), and explore related financial services stories in our financial services industry blog.

¹Zafin launches Zafin IO and Zafin Data Fabric, a new offering to accelerate banking transformationThis offering will simplify integration processes, cut core modernization risks to support uninterrupted banking transformation, all while breaking down data silos and unlocking the power of banks’ first-party data – Zafin

The post Beyond Money20/20 USA: Microsoft partners redefining financial services appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

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World Aviation Festival growth and significance

Since its inception 21 years ago, the World Aviation Festival has grown from a modest gathering to a major industry event. This year’s festival highlighted this transition, with post-pandemic recovery driving significant attendance and engagement. The rapid growth of the event underscores the relevance and importance of the topics discussed, especially with the aviation industry experiencing a vibrant resurgence, growing 24% to a market worth $1.5 trillion.¹

As a supporter of the event, Microsoft met with industry leaders, customers, and partners to discuss the impact of growth, technological advancements, and a secure future for the industry. Our industry executives participated in three panels covering the topics of:

• Understanding how CEOs are approaching structural industry shifts, potential for growth, sustainability implications, and AI business transformation.
• How will generative AI impact the aviation sector, and what strategies can be employed to harness its potential.
• How can the aviation industry accurately identify risks and develop robust cybersecurity strategies to address global threats.

These panels inspired deeper follow-up conversations with conference attendees who we hosted in our meeting room suite and at our evening customer engagement event along with our industry partners. This provided an excellent opportunity to hear about the challenges and opportunities our customers face in an evolving industry and share success stories from industry peers who are leading change and delivering business results. Attendees were encouraged by this evidence and wanted to learn more about our cloud, AI, and data capabilities, including where we can support:

• Enhancing the employee experience—leveraging AI for communication and collaboration platform and digital tools that create connection and inspire collaboration with more insights.
• Innovating the traveler journey—by unlocking data intelligence to create frictionless, multi-modal travel solutions for customers.
• Creating efficient operations—that improve asset utilization, planning, and management of real-time operational impacts.
• Delivering a more engaging customer experience—to improve customer value, drive growth, and brand affinity.

Addressing aviation industry challenges and opportunities

With the many attendees at the event absorbing information across more than 600 speakers and 327 sessions, the following themes resonated as key to addressing the challenges and opportunities facing the industry.

Importance of information sharing

A recurring theme at the festival was the critical need for enhanced information sharing among airlines and airports. By integrating customer data from the moment a traveler leaves home through their entire travel experience, the industry has a significant opportunity to create personalized offers and services within their own, and extended ecosystems. This seamless customer journey was emphasized as crucial for enhancing the travel experience and operational efficiency. Another impact on information sharing is the operational differences between European and US airports that can impact data sharing and efficiency. European airports often have more integrated operations, which can enhance data sharing and streamline processes.

Focus on technology

The festival also placed a strong emphasis on leveraging new technologies, particularly AI, generative AI, and data analytics. These technologies were viewed as pivotal for the aviation industry’s growth, enabling better customer insights, personalized services, and operational efficiencies. Discussions also covered security and sustainability, highlighting their growing importance in today’s aviation landscape along with the increasing concerns over data privacy.

Legacy systems and new equilibrium

The aviation industry is at a crossroads, balancing legacy systems with the adoption of new technologies. While legacy systems still play a significant role, there is a strong push towards new distribution capabilities (NDC) and standards, such as those set by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). This shift is driven by the need to move away from outdated technologies and embrace solutions that utilize data effectively to enhance customer experience, operational efficiency, and to attract a new and more engaged workforce.

Startups leading the way

Startups are at the forefront of this technological revolution, unburdened by legacy systems and able to implement modern architectures and processes at speed. These innovative and agile companies are leading the charge in adopting new technologies and driving the industry forward. This enables a healthy and needed expansion of the industry ecosystem, and while it might pose some challenges for incumbents to compete, it also provides great opportunities to innovate and partner, further stressing the importance of re-thinking how the industry conducts its business to meet the demands of their customers.

Sustainability

Sustainability is a significant challenge, with the aviation industry aiming to be carbon neutral by 2050.² One area discussed is the introduction of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). However, shortages of supply make the exploration of alternative fuels and sustainable practices beyond SAF important. For example, some industry scenarios are exploring electrification and hydrogen as a potential for specific use cases that can improve sustainable travel.

Technology enablers

Several key discussions at the festival highlighted the industry’s challenges and opportunities. Conversations with airlines like Alaska Airlines and Emirates provided insights into how AI and personalization technologies are being used to enhance customer experiences.

Agentic AI

While the focus on generative AI was pervasive, we also discussed the interest in AI agents, or agentic agents. Agentic agents are autonomous software programs that perform specific tasks on behalf of and alongside users, making decisions based on data, predefined rules and learning from experience. The benefits include a streamlined and user-friendly booking process, faster bookings, higher conversion rates, around-the-clock availability, personalized recommendations and potential upselling. We found companies were very interested in learning more about successful use cases where agentic AI has delivered results.

Reference architectures

In an environment where technology creates positive disruption that drives transformation, many different paths to an outcome may be explored. Rather than create a “one size fits all” approach to achieving those outcomes, we have created a composable base that partners and customers can leverage to develop their innovations using the Microsoft cloud, Azure, and industry focused reference architectures. This enables development of value-creating solutions on top of the Microsoft Cloud technology stack, helping airlines and airports manage data, break down silos, and improve operations. Customers like Adami and Fraport are leveraging these architectures to integrate data from various sources and enhance operational efficiency. Watch here to learn about our reference architecture for airlines and airports.

One major challenge is unbundling legacy systems that have been in place for decades. These systems need to be updated to utilize data effectively and implement new technologies that can help airlines operate more like e-commerce businesses.

Next steps for aviation industry innovation

The 2024 World Aviation Festival was a testament to the resilience and innovation of the aviation industry. With a focus on new technologies, information sharing, and sustainability, the festival showcased the industry’s commitment to enhancing customer experiences and operational efficiency. We were encouraged by participants’ interest in emerging cloud, data, and AI capabilities which are now seen as driving key competitive differentiation among airlines and a key opportunity to improve airport operations and services.

Moving forward from the event, we now look ahead to our key industry programs including Microsoft Ignite, and the global Microsoft AI Tour series underway, as well as the focus on the overall mobility landscape at CES 2025. We look forward to continue to working closely with our customers, ecosystem and industry to contribute and innovate for an even brighter and exciting future.

To learn more about Microsoft solutions for travel and hospitality, visit Microsoft for travel and transportation.

¹ Travel Professional News, Global travel industry roars back, reaching $1.5 trillion in 2023, August 2024.

² IATA, Net Zero Roadmaps.

The post Transforming the travel industry through innovation and collaboration: World Aviation Festival 2024 appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

To address these growing challenges, energy and resources leaders are increasingly turning to digital technology solutions. By leveraging AI-driven insights and cloud-based operational technology (OT) systems, energy operators can optimize grid management, strengthen cybersecurity, and respond faster to operational inefficiencies. 

In the area of predictive maintenance, AI can analyze historical equipment performance and environmental data to forecast potential equipment failures, helping utilities avoid costly downtime while enabling uninterrupted service. For example, JERA developed an AI-based predictive detection application that provides everyday remote monitoring of power plants, enabling early detection of equipment issues and reducing unplanned outages.

