At Microsoft, prioritizing sustainable practices with suppliers has also helped us uncover new opportunities for innovation and cost optimization.  

Our new guide, Reduce Risk, Create Resilience: Advancing Supply Chain Sustainability, outlines how data intelligence and collaboration can transform supply chains to be more agile, sustainable, and resilient. We offer lessons from our own experience as we strive to meet our ambitions to be carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste by 2030, all while protecting ecosystems. And we provide actionable insights and practical steps to help customers address reporting pressures, mitigate risks, and seize opportunities for innovation, ultimately driving resilience and long-term value.

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Aligning data and systems for the road ahead 

Organizations are facing growing regulations and customer expectations to prioritize sustainable practices. To make meaningful change, organizations and their suppliers must share data and work together to address challenges across the ecosystem.  

Advanced analytics and AI are transforming supply chain sustainability at Microsoft. By leveraging these technologies, we accelerate day-to-day work, gain real-time insights, and drive co-innovation to meet sustainability reporting requirements as well as business continuity needs. 

For instance, our procurement team used Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability to centralize supplier emissions data and streamline processes. By integrating AI-powered automation, such as automated review of supplier assurance letters, we reduced survey processing time by 92%. 

Eckes-Granini, a European producer of name-brand fruit juices, is committed to ensuring that all its raw ingredients are sustainably sourced by 2030. The company used Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform including Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Power BI to connect to essential data sources and create precise visualizations of suppliers’ progress. This enables Eckes-Granini to track risks and follow up with suppliers accordingly. Now almost 70% of Eckes-Granini’s juice ingredients meet sustainability standards, and the company is better prepared to respond to Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Act.

Choosing carbon-free electricity solutions 

Carbon-free electricity (CFE), such as wind, solar, and hydroelectric power, can be a powerful lever for decarbonization through improved fuel efficiency while helping to reduce exposure to varying fuel prices. These solutions can play an integral role in industry decarbonization goals, such as the International Maritime Organization’s target of reducing a 50% of their absolute CO₂ emissions from 2008 levels, by 2050.^{1 2} Organizations can help scale these efforts and the benefits of CFE in supply chains by launching supplier enablement programs.  

To help meet our own carbon reduction targets, Microsoft now requires suppliers to transition to 100% carbon-free electricity for the goods and services delivered to Microsoft by 2030. We’re making this easier for suppliers through our Supplier REach Portal, co-created with 3Degrees, to streamline access and procurement of CFE; and Zettawatts’ Supplier CFE Program, to provide assistance for reaching our CFE requirement, from understanding CFE procurement to discussing goals, developing plans and budgets, and reviewing agreements. 

Turkish energy company Enerjisa Üretim established a round-the-clock remote operation center that receives more than 50,000 signals per second from its large network of hydropower, wind, and solar plants. It processes the data using an Azure-based solution including Azure IoT Hub, Azure Digital Twins, and Azure Machine Learning. The solution delivers real-time monitoring and data analytics on power plant performance—all in one centralized location. It also uses Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to forecast future outcomes, predicting average daily production for turbines for up to two months.

Creating new value from resource optimization 

The World Economic Forum estimates that adopting circular business models could unlock up to USD4.5 trillion in value by 2030.³ By adopting circularity, companies can not only help meet regulatory requirements but also drive new innovation, enhance their brand reputation, and differentiate their business. 

With a focus on the long-term value of resources, companies can uncover ways to reduce environmental impact while also increasing value for the business. Supply chains are central to this opportunity. 

To help meet our goal of becoming a zero waste company by 2030, Microsoft set a target of reusing or recycling 90% of our cloud hardware by 2025. We not only reached that target a year early—we exceeded it. In 2024, we reached a 90.9% reuse and recycling rate of our cloud servers and components.

Within our global datacenters, Microsoft Circular Centers are foundational to this work, enabling us to process and route decommissioned servers and hardware components to their next useful lives, such as internal reuse, other electronic supply chains, or academies that train datacenter technicians. 

Reinventing supply chain logistics  

Supply chain logistics challenges are bigger than any one company. To meet growing regulatory and market pressures, organizations need to leverage data and AI technology across their ecosystems and industries. Sharing data at a more granular level, they can identify opportunities to improve infrastructure and boost sustainability across whole logistics networks.  

Applying this principle, Microsoft has moved our cloud supply chain to renewable diesel in our road freight operations in Europe and California while keeping existing equipment in use. 

We’re also advancing aviation decarbonization by integrating sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) into shipments of cloud hardware. Through multi-year agreements, we’re working to reduce air freight emissions and help scale the adoption of SAF across the industry.³ 

Results so far include: 

• 50% lower emissions for road freight operations in Europe and California, using renewable diesel.
• 17,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (mtCO2e) saved through SAF, compared to conventional transportation fuels.
• 73% lower relative carbon intensity of our cloud logistics supply chain since 2022 through lower-carbon transportation and logistics consolidation. 

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Get started mapping your sustainable supply chains 

Supply chain sustainability is unique for every organization. Take the first steps by exploring the ins and outs of using data technology and collaboration to drive environmental reporting compliance, adaptability, customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and innovation.  

• Dive in with the guide: Reduce Risk, Create Resilience: Advancing Supply Chain Sustainability. 
• Explore Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability.
• Read about AI transformations for sustainability.

¹ The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines decarbonization as: “The process by which countries, individuals or other entities aim to achieve zero fossil carbon existence. Typically refers to a reduction of the carbon emissions associated with electricity, industry and transport.” (IPCC)

² Decarbonized supply chains are resilient supply chains, McKinsey, 2022.

³ Circular Transformation of Industries: Unlocking Economic Value, World Economic Forum, 2025.

The post Reduce risk and improve resilience: Insights from Microsoft on advancing supply chain sustainability appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Subtle and complex in nature, social inflation impacts profitability by driving up claims payments. Outpacing economic inflation by 1.7% in the United States from 2017 to 2022,¹ social inflation drove a 57% surge in liability claims over the past 10 years,² and led to a USD20 billion increase in commercial auto liability payouts from 2010 to 2019.³ 

In response, insurers are increasingly turning to technology, particularly AI, to help predict trends, enhance underwriting processes, and automate workflows. And now, with the potential application of a cloud-based solution that lets companies explore insights collaboratively, insurers can have more options.  

Helping insurers forge effective long-term technology strategies is core to our vision for intelligent insurance and our work with Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services. In the case of social inflation, cloud and AI can help insurers mitigate the incidence and impact of unpredictable outcomes. 

How cloud and AI can help solve the social inflation challenge 

To improve competitiveness amid a volatile landscape, most insurers have invested in cloud modernization over the past decade. This provides an essential foundation for many critical benefits. For example, solutions built on Microsoft Power BI can track and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs), perform predictive analytics, and generate real-time insights.  

Generative AI is now expanding upon these core benefits to deliver dramatic improvements in productivity, operations, and enhanced workflows. For many firms, the first step in realizing value from generative AI is to adapt Microsoft 365 Copilot, which is integrated seamlessly in Microsoft productivity applications. Drawing on the full scope of Microsoft 365 data within the firm (such as emails, Word and Excel documents, Teams communications, and more) Microsoft 365 Copilot can, for instance, help a claims analyst generate a report that draws on the best available information from research reports, emails, calls, and external data sources.  

Many firms are also building custom agents to address specific use cases on challenges such as streamlining processes, enhancing claims processing workflows, and improving overall productivity. Additional value is also being unlocked as firms transform their unstructured data into structured formats, which enables even more robust predictive models and other advanced data analytics.  

To help address social inflation, generative AI and agent functionality can be used to gain important new insights, such as the following:  

• News monitoring: AI-powered tools can continuously scan and analyze news articles from myriad sources. Thanks to natural language processing (NLP), these tools can identify relevant news items, summarize key points, and highlight trends or significant events. This helps businesses stay updated on industry developments, competitor activities, and market shifts.
• Market insights: AI can process vast amounts of market data, such as economic indicators, consumer behavior patterns, and stock prices. With the power of machine learning algorithms, AI can detect patterns, predict market trends, and offer actionable insights. An AI agent can then present these insights seamlessly in daily workflows, helping decision-makers to make informed choices. 
• Marketing campaigns: AI can track the performance of marketing campaigns by analyzing data from multiple channels such as social media, email, and web analytics. It can measure engagement, conversion rates, and return on investment (ROI), providing real-time feedback on campaign effectiveness. AI agents can also assist in generating reports and suggesting optimizations based on the data. 

Looking forward, these capabilities will be further enhanced with agentic AI—autonomous systems that can plan, adapt, and act to achieve goals, requiring minimal human input as they interact with other tools and environments. For insurers, agentic AI can help in ways such as the following: 

• Automating data collection: Agents can autonomously gather data from multiple sources, helping ensure that information is always up to date.
• Providing real-time alerts: Agents can monitor and respond to specific events or changes in data and send real-time alerts to stakeholders to help ensure prompt responses.
• Generating insights: By continuously analyzing data, agents can identify patterns, correlations, and trends, helping businesses to stay ahead of the curve. 

Confidential computing: Opening new opportunities while protecting sensitive data 

To gain new benefits from more sensitive data, such as claims or confidential information, an additional layer of security and confidence is now offered by Azure confidential computing.

Azure confidential computing creates a protected environment called Azure Confidential Clean Rooms that lets different teams within a company or across multiple companies perform joint data analysis and develop risk models, fraud detection models, and more, using advanced encryption techniques to anonymize data.

Across the financial services industry, confidential computing is increasingly being enlisted to help unlock new opportunities. For example, financial messaging provider Swift is using it in an innovative anomaly detection model, enabling the model to be trained on distributed datasets without copying or moving data from secure locations. Beyond regulated industries like financial services and healthcare, confidential computing is also being used for solutions in retail, manufacturing, and energy sectors. 

In addressing social inflation, confidential computing can help insurers understand the hidden drivers that contribute to rising costs, distort risk assessments, and influence claim outcomes. This involves identifying patterns and connections between contributing factors, such as litigation trends or the influence of social media and viral campaigns that can amplify public sentiment.  

