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A growing need to transform security

Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) at power companies know this reality well. They’re tasked with managing a complicated portfolio while protecting against cyber risks from both insiders and nation-state actors. Left unresolved, these challenges create a ripple effect across the enterprise and lead to issues like:   

• Increasingly complex environments: Widespread digital adoption combined with evolving customer preferences, decentralized energy generation, and a changing workforce are driving utility providers to rethink their services and business models to help increase flexibility and maintain a resilient grid. In a recent survey conducted by Guidehouse and Public Utilities Fortnightly, 61% of respondents agreed that increasing flexibility to improve energy system resilience is the highest priority outcome for utility investments today.²
• Tool fatigue: Many power companies work with hundreds of disparate management tools that are costly to manage and limited in cross-visibility. These tools must be integrated and maintained by teams with the right skillsets. As tools are added or replaced and personnel come and go, companies face the inevitable costs of re-skilling and new integrations.
• Technical debt: While many utilities are designing new solutions in support of energy transition and the grid of the future, they still rely heavily on legacy infrastructures that carry significant tech debt. These legacy systems increase cybersecurity and operational risks as well as operational expenses through extended support costs, timelines, and integration complexities. Research shows companies pay an additional 10 to 20% to address tech debt on top of project base costs.³  

Modernizing infrastructure is costly and not easily adaptable as the risk landscape evolves. In fact, 59% of cybersecurity teams identify integration of legacy operational technology (OT) and modern information technology (IT) systems as their biggest challenge to securing OT.⁴ If you’re a CISO, how do you solve the challenge of securing both IT and OT against modern and fast-changing threats? 

The answer is to work with technology partners who not only understand threat actors around the world, but who also recognize the business risks and operational concerns across the industry. 

Increasing security and efficiency without sacrificing value 

With a unified security stack running on the Microsoft Cloud, utilities can significantly reduce the number of tools they manage every day for lower costs, time-savings, and better insight into IT and OT environments.  

For example, Turkish energy provider Enerjisa Üretim partnered with Senkron.Energy Digital Services to build Senkron ROC, a remote operations center that represents a critical piece of becoming cloud-native. Knowing that a single cyberthreat could shut down operations, Enerjisa Üretim also established its Operational Technology-Specific Security Operation Center (OT SOC), which relies on Microsoft Defender for IoT and Microsoft Sentinel to operate around the clock and process 3.3 million security events daily.   

The IBM Maximo Application Suite on Azure for asset operations and maintenance is another example. High performance and ultra-low latency combined with the multi-layered security capabilities of the Microsoft Azure stack provide a foundation for secure analytics that boost operational resiliency and reliability. With those advanced security features, utility providers can scale their operations to handle varying workloads without compromising operational security.  

Security solutions to meet your needs 

With Microsoft Security services, customers can leverage the latest technologies and deep industry understanding to enhance their security posture today. Microsoft Defender for IoT offers a complete inventory and continuous monitoring of connected assets across vendors and protocols; Microsoft Purview can secure and govern data across your entire estate while helping to reduce risk and meet compliance requirements; and Microsoft Sentinel provides enterprise-grade intelligent security analytics that help detect previously undetected threats and minimize false positives.  

Microsoft security solutions can also offer improvements across key use cases, including: 

• Augmentation of security operations centers (SOCs): Microsoft security solutions empower SOCs with cloud-native capabilities that enable faster detection and response times—even automating entire responses to security events. Machine learning, AI, and advanced analytics perform the heavy lifting so SOC workers can clarify what’s happening in the SOC environment and focus on the highest-priority events. Our unified security platform eases tool fatigue in SOCs with solutions that work together seamlessly for optimal visibility and efficiency. Solutions such as Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR and Microsoft Incident Response allow for expanded capabilities to support the SOC analysts in their mission.
• Business continuity and disaster recovery: Microsoft security solutions provide automated backup processes that are both scalable and cost-effective, and they can be integrated with on-premise data protection solutions. Our solutions include features like encryption and multi-factor authentication, which protect data during the backup and recovery process and help keep sensitive information secure. This holistic approach helps utility organizations quickly recover from data loss incidents, minimizing downtime and maintaining business continuity. 