“By enabling a 24-hours-a-day remote monitoring service, we will be able to provide value by preventing potential problems and by improving power plant availability through quick identification of problem causes. DPP’s primary role is to contribute to the stable supply of energy and sustainable power plant operations through transformations that utilize digital technology and data.”

Hiroaki Kamei, Executive Officer of the Digital Power Plant Promotion Group, O&M Engineering Strategy Division

This scenario provides a glimpse into the many ways AI is quickly becoming one of the most impactful tools for energy organizations and workers. Across the utility workforce—from engineering and grid operations to customer service and finance—employees are also seeing increased productivity with generative AI technology as they use tools like Microsoft Copilot to streamline tasks such as drafting emails, summarizing meetings, conducting research, analyzing data, generating manuals, and preparing presentations. This enables them to focus more on high-value work that fuels industry-wide growth and collaboration, accelerating the energy transition. 

Beyond task productivity, generative AI is transforming how utilities manage operations at scale. For example, National Grid is leveraging Microsoft Copilot and Azure to assist with automation, document management, and report generation across regulatory, finance, and legal operations, helping the company drive efficiencies in its mission to achieve net-zero goals. According to Shannon Soland, Chief Technology Officer at National Grid, “Microsoft Copilot is really going to be a difference maker for National Grid,” allowing the company to innovate rapidly with AI-powered solutions.  

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Enhancing cloud security with AI

AI is not just a tool for optimization—it’s becoming essential for energy security and operational resilience. As energy organizations modernize their systems and integrate new technologies to streamline workflows and improve operations, there’s a growing emphasis around overall security posture. That is why Microsoft is working closely with energy customers and partners to provide intelligent and scalable cybersecurity solutions that help set the stage for successful AI adoption and continued innovation—so they can focus on what matters most: meeting the world’s growing energy needs while ensuring a secure, sustainable, and affordable supply.

Solutions like Microsoft Copilot for Security are enabling energy organizations to identify threats faster, strengthen risk mitigation strategies, and respond to incidents more efficiently. For example, Uniper, a leader in the energy transition, has integrated Copilot for Security to manage the growing number of phishing attempts and hacker attacks they face as an operator of critical infrastructure.

“Copilot for Security immediately flags incidents, allowing us to identify risks up to twice as fast, assess them right away, and take the appropriate action.”

Damian Bunyan, Chief Information Officer of Uniper 

Routine security tasks, which used to take hours or days, are now handled in minutes through AI and automation, improving security response times and helping Uniper focus on their broader goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2040. 

We’ve embedded Copilot directly into the Microsoft Security stack, allowing energy customers to tap into built-in AI capabilities and industry-leading threat intelligence—regardless of the solutions they use. It’s all part of our effort to empower human defenders with AI tools and capabilities that provide an advantage against some of the energy industry’s greatest challenges.  

Microsoft partnerships help the energy industry embrace the future of work

Supercharging human ingenuity with advanced technology is just one way to drive a more sustainable, reliable, affordable, and secure energy supply. Another critical piece is global collaboration and partnership.

Microsoft’s collaboration with leading global systems integrators (GSIs) is driving significant innovation in the energy sector. Partners like Accenture, Avanade, EY, and PwC helping utilities globally leverage AI and Azure-powered technologies to modernize and enhance productivity. Accenture and Avanade, early adopters of Microsoft Copilot, are accelerating value by delivering intelligent, industry-specific solutions that empower workforce. Similarly, EY and PwC are working closely with Microsoft to provide cutting-edge tools that enable energy providers to streamline operations and strengthen their digital transformation strategies. 

Among Microsoft’s key collaborators is IFS, which plays a crucial role in transforming asset management and enterprise resource planning (ERP) for energy companies. Exelon, the largest energy delivery company in North America, is leveraging IFS technology to improve operational visibility and streamline the management of its extensive asset base across six utility businesses. According to Rob Biagiotti, Vice President of Assets and Core System Projects at Exelon, the company chose IFS for its cloud-based, agile platform that could meet the evolving needs of their business. By enabling Exelon to efficiently manage the full lifecycle of assets and integrate with their existing technology, IFS is helping them achieve their strategic goals of delivering reliable, affordable energy to over 10 million customers.  

GE Vernova has developed a solution underpinned with advanced AI models to improve wildfire risk mitigation, with their solution available on Azure to provide sophisticated analysis and better decision-making for environmental planning and response. Meanwhile, Schneider Electric’s DERMS EcoStruxure platform, deployed on Azure, is advancing distributed energy resource management, increasing grid flexibility and efficiency. This platform has been successfully implemented at Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), where it’s driving significant value by optimizing distributed energy resources and improving grid management across their network.

These are just a few of the many partners Microsoft collaborates with across the energy sector. The scale and complexity of today’s energy challenges make partnership essential; no single organization can drive this transformation alone. By working together, we can accelerate innovation and ensure a secure, sustainable, and resilient energy future. 

Sharing industry insights at Enlit Europe 2024 

We are excited to discuss the transformational power of technology and share new AI innovations with our partners as the AI sponsor of Enlit Europe 2024 at Fiera Milano di Rho in Milan, Italy. This opportunity enables us to deepen our existing partnerships and forge new ones with energy organizations from around the world. The event will run from October 22 to 24, 2024 and will be attended by 15,000 guests, including over 700 international exhibitors and 500 speakers from energy industry leaders.  

The Microsoft Energy and Resources Industry team will attend Enlit Europe 2024 to exchange insights on new technologies, discuss solutions to industry challenges, and highlight key achievements with our industry partners. On day two of the conference, we will feature Microsoft Copilot demos at the Digitalization Hub, offering a firsthand look at how AI can transform the way you work. In addition to demonstrating the benefits of Copilot, our team will be featured on several panel discussions and presentations on critical topics for the global power and utilities community.

Continuing to innovate across the energy sector with transformative technologies 

As technology advancements open doors for energy solutions, we’re eager to continue partnering with industry leaders to challenge the status quo with innovative approaches to some of the world’s toughest energy dilemmas. For many organizations, this begins by shifting internal conversations and establishing a data-driven culture that empowers people to solve problems using data. That’s why we work with leaders across the industry to build digital transformation strategies and modernize data management approaches so they can get the most value from their data through advanced AI and automation capabilities.

Explore this ever-evolving world with us at Enlit Europe 2024 and engage with the leading minds at the forefront of industrial change. Don’t miss out on the critical discourses, thought-provoking panels, and our Microsoft Copilot Hub demo station, where you can learn more about making the most of this everyday AI assistant in your organization. Join the Microsoft Energy and Resources Industry team as we bring new solutions to light and exchange ideas with energy pioneers from the world over. We hope to see you in Milan.  

Learn more about Microsoft for energy and resources 

• Visit the Microsoft for energy and resources page.
• Read the Microsoft Industry Blogs: Energy and resources to learn about critical actions for energy transition.
• Listen to the podcast AI for power and energy with Laurent Boinot where a Microsoft power and utilities leader discusses the intersection of AI and energy infrastructure.
• Read a Microsoft leader’s interview and gain perspective on how AI is a driving force in accelerating the energy transition.
• Read this new article on Power Change: Applying GenAI for Strategic Transformation in Utility Analytics.
• Watch our on-demand webinar, Rethinking cybersecurity in a renewable-powered energy system.
• Learn about Microsoft Security solutions and sign up for news and insights from Microsoft Security.

¹ European Commission, Future EU power systems: renewables’ integration to require up to 7 times larger flexibility, June 26, 2023.