With the power of AI combined with confidential computing, actuaries, underwriters, and claims professionals can use natural language prompts to ask questions of data, semantic search can recognize their meaning and intent, and the system can write coherent responses and deliver appropriate resources. This offers an entirely new and transformative way where, by analyzing interconnected factors, insurers can identify high-risk cases and insights that suggest propensity towards social inflation claims, enabling insurance to develop proactive strategies such as early settlements or policy adjustments in high-risk areas. 

Of course, bringing teams or organizations together to consider the adoption of a broad solution approach like confidential computing involves more than just technology. It also requires structure, guidance, cooperation, and leadership. Microsoft is here to help for the long run and enable such collaboration starting with the industry leading Microsoft Azure cloud platform, and our ongoing commitment to security and responsible AI, and our long-term leadership in insurance and financial services.  

We are excited to partner with insurers and the industry at large to help innovate new solutions and business opportunities through cloud and AI. To get started with your business, reach out to your Microsoft representative and we’ll be happy to explore the possibilities. 

Learn more 

• To learn more about our solutions for insurers, visit our Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services website.
• For a deeper look at confidential computing, read the Azure Confidential Computing Blog.  

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¹ Swiss Re Institute, Social inflation: litigation costs drive claims inflation, September 2024.

² Risk and Insurance, Social Inflation Drives 57% Surge in US Liability Claims Over a Decade, September 2024.

³ Boston Consulting Group, P&C Insurance topics for 2024.

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Modernizing OSS and BSS: From reactive to agentic AI

OSS and BSS have long been the operational and commercial backbone of telecoms. Generally speaking, OSS manages network operations—provisioning, inventory, and fault detection—while BSS handles transactional functions like billing and customer management. Traditionally, these environments have remained fragmented, hindering a unified view spanning the customer, the network, and the business.

Thanks to advances in data management, AI and generative AI, these systems can now move beyond reactive troubleshooting to automated, predictive, and—even more significantly—agentic solutions, in which AI autonomously orchestrates tasks end-to-end. Whether it’s proactively responding to service degradations or autonomously managing resolving customer issues, agentic AI promises unprecedented cost mitigation, efficiency, and agility. 

However, effectively harnessing the proactive benefits of agentic AI requires telecom providers to establish a unified source of data truth through seamless data accessibility, rather than trying to consolidate all data onto a single platform. By enabling unified access to network, operational, and business data through a singular data catalog—such as Microsoft Fabric, which utilizes shortcuts and mirroring—telecoms ensure AI-powered insights are accurate and comprehensive. Without cohesive access to high-quality data, AI-powered insights risk becoming fragmented or misleading, limiting the transformative potential of autonomous decision-making and potentially leading to inaccurate, risky decisions. 

The critical importance of data accessibility and cohesion is exemplified by AT&T’s migration to Azure Databricks, highlighting tangible benefits: 

1. Unified data access and operational visibility: Instead of traditional consolidation, unified data access through platforms like Microsoft Fabric provides comprehensive context, enabling AI algorithms to generate precise, actionable insights. AT&T’s migration to Azure Databricks illustrates how improving accessibility to quality data across silos empowers technical staff, enhances analytical capabilities, and improves decision-making accuracy—dramatically reducing the risk of overlooking critical dependencies or making suboptimal decisions.
2. It enables closed-loop intelligence: Agentic AI extends beyond merely analyzing data; it proactively acts in near real-time. A cohesive data access approach, like the one implemented by AT&T, facilitates rapid anomaly detection and automated corrective actions within network and revenue systems. This closed-loop intelligence is crucial for next-generation AIOps, enabling seamless and automated responses across the entire telecom infrastructure. 
3. It accelerates new revenue opportunities: Providing cohesive access to operational and business data creates agile, scalable monetization pathways. AT&T’s adoption of Azure Databricks accelerated its ability to launch new services by automating complex data processing and analytics tasks. Similarly, telecoms leveraging unified data access solutions can rapidly provision and monetize services such as customized 5G and 6G experiences or on-demand network slicing—shifting from manual processes to dynamic, programmable offerings.

A modern, agentic, cloud-native OSS and BSS environment built on public cloud principles doesn’t just serve the operator; it also creates a frictionless platform for third-party and ecosystem partners to plug in. Whether it’s Internet of Things (IoT) device vendors, over-the-top content providers, or enterprise service integrators, cloud-native OSS with open APIs allows rapid partner onboarding and co-creation. In turn, operators can easily expand their portfolio with new revenue streams—bolstering the business to business to everything (B2B2X) model—while still maintaining centralized oversight and robust security at scale. 

Agentic AI in action: From insight to autonomous operations

Faster time-to-market for new services

Traditionally, launching a new offering in telecom could take upward of 50 weeks, hindered by lengthy approvals, hardware provisioning, and siloed systems. In a cloud-native environment, operators can test, iterate, and deploy new products—like on-demand network slicing or advanced IoT bundles—in days or even hours. This speed is a game changer for operators transitioning from ‘telcos’ to ‘tech-cos,’ where continuous experimentation and rapid scaling of successful pilots are essential to staying competitive. Coupled with agentic AI that autonomously manages tasks, cloud-based OSS and BSS ensures you don’t just move faster—you move smarter. Leading telecoms are already laying the groundwork for agentic AI by adopting:

• Predictive analytics for network health: For instance, AI-powered anomaly detection can preempt equipment failures, but true autonomy means the system itself orders the replacement part, dispatches a technician, and reroutes traffic in the meantime—all driven by integrated data across OSS and field service management. 
• Proactive policy and billing: In a unified data environment, usage spikes or new IoT device activations can trigger dynamic policy updates in real time—while simultaneously adjusting billing parameters. This end-to-end automation requires that the network layer (OSS) and the revenue layer (BSS) share data instantly and accurately. 

Why run OSS on the public cloud?

As service catalogs explode and customer demands evolve more rapidly, operators need elastic, scalable infrastructure to shorten time-to-market and accommodate fluctuating loads. Public cloud delivers on-demand compute and storage, reducing capital expenses and enabling rapid innovation with built-in AI and machine learning services. Moreover, the global reach and reliability of platforms such as Microsoft Azure allow telecoms to replicate, secure, and manage their OSS across regions far more easily than traditional on-premises setups. By shifting OSS to a cloud-native model, operators can pivot from lengthy, monolithic upgrade cycles to nimble, iterative releases—critical for accelerating 5G and 6G services, IoT offerings, and B2B2X monetization scenarios.

Self-optimizing networks and beyond

While self-optimizing networks (SON) currently manages aspects of radio access networks, next-generation AI solutions extend self-optimization to the entire telecom domain. Microsoft Project Janus is an early example of how real-time AI-powered telemetry can proactively detect network anomalies, predict service degradations, and dynamically optimize network resources—laying the foundation for fully autonomous network operations. Telefónica España, for example, leveraged Azure AI and machine learning to achieve significant improvements in network performance and efficiency. By incorporating AI and big data technologies, Telefónica España is developing more intelligent networks capable of self-optimization and adaptation. This intelligence allows for a reduction in time to market for new solutions, enabling the company to swiftly implement innovations that enhance network performance and customer satisfaction. With advanced generative AI, AI-powered instructions can autonomously fine-tune network configurations, adapt capacity, and realign resources based on live traffic patterns. This orchestration is feasible only when AI has an enterprise-wide view of network, business, and operational data.

Embracing open standards and ecosystem collaboration

Just as critical as data consolidation is ensuring interoperability and flexibility. Many telecoms are turning to TM Forum’s Open APIs and adopting Open Digital Architecture (ODA) principles. These frameworks reduce vendor lock-in, streamline data exchange, and allow AI solutions to operate across heterogeneous environments. 

For example, TM Forum’s collaboration with Microsoft has accelerated the adoption of carrier-grade, open-source ODA canvases. By aligning Azure’s robust cloud capabilities with ODA standards, operators are now better equipped to innovate rapidly, simplify complex integrations, and significantly reduce the operational hurdles associated with legacy systems.

Microsoft plays a pivotal role in supporting these open standards, providing a cloud-native, modular approach fully aligned with ODA. A practical illustration is Sure Telecom’s adoption of Azure, where leveraging Microsoft’s open API framework allowed them to consolidate disparate data sources and achieve enhanced customer insights and operational efficiency. Microsoft’s platform delivers out-of-the-box integrations and open APIs that empower operators to harness AI-powered analytics and intelligent automation workflows, minimizing friction traditionally encountered during legacy system modernization. 

Achieving scale with cloud-native AI

A robust, cloud-native foundation is essential for scaling AI across complex telecommunication environments. Containerized microservices, DevOps practices, and serverless compute reduce operational overhead, allowing teams to focus on innovating rather than managing infrastructure. Within such environments: 

• Azure AI services streamlines the training, deployment, and monitoring of AI models across OSS and BSS workloads. 
• Microsoft Fabric fosters seamless data ingestion, orchestration, and transformation—critical for building that unified data estate necessary for agentic AI. 

By converging data and AI workloads in the cloud, telecoms can more quickly test and deploy innovative services that leverage advanced analytics for both operational efficiency and new revenue streams.

In addition to the operational and technical upsides, running on public cloud offers a more predictable and flexible cost model. Instead of large capital expenditures tied to peak capacity, operators pay only for what they consume. This shift in economics not only aligns with sporadic traffic spikes—common in modern usage-based and event-driven architectures—but also frees up budget to invest in strategic AI initiatives. By reducing hardware overhead, maintenance, and upgrade costs, telecoms can reinvest in higher-value activities such as AI-powered product innovation and partner ecosystem growth. 

Microsoft’s unique value: Building a telecom foundation for agentic AI

Microsoft combines a partner-centric approach with end-to-end technology solutions—bringing actionable capabilities to telecoms that want to realize AI-powered OSS and BSS at scale.

Key value streams include: 

1. Telecom-specific cloud and data services: Telecom-optimized solutions from Microsoft and its partners help unify network, operational, and customer data into a single source of truth. 
2. First-party AI agents: Microsoft’s growing suite of autonomous agents, such as those integrated within Dynamics 365, automate complex business processes—enhancing efficiency and decision-making across various telecom operations. 
3. Alignment with industry standards: Microsoft’s active support for TM Forum and ODA ensures an open, interoperable environment. Operators can adopt AI without overhauling existing infrastructure or incurring vendor lock-in. 
4. Security and compliance: As AI-powered automations become central to business functions, Microsoft provides enterprise-grade security and governance—critical for protecting sensitive network and customer data. 
5. Partner ecosystem: Collaborations with leading vendors—such as Amdocs, CSG, Blue Planet, ServiceNow, Netcracker, and system integrators—create end-to-end workflows that accelerate modernization and reduce complexity. Through these partnerships, Microsoft’s AI tools seamlessly integrate with telecom-specific applications.