Supporting the energy customer and partner ecosystem for a secure future 

To support continued innovation in data security and cloud adoption, we collaborated with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office on an initiative for seamless integration of cloud technology into the grid of the future. Now in its pilot phase, the Cirrus cloud feasibility assessment tool (Cirrus) offers strategic guidance on how to prepare for, or deploy, a cloud solution responsibly, with the ultimate objective to strengthen the resilience and future adaptability of a decarbonized electric grid.  

Built on the security and reliability of Azure, the online version of Cirrus is also accessible through independent platforms with a license. The tool provides valuable insights to integrators, stakeholders, and operators by clarifying goals, future plans, and risk tolerance.  

With visual outputs like key performance indicator (KPI) graphs and consequence diagrams, Cirrus offers contextualized understanding, helping users prioritize critical systems and data based on potential benefits and risks associated with cloud disruptions. Additionally, Cirrus incorporates threat detection and alerts, leveraging Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) principles to empower organizations to make risk-informed decisions and address high-consequence events. 

Opportunities on the horizon with AI 

It’s an exciting time for the industry as AI creates tremendous potential for energy companies to increase their security posture.  

Imagine equipping workers with Microsoft Copilot for Security to help them identify threats earlier, build their risk mitigation skills, and respond to incidents faster. What took hours or days to complete can now be finished in minutes with AI. The efficiency is about more than labor costs. Every minute that goes by gives attackers more opportunity to wreak havoc across the board.  

With AI advancements analyzing trillions of security signals daily, together we can build a safer, more resilient digital energy ecosystem.  

Learn more with Microsoft for energy and resources 

Ready to dive deeper? Don’t miss our webinar, Rethinking cybersecurity in a renewable-powered energy system on October 10, 2024, where we will be sharing how leading energy companies are using the power of technology to safeguard their businesses. Read more about the webinar and sign up to attend.  

• Visit the Microsoft for energy and resources page.
• Read the Microsoft Industry Blogs: Energy and resources blog to learn about themes and actions critical for energy transition.
• Learn about Microsoft security solutions.
• Read more from the Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2023.
• Check out the Microsoft Defender family of products.
• Visit our Microsoft Copilot for Security Blog.
• Sign up for news and insights from Microsoft Security.

¹ Microsoft Digital Defense Report, October 2023.

² The Power Industry: Presently and Projected, Guidehouse, July 2024.

³ Breaking technical debt’s vicious cycle to modernize your business, McKinsey & Company, April 2023.

⁴ How is cyber innovation disrupting the energy sector and critical infrastructure?, World Economic Forum, October 2023.

The post How energy firms power the world with secure Microsoft technologies appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Microsoft, in partnership with IoT Analytics market research firm, conducted a global survey of manufacturers to gain insight into how they are seizing the AI opportunity while navigating key industry challenges. We asked manufacturers about their current priorities and future visions, their adoption of modern technologies and paradigms, and the benefits they expect from those technologies 

In this report, we share the key findings from the survey, to show how manufacturing enterprises are preparing their shopfloors for AI to make them secure, scalable, and automated and how they are adopting advanced technologies such as centralized device management, software containerization at the edge, and unified industrial data operations to accelerate that process.

Accelerate industrial transformation

How manufacturers prepare shopfloors for a future with AI

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Read on to discover the six key lessons learned from manufacturers rethinking their operations for AI and how Microsoft is supporting the factory of the future with Microsoft Azure’s adaptive cloud approach.

Six findings from manufacturers preparing their shop floor for AI

1. Scale matters the most in the era of AI

Scalability was the main concern for 72% of survey respondents, who highlighted this paradigm as crucial for their factory’s future. Scalability came first, followed by automation and serviceability. These paradigms ensure that factories can efficiently expand with demand, optimize with minimal manual decision making, and maintain high uptime through easy troubleshooting and maintenance. 

What does scale look like for industrial environments? 

Manufacturers face the challenges of keeping up with the changing demands of the market, the regulations, and the competition. They also recognize the potential of AI to transform their operations, optimize their processes, and enhance their products. But they don’t have the luxury of spending months or years on deploying and scaling solutions across their plants. Manufacturers need a faster way to move, a smarter way to manage, and a more flexible way to adapt. That’s why we have introduced a new approach—the adaptive cloud approach. 