2 Enisa, Cyber Europe tests the EU Cyber Prepardness in the Energy Sector, June 20, 2024.

The post Enlit Europe 2024: Rewiring the energy industry’s operational core with cloud and AI appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

At Microsoft, our mission has always been one of empowerment. AI furthers this mission. When harnessed together with modern compute and infrastructure, Microsoft AI offers unprecedented access to information that can help solve complex manufacturing problems faster. To showcase this innovation, we recently attended the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) 2024 in Chicago, Illinois, and demonstrated how Microsoft and its partners are accelerating industrial transformation outcomes with AI. Read on to experience IMTS for yourself, with our highlights and the 3 areas we believe the Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing and AI are driving real industry impact.

• Design better products with AI-powered insights
• Build products smarter with AI-optimized manufacturing
• Modernize frontline operations with AI-assisted workers

Design better products with AI-powered insights

Design is the cornerstone of manufacturing, shaping not only product functionality, aesthetics, and performance but influencing production efficiency, material use, and long-term sustainability. This critical stage presents significant opportunities to optimize manufacturing processes and reduce costs that are often locked in early. With generative design and AI-enabled solutions like predictive modeling and digital twins, we can analyze real-time performance data and simulate alternatives rapidly to minimize material waste, reduce errors, and improve time-to-market.

Moreover, for many modern connected products, software is an increasingly significant component—driving functionality, value, and the transformation of traditional dynamics. Generative AI streamlines software development by accelerating code generation with tools like Github Copilot, allowing engineers to iterate faster, improve overall quality, and design more sustainably. The combined impact is a more agile, efficient development process that reduces time-to-market, enhances product performance, and fosters sustainable innovation. As software continues to integrate deeper into connected products, generative AI empowers engineers to push the boundaries of what’s possible within design and manufacturing.

Harnessing data for streamlined product development with PTC

In the Microsoft booth, our partner PTC demonstrated the impact AI can have on product lifecycle with a well-managed digital thread. Their demo showed how Vestas, a wind turbine manufacturer, leverages PTC’s design, Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions to develop products. PTC’s new digital thread solution uses Azure and Microsoft AI to bring these tools together to enable real-time data synchronicity, traceability, and version control across Vestas’ product lifecycle. This single source of truth simplified the development process and enabled Vestas to continue reusing valuable data throughout the product’s lifecycle.

Build products smarter with AI-optimized manufacturing

Manufacturing success today requires a seamless integration of materials, technology, and resources. With these complex environments, AI is changing how we think about industrial operations. The merging of physical assets with AI, IoT, and automation solutions is enabling manufacturers to optimize production, reduce downtime, and improve real-time decision making for greater competitiveness.

Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing centralizes data in the cloud, unifying its structure. Once organized, AI solutions can extract data’s hidden value analyzing it for insights, including predictive maintenance by identifying shop floor patterns and anomalies that may indicate potential equipment failures. AI-enabled factories allow manufacturers to better manage supply chains, anticipate these production shifts, and optimize their resource allocation.

For mission-critical operations, Azure IoT Operations ensures your data is processed on-premises for immediate action, before being sent to the cloud for further analysis. Azure IoT Operations takes an adaptive cloud approach, supported by Azure Arc, which enables manufacturers to unify data across their hybrid, multi-cloud, and edge environments. An adaptive cloud approach simplifies infrastructure management and security while maximizing resource utilization and ensuring AI-powered solutions scale across production lines and multiple sites. By adopting this approach, manufacturers can streamline operations, improve scalability, and establish a standardized architecture, ensuring resiliency and continuous improvement across the enterprise.

Enabling OT intelligence for autonomous operations with Rockwell

AI has already demonstrated its ability to digest information and offer accurate recommendations. How does this translate to manufacturing factories? Rockwell demonstrated how IoT solutions can enlighten older OT assets and processes. Rockwell enables organizations to transform their factory equipment into IoT-enabled assets. This live operational data is then centralized in the cloud through Azure IoT Operations, where predictive AI can automatically identify and address maintenance needs, enhance workflows, and perform tasks that once needed onsite staff.

Modernize frontline operations with AI-assisted workers

Frontline workers and service teams are the backbone of manufacturing operations. Their expertise, adaptability, and problem-solving skills are critical for maintaining production efficiency—ensuring quality control and driving continuous improvement in environments where the digital world meets the physical world. When empowered by AI, these workers become decision-makers freed from repetitive tasks. AI allows frontline workers from the factory floor to the field to focus on higher-value activities, improves their productivity, and enables them to adapt to the evolving demands of modern manufacturing.

Generative AI enables service teams to seamlessly create work orders from unstructured data like emails, efficiently schedule resources, and provide timely support—particularly during high-demand periods. For frontline workers, AI offers fast and intuitive access to essential information, eliminating the need to manually sift through long standard operating procedures, equipment manuals or contact expert support. By delivering the right information at the right moment with natural language prompting, generative AI not only improves first-time fix rates but also accelerates worker upskilling, preparing them for more complex responsibilities and driving long-term productivity gains.

Delivering exceptional customer service with Dynamics 365 Field Service

At IMTS 2024 we showcased how Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service is enabling workers to solve problems more efficiently and deliver exceptional customer experiences. Delivering exceptional service is key for building customer preference and loyalty. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service can help service managers and technicians efficiently create workorders, schedule workers and find the information they need to resolve issues right the first time while keeping customers updated at every step of the process. With the added capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist capabilities in Microsoft Teams, frontline workers can call for expert help and utilize augmented reality features such as spatial annotations reducing asset downtimes and efficient service experience for customers.

Continuing AI conversations beyond IMTS 2024

Manufacturing is undergoing a profound transformation. It is clear, AI will be at the heart of this change. From revolutionizing product design with AI-driven insights and optimizing manufacturing processes with predictive analytics to empowering frontline workers with easy access to information, AI is fundamentally reshaping how industries operate. IMTS 2024 underscored our vision for manufacturing and the impact AI will have on industrial operations. From PTC to Rockwell to Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service, AI is driving innovation and enabling manufacturers to overcome operational bottlenecks.

As AI adoption accelerates, organizations will face challenges such as inadequate data, expertise gaps, and governance. Microsoft is committed to helping manufacturers overcome these obstacles and realize the full potential of AI. By combining modern cloud infrastructure and compute with powerful AI tools, Microsoft can enable every organization to scale their AI initiatives across multiple sites and functions, moving them beyond “pilot purgatory” to achieve long-term, sustainable transformation.

Explore Microsoft solutions

Now is the time. Along with its partners, Microsoft can help every manufacturer unlock the value in their data, streamline operations, and drive greater value chain efficiency. Whether you’re just beginning your journey or looking to scale, Microsoft can support you at every stage.

Industrial transformation

Accelerate how your organization designs, builds, and operates with AI

Discover solutions

• Learn how Microsoft can help you overcome barriers to AI adoption and drive real impact in your manufacturing value chain by reading this report we created in collaboration with MIT Technology Review Insights.
• Explore how Microsoft is helping other organizations accelerate their transformation on our industrial transformation webpage.

The post 3 practical ways industrial AI is reshaping manufacturing appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Here are examples of what our customers are saying about the value they see: 

Generative AI is proving to be the key to unlocking unprecedented levels of personalization, performance, and customer engagement, as well as the opportunity to change the experience of being on the operator’s network. Microsoft’s strategy to support generative AI adoption in telecommunications centers on four pillars:

1. Elevating customer experience
2. Optimizing business and operations support systems
3. Modernizing the network
4. Unlocking new revenue streams

By focusing on these areas, we aim to enhance customer satisfaction through AI-powered support, streamline business operations with advanced automation, upgrade network infrastructure for better performance and security, and create new revenue opportunities through innovative AI-powered solutions. This comprehensive approach ensures that telecommunications providers deliver exceptional service while driving growth and efficiency.  