Positioning for revenue impact and the autonomous future

When OSS and BSS data is unified and AI-powered processes take over routine tasks, telecoms can prioritize innovation that directly impacts the bottom line. Whether rolling out new network services or offering real-time network slicing for enterprise customers, the ability to act on consolidated data in an autonomous fashion sets operators apart in a hyper-competitive market.

Short-term gains include faster time-to-market for new services, reduced operational costs, and improved customer experiences. Longer term, fully autonomous, self-healing networks that optimize themselves and require minimal manual intervention, unlock new revenue streams through AI-powered insights. Project Janus is already demonstrating this shift—showcasing how AI-powered network intelligence moves beyond predictive analytics into autonomous, self-optimizing operations that reduce operational overhead and ensure peak performance with minimal human intervention.

Project Janus demonstrates how AI-powered network intelligence can move beyond predictive analytics into autonomous, self-optimizing networks—reducing operational overhead and ensuring peak performance with minimal human intervention. 

Ready to transform your operations?

The industry is moving beyond point solutions toward a future where agentic AI and unified data estates power autonomous operations. For telecom leaders, now is the time to ensure OSS and BSS modernization strategies align with open standards, prioritize data consolidation, and prepare for the emergence of fully autonomous networks.

Microsoft and its partners are here to guide you on this journey—from building robust cloud-native foundations and consolidating your data estate to delivering intelligent, revenue-focused transformations across OSS and BSS. By embracing this approach today, you’ll ensure your operations not only keep pace with evolving market demands but lead the next era of telecommunications innovation. 

Learn more about our AI and generative AI solutions for telecommunications and discover how we can help you lay the groundwork for the agentic AI revolution—starting with your most strategic asset: your data.

The post The transformative impact of AI and generative AI on OSS and BSS in telecommunications appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Hospitals and medical facilities have long relied on traditional virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions to provide staff access to critical information and tools across facilities and locations, as well as safeguard patient, employee, and corporate data. VDI can help healthcare organizations to better manage their IT infrastructure, securely expand access to digital tools and data, and reduce costs. Organizations seeking VDI solutions can turn to Azure Virtual Desktop to help manage and maintain their IT needs.  

For healthcare organizations looking for simplicity and to move beyond traditional VDI, Windows 365 is a cloud-based service that organizations can use to create Cloud PCs for your employees, contractors, or other users. Windows 365 allows IT admins to quickly and easily deploy Cloud PCs and to manage Cloud PCs alongside physical PCs within Microsoft Intune. Windows 365 provides the productivity, security, and collaboration benefits of Microsoft 365. 

As healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies, life sciences organizations, and more look to the future, Windows Cloud solutions from Microsoft provide virtualization solutions with the flexibility, scalability, and security of Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365.  

Supporting healthcare and clinical workloads with Azure Virtual Desktop   

Organizations looking for virtualization options have flexibility and control with Azure Virtual Desktop. It provides a secure, cost-effective way to support remote desktops and experiences from anywhere, across a variety of endpoints. Organizations throughout the healthcare industry use Azure Virtual Desktop to access clinical and productivity applications and hosted desktops when they need them. Azure Virtual Desktop is managed via the Microsoft Azure portal, allowing IT admins to create and manage a custom desktop virtualization environment to meet their organizations’ needs.  

Among the core business applications for healthcare providers are electronic health records (EHR). One of the top EHR solutions used by healthcare providers worldwide is Epic. Microsoft and Epic are working closely with healthcare organizations that are interested in being early adopters of running Epic Hyperdrive on Azure Virtual Desktop. We are using feedback from these early production pilots to prioritize our product development roadmap and have assembled the emerging best practices into a draft reference architecture. For more info and to follow future progress, please see the Azure Virtual Desktop Exploratory Platform Summary on Epic’s UserWeb (login required). 

Microsoft partner Imprivata also announced support for Azure Virtual Desktop on Windows endpoints in Virtual Kiosk and Shared Kiosk modes in November 2024, expanding its support beyond Azure Virtual Desktop on Linux devices. Imprivata solutions are often used by healthcare organizations to support “Tap and Go” badging capabilities with Azure Virtual Desktop virtual machines (VMs), so this expansion to Windows endpoints gives customers more options to configure their IT infrastructure to meet the needs of the healthcare workplace. 

Azure Virtual Desktop is designed with flexibility and security in mind, with a number of components for customers to configure and implement in a way that meets their IT requirements. Additional recent updates include:  

• Microsoft Intune Remote Help is expanding support beyond single session to also include the Azure Virtual Desktop multi-session capability, a significant milestone for IT admins managing shared virtual environments. 
• Organizations have additional configuration options with Azure Virtual Desktop for Azure Local (formerly Azure Stack HCI). Azure Local helps organizations meet performance or data locality needs, or support areas with poor connectivity to the Azure public cloud, by providing session hosts closer to their location or by extending deployment options to on-premises infrastructure. See Advanced Micro Devices’ (AMD’s) recent publishing of results of its Azure Virtual Desktop for Azure Local performance testing.  
• Other updates include session host configuration and update, dynamic autoscaling, and Mobile Application Management (MAM) support 

We continue to innovate and build Azure Virtual Desktop to meet the needs of organizations in healthcare. Visit the “What’s new in Azure Virtual Desktop?” page to learn more. 

Desktops in the cloud with Windows 365 

Some healthcare organizations may be looking for desktop virtualization options designed for easy deployment and management without significant VDI expertise or investment needed. Windows 365 is the Microsoft software as a service (SaaS) solution that provides end users with a familiar, personalized experience of Windows from anywhere, on any device. It becomes employees’ dedicated computer in the cloud, retaining their data, applications, and settings. Windows 365 Cloud PCs can be deployed and managed by the end user computing team alongside physical PCs using Intune.  

For healthcare organizations, some of the most common use cases Cloud PCs are used for include healthcare administrators, pharmacy and life science workers, call-center employees, and more. Windows 365 also provides flexibility for IT teams to quickly deploy and scale up or down the virtual desktops as needed, making it a great option for part-time or seasonal workers, or short-term contractors. Windows 365 Enterprise provides dedicated and personalized Cloud PCs to employees, enabling them to access their desktop in the Microsoft Cloud from any device, 24/7.  

Recent releases in Windows 365 offer even more options for healthcare organizations looking to expand access and build resiliency for their organization:  

• For organizations looking to expand access to Cloud PCs across a greater number of employees, Windows 365 Frontline allows one license to be shared by multiple users, one at a time, based on how the Cloud PCs are configured. In dedicated mode, three users will each have access to a personalized Cloud PC to be used during their shifts or working hours. In the shared mode, now generally available, a Frontline Cloud PC can be shared among a group of users on an intermittent basis, with a non-personalized experience. To learn more about Frontline plans, visit the Learn page.  
• Some teams or individuals require additional backup, data resiliency, or disaster recovery options. In addition to the Windows 365 Cross-region Disaster Recovery add-on, Microsoft just released Windows 365 Disaster Recovery Plus. This new add-on will provide quick recovery times and fully reserved capacity, independent of availability, helping to ensure fast and reliable recovery in an alternate region. This can be particularly important for healthcare organizations with additional regulatory or business requirements, including needs for greater geographic diversity, restore time objectives, and pre-allocated capacity. To read more about Windows 365 Disaster Recovery Plus, please visit the blog announcement. 

To learn more about the features and capabilities within Windows 365, please visit What’s new in Windows 365.  

Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop help organizations enhance productivity, stay secure, and reduce costs  

Organizations around the world are seeing the benefits of adopting Windows Cloud solutions. For many healthcare organizations, the focus is on how deploying these solutions can boost productivity, lower IT costs, and strengthen security in a scalable and balanced approach. 

The New Technology: The Projected Total Economic Impact™ of Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop, a 2025 study conducted by Forrester Consulting and commissioned by Microsoft to assess the benefits organizations can achieve with Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop, found a projected return on investment (ROI) ranging from 94% to 217%, with a net present value (NPV) between USD3.2 million and USD7.4 million over three years for a composite organization with 2,000 employees. The study also determined that employees and contractors using Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop save 6 to 12 minutes per day from avoided outages and latency compared to their previous environments. This translates to significant productivity gains, allowing healthcare organizations to optimize the efficiency of their workforce. 

To explore more insights, read the Total Economic Impact™ study conducted by Forrester Consulting.

Learn more about empowering your healthcare teams with Windows Cloud solutions 

Microsoft is committed to listening to our customers in healthcare and innovating to meet their needs. Organizations like Baptist Health are seeing cost and time savings by moving their clinical workloads onto Azure Virtual Desktop. Get connected by joining the Azure Virtual Desktop,  Windows 365, or Microsoft Intune Tech Communities.

Interested in learning more about Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop? Visit the Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop pages. 

*Epic is a trademark of Epic Systems corporation. 

The post Enhancing healthcare productivity and security with Windows Cloud solutions   appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Manufacturers face existential challenges around several key and often conflicting goals; the need to increase revenue whilst at the same time reducing costs across the value chain—spanning engineering, manufacturing, and supply chains, starting with product design and engineering. These challenges have impacted everything from product requirements and capabilities to product development all the way to sourcing and production. A recent IDC report highlighted how for product managers, investing more in engineering and research and development (R&D) correlates with lower cost of goods sold (COGS) and higher revenue growth for manufacturers, suggesting that investments in product engineering investments drive financial success.¹    

Benefits of generative AI in product engineering  

As product complexity and connectivity has continued to increase, engineers’ roles have become multi-disciplinary, requiring interaction with various data sources and tools, such as product lifecycle management (PLM), computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), application lifecycle management (ALM) for software requirements, and computer-aided engineering (CAE). In addition to manufacturability, engineers need to incorporate aspects such as sustainability, regulatory compliance, quality, materials, and supplier and supply chain considerations much earlier in the product design process. The many lines of software code now prevalent in physical products and the growth in software requirements, also pressures traditional manufacturing information technology (IT) to support a proliferation of software tools, data, and infrastructure.      