To learn more, see how the adaptive cloud approach is designed to help manufacturers unify their teams, sites, and systems with cloud-native and AI technologies that work seamlessly across hybrid, multicloud, edge, distributed computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT). The adaptive cloud approach empowers manufacturers to deliver value faster, manage devices more efficiently, and run applications more securely to prepares them for the AI-powered factory of the future.  

2. Cybersecurity and data management are top of mind right now 

Security risks and data handling difficulties pose serious problems, with 58% of respondents seeing cybersecurity as a severe issue and 49% seeing data management as a severe issue. These concerns are motivating customers to improve network security and ensure data is reliable and accessible for decision-making. 

What does security look like for industrial environments? 

Security and data protection are critical for the manufacturing sector, as the sector faces increasing regulatory standards and cyber threats. Manufacturers need to secure existing devices, and plan during device refresh to choose devices that meet industry security standards, will enable them to more easily comply with regulatory standards, and provide security to defend from the latest security threats.  

To learn more, see Microsoft’s comprehensive approach to security, from device to cloud, that helps customers meet their compliance needs and defend against attacks. For existing devices, Microsoft provides firmware and network scanning with Microsoft Defender for IoT, which allows customers to inventory their devices and monitor for vulnerabilities and threats. For new devices, customers can choose from leading industry original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) devices labeled Secured-core, which meet the latest security requirements. Both existing and new devices can be monitored and remediated using Microsoft Defender and Microsoft Sentinel.

3. Device management is critical for security and data handling 

Device management’s value is evolving beyond updates and device health monitoring to also address security risks and data flow management. The survey data supported this trend, with 68% of respondents noting that the security monitoring aspect of device management was very or extremely important to their organization and 59% of respondents highlighting data management as the second most important aspect of device management. 

Why is centralized device management important? 

Centralized device management is vital for ensuring the performance and security of operations in a factory setting. It helps to keep devices secure and functioning optimally, which contributes to the overall efficiency and productivity of a manufacturing environment. Effective management also enables better oversight and control over the factory processes, improving operational reliability and supporting scalability and adaptability in a dynamic industrial landscape.

To learn more, see how Azure Arc delivered centralized management for IT and OT environments. Manufacturers can define resources, such as hybrid, multi-cloud, edge, and IoT, to Azure Resource Manager so services such as system health monitoring, security, and many others can be easily applied across a globally distributed digital estate.

4. Containerized workloads are coming to the shop floor 

The adoption of containerized software on the shop floor is rising, with 85% of survey respondents already utilizing this technology. This shift towards containerization at the edge signifies a move to improve operational efficiency, system stability, and security. 55% of respondents indicated that containerized software could significantly or extremely mitigate reliability and uptime challenges, while 53% indicated it could do the same for cybersecurity challenges.

What is containerized software? 

Software containerization enables consistent and repeatable development and deployment of solutions across different environments, in the cloud and in factory. Containerization of OT software is essential for the AI-powered factory of the future, as it enables seamless technology deployment in scalable, serviceable, and automated factories. Kubernetes automates the scaling and management of containerized applications, saving time and resources for manufacturers.

To learn more, see how Azure Kubernetes Service helps to securely modernize and optimize Kubernetes environments with unified management, governance, and monitoring. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), helps teams accelerate app development and deployment with best-in-class tools and generative AI. With AKS, enabled by Arc, these benefits can also be extended to on-premises and edge-based applications 

5. Industrial data operations optimize OT data management

Companies want to combine information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) systems for context driven decision making. 52% of respondents indicated that having a combined IT and OT data platform was very or extremely important for their company. Industrial data operations enhance the integration of IT and OT data by improving data flow, quality and value; therefore, 87% of companies have already adopted industrial data operations technology in some form or are planning to do so.

What are industrial data operations? 

Industrial data operations delivers data in a reliable, real-time manner for optimizing factories and plants. Industrial data operations manages and unifies data from various sources, facilitates seamless integration of information, and ensures data is accessible and usable for decision-making purposes. Industrial data operations helps break down data silos and improve predictive insights through an exchange and integration between shop floor and cloud environments.

To learn more, see how Azure IoT Operations handles data from equipment and systems in OT environments, ensuring that data is collected, pre-processed, and integrated into applications running onsite. This service, announced in public preview at Ignite 2023, embraces industry standards—such as, Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA), Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT), OpenTelemetry (OTel)—and natively integrates into Microsoft Fabric. Microsoft Fabric, handles data for cloud environments, centralizing data on one open, organization-wide data lake to eliminate sprawl and reduce duplication. It allows creating and managing AI models on a single foundation, reducing data movement and time to value.