Elevating customer experiences 

Differentiation in the telecom industry is a growing challenge, and customer experience is emerging as a key competitive advantage. By leveraging AI-infused customer care, telecommunications companies are enhancing customer experiences through the use of branded service assistants. These AI-powered assistants provide personalized customer support and unique interactions—helping telecoms differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Vodafone Group is investing in both employee and customer experiences. Recently, they announced a plan to provide Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 to their workforce. This generative AI tool will be rolled out to 68,000 employees across the organization to further improve productivity, innovation, and digital efficiency. This follows a successful pilot where Copilot for Microsoft 365 saved over three hours per person, per week—freeing employees to work on more creative, innovative, and valuable tasks, improving work-life balance and enhancing services and supporting Vodafone’s 350 million customers worldwide.   

Vodafone continues to personalize services and improve customer satisfaction by leveraging Microsoft Azure AI Studio, Azure OpenAI Service, and Microsoft Copilot along with Azure AI Search to enhance its customer experience with their virtual assistant, “TOBi,” and their customer agent solution, “SuperAgent.”   

“We aim to provide fast, personalized customer experiences that inspire confidence, but to continue to do that in the face of rising customer expectations, we needed to find a way to better manage complex customer inquiries efficiently and ensure timely and personalized responses.”

Ahmed Elsayed, Chief Information Officer United Kingdom and Europe Digital Engineering Director at Vodafone Group

Today, TOBi engages in more than 45 million conversations a month with customers and is expected to grow to half a billion over the next few years while reducing average hold time by more than one minute.  

Recently, PLDT selected Amdocs’ market-leading Intelligent Networking Suite to transform their network operations. The solution operates on the public cloud, featuring unified network inventory, service and network orchestration, and business process automation capabilities. This agreement also includes the customer service solution for case management, which is part of the Microsoft and Amdocs Customer Engagement Platform (CEP). CEP is a comprehensive, AI-powered solution designed for telecommunications service providers. It offers a unified platform for marketing, sales, commerce, and customer service—enabling telecoms to deliver seamless, digital-first experiences to both consumer and enterprise customers.

Optimizing business and operations support systems 

Telecoms are benefiting from modernizing their Business Support Systems (BSS) and real-time Operations Support Systems (OSS) with data solutions and Copilot for Microsoft 365, an AI-powered productivity tool that integrates with Microsoft 365 apps. At Telkomsel, their chat–based virtual assistant Veronika contributed to a 15% reduction in customer escalations resulting in a net promotor score (NPS) that is 27% above the industry average.

Generative AI assistants for employees empower customer care agents to manage multiple inquiries efficiently, broadening their expertise and resulting in more personalized services leading to improved customer satisfaction and retention.  

Orange France is using generative AI to enhance customer service, marketing, internal and external communications, and network operations, with dedicated support from Microsoft. Use cases include fully integrated tools for rewriting FAQs, generating product sheets, and assisting developers with writing code. Laetitia Orsini Sharps, Consumer Department Director at Orange France, sees this technology as “a promising vector for improving customer service and making employees’ work easier,” allowing service teams to reduce the time it takes an agent to investigate and analyze the root cause of complex cases from 20 minutes to less than 3 minutes.

Modernizing the network 

Telecoms can improve security, network efficiency, scalability, and reliability by using a carrier-grade, AI-infused, and secure hybrid cloud. This modernization effort will reduce costs and drive revenue growth, positioning telecoms as leaders in the digital age.  

Telecoms are protecting their networks from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. Nokia’s latest innovation, the integration of a generative AI assistant with its NetGuard Cybersecurity Dome, demonstrates this proactive approach to security. Leveraging Azure OpenAI Service, this assistant enhances the efficiency of threat detection and resolution. Nokia expects the generative AI assistant to reduce the time it takes to identify and resolve a threat by up to 50 percent, depending on the nature of a cyberattack. As telecoms continue to fortify their defenses, such advancements are crucial in ensuring the security and reliability of critical operations. 

Real-time analytics capabilities allow telecoms to monitor network performance, detect anomalies, and optimize resource allocation to make data-driven decisions. Microsoft Fabric provides telecoms with real-time data, bringing order to a diverse and complicated data estate, enabling them to scale AI efforts. Fabric integrates data from various sources, including other clouds or on-premises sources, extending to where their data resides, providing a holistic view of telecom operations. The platform’s data visualization tools enable telecom companies to present complex data in an understandable format, facilitating better communication and collaboration across the organization.  

Unlocking new revenue streams 

Using Azure OpenAI Service to scale personalized customer experiences can result in an annual increase in average revenue per customer of 3% to 7% and a reduction in annual churn of 20% to 30%.² Telecom investments in AI and network modernization are unlocking new revenue streams with a platform for rapid development, deployment, and monetization of new services.  

As digital ecosystems expand, telecoms are offering advanced services where applications interact with their networks through APIs, turning their networks into programmable platforms that adapt to changing demands. Azure Programmable Connectivity (APC) offers a seamless Azure experience, providing a unified, standard interface across multiple operator networks globally while abstracting the complexities inherent to network APIs, ensuring code consistency and reliability, as networks continue to evolve. Developers can focus on building applications without worrying about underlying network changes.  

Telecoms can enhance their B2B strategy by leveraging Microsoft’s advanced technologies and strategic partnerships. Yobi Data works with telecoms to better understand customer behavior without compromising privacy.

“Accessing and managing the data necessary for effective AI can be prohibitively expensive—not to mention risky, and inefficient. Yobi Data finds the signal in the noise, empowering telecoms with access to advanced analytics and AI-derived insights into consumer behavior, network performance, and operational efficiency, all based on our own Private-by-Design data set. With these tools, telecoms can reduce churn, increase revenue, and improve customer experience—all without the time, expense, or burdens of new data acquisition.”

Max Snow, Chief Executive Officer, Yobi

The integration of real-time voice AI services using Azure OpenAI Service, Azure AI Translator, and other services allows telecoms to differentiate themselves in the market.

“By partnering with Microsoft, Norwood Systems is pushing the boundaries of innovation in telecommunications. Leveraging Azure AI in our cutting-edge solutions like our CogVoice™ and Visual Voicemail platforms, we’re empowering telecoms operators to unlock new revenue streams, elevate customer engagement, and deliver next-generation experiences. Together, we’re reshaping the future of communication services.”

Paul Ostergaard, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Norwood Systems 

As telecoms continue to integrate AI into their strategies, the opportunities for growth and innovation are boundless. Recently Korea Telecom (KT) announced a multibillion dollar partnership with Microsoft to accelerate AI transformation for 650,000 companies and 17 million customers in Korea. “The partnership with Microsoft presents a pivotal opportunity, not only for technological collaboration but also for expanding Korea’s AI foundation and driving transformative innovation across industries and daily life,” said KT CEO Young-Shub Kim.

Microsoft’s commitment to supporting this transformation through advanced AI technologies and strategic partnerships will empower telecoms to stay ahead of evolving market and customer demands. 