Generative AI is transforming product engineering and R&D to enable manufacturers to realize these benefits:  

• Cost reduction: Optimizing product designs for cost, sustainability, and manufacturability can reduce product development and production costs.  
• Better decision-making: Facilitated through data analysis and scenario simulation, generative AI provides valuable insights for informed decisions that can enhance product development, improve product quality, and better meet customer demands.  
• Productivity and skills gap: Helps experienced designers automate tasks they do often, and inexperienced designers to get up to speed quickly and avoid errors with best practice guidance.  Assists with analysis and optimization of existing designs and can even generate new designs with user input.   
• Efficiency: Reduce the time taken by engineers to both search across, and interact with, product data from various sources across the product lifecycle.  
• Faster time-to-market: Shorter product development cycles mean products can reach the market faster to capitalize on new opportunities more quickly. 
• Innovation: Continuously analyzing product-related data from various sources, customer feedback, and learning from it with generative AI can suggest innovative solutions that might not be more readily apparent.   

Microsoft partners play a pivotal role in transforming product engineering and R&D by building industry-specific solutions that integrate data unification and contextualization capabilities with Microsoft technologies which, combined with the Microsoft Cloud, are revolutionizing engineering functions.    

Establishing a secure engineering data foundation  

Product engineering and R&D involve handling many types and modalities of data, including CAD files, technical specifications, product data and configurations, requirements, and process data. Manufacturers commonly use a range of systems, including PLM, ALM, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, to manage this complex data. These form a secure data foundation on which transformation of product engineering is built upon, and sensitive IP can be protected.     

The following are examples where generative AI is helping to deliver value in a secure, engineering data foundation with AI on the Microsoft Cloud.  

• Siemens has integrated Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, and Siemens’ Teamcenter PLM solution into an app to facilitate real-time communication and collaboration among frontline workers and engineers.
• Aras has introduced AI-assisted search and an intelligent copilot, using Azure OpenAI Service and Microsoft Copilot Studio on Azure, enhancing user interaction with PLM data, facilitating quicker access, analysis, and action on critical information through scalable search and conversational AI, user interaction with PLM data, facilitating quicker access, analysis, and action on critical information through scalable search and conversational AI.
• PTC Codebeamer Copilot focuses on requirements authoring and analysis for the flagship Codebeamer Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) solution. This AI-powered agent, being used by Volkswagen Group, improves the efficiency of the design phase, helping to ensure potential issues with system requirements are identified and addressed early in the process and a productivity boost as users manage complex hierarchies of requirements.
• Bluestar PLM are leveraging Microsoft Copilot for Dynamics 365 to automatically generate summaries for an engineering object based on data both from Dynamics 365 and Bluestar PLM, and automatically generating item descriptions in multiple languages to make it easier to generate quotes, bills-of-materials (BOMs), invoices, and other documents in different languages.  

Accelerating product engineering and R&D 

Engineers use a range of complex solutions in product engineering when producing product designs from CAD, CAM, and CAE applications. This also involves creating and using many different data types, from 3D CAD and CAM files, to CAE simulation datasets, documents, specifications, and various knowledge repositories.   

The following are examples where customers and generative AI-powered partner solutions are helping to deliver value in accelerating product engineering and R&D with AI on the Microsoft Cloud: 

• HARTING reduced design time from weeks to minutes by introducing an AI-powered assistant fueled by Azure OpenAI Service and Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing, interoperating with Siemens NX CAD for rapid design. This solution reduced configuration time by 95%, a significant improvement in efficiency and the rapid creation of custom electrical connector prototypes that are speeding up time-to-market.
• Hexagon AI-powered automated CAM programming solution, ProPlanAI, reduces the time taken to program factory machine tools by 75%. This solution is part of Hexagon’s cloud-based Nexus connectivity and collaboration platform for discrete manufacturers, and is powered by Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, and Microsoft Azure Databricks.
• Siemens copilot for NX X software uses an adapted industry AI model to help users ask natural language questions, access technical insights, and streamline design tasks for faster product development. It provides CAD designers with AI-powered recommendations and best practices to optimize the design process within the CAD experience, aiding engineers in implementing best practices quickly, ensuring high-quality results from design to production.
• Rescale is transforming engineering innovation by integrating AI-powered tools with Microsoft technologies to enhance simulation data workflows with Rescale Automations, automating data processing for real-time insights, improving decision-making and collaboration with AI models including Phi-4 to reduce cycle times and costs while maximizing simulation insights.
• Siemens has announced an industrial foundational model (IFM) to enhance the productivity of engineering and automation tasks across the industrial sector. For example, it will help engineers automate CAM programming with context-aware recommendations, support Structured Control Code (SCL) generation and accelerate the creation of Process Flow Diagrams (PFDs) and Process and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&ID). The IFM is built on Microsoft’s Azure platform. 

The next step: Unlock innovation in product engineering with AI-powered digital threads 

The next stage in revolutionizing product engineering and R&D sees the addition of multi-agent AI systems that can orchestrate, collaborate, and scale across complex enterprise workloads, including product engineering solutions, supply chain, manufacturing execution systems, customer relationship management, field service, and enterprise resource planning.   

Microsoft, along with partners like PTC, Autodesk, and Aras, believe that digital threads are becoming a reality for industrial customers due to unified data foundations and generative AI. Unified data foundations make data usable by securely sourcing it from various systems and automating contextualization. Generative AI agents use this data to provide insights and take actions, unlocking numerous use cases across the manufacturing value chain, including product engineering, all through unified data foundations and generative AI.  

The following are several such examples of innovations that are fueling the emergence and promise of AI-powered digital threads: 

• Aras InnovatorEdge is a new low-code API management framework for extending product digital thread ecosystems, which will also integrate with Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing, enabling seamless connectivity for advanced analytics and AI-powered insights.
• Autodesk Fusion connects people, data, and process through the product development lifecycle. Autodesk Data Solutions in Fusion Manage and Microsoft Fabric enable data management and process optimization. Additionally, Autodesk’s digital twin offerings through Tandem, factory simulation through FlexSIM, and factory operations management with Fusion Operation all benefit from this collaboration across the IT and operational technology (OT) ecosystem.
• PTC is collaborating with Microsoft on an enterprise data framework and agentic model for PLM scenarios in PTC Windchill within Microsoft Fabric to accelerate manufacturers digital thread strategies and unlock insights and workflows across the value chain using AI-powered agents.
• Toyota is deploying AI agents to harness the collective wisdom of engineers and innovate faster and more efficiently in a system named “O-Beya,” or “big room” in Japanese. The “O-Beya” system currently has nine AI agents—from a Vibration Agent to a Fuel Consumption Agent, bringing together numerous functional experts.  

By using Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing and AI-powered solutions from our partner ecosystem, manufacturers can securely unlock new levels of impact. The integration of AI-powered solutions and AI agents unlocks innovation, reduces costs and improves operational efficiencies, meaning manufacturers are better equipped to navigate challenges and seize opportunities.    

Microsoft in manufacturing and mobility industries 

Learn more about Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing and Microsoft for automotive, and how companies are using Microsoft AI capabilities in Microsoft AI in Action. 

Learn more about the unique use cases and solutions driving innovation in product engineering and R&D from our presence at Hannover Messe 2025.

Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing

Drive innovation with an AI-powered digital thread

Explore solutions

¹ IDC Research, Investing in Product Engineering — Increase Revenue and Decrease Cost, Doc # US51892224, February 2025. 

The post Shaping the future of product engineering and research and development with generative AI appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

• Data collection and processing at the edge: Providing secure, reliable, and low-latency data transfer and processing in highly sensitive and distributed environments.
• Secure communication and interoperability: Ensuring seamless integration and communication across different domains and platforms.
• Data security: Protecting sensitive information from cyber threats and unauthorized access.
• Real-time analytics: Providing real-time insights and analytics across a fusion of many different data types, to support decision-making.

By solving these challenges, decision-makers can act on near real-time updates and intelligence, enhancing situational awareness and enabling mission success.

How Microsoft Cloud helps solve legacy system challenges

Microsoft is well placed to respond to these challenges through the hyperscale cloud capabilities of Microsoft Azure, encompassing a global network of data centers, servers, and networks that power cloud services, including:

• The Microsoft Adaptive Cloud approach, which lets organizations use cloud-native and AI technologies across hybrid, multi-cloud, edge, and Internet of Things (IoT) environments. This helps defense organizations ensure consistent operations by extending cloud services to on-premises and multi-cloud environments, and it simplifies operations with centralized management, enhanced security, and seamless integration across diverse and complex environments. Additionally, it allows for easier application deployment and a common data foundation across environments.
• Azure Local, enabled by Azure Arc, which is a specialized offering designed to bring cloud computing capabilities directly to the edge, closer to where data is generated, and decisions need to be made. For defense and intelligence customers, this means enhanced security, reduced latency, and improved operational efficiency by processing data locally rather than relying solely on centralized cloud services. This approach is crucial for defense and intelligence operations, where timely and secure data handling significantly impacts mission success.

Adaptive Cloud and Azure Local solutions in action

By way of illustration, consider a joint task force assigned to secure a national border as part of a multi-domain operation (MDO). The objective is to identify and address potential threats, including unauthorized crossings, smuggling activities, and aerial incursions. This is achieved by using advanced technologies, which can potentially benefit the following warfighting functions:

• Land forces patrolling the coastline
• Naval units monitoring the sea lines of communication
• Air units conducting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) collection
• Cyber units ensuring secure communication and protecting against cyber threats
• Space units ensuring satellite availability for communications and geospatial intelligence collection

Let’s look at some specific scenarios and how technology can help achieve success:

Real-time data collection and edge processing

IoT data collection

Data is collected and processed directly from IoT devices in real-time, close to the source, reducing latency and enhancing security.

How it works:

• Ground sensors and drones equipped with cameras and motion detectors monitor coastline activities.
• Buoys and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) collect data on maritime traffic and environmental conditions.
• Drones and aircraft equipped with radar and cameras provide aerial surveillance.
• Azure IoT operations deployed on Azure Local securely process and normalize this data at the edge.