6. Respondents are investing in underlying data architecture for AI 

According to the study, manufacturers plan to invest in AI-powered factories of the future within the next two years. On average, respondents expected their organizations to increase their investments in software for orchestrating edge AI by 11%. This investment shows that they recognize the need to overcome technical and skill gaps to fully exploit AI’s capabilities in future manufacturing processes. 

How to invest in underlying architecture for AI? 

Microsoft recommends adopting advanced technology frameworks such as centralized device management, software containerization at the edge, and unified industrial data operations to accelerate industrial transformation and prepare for AI. Azure’s adaptive cloud approach embraces all three advanced technology frameworks. 

Accelerate industrial transformation in manufacturing

To learn more read the full 2024 IoT Signals report, a comprehensive survey of manufacturers’ priorities, challenges, and plans for adopting new technologies, such as these, in their factories to prepare for AI. The report shows that manufacturers are looking for solutions that can help them secure, scale, and automate. Microsoft Azure is responding to these needs with its adaptive cloud approach, which offers a flexible and scalable platform for managing devices, applications, and integrated data across the edge and the cloud.

To view a presentation of this survey by IoT Analytics’ CEO and Microsoft’s GM of Azure IoT and Edge, recorded at HMI 2024, click here.

To discover more insights and best practices for accelerating industrial transformation, download the 2024 IoT Signals report below.

The post 6 findings from IoT Signals report: Manufacturers prepare their shop floor for AI appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

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

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Transforming the manufacturing value chain with AI

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

1. Unlock innovation in design and engineering

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

2. Enable intelligent factories

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

3. Create resilient and sustainable operations

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

4. Enhance employee productivity with AI

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

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

Thought leadership and continued innovation

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

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

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

Learn more about solutions from Microsoft

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

The post Microsoft experience at Hannover Messe 2024: Accelerating industrial transformation with AI appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Manufacturing is one of the most data-intensive industries, as massive amounts of data are generated from sources such as sensors, machines, enterprise systems, and human interactions. However, most of this data remains siloed, unstructured, and underutilized, thereby limiting the potential for data-driven insights and innovation. To overcome this challenge, manufacturers need a unified data estate that can connect, enrich, and model data across information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) systems—enabling easy access and analysis of data for every employee.  

We are announcing the private preview of manufacturing data solutions in Microsoft Fabric and copilot template for factory operations on Azure AI, under the Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing. These solutions help manufacturers unify their OT and IT data estate and accelerate and scale data transformation for AI on Fabric, our end-to-end analytics software as a service (SaaS) based platform. The copilot template for factory operation on Azure AI helps manufacturers to create their own copilots for their frontline workers using their unified data. They can use natural language to work with the data and handle scenarios such as root-cause analysis, knowledge discovery, training, issue resolution, asset maintenance, and more.  

These solutions, alongside our partners supporting it, will be showcased live for the first time at Hannover Messe Industrial Conference 2024.  

Manufacturing data solutions in Fabric

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Manufacturing data solutions in Fabric 

Manufacturing data solutions in Fabric brings together OT data like factory sensor telemetry, and IT data like inventory data, into a unified data foundation in Fabric. The solution extends the value of the data by enriching it with the relevant context, following an industry standard International Society of Automation (ISA-95) information model. For example, the temperature reading of a production equipment at a specific time (OT data), is overlayed with all the information of the batch of material going through that machine, from the production order from your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, or test result from your quality system (IT data). 

The solution ingests data from different factory sources ranging from the Internet of Things (IoT) devices to systems of records like manufacturing execution systems (MES), and more. The data is stored in Fabric for unification, enrichment, modeling, and aggregation. This unified data foundation provides a scalable and repeatable pattern to tackle all factory domain data projects—accelerating the pace of innovation, freeing up IT resources, and maximizing the value of current technology investments. 