Explore further how AI is reshaping the telecom industry

Microsoft for telecommunications

Accelerate telco transformation in the era of AI

Start your journey

• Learn more about Azure OpenAI Service capabilities.
• Read the white paper “Scaling telecommunications AI at speed.”
• Connect with us at Mobile World Congress in Las Vegas, Nevada from October 8 to 10, 2024, where Microsoft is a Platinum Sponsor for the Telco AI Summit. We look forward to welcoming you to our speaking sessions or in our executive meeting rooms in the West Hall, Level 2.

¹ IDC’s “Telecommunications Service Provider DX Plans and Strategies Survey Highlights Study”, IDC #US52480824, August 2024. 

² New Technology: The Projected Total Economic Impact™ Of Azure OpenAI Service In Reinventing Customer And Constituent Engagement, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting, July 2024. 

The post Transforming telecoms with AI appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Join Microsoft at IBC2024

At Microsoft, AI isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a transformational force that is revolutionizing the way people work, collaborate, and innovate. Whether you are looking to optimize your operations, unlock new monetization opportunities, or empower your content creators, at IBC2024 you will see how we have moved beyond the AI hype and are deploying this technology with cutting-edge solutions tailored specifically for the media industry.

The opportunity to engage with so many customers, partners, and colleagues during this action-packed event deepens my excitement and optimism for the future of our industry. I always depart from Amsterdam feeling inspired by the creativity, innovation, and thought leadership showcased across the panels and presentations. Above all, it’s a joy to catch up with everyone and make new connections. 

How to make the most of your time with Microsoft at IBC2024

Visit our booth (located in Hall14, A14) to experience how we are reimagining media with AI

• Explore the power of AI: Unleash your creativity by crafting your own avatar with the assistance of Microsoft Designer. Transform yourself into a whimsical cartoon, a classic Renaissance painting, a superhero character, or any fantastical creation you can imagine. Let the fun begin! 
• Attend our demos: We have a great lineup of demos showcasing how you can optimize your operations, unlock new monetization opportunities, and empower your content creators with cutting-edge Azure products and Microsoft partners.
  • Enhance content searches with natural language scene descriptions by integrating new multimodal capabilities from Azure AI with IPV’s Curator Media Asset Management (MAM) product. Demonstrated by IPV.
  • Verify authentic content using Microsoft’s Content Integrity suite, which provides end-to-end Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA). Identify rogue viewing sessions to combat piracy in real-time, using EZDRM’s anti-piracy proof of concept (POC). Presented by Content Integrity.
  • Analyze email marketing lists and predict user behavior: Uncover strategic insights and optimize marketing campaigns using Yobi’s engine. Demonstrated by Yobi.
  • Create an interactive second-screen experience designed to accompany free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel distribution, using the integration of Microsoft Azure PlayFab and Azure OpenAI Service. This interactive e-commerce experience highlights how viewers can seamlessly interact with content, driving deeper engagement and new monetization opportunities. Showcased by OBT Live.
  • Leverage AI assisted storytelling across script, production, and postproduction for content creation. Presented by Support Partners.
  • Maintain the original speaker’s voice using Azure AI-powered video translation services, featuring contextually accurate translation with voice cloning. Demonstrated by Cognizant.
• Visit the Microsoft Copilot lounge: The lounge will highlight various Copilot applications across the media ecosystem, including an advanced over the top (OTT) platform demo by UIC Digital and PwC, integrating AI copilot capabilities for personalized, real-time interactions and insights using sports content. A marketing demo will show the power of Copilot and Microsoft Fabric for data-driven conversations. Support Partners will showcase a series of content creation copilots spanning script analysis, casting and production, and editing.  

Learn more from Microsoft and industry experts at these insight-packed content sessions

• Transforming Media Production with AI: Insights and Innovations
  Join experts from Microsoft, Disney, Adobe, and Support Partners as they explore AI’s transformative impact on media production. This panel will showcase real-world applications for scriptwriting, storyboarding, production management, and post-production enhancements, with insights drawn from active AI projects—highlighting efficiency gains and innovation. Taking place in Hall 14, Content Everywhere Theater on Saturday, September 14, 2024 from 1:30 PM to 2:10 PM CEST.
• Unlocking Monetization panel
  Explore how emerging data science, machine learning, and conversational AI are revolutionizing media monetization. This session covers first-party consented data, connected TV, and second-screen apps driving omni-channel e-commerce experiences. Learn how these advancements are reshaping consumer demand and opening new monetization avenues for media brands. Taking place in Hall 14, Content Everywhere Theater on Sunday, September 15, 2024 from 12:15 PM to 12:35 PM CEST.
  • Presented by Microsoft, Yobi, and Fremantle.
• AI-Powered Interactive Marketing: Bringing Characters to Life
  Join Microsoft as we explore how generative AI and Azure are revolutionizing the creation of digital characters and animated storytellers. This session will demonstrate how studios can streamline previsualization workflows and enhance promotional marketing for animation. Discover how these AI-powered technologies are broadly applicable across the media industry for bringing characters to life. Taking place in Hall 14, Content Everywhere Theater on Friday, September 13, 2024 from 12:15 PM to 12:35 PM CEST. 
  • Presented by Microsoft and Support Partners.

Meet the Microsoft team  

Confirmed attendees so far include: 

• Silvia Candiani, Vice President Worldwide Telecommunications, Media and Gaming.
• Paige Johnson, Vice President Global Media and Entertainment Industry Marketing.
• Simon Crownshaw, Worldwide Strategy Director Media and Entertainment.
• Andy Beach, Chief Technology Officer of Media and Entertainment.
• Federico Suria, EMEA Regional Business Lead Telecommunications and Media.
• Andrew Jenks, Director of Media Provenance and Executive Director of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity at Microsoft.
• Craig Ashley, Director Global Media and Entertainment Industry Marketing. 

Join Microsoft at IBC2024 to see how we are reimagining media with AI. We are looking forward to seeing you! 

Microsoft’s commitment to the media and entertainment industry  

Microsoft enables media organizations to achieve more through a trusted and secure platform, built to empower content creators and distributors, enhance the viewer experience, and reimagine monetization strategies. More information can be found on the Microsoft media and entertainment industry solutions website.

Microsoft at IBC2024

Gain critical insights, share expertise, and unlock business opportunities

Explore the event

The post Microsoft at IBC2024: Reimagining media with AI appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

The telecommunications industry stands at a pivotal juncture, where the convergence of technology and communication is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. Microsoft’s role in this transformation is not just as a participant but as a leader, driving the conversation and action towards a more integrated and efficient ecosystem. Our efforts with the TM Forum and ODA over the years have been instrumental in setting new standards and fostering an environment of open collaboration.

Microsoft for Telecommunications

Accelerate telco transformation in the era of AI

Explore solutions

TM Forum DTW24-Ignite

This year’s TM Forum DTW24-Ignite event serves as a vibrant showcase of progress, partnership, and potential. Sessions will feature discussions on the latest trends and challenges facing the industry, while the Catalysts provide a hands-on look at the innovative solutions being developed.  

Catalyst projects are collaborative initiatives that bring together the collective power of the brightest minds and most influential industry figures to co-create solutions driving industry change through Open APIs, ODA, AI, and automation. Companies collaborate to unlock the possibilities of efficiency for businesses, optimize end-user experiences, and sustainable growth for all. This year Microsoft is thrilled to be actively contributing to two new phase catalysts alongside leaders from Vodafone, AT&T, Bell, Orange, Verizon, STC, Du, BT Group, and more.