Edge processing

The data collected from sensors is processed and transmitted to Azure Local instances deployed at mobile command centers.

How it works:

• Local AI inferencing, such as Azure AI Video Indexer, allows the processing of data at the source. By conducting real-time analysis directly within an environmental context, defense organizations can respond faster and more accurately to emergent situations using AI and machine learning models to analyze patterns, detect anomalies, and provide actionable insights to field commanders.
• Azure Local supports both legacy systems and modern containerized applications, allowing the defense organization to run a mix of applications needed for the mission, from traditional command and control systems to advanced AI-powered analytics.
• Through edge processing, critical information can now be filtered prior to its transmission to the cloud—for instance, identifying potential threats, such as unidentified aircraft or submarines, and alerting the command center for appropriate action.
  • For all tactical units, where traditional terrestrial connectivity is limited or unavailable, low earth orbit (LEO) satellite connections provide connectivity to remote and mobile units, such as ships at sea, aircraft in flight, or land-based command and control nodes. Satellite communication can ensure continuous and secure data transmission, critical to information sharing in a joint operation.
  • Forward operating bases (FOBs) process data on Azure Local, securely transmitting it to the cloud using Azure ExpressRoute, which provides a private connection between the edge and Azure, bypassing the public internet and supporting encryption technologies like MACsec and IPsec to ensure data confidentiality and integrity.

Command and control (C2) situational awareness

The task force sustains a thorough and current operational overview by using data transmitted to Azure from Azure Local. With cloud technologies, command and control data flows seamlessly from collection to actionable insights. The C2 node assesses the situation and determines the appropriate response such as route planning, resource allocation, and threat assessment.

How it works:

• Real-time intelligence managed with Microsoft Fabric, a unified AI data and analytics platform, enables a C2 node to swiftly analyze data from the edge using technologies like Azure Event Hubs and AMQP for data ingestion, and Microsoft Power BI for visualization. The real-time hub provides a unified interface for managing streaming data sources, allowing for rapid decision-making and enhanced situational awareness. Data is further processed and made available to Azure AI Foundry, for use in advanced AI applications.
• AI Foundry uses this data to deploy AI models assisting commanders in analyzing battlefield data and suggesting optimal strategies—for example, using AI models to perform sentiment analysis on communication data from the field. By analyzing the sentiment of messages, AI can identify potential stress or urgency in communications, providing valuable insights to commanders. Additionally, AI can detect patterns and anomalies in the data, such as unusual movements or activities, and alert the command center for further investigation.
• Units can then swiftly adapt to the updated operational plan. Analyzed data and directives from the C2 node are sent to Azure Local. Military applications running on Azure Local Virtual Machine receive directives from the C2 node. The units reconfigure their routes based on the optimized path provided, ensuring efficient movement and resource utilization. They allocate resources as per the new directives, prioritizing critical areas identified by the C2 node. Additionally, the units enhance their threat assessment protocols, incorporating the latest intelligence to mitigate potential risks.

By using Azure Local, the joint task force’s multi-domain operation not only addresses immediate threats but also establishes a robust framework for ongoing border security enabling seamless coordination and integration across land, sea, air, cyber, and space domains. By extending Azure services and security to distributed locations, apps and data are better safeguarded against advanced threats, ensuring reliable protection and operational efficiency.

• Real-time situational awareness: Rapidly assess and respond to emergent situations ensuring the border remains secure.
• Enhanced security: Secure communication channels and robust cybersecurity measures protect sensitive information from cyber threats. This ensures that all units can communicate effectively and securely, maintaining the integrity of the operation.
• Efficient decision-making: Advanced analytics and AI-powered insights enable quick and informed decision-making. The command center can process vast amounts of data in real-time, allowing for swift and accurate responses to emerging threats.

Benefits of Microsoft Adaptive Cloud and Azure Local in defense operations

Enhanced security

• Hardened security posture: Azure Local instances are configured with secured-core settings and automatic data encryption by default, protecting sensitive military communications and intelligence data from cyber threats.
• Microsoft Defender for Cloud Integration: Azure Local integrates natively with Microsoft Defender for Cloud, offering comprehensive monitoring and advanced threat protection. This ensures that potential security breaches are promptly detected and mitigated.
• Network Security Groups (NSGs): NSGs in Azure Local manage and secure network traffic within the Azure environment, allowing for control of inbound and outbound traffic to virtual networks, subnets, and network interfaces with defined security rules. These rules can permit or deny traffic based on various criteria such as source and destination IP addresses, ports, and protocols.
• Trusted launch: Enhance protection against sophisticated threats such as malware-based rootkits and bootkits with Trusted launch security. This includes secure boot, which guarantees that only trusted software is loaded during the boot process, and a virtual trusted platform module (vTPM), which securely stores keys, certificates, and secrets.

Operational flexibility

• Disconnected operations: In areas with limited or no connectivity, Azure Local supports disconnected operations, allowing joint forces to maintain situational awareness and make informed decisions even when not connected to Azure. Data can be synchronized with the C2 node once connectivity is restored.
• Flexible hardware options: Azure Local’s extensive catalog supports rugged hardware suitable for harsh environments, ensuring reliable performance even in extreme conditions.
• Scalability: In support of mission needs, additional Azure Local instances can be quickly deployed to new locations, providing the necessary computing and storage resources to support expanding operations.

Explore Microsoft for defense and intelligence

Learn how Microsoft Cloud can help achieve mission outcomes to promote stability and security:

• Contact your Microsoft representative or technology solution partner.
• Visit the Microsoft for defense and intelligence website

Microsoft for defense and intelligence

Explore solutions

The post Microsoft Adaptive Cloud: Advancing edge computing in the defense sector appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

To help answer these questions, Microsoft leaders and industry partners will showcase the very latest AI innovation for manufacturers designed to help address today’s most critical challenges.

Dynamics 365 ERP solutions

Infuse AI across business processes and workflows.

Contact us to learn more 

AI agents will transform manufacturing in 2025 and beyond

Moving forward, four transformative trends will set the pace of growth and success in the evolving manufacturing landscape:

• Improving supply chain operations
• Driving operational excellence with operational technology data from siloed sources
• Delivering great customer experience
• Increasing energy efficiency and employee productivity

At the Microsoft expo booth, manufacturers will learn how they can achieve these trends by using agents across critical business processes and workflows with Microsoft Dynamics 365 autonomous ERP solutions.

Improving supply chain operations with AI agents

Manufacturers face increasing supply chain challenges, from fluctuating customer demand to geopolitical uncertainties that can pressure organizations to restructure supply chains or reshore operations to unaffected regions. It’s imperative to have the agility to adapt to rapid demand shifts while operating profitably and keeping costs in check.

AI agents can play a crucial role in manufacturing operations, autonomously monitoring processes for potential disruptions, with the ability to proactively mitigate potential issues before they’re serious issues.

The Supplier Communications Agent in Dynamics 365 autonomously manages interactions with vendors and suppliers to help ensure on-time delivery of purchase orders helping to avoid downstream delays to customers. The agent provides visibility into the supplier’s supply chain and allows teams to spend more time improving supplier relationships and negotiating better contracts, rather than firefighting shortages.

Lifetime Products—a global manufacturer of products ranging from basketball hoops to picnic tables, sheds, and kayaks—depends on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management to optimize operational capabilities. In addition to handling logistics and supply chain management more effectively, the manufacturer is implementing AI agents to “rebalance” its knowledge workforce to do more with same and be more efficient rather than reduce labor.

“One of our biggest learnings has been to let the autonomous agent run its own calculations. You’ll get a more comprehensive, better result.”

—Sinahi Lopez, Global IT Functional Manager at Lifetime Products

The company is now preparing to deploy the Supplier Communications Agent in Dynamics 365, to autonomously communicate with suppliers to proactively mitigate order delays and supply chain disruptions.

Based on study with IDC, $3.5 million in annual inventory-related cost savings using Dynamics 365, optimizing working capital​.¹

Achieving operational excellence with operational technology data from various silos

To stay competitive, manufacturers need to optimize operations by reducing costs, minimizing downtime, improving agility, and ensuring efficient production. This requires data-driven decision making that takes advantage of the industrial Internet of Things (IoT), AI-driven automation, integrated data clouds, and edge-to-cloud architectures to enable real-time insights, predictive maintenance, and quality control. Microsoft Dynamics 365 includes applications to manage finance, supply chain, sales, and customer relationships, designed to unify business data, improve efficiency, and simplify decision-making. The applications work seamlessly with Microsoft 365, which enhances productivity and collaboration with leading applications like Word, Excel, and Microsoft Teams, while Azure provides cloud infrastructure and IoT capabilities.

A key innovation is the AI agent, powered by Microsoft Copilot Studio, that automates tasks and streamlines workflows, securely grounded on data sourced from various systems by using Microsoft Dataverse as a central hub. Microsoft Fabric enhances analytics, helping businesses turn data into insights. For customization, Microsoft Power Platform offers low-code tools to build apps and automate processes, while Microsoft AppSource provides industry-specific solutions from Microsoft partners.

Together, these technologies create a connected ecosystem, reducing data silos and enabling businesses to operate more efficiently. With everything working seamlessly, organizations can focus on growth, innovation, and smarter decision-making.

Enerjisa Üretim, Türkiye’s largest private electricity generation company, replaced its legacy asset management system with Dynamics 365—a modern, user-friendly solution that provides end-to-end lifecycle management of all 312,500 assets across 29 power plants.

The organization is also transforming operations with Dynamics 365 and Azure, achieving efficiency, cost reduction, and workforce empowerment. Integration of asset management, IoT, and Microsoft Azure Digital Twins provides real-time insights for predictive maintenance. Unified systems improve data consistency, streamline workflows, and enhance collaboration, setting new standards for operational excellence in energy.

“Our equipment data is the key to operational efficiency. The Asset Management [capabilities] in Dynamics 365 extends the lifespan of critical infrastructure. By leveraging real-time data and advanced analytics, we can predict equipment failures before they happen.”

—Alper Serçe, Deputy General Manager, Enerjisa Üretim

Dynamics 365 integrates seamlessly with Enerjisa Üretim’s external systems like SAP, streamlining operations and enhancing efficiency. Real-time inventory updates from SAP into Dynamics 365 helps ensures that technicians have the right materials. And integration with HRweb and Yüklenici Entegre Sistemi (YES) optimizes resource allocation, matching skills and qualifications to work orders.

Based on study with IDC, 85% reduction in unplanned asset downtime using Dynamics 365, ensuring smoother operations​.¹

Deliver better customer experiences

Manufacturers are facing intense global competition, making customer experience essential to maintain relevance. To differentiate and retain customer trust, they must reconsider traditional business models and explore new revenue streams like product-as-a-service and aftermarket services.

Dynamics 365 assists manufacturers in transitioning to a product-as-a-service (PaaS) model by integrating IoT, AI, automation, and flexible financial frameworks.

• Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Microsoft Azure IoT enable real-time product performance monitoring and predictive maintenance, reducing downtime, helping to ensure timely spare parts delivery and streamlined logistics, which are important for service-based models.
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service uses AI and IoT data for a predictive service model, enhancing efficiency and optimizing service contracts to improve customer satisfaction.
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance supports flexible pricing, pay-per-use, and subscription models, converting products into ongoing services.

Hobart Corporation, a provider of commercial food equipment, needed to modernize its field operations to better support nearly 400,000 customers across the United States and Canada and solve inefficiencies in service delivery.

By adopting Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Field Service, Hobart standardized processes, improved dispatch accuracy, and provided field technicians with mobile access to real-time inventory and customer data. This transformation enabled quicker response times, improved first-time fix rates, and better parts availability. The solution also facilitated predictive maintenance, ensuring proactive issue resolution before failures occurred.

As a result, Hobart significantly enhanced operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and workforce productivity, reinforcing its reputation for high-quality service.

Organizations facing similar issues can also use the recently announced Scheduling Operations Agent (SOA) for Dynamics 365 Field Service, now in preview. This AI agent creates optimized schedules for technicians, even as conditions change throughout the workday. Whether it’s traffic delays, double bookings, or last-minute cancellations, the SOA helps ensure that schedules remain efficient.

The SOA uses advanced algorithms to address common scheduling challenges. By considering factors such as technician skill sets, territories, and promised time windows, the SOA maximizes technician utilization and prioritizes work orders effectively. This enhances productivity and helps ensure that customer commitments are met accurately.

Based on study with IDC, 40% faster order and product delivery times using Dynamics 365, increasing customer satisfaction.¹

Operating sustainably by driving energy and employee efficiencies

Manufacturers are under increasing pressure to improve energy efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint while maintaining productivity. By integrating Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP solutions and Sustainability Manager in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, manufacturers can gain real-time visibility, AI-driven insights, and automated tracking to drive sustainability at scale.

Dynamics 365 ERP collects energy consumption data from IoT sensors, smart meters, and production systems, offering a comprehensive view of energy usage across facilities. This data flows into Microsoft Sustainability Manager, where AI-powered analytics identify inefficiencies, benchmark performance, and recommend optimizations. Manufacturers can track carbon emissions in real time, ensuring they meet sustainability targets.

With predictive analytics and AI-driven workload balancing, manufacturers can optimize machine usage, reduce energy waste, and lower costs. Additionally, optimized supply chain operations help minimize environmental impact through smarter logistics and material sourcing.

Camfil, a leading manufacturer of premium clean air filtration solutions, is using Dynamics 365 to enhance sustainability and profitability. By implementing Dynamics 365 with a standardized data model, Camfil has harmonized its processes across more than 30 production facilities and nearly 6,000 employees.

The integration of Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Dynamics 365 Project Operations, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, and Dynamics 365 Sales has improved operations such as ordering, manufacturing, warehousing, shipping, and invoicing. This harmonization enabled by Dynamics 365 has led to better resource utilization, improved energy efficiency, a more connected and collaborative culture, and enhanced customer satisfaction through continuous innovation in air filtration systems—all contributing to a more sustainable and cost-effective manufacturing operation.

A well-empowered workforce can better manage inventory, demand planning, and supplier interactions, reducing waste and inefficiencies.

Based on study with IDC, 27% more manufacturing processes automated, 20% improvement of productivity across supply chain, procurement, and inventory management teams by using Dynamics 365 AI-powered ERP solutions.¹

Future-proof your manufacturing operations in 2025 

AI-powered solutions for ERP and service systems are more than a technological upgrade. They’re a strategic imperative for manufacturers aiming to improve the supply chain, drive operational excellence on the factory floor, deliver great customer experience, and operate sustainably and efficiently.

If you’re registered for Hannover Messe, we invite you to visit the Microsoft booth (#G06, hall 17) and join Sameer Verma, Microsoft’s GM, Dynamics 365 AI ERP, to learn how Dynamics 365 drives manufacturing excellence with AI agents. The session will take place on Monday, March 31, 2025, at 12 PM Central European Time (UTC +1).

Also, continue to visit the Dynamics 365 blog to learn more about how Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform are helping retailers reimagine the road ahead; and feel free to contact us to learn more about the Dynamics 365 AI-powered ERP system solutions. 

Source

¹ IDC White Paper, sponsored by Microsoft, The Business Value of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Manufacturers, doc #US53226425

The post The future of manufacturing with Microsoft Dynamics 365 is here—are you ready? appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Technology integration opportunities in sports 

Microsoft technology helps drive the quality of the game and create new business opportunities for organizations by:

• Enhancing performance with real-time data insights and analytics for data-driven decision-making. 
• Improving operational efficiency through streamlined workflows, increased collaboration, and seamless data integration. 
• Elevating fan engagement with AI and real-time customer insights to create a comprehensive ecosystem of personalized experiences.   
• Unlocking broadcast and media integration opportunities by using advanced cloud and AI technologies to scale content operations and reach more audiences.  
• Supporting secure data storage and processing by implementing advanced cloud technologies to secure content with high-speed data storage and processing. 

Whether it’s supporting Formula One engineers to make split-second race decisions, empowering tennis players with AI-assisted match analysis, or delivering personalized experiences to fans, Microsoft technology is redefining the future of sports—making organizations faster, smarter, and more connected than ever before.  

Learn more about Microsoft’s technical solutions through key partnerships below. 

Data-driven decision-making 

In high-performance sports, every decision can alter the course of the game. From AI-powered analytics that provide real-time insights for athletes to cloud-based solutions that optimize operations, learn more about how Microsoft technology is driving data-led decision-making and reshaping how teams compete in the Women’s World Cup of Tennis, the NFL, and Formula One. 

Billie Jean King Cup: Transforming tennis strategy with AI 

The Billie Jean King Cup uses Microsoft AI and cloud technologies to provide players and coaches with data visualizations and real-time insights during matches.  

Key highlights include: 

• Match Insights App: Azure hosted application that delivers critical gameplay data, such as player movement, ball trajectories, and shot accuracy, to coaches and players in near real-time. 
• AI-powered analytics: Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service analyzes vast datasets to provide actionable rally and serve insights, helping coaches anticipate opponent strategies and make informed decisions. 
• Secure data management: Microsoft Azure Cloud Services help to ensure the secure storage and processing of high-volume data generated during matches. 

Read more about how Microsoft and the Billie Jean King Cup are elevating competition through data-driven insights.

NFL: Game-changing technology on the sidelines 

The NFL uses Microsoft hardware and software to enhance game-day operations and team collaboration. 

Key highlights include: 

• Microsoft Surface Sideline Viewing System (SVS): Hardware and software solution that provides coaches and players with near real-time, high-resolution images of plays, enabling rapid strategic adjustments. 
• NFL Combine App: Application that streamlines talent evaluation by providing real-time access to key performance metrics. 
• Enhanced collaboration: Microsoft Teams and Azure facilitate seamless communication and collaboration among NFL teams. 

Read more about how Microsoft and the NFL are changing the game with new levels of operational efficiency.

BWT Alpine Formula One Team: Data-powered racing innovation 

BWT Alpine Formula One Team uses advanced AI and Azure’s robust cloud infrastructure to unlock new capabilities in data insights, regulatory compliance, and business operations.  

Key highlights include: 

• AI-powered race strategies: Azure Computer Vision and Multi-Agent Resourcing Optimization (MARO) reinforcement learning allows Alpine to optimize race day strategy and car setup based on real-time telemetry. 
• High-speed data processing: Azure provides secure, high-speed data storage and retrieval, allowing split-second decisions during races. 
• Regulatory compliance: Azure AI Search and Microsoft Copilot Studio streamline compliance processes, helping to ensure adherence to Formula One regulations. 

Read more about how Microsoft and BWT Alpine Formula One Team are maximizing performance on and off the track.

Integrated fan engagement 

In today’s digital world, sports leagues are expected to meet fans at multiple touchpoints with highly personalized and easily accessible content. Learn more about how leagues such as LALIGA and the NBA are using Microsoft technology to redefine the sports and entertainment industries and take the fan ecosystem to the next level. 

LALIGA: Enhancing fan engagement with data-driven insights 

LALIGA uses real-time data processing and AI-powered analytics with Azure to deliver match insights and personalized digital experiences across platforms. 

Key highlights include: 

• Beyond Stats: Fan-facing data and insights platform powered by Azure that captures and analyzes more than 3.5 million data points per match to provide engaging content for fans across multiple platforms including social media, broadcast, and the LALIGA app. 
• Data Sports Platform (DSP): Comprehensive system powered by Azure that unifies fan interaction data across touchpoints to generate tailored content and products to match fan preference. 
• Seamless infrastructure: Azure’s high-performance infrastructure helps to ensure reliable content delivery and enhanced fan experiences across digital platforms. 

Read more about how Microsoft and LALIGA are personalizing the experience for fans around the world.

NBA: Building a next-generation fan engagement platform 

The NBA integrates Azure and AI technology to provide fans with personalized content, real-time insights, and tailored experiences across digital platforms.  

Key highlights include:  

• AI-integrated platform: The NBA Insights and Top Performances platforms within the NBA App provide real-time game updates and AI-generated highlights to enhance the fan experience by utilizing Microsoft AI technology. 
• The reimagined NBA App: Powered by Azure, the NBA App offers personalized content recommendations, real-time game insights, and a social-style video experience. 

Read more about how Microsoft and the NBA are deeply engaging fans at every level.