• Responsible AI—Improving generative AI’s reliability for adoption at scale: This catalyst aims to address the challenges and risks associated with deploying generative AI models at scale, such as explainability, drift, and bias.
• DarkNOC: Generative AI propels insights driven NetOps—A new AI-driven cloud native stack for network assurance and service management: This catalyst aims to showcase how generative AI can enhance network assurance and service management, using a cloud native stack that aligns with industry-standard architecture, such as TM Forum ODA and Open APIs.

For those seeking a more granular view of the event, my LinkedIn post offers a wealth of information. My detailed account captures the essence of our presence at the event including information on all speaking engagements. 

Innovation Hub and ODA Accelerator

Our recent collaboration with the TM Forum Innovation Hub marks a significant milestone in our journey. By contributing to the ODA Accelerator initiative, we are helping to shape a modular, agile, and future-proof digital architecture that will serve as the backbone of the telecommunications industry for years to come. 

Microsoft has significantly contributed to the ODA program by signing the ODA Manifesto, joining the Innovation Hub, and supporting its development. We aim to transform the industry from legacy operation support system (OSS) and business support system (BSS) to cloud-native software, using standardized plug-and-play components, data models, and Open APIs. We have also created a cloud-based telecommunications ecosystem using the ODA reference canvas on Microsoft Azure, helping to drive digital transformation in the telecommunications sector.²

Our booth will serve as a hub for engagement, where attendees can experience our technologies and interact with our experts. Our in-booth presence includes stations covering: 

Developer velocity

At Microsoft, we believe that empowering developers is key to driving innovation. The ODA canvas and accelerator, along with GitHub Copilot for Open APIs, are revolutionizing the way developers work, enabling them to build more efficiently and effectively. The success stories from Orange and Lumen, as detailed in their respective case studies, are a testament to the transformative impact of these tools.

Our collaborations with TM Forum members Exos Systems and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have enriched the developer ecosystem, providing a range of tools and resources that enhance productivity and creativity. Notable projects with Jio, Proximus, Amdocs, Lifecycle Software, and the AT&T SHINE Catalyst further illustrate the breadth and depth of our commitment to developer velocity.

As part of the AI Service Portfolio, TCS has developed their AI First Telco Modernization framework leveraging their rich experience in TM Forum ODA and our strategic partnership with Microsoft.

It combines the power of TM Forum, ODA Framework, and GitHub Copilot for an accelerated modernization of software applications spanning across ideation, development, testing, and deployment. TCS has successfully implemented these generative AI tools for its clients resulting in higher productivity gains and faster innovation. TCS and Microsoft invite you to join our special GitHub Copilot session, featuring experts from Microsoft, TCS, and Proximus.

Jio is at the forefront of technological innovation within the telecommunications sector, consistently pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.

To accelerate the TM Forum ODA Component project, Jio has contributed to the ODA canvas reference implementation. Their journey began with the deployment of the ODA Canvas on Azure, which has evolved to encompass a suite of components, each designed to enhance telecommunications operations:

• Jio Network Performance Management ensures optimal network functionality.
• Jio Integrated Inventory Management streamlines asset tracking and management.
• Jio Floworx revolutionizes product validation and ordering processes.

These innovative components showcase Jio’s commitment to leading the industry’s digital transformation.

Microsoft is excited to collaborate with Jio and TM Forum on this groundbreaking journey. We invite you to experience this innovation firsthand at Jio booth (Jio Platforms Limited—Booth 232) and the Azure ODA Canvas reference implementation at Microsoft booth (Booth—315J), where the future of telecommunications comes to life.

Customer experience

Customer experience is at the forefront of our efforts in the telecommunications industry. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center is a prime example of our dedication to improving customer engagement. With Microsoft Copilot Studio, we are enabling the rapid development and deployment of intelligent, generative AI-powered automated care bots capable of resolving the vast majority of customer inquiries.

To assist telcos as they move to incorporate AI across their business, Microsoft, Accenture, and Avanade collaborated on a whitepaper titled “Reinventing telecommunications in the era of generative AI.” This paper explores the transformative potential of generative AI in the telecommunications industry and discusses how AI technologies can enhance network efficiency, improve user experiences, and redefine communication.

Vodafone is a great example of the effectiveness of these bots in a real-world scenario, demonstrating how they can significantly improve customer experience while reducing costs, expediting care, and improving net promoter score (NPS).

Charles Lamanna’s keynote at Microsoft Build 2024 provides further insights into these advancements, highlighting how telcos can use Copilot Studio to rapidly create intelligent Copilots of their own. Charles details how telcos can evolve today’s virtual agents into powerful Copilots that don’t just chat, but are capable of running in the background, asynchronously, and executing workflows with true agent capabilities.

To boost productivity and streamline employee experiences, Lumen Technologies has embraced Microsoft 365 Copilot. This generative AI tool integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Teams, providing employees with an intelligent virtual assistant. Finally, the collaboration between Microsoft and ServiceNow is pivotal in this journey. By combining our expertise, we’ve created a smarter way to work, where generative AI assistants coexist and interact. By integrating Now Assist, ServiceNow’s generative AI experience, telco employees receive conversational responses to requests and connects them to AI-powered workflows on the ServiceNow platform.

Network intelligence

The transformation of network operations is a critical component of our vision for the telecommunications industry. Microsoft Fabric Real-Time Analytics is at the heart of this transformation, enabling the collection and analysis of massive quantities of network data from complex, multi-partner environments. 

Accenture and Microsoft are demonstrating the powerful capabilities of Microsoft Fabric and Azure Data Explorer, enhanced by Accenture’s crowdsourcing data and exceptional engineering.

This collaboration aims to deliver actionable insights for Network Quality of Experience (QoE) management and planning, transforming the optimization efforts of mobile operators.

Our focus is to visualize performance issues that are:

1. Easy to comprehend and analyze.
2. Prioritized based on Accenture, umlaut score, and subscriber impact.
3. Root cause analytics, such as coverage and interference issues.
4. Easily integrate with daily workflows and additional data sources.

We will showcase how Accenture, leveraging Microsoft technology, can deliver an advanced platform built using crowdsourcing data, enriched by our custom analytics, and delivered through a user-friendly web-based front end. 

The Accenture integration shows how these capabilities align with the TM Forum Autonomous Networks initiative. Our Azure Programmable Connectivity, detailed in Ricardo’s latest blog, along with the participation of leading carriers, underscores our commitment to adhering to industry standards like the TMF931 Open Gateway Onboarding and Ordering Component Suite. 

Tecnotree recently authored an article titled “Delayering in Telcos: A Path to Agility and Efficiency” which discusses the significant transformation in the telecommunications sector, driven by the need for cost optimization and operational efficiency. It highlights the importance of delayering organizational structures and the role of Azure Programmable Connectivity (APC) in enhancing agility and customer experience.

Our partnership with Norwood Systems in voice intelligence is another example of how we are enhancing network operations. CogVoice™, their innovative AI Agent platform, is designed to re-monetize communications service provider (CSP) voice networks by delivering highly personalized and low-cost cognitive AI agent applications with breakthrough dialog performance. Leveraging Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Speech, CogVoice brings exceptional natural language processing and speech-to-text capabilities to CSP-hosted agentic services. 

The new telco data model

We are excited to introduce a new Azure Synapse database template for wireless that promises to redefine how data is managed and utilized within the telecommunications sector. This model is designed to streamline operations, foster innovation, and enable a more seamless integration of services across the industry. 