Transforming the sports industry

Microsoft innovative technologies are transforming the sports industry, driving performance, enhancing fan engagement, and streamlining operations. From the racetracks of Formula One to the courts of the NBA, Microsoft’s partnerships are setting new standards for excellence in sports. As technology continues to evolve, the future of sports looks brighter than ever, with Microsoft leading the way in this exciting journey.

Learn more about how Microsoft is transforming sports and other media and entertainment organizations around the world through our customer stories page. 

Microsoft’s commitment to the media and entertainment industry  

Microsoft allows 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. 

Next steps 

Microsoft will be showcasing some of these case studies and more at our upcoming exhibition with NAB Show, April 5–9, 2025, in Las Vegas. Go through a journey of interactive demos that illustrate the capabilities needed to deliver fan-focused content and that highlight key aspects of the transformation process required to implement cutting-edge technologies for enhanced performance and fan engagement.

Microsoft at the 2025 NAB Show

See how Microsoft is helping to shape the future of broadcast and entertainment

Learn more

The post How Microsoft is transforming sports with cutting-edge technology  appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Historically, logistics has lagged other industries in digital transformation. More than 75% of industry leaders acknowledge that their sector has been slow to embrace digital innovation. Instead of prioritizing digital transformation, companies have traditionally focused on incremental improvements in operational processes. But in today’s fast-moving market, this approach is no longer enough as customer expectations have also evolved dramatically. A staggering 91% of logistics firms report that their clients now demand seamless, end-to-end logistics services from a single provider.¹

AI has become a game-changer for the industry to help overcome challenges and fulfill customer expectations. From enhancing customer experiences—such as shipment planning and service requests—to driving productivity in core supply chain operations and demand forecasting, AI presents a massive opportunity. AI can also improve safety, sustainability, and workforce reskilling, giving employees more time to focus on customers. The numbers speak for themselves: AI-powered innovations could reduce logistics costs by 15%, optimize inventory levels by 35%, and boost service levels by 65%. Over the next two decades, AI adoption in logistics could generate between $1.3 trillion and $2 trillion per year in economic value.² 

In fact, the AI revolution in logistics is already underway, and Microsoft is at the forefront, empowering businesses with Azure’s cloud capabilities and cutting-edge AI solutions.

With this article, Microsoft releases two new reference architectures—Adaptive Cloud for Logistics and Supply Chains and AI-enhanced experiences for Logistics and Supply Chain, enhanced functionalities in Dynamics 365 for Supply Chain, and showcases partner-led offerings.  

The use cases 

What are the use cases that AI can impact in logistics? The answer is simple: Almost everywhere along the value chain. This covers inbound logistics and outbound logistics as well as supporting activities, see the overview below: 

Inbound logistics 

One of the most critical use cases in supply chain optimization is demand forecasting. Accurate predictions by AI can serve as the foundation for downstream activities—driving efficiency and enhancing overall optimization. For example, precise demand forecasts play a key role in inventory management and storage optimization within warehouse management systems.  

SPAR Austria, a leading food retailer with over 1,500 stores, has significantly improved its demand forecasting capabilities through AI-powered solutions built on Microsoft Azure in collaboration with Microsoft partner Paiqo. This advanced implementation has achieved more than 90% forecast accuracy, leading to a 15% reduction in costs by minimizing waste.

AI-based route optimization can lead to significant fuel cost reductions, which is a substantial cost-saving measure for logistics companies and contributes to sustainability goals. Load management algorithms and real-time data analytics maximize space utilization in trucks, vessels, and warehouses. 

Additionally, AI-based scheduling, booking, shipping, and invoicing have significant impact on flexibility, cost, and operational process efficiency.  

Dow Chemical, a global leader in materials science, faced significant challenges with its existing freight invoicing system, which involved up to 4,000 daily shipments and various types of invoices. A newly developed invoice agent built with Microsoft Copilot Studio streamlines the company’s freight invoicing process by monitoring incoming emails for attached invoices, structures the data for analysis, and scans for billing inaccuracies. This automation helps Dow manage its logistics spending more efficiently, reducing potential overpayments and improving operational efficiency.

Outbound logistics 

AI and robotics play a crucial role in optimizing picking and packing processes. Additionally, advancements in technology enhance order processing and returns management—streamlining operations and driving cost reductions. 

Cutting-edge technologies like natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning are transforming customer interactions by reducing handling times and associated costs. With the deployment of virtual assistants and every day customer support, businesses can improve response times significantly.  

Global sports retailer Decathlon, in partnership with Microsoft partner Parloa, has successfully leveraged AI to enhance customer service. By implementing AI-powered solutions, the company has reduced the number of calls forwarded to live agents by 20%, demonstrating the power of automation in improving efficiency and streamlining customer interactions.

Supporting activities 

AI and emerging technologies are transforming key support processes across the logistics value chain. In procurement and pricing, for example, AI-powered agents streamline the request for proposal (RFP) and request for quote (RFQ) process. Additionally, dynamic pricing capabilities optimize revenue management, while AI-powered advancements enhance traditional finance and controlling functions. AI also plays a crucial role in simplifying customs management and ensuring seamless regulatory compliance. 

Below is an overview of solutions from independent software vendors (ISVs) and partners that can be leveraged out-of-the-box for selected use cases: 

• Wandelbots: Robotics for picking and packing
• Paiqo: Demand forecast
• InstaDeep: Load optimization
• Fareye: Route planning and optimization
• Parloa: Customer service
• Coneksion: Messaging
• CH Robinson: Mail AI agents
• Cosmo Tech: Supply chain simulation

3 building blocks for a digitized state-of-the-art logistics 

From a Microsoft perspective, there are three key building blocks for logistics and supply chain companies to build an AI-ready platform that can enable a variety of use cases: 

1. Adaptive Cloud: The modular base infrastructure 
   Microsoft adaptive cloud unifies siloed teams, distributed sites, and sprawling systems into a single operations, security, application, and data model across hybrid, multi- cloud, edge, and Internet of Things (IoT) environments. 
2. Microsoft Dynamics 365 suite: Microsoft’s comprehensive business suite 
   Dynamics 365 suite, including Supply Chain Management, offers comprehensive solutions to enhance visibility, streamline procurement, optimize fulfillment, and improve planning. 
3. AI and agentic AI: Solutions to automate business processes 
   Microsoft offers advanced agentic AI solutions which enable the creation and orchestration of agent- and multi-agent systems for enhanced productivity and automation. 

Adaptive cloud: The modular base infrastructure 

Within the logistics domain, adaptive cloud can address multiple areas for increased efficiency such as quality control, warehouse operations, damage detection, or robotics automation. With the capabilities of the full Azure stack on the edge, IoT operations, and a data fabric, adaptive cloud is the essential lever for improving business both in the cloud and on the edge. 

Adaptive cloud shifts organizations from a reactive posture to one of proactive evolution, enabling people to anticipate and act upon changes in market trends, customer needs, and technological advancements ahead of time. This strategic foresight enables businesses to pivot quickly, embrace continuous improvement, and integrate new technologies smoothly. By building resilience into their operational models, businesses can optimize resource usage and mitigate risks before they manifest. 

The adaptive cloud can be adapted or selectively applied to multiple customer scenarios. We map how commitments and promises are realized by system skills and capabilities below:

• Operate with AI-enhanced central management
  Elevate IT capabilities and focus on strategic work by abstracting resources from distributed locations into one operations and management layer with AI assistance and automation. 
  Critical capabilities:
  • Universal AI assistant, portal, and tools
  • Consistent configuration management
  • End-to-end observability
  • Governance at scale
  • Built-in security and control
• Rapidly develop and scale applications across boundaries
  Bridge OT and IT gap to transcend legacy system constraints with composable cloud-native tool chains, containers, and data services everywhere.
  Critical capabilities:
  • Kubernetes everywhere
  • Hyperscale cloud services to the edge
  • Central application deployment
  • Global orchestration and resiliency
  • Streamlined DevOps integration
• Cultivate data and insights across physical operations
  Supercharge physical operations with a unified data foundation, enabling efficient workflows, predictive insights, and cost-effective resource utilization from edge to cloud.
  Critical capabilities:
  • Common data foundation
  • Actionable insights with AI Coordinated workflow orchestration from edge to cloud
  • Contextualized data to information
  • Centralized device management

Dynamics 365 suite: Microsoft’s comprehensive business suite

The Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management portfolio outlines various stages and components of the supply chain process, divided into several categories, from design to decommission to record to report. The table below indicates the bandwidth of the suite capabilities: 

Microsoft Copilot enhances supply chain management by leveraging AI and automation. By integrating Dynamics 365 with AI-powered Copilot, organizations can significantly enhance their supply chain management processes. The combination of advanced AI capabilities and comprehensive business applications ensures that supply chain operations are efficient, responsive, and adaptive to changing conditions.  

The new Warehouse Management Only Mode is a specialized feature within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management (and can also be used standalone) designed to cater specifically to warehouse management processes. This mode allows businesses to set up a legal entity dedicated solely to warehouse operations, providing warehousing services to other legal entities within Supply Chain Management or even to external enterprise resource planning (ERP) and order management systems. 

AI and agentic AI: Solutions to automate business processes 

The new AI-enhanced reference architecture for logistics brings it all together—from the connection to existing data systems to AI-enhanced experiences for various user groups like end-customers, warehouse managers, fleet managers, or customer service: 

The user-facing applications layer describes some of the common front-end experiences that can be built using Microsoft services. End users require mobile and web applications built using services such as Azure API Management, Azure App Service, and Azure Functions. Developers create AI-powered user experiences leveraging services such as Azure OpenAI Service. These applications can be deployed in Azure tenants and can scale to millions of users.  

Business users leverage Dynamics 365 (including Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Project Operations, and Dynamics 365 Customer Insights) to manage business operations such as claims, promotions, and ticketing. Dynamics 365 has built-in custom agents for many common business use cases such as customer service, sales, finance, field service, and customer insights.

Front line workers are fully integrated into the business with customized workflows and automated operations with custom AI, tailored to their needs and the ergonomics of their workplaces, whether fixed terminals, mobile devices, or augmented reality.  

Microsoft Copilot Studio facilitates the creation of custom AI agents to support their work. Power Apps enable the creation of custom user interfaces, while Power Automate enables the creation of business workflows. With Microsoft 365 Copilot, employees can collaborate and communicate using Microsoft products such as Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and Outlook. 

The operation of supply chain and logistics generates large amounts of data. The data storage and analytics layer describe how to securely store business data to support operations and create insights. 

Microsoft Dataverse is a scalable data platform that securely stores and manages business data. The data model is a structured framework that organizes data in tables with relationships. It is possible to use industry models to harmonize and integrate business data across multiple applications.  

Microsoft Fabric is an end-to-end data and analytics platform that includes real-time analytics capabilities. OneLake is a unified logical data lake that centralizes and simplifies data management, with multiple analytical engines and workspaces. Fabric enables organizations to process and analyze data for timely insights and decision-making. Supply chain and logistics are established businesses. It is important to integrate existing data systems, such as connected assets as well as existing systems. 

Messaging services on Azure enable connectivity to assets and devices using standardized communication protocols such as Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) with Azure Event Grid, or data streams like Apache Kafka using Azure Event Hubs. Serverless solutions like Azure Functions provide compute to process messages. 

Get in touch with us 

Customers can work directly with Microsoft Industry Solutions teams on custom projects that offer a short go-to-market time. Whether you choose ready-to-deploy partner solutions or bespoke projects with Microsoft partners or Microsoft Industry Solutions, we provide the expertise and support to ensure your success.  

Visit Microsoft for travel and transportation or contact our team to learn more and take the next step in your Microsoft AI journey.

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¹ Accenture, Freight and Logistics: Finding the right path to digital transformation, 2023.

² McKinsey, Digital logistics: Into the express lane?, December 2024.

The post The future of logistics: How generative AI and agentic AI is creating a new era of efficiency and innovation appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Dragon Copilot Partner Resources

Access partner resources

Dragon Copilot is bolstered by our collaboration with healthcare industry experts across our extensive global ecosystem of trusted partners. We work with leading independent software vendors (ISVs), system integrators (SIs), and cloud solution providers (CSPs) across the globe to help our customers drive better healthcare outcomes.

Unlock new AI use cases with Dragon Copilot

Partnering with Microsoft allows organizations to tap into Dragon Copilot to accelerate innovation and unlock new avenues for future business growth through the Microsoft commercial marketplace.

Dragon Copilot’s trusted AI models are trained on healthcare data, providing a host of AI solution possibilities. Partners can build even stronger healthcare solutions and offerings by leveraging a comprehensive end-to-end toolchain—including Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Copilot Studio, and Microsoft Azure AI Foundry. Plus, a single integration to Dragon Copilot extends a partner’s AI clinical use cases throughout the entire Microsoft Azure ecosystem, opening new opportunities for innovation and collaboration.

Embrace innovation with responsible AI

Dragon Copilot’s new capabilities are built on a secure data estate and incorporate healthcare-specific clinical, chat, and compliance safeguards for accurate and safe AI outputs. They also align to Microsoft’s responsible AI principles to help guide AI development and use—transparency, reliability and safety, fairness, inclusiveness, accountability, privacy, and security. We remain committed to developing responsible AI by design and ensuring that these technologies positively impact both the healthcare ecosystem and broader society and will share our learnings on this journey with our customers.

Driving better healthcare outcomes together

Our healthcare partner ecosystem is constantly growing, highlighted below are just a few of the more than 30 major partners already working with Microsoft. We’re committed to advancing AI innovation in healthcare together with a diverse partner community that spans regions, partner types, and specialties.

Independent software vendors

Dragon Copilot empowers ISVs with trusted AI models to create innovative AI-powered use cases, along with opportunities for new revenue channels through the extensibility framework. Several of our industry-leading ISV partners—including MEDITECH, ChipSoft, Dedalus, Canary Speech, and Softway Medical Group—are helping bring Dragon Copilot to life.

Leading U.S.-based electronic health provider (EHR) provider MEDITECH is embedding Dragon Copilot into their Expanse EHR solution to improve clinical workflows.

“We understand the challenges clinicians face today, and Dragon Copilot represents a significant step forward in alleviating those burdens. Integrating this innovative solution directly into Expanse streamlines documentation and ordering processes, reduces cognitive overload, and ultimately empowers providers to deliver superior, more patient-centered care. At MEDITECH, we’re proud to partner on solutions that prioritize both efficiency and clinician well-being.”

—Cathy Turner, Chief Marketing and Nurse Executive, MEDITECH

ChipSoft, an EHR provider serving Dutch-speaking markets, is integrating new healthcare AI applications into their EHR solution HiX using Dragon Copilot to address the growing demand for digital solutions that reduce the workload of healthcare professionals.

“We are excited to bring this cutting-edge AI platform to healthcare professionals, enabling them to work more efficiently and effectively. With the availability of AI in HiX, we take an important step in supporting healthcare professionals with their administrative burden. This helps to keep healthcare accessible despite increasing demand and ongoing staff shortages.”

 —Hans Mulder, CEO of ChipSoft

European electronic medical record (EMR) market leader Dedalus, based in Italy, is integrating Dragon Copilot into their EMR solutions, providing clients with healthcare IT innovations that enhance clinical efficiency and improve patient outcomes.  

Additionally, Canary Speech, a US-based leader in voice AI, sees Dragon Copilot as an opportunity to integrate their innovative voice technology with Microsoft’s robust cloud and AI capabilities, driving advancements in early disease detection, mental health assessment, and overall patient care.

“Microsoft’s commitment to working with partners is helping drive digital transformation in healthcare. [The investments Microsoft is making into its partner ecosystem] are helping us transform our business to deliver impactful, human-centered solutions.”

—Henry O’Connell, CEO and co-founder of Canary Speech

French healthcare enterprise resource planning (ERP) system provider Softway Medical Group provides solutions that focus on the needs of the user, including improving the quality of life of nurses at work, optimizing care processes, increasing organizational efficiency, and improving quality of care.

“We are committed to serving healthcare professionals, designing digital solutions that enable them to make informed decisions, while preserving their well-being and providing quality patient care. Partnering with Microsoft allows us to respond to the major challenges faced by healthcare organizations by providing innovative tools and applications.”

—Sherley Brothier, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Softway Medical Group

System integrators

With powerful AI infrastructure and technology that works across EMRs, Dragon Copilot provides SIs with a strong foundation for new AI use cases and integrations. Our SI partners such as Accenture-Avanade, Kyndryl, and Cognizant, to name a few, are at the forefront of AI innovation.

To boost clinician productivity and provide better patient services, the Accenture-Avanade partnership uses generative AI capabilities powered by Microsoft Copilot for patient medical history summarization, patient response drafting, and intelligent search.

“As a Dragon Copilot partner, we recognize its potential to transform the clinical experience through seamless EHR integration and continuous support for clinicians. In an industry facing staffing shortages and burnout, Dragon Copilot has the potential to alleviate administrative burden, enhance clinician-patient interactions and increase access to care.”

—Tejash Shah, M.D., Managing Director and Global Care Reinvention Lead, Accenture Health

Additionally, Kyndryl—the world’s largest IT infrastructure provider—co-creates solutions to help healthcare organizations reach their peak digital performance.

“Today’s announcement marks a significant milestone in Kyndryl’s commitment to optimizing clinical workflows and improving patient care through ambient listening with advanced AI technology. We’re thrilled to be a Microsoft partner as we work to address clinician burnout and improve the overall healthcare experience. By automating routine tasks, we can help clinicians reclaim valuable time to spend with their patients, bringing the joy back into care.”

—Trent Sanders, Vice President for U.S. Healthcare and Life Sciences, Kyndryl

Cognizant plans to integrate Dragon Copilot into its TriZetto Provider Solutions with the goal to provide their clients with state-of-the-art capabilities to streamline documentation and improve efficiencies.

“This innovative solution represents an opportunity for us to help our clients transform the way they provide care. Dragon Copilot’s integrated AI technologies aim to enhance operational efficiency, reduce clinician burnout, and improve patient care. This partnership with Microsoft will underscore our commitment to driving innovation in healthcare and delivering exceptional value to our clients.”

—Dr. Scott R. Schell PhD MD MBA, Chief Medical Officer, Cognizant

Cloud solution providers

Dragon Copilot enables CSPs to reach new markets by leveraging robust AI infrastructure and technology that works across EHRs and EMRs to create innovative service offerings. We’re partnering with trailblazing CSP partners—including CDW, ORdigiNAL, and Clinically Speaking—to boost efficiency in healthcare with Dragon Copilot.

Combined with the power of Microsoft AI, IT solution provider CDW aims to transform the healthcare landscape by providing services that improve efficiency, enable timely decision-making, and empower providers to deliver superior patient care.

“Clinician burnout is a major problem for healthcare organizations and patient experience. Recognizing the strain that clinicians face in their daily routines, we’re proud to partner with Microsoft in the exploration of innovative solutions that address the root causes. By automating routine tasks, clinicians can redirect their efforts toward more critical aspects of patient care.”

—Mike Grisamore, Vice President of Healthcare, CDW

A global value-added distributor based in the Netherlands, ORdigiNAL empowers healthcare organizations with the tools to improve operational efficiency and patient experience.

“At ORdigiNAL, we recognize the critical need for technology that supports clinicians without disrupting their workflow. By partnering with Microsoft on Dragon Copilot, we are bringing an AI solution to healthcare professionals worldwide, helping them improve care quality, increase efficiency, and enhance patient outcomes.”

—Jordy Onrust, CEO and owner of ORdigiNAL

EHR solution provider Clinically Speaking is looking forward to integrating the ambient and generative AI capabilities of Dragon Copilot to advance their documentation solutions and improve healthcare provider office workflows.

“Combining our significant user base with the new AI and ambient recording capabilities from Microsoft, Clinically Speaking is uniquely positioned to deliver the maximum benefit from this new technology.”

—Michael Janas, President of Clinically Speaking

Join our partner ecosystem today

Whether you want to build, integrate, migrate, extend, or sell with Microsoft, we’ll help you grow across our extensive global healthcare channel.

• Learn more about Dragon Copilot
• Check out the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program (MAICPP)
• Access Dragon Copilot MAICPP Partner Resources—coming soon
• Explore Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare solutions

The post Microsoft partners are shaping the future of healthcare with Microsoft Dragon Copilot appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.