The TM Forum Modern Data Architecture (MDA) is a strategic framework that outlines how data is collected, managed, and utilized—leveraging technologies like cloud computing and big data platforms to support scalable, flexible, and efficient data processing and analysis. We’ve been working with customers and partners to define and implement data platforms that apply this methodology. Most recently, Tech Mahindra launched a unified workbench on Microsoft Fabric, enhancing data workflow efficiency and accelerating digital transformation for enterprises. Similarly, LigaData offers a transformative approach to telecom data management with its Telecom Data Fabric, which leverages Azure to reduce integration time and enhance enterprise data agility and innovation.

Connect with us

Microsoft’s journey with the TM Forum and the ODA is a story of continuous innovation and unwavering support for the telecommunications industry. As we look to the future, our commitment remains strong—to foster an ecosystem where collaboration, technological excellence, and a shared vision drive us toward a more interconnected world. Join us at the event and connect with us online to be part of this exciting journey. 

¹Microsoft expands commitment to ODA and all other TM Forum highlights from MWC 2023!, TM Forum.

²Microsoft expands its commitment to TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture, inform.tmforum.org.

The post Microsoft’s pioneering role in shaping the telecommunications landscape appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

At the heart of this transformation is our global ecosystem of partners and developers who build industry solutions on the Microsoft Cloud. Organizations are only beginning to grasp the full extent of the possibilities that lie ahead to innovate and transform with AI. Microsoft and our partners are investing in industry-specific capabilities to help customers adopt revolutionary AI solutions faster like copilot templates to create AI assistants for high value scenarios and industry data solutions that provide a data and analytics foundation to ensure your data is AI ready. 

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The age of copilots

Copilots, your everyday AI companion that assists with complex cognitive tasks, helps streamline operations, and enhances decision making, are becoming integral to almost every aspect of work and creativity. Powered by advancements in machine learning and natural language processing, copilots are impacting nearly every industry and business function, such as healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, and agriculture.  

For example in healthcare, Stanford Medicine is deploying Nuance DAX™ Copilot, an AI assistant that automates clinical documentation such as visit summaries and care instructions, to reduce heavy administrative workloads that lead to physician burnout and expand access to personalized, high-quality care. In a preliminary survey of Stanford Health Care clinicians using DAX Copilot, 78% reported that it expedited clinical notetaking.  

In manufacturing, Volvo Group is using Microsoft Azure AI to streamline invoice and document processing in their customer service and finance departments, which had to process critical internal and customer-facing paperwork in various forms from emails to PDFs and written bills. By extracting data from images, like photographs and stamps, and translating documents to and from multiple languages, Volvo Group is saving more than 850 manual hours per month. 

These success stories are just the beginning. We are also collaborating with industry partners to bring the power of copilots to their workforce and their customers, including LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) in financial services, Bayer in agriculture, and Siemens in manufacturing.  

LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group), one of the world’s leading providers of financial markets infrastructure with more than 45,000 customers in over 170 countries, is using AI to improve productivity with interoperable, secure, and compliant solutions that help optimize strategies and enable faster data-driven decisions in financial services. By integrating Microsoft Copilot capabilities into existing workflows, LSEG is working with Microsoft to build a new, interoperable solution to streamline meeting preparation for financial services professionals like investment bankers, built directly into Microsoft Teams. This solution makes it easier to discover data, summarize documents, and support investment bankers, making their customer interactions more efficient and informed. 

Additionally, LSEG is creating custom chatbots and copilots within its flagship LSEG Workspace platform that makes it easier to switch to Teams through seamless, end-to-end workflows, enabling interoperability with custom application environments to provide quick answers to financial queries. Capitalizing on AI, LSEG’s solutions will transform the financial services industry by improving productivity and accelerating value creation for customers. 

Bayer, a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of healthcare and agriculture, is piloting a unique generative AI solution for agriculture, trained by Bayer agronomists using proprietary Bayer product data. The solution aims to assist Bayer team members by providing quick and accurate answers and support to agronomy, farm management, and Bayer agricultural product-related questions. The system responds to natural language queries, generating concise, relevant information within seconds, a significant improvement over the traditional time-consuming process of information gathering and synthesizing. AI is quickly becoming an indispensable technology for the agriculture industry, with the potential to serve agronomists and benefit farmers globally. The collaboration with Microsoft as a leading technology partner is enabling exploration of ways to integrate this technology into Bayer’s digital offerings, with broad opportunities for collaboration with other agricultural offerings and partners. 

Siemens is a leading technology company focused on industry, infrastructure, transport, and healthcare. Siemens’ Industrial Copilot is a generative AI-powered assistant designed to enhance human-machine collaboration and boost productivity in manufacturing, exemplifying the transformative solutions and sustainable growth potential of our global partner ecosystem. Siemens Industrial Copilot allows users to rapidly generate, optimize, and debug complex automation code, and significantly shorten simulation times from weeks to minutes. It ingests automation and process simulation information from Siemens’ open digital business platform, Siemens Xcelerator, and is enhanced with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service.  

To find out more about solutions specific to your industry, please visit Microsoft AppSource.  

New copilot templates for retail and sustainability

In our ongoing effort to foster innovation, we are excited to introduce more ways to help you jumpstart your copilot journey. At Microsoft Build 2024, we announced new copilot templates for retail and sustainability. 

1. Store operations help retail frontline workers improve customer service and productivity by using natural language to query store operating procedures, processes, and policies on topics such as product returns. 

2. Sustainability insights enable users to easily obtain insights, facts, and data around their own company’s sustainability goals and progress. 

Available through Copilot Studio, these templates provide ready-made dialogs, intents, entities, prompts, and actions that can be easily customized and extended according to the user’s needs. 

Additionally, we will be adding industry-specific prompts to the Microsoft Copilot Lab. These new prompts will help customers quickly get started using Copilot for sector, job, and role-specific scenarios and can be customized with domain specific details, best practices, and industry context to reduce trial and error and ensure high-quality output. 

Fuel AI with industry data solutions in Microsoft Fabric

An AI-ready data estate is critical to the success of AI. Analyzing vast amounts of data, often unstructured or semi-structured, poses a significant challenge for any organization. Our industry data solutions built on top of the Microsoft Fabric platform provides a one-stop-shop for data integration, data engineering, real-time analytics, data science, and business intelligence without compromising the privacy and security of your data. Data solutions in Microsoft Fabric provide a robust platform for customers and developers to manage all their data in one place, leverage a suite of analytics experiences that work together seamlessly, and apply AI to help make data driven decisions that address challenges unique to their industry. Some of these data solutions available in preview include:  

Healthcare data solutions in Microsoft Fabric (preview) 

This tailored solution enables healthcare organizations to break down data silos and harmonize their disparate healthcare data in a single unified store where analytics and AI workloads can operate at-scale. Leveraging the native capabilities of the platform, healthcare organizations can create connected experiences at each point of care, empower their workforce, and unlock value from clinical and operational data.  

Retail data solutions in Microsoft Fabric (preview) 

For retailers to truly deliver personalized experiences through generative AI for their customers, the first step is to break down data silos within their organizations and get a holistic understanding of their data estate. A unified data platform is the key to unlocking deeper, actionable insights that give retailers the ability to drive more meaningful experiences for customers. Achieving data compatibility is also a key step to getting value from AI investments, ultimately allowing retailers to optimize store operations, enhance store associates’ performance and productivity, and uncover insights for product upselling and shelf optimization. Partners like Sitecore are already connecting and building on top of the platform to further help retailers overcome data incompatibility and unlock new capabilities in Microsoft Cloud for Retail. 

Sustainability data solutions in Microsoft Fabric (preview)  

The solution allows organizations to centralize and transform disparate data into standardized environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data lakes. It also enables the collection and processing of subscription and resource level emissions data. Users can connect to their data in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability solutions to create custom environmental notebooks and build insights to better understand their carbon, water, and waste emissions. These capabilities are provided through prebuilt and preconfigured Fabric resources, that can be easily configured for your sustainability needs. 

Resources to drive innovation

To get started and learn more about our complete set of data and AI industry solutions, visit Microsoft Industry Clouds or sign-in to your account on Microsoft Cloud Solution center. 

Learn more at the Copilot learning hub, where you can discover how Microsoft Copilot can help you in your specific industry.  

Learn more about these announcements at Microsoft Build 2024

• Microsoft Build opening keynote with Satya Nadella, Kevin Scott, and Rajesh Jha
• Next generation AI for developers with the Microsoft Cloud
• Enabling ISVs to transform industries in the age of copilots
• Launch AI applications and get to market faster with marketplace
• Transforming the most valuable industry workflows with Copilot
• Shaping next-gen development: the future of Copilot in Power Platform
• Microsoft Fabric: What’s new and what’s next
• Build your own copilot with Microsoft Copilot Studio
• Grow your business with Copilot extensions and marketplace

¹Number of employees worldwide from 1991 to 2024, Statista.

The post Accelerating business transformation with industry AI and copilots appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Ahead of the fair, we also published a new report in collaboration with MIT Technology Review Insights uncovering the current state and ambitions around AI in the manufacturing industry. The report clearly indicates that manufacturers are excited about the potential of AI and plan to make significant investments over the next two to three years to deploy AI at scale to unlock innovation and enhance efficiency.

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Transforming the manufacturing value chain with AI

The Microsoft experience focused on how AI transforms the manufacturing value chain: starting with accelerating product development cycles, improving efficiency in the factory, making operations more sustainable, and finally empowering every employee across business functions with the latest AI tools. These four opportunities manifested as the four distinct neighborhoods in the booth, with demos and customer stories populating each one.

1. Unlock innovation in design and engineering

AI has the potential to unlock a tremendous amount of innovation in design and engineering by allowing manufacturers to simulate and generate new options faster. It can help accelerate development cycles for new products and services as shown by our customers Kuka & Schneider Electric, how manufacturers can accelerate the programming of industrial robots and programmable logic controllers (PLCs) with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, significantly speeding up development times. Siemens, along with customer Harting, showcased how generative AI can be used to speed up the design process of new industrial connectors and revolutionize mass-customization. Additionally, our partners Threedy, PTC, Hexagon, Capgemini, and Ansys showcased how applying technologies from digital twins to mixed reality to the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing accelerates product development cycles.

2. Enable intelligent factories

Making factories smarter is top of mind for manufacturers. In this area of the booth, we showed customers how they can improve quality, resource utilization and accelerate issue resolution in the factory with industrial IoT, data, and AI. Along with our partners Accenture, Avanade, Sight Machine, Rockwell, and AVEVA, we showcased the manufacturing data solutions in Fabric (preview) and the Copilot template for factory operations on Azure AI. These solutions help manufacturers unify their information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) data estates in an industry standard data model on Fabric. The Copilot template then uses this unified data to answer questions asked in natural language to help resolve issues on the factory floor. In addition, we showcased solutions from partners such as Tulip, TCS, SymphonyAI, SAP with Syntax, Cognite, Weavix, and Unmanned Life and from customers including Andritz, Chevron, Electrolux, and Ecopetrol that utilize Microsoft Azure IoT Operations, Azure private multi-access edge compute (MEC), Azure AI, Fabric, and more to enable intelligent factories.

3. Create resilient and sustainable operations

Manufacturing companies are looking to make their supply chain and service operations more resilient and sustainable. In this neighborhood we showed how they can achieve their goals using the power of cloud, AI, and mixed reality. In collaboration with Volvo Penta, we showed how using Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service and Guides improves technician training, service manager workflows, and eventually, delivers better customer outcomes for their marine engines. With Caterpillar, we showcased how their Service Information System built on Azure provides detailed service information for CAT products from 1977 up to today. We also showcased Microsoft Sustainability Manager, which helps organizations to record, report, and reduce their environmental impacts through the power of data and AI. Our partners Blue Yonder, O9, and Tools Group demonstrated the power of cloud and AI to make supply chains more resilient.

4. Enhance employee productivity with AI

AI has the potential to unlock productivity and innovation for employees in all areas of the business. In this area of the booth, we showcased how Microsoft Copilot in products such as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Security, Microsoft Power Platform, Fabric, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Windows, and Bing on Surface devices can empower employees across business functions in the manufacturing enterprise to achieve more. We showcased how Microsoft Copilot for Security and Microsoft Defender for IoT empower security teams to protect their OT environments, bringing collaboration to the forefront by reducing knowledge barriers for securing such environments. In the Fabric demo, we showed how manufacturing customers can use the suite of analytics workloads in Fabric, Copilot in Fabric, and direct integration with generative AI models to transform their factory operations.

The BMW Group showcase was the connecting thread between each of the booth neighborhoods. Built in collaboration with Hexagon, NVIDIA, PTC, and Rockwell Automation, business leaders and dignitaries could experience how technology enables cutting-edge transformation through AI-assisted design, connected data, and agile production for organizations like BMW Group. Featured in the exclusive Hannover Messe press tour highlight, which hosted more than 40 international journalists, this demo garnered significant attention for depicting how the integration of technology is changing manufacturing as we know it.

Thought leadership and continued innovation

A space for thought leadership, the Microsoft theater was very busy this year, bringing together C-level leaders, innovators, and business leaders eager to learn about how technology is changing the sector, what their peers are doing, and the importance of diversity within manufacturing. This space connected customers to the experts: creating a unique forum of innovation where solutions to complex industrial problems were revealed, and where ideas were brought to life.

Covering topics from the return on investment (ROI) of 5G factories, to delivering practical insights for how exactly to build your own copilots, the theater sessions delivered valuable insights on the most pressing questions the industry faces today. Here are a few highlights of the theater sessions:

• Celebrating women in manufacturing brought together influential voices of women in manufacturing to explore their career journeys, achievements, challenges, and best leadership practices to inspire the next generation of female talent.
• Industrial transformation with AI: A discussion with Kraft and Schneider Electric shared how cloud, IoT, and mixed reality technologies together with AI are reshaping entire value chains.
• Microsoft partners, including IBM, PwC, Fractal, DXC, Honeywell, and Rescale spoke about how their solutions built with Microsoft technologies can help transform all aspects of manufacturing from design and engineering to the factory floor.
• Microsoft Intelligent Manufacturing Award showcase, in partnership with Roland Berger, celebrated the winners of the fifth annual Microsoft Intelligent Manufacturing Awards (MIMA), a prestigious award recognizing innovation in digitalizing the manufacturing industry in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). The award honors the most promising and innovative digital best practices from the industrial and operations sectors: production, purchasing, supply chain, engineering, and after sales. This year’s MIMA winners were Mercedes Benz, Northvolt, Malvern Paralytical, Wilo, Andritz, and Danfoss.

Learn more about solutions from Microsoft

Finally, we would like to thank our customers and partners who joined us at the booth as exhibitors, along with the thousands of attendees who visited the booth to engage with us and looking forward to Hannover Messe 2025. To learn more about the latest solutions for manufacturing, please visit Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing.

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