Copilot template for factory operations on Azure AI 

Once the data is enriched and ready for AI, manufacturers can leverage the factory operations copilot template plugin to Azure OpenAI Service, augmented for complex manufacturing systems like MES. The copilot template validates results against the manufacturing data solutions through post processing to avoid hallucinations and provides responsible AI guardrails to ensure only relevant and safe responses are given within the manufacturing setting. The users, such as a Quality Engineer or Plant Manager, can use a custom interface, like a chatbot or a dashboard, to communicate with the data in natural language to obtain insights and make improvement decisions. 

To learn more about technical aspects of these solutions, review our deep dive technical blog.

Realizing the value of factory data with AI 

These solutions are already supporting leading manufacturers globally to tackle complex use cases like production monitoring, waste management, quality management, and worker enablement. 

Intertape Polymer Group increases production performance with factory data and generative AI  

Intertape Polymer Group (IPG) uses Sight Machine’s Manufacturing Data Platform to continuously transform data generated by its factory equipment into a robust data foundation for analyzing and modeling its machines, production processes, and finished products. IPG is now using Sight Machine’s Factory Copilot, a generative AI with an intuitive natural language chat interface, powered by the copilot template for factory operations on Azure AI. This tool facilitates the team’s ability to rapidly gather insights and direct work on production lines which previously operated like black boxes. Instead of working through manual spreadsheets and inaccessible data, all teammates—including production, engineering, procurement, and finance—have better information to drive decisions on products and processes throughout the plant, improving yield and reducing inventory levels.

“Our partnership with Sight Machine and Microsoft is ever evolving and continues to become more important to our daily operations within the plant, facilitating real time decisions on real time data.”

—Bill Bourgeous, Plant Manager for the IPG Tremonton, Utah facility 

Schaeffler, democratizing information access across their factory workforce

Schaeffler, a leading motion technology company, has embarked on a mission to democratize information access across their factory workforce. Employees can gain easy access to key metrics like scrap rates, yields (the proportion of usable or acceptable components), and energy usage over time using the chatbot. This will be vital to help drive cost and carbon reduction co-benefits.

“Artificial Intelligence, and in particular Generative AI, is already having an impact on the daily business at Schaeffler. Especially in the field of manufacturing and operations, the ongoing operationalization of AI solutions, combined with intensive training, enables us to optimize, rethink, and innovate the core of our company—our plants. As a leading motion technology company, Schaeffler has the ambition not only to participate but to proactively shape this ongoing transformation.”

—Stefan Soutschek, Vice President Digitalization and Operations IT, Schaeffler

Bridgestone is creating a unified factory data foundation to enhance product quality

Bridgestone is partnering with Avanade to confront production challenges head-on, focusing on critical issues related to production disruptions and scheduling inefficiencies, like yield loss, which can escalate into quality issues. As a private preview customer collaborating with Avanade, Bridgestone aims to harness the power of manufacturing data solutions in Fabric and the copilot template on Azure AI. Their goal is to implement a natural language query system that enables frontline workers, with different levels of experience, with insights that lead to faster issue resolution. The team is excited to establish a centralized system that efficiently gathers and presents critical information from various sources and facilitates informed decision-making and enhances operational agility across Bridgestone’s production ecosystem. 

“We are excited to accelerate our industrial transformation with AI in partnership with Avanade and Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing, particularly we recognize the disruptive ​potential of generative AI, and true to our values, we want to be at the forefront of innovation equipping our front-line workers with powerful tools, like copilots, to optimize our operations.“

—Bart Kerhofs, Vice President of IT for Bridgestone, Europe, Middle East, and Africa

Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing partner ecosystem 

These solutions are enabled by an ecosystem of partners with deep industry expertise. Systems integrators and software vendors enable factory data ingestion from different systems by building custom or proprietary connectors into Fabric—embedding the solution capabilities into their applications or building custom UI experiences for the copilot templates on Azure AI. We want to thank our private preview partners for supporting these solutions and our customers.

• Accenture and Avanade: Private preview implementation partners for manufacturing data solutions in Fabric and copilot template on Azure AI.
• Sight Machine: Manufacturing Data Platform and Factory Copilot on Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing.
• Litmus Automation: Litmus connector.
• AVEVA: AVEVA Connect and AVEVA Data Hub on Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing.
• Rockwell: Integration of Rockwell’s Plex Smart Manufacturing Platform with FactoryTalk DataMosaix and Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing. 

To learn more about each of our partners, review the deep dive technical blog. 

Learn more at Hannover Messe 2024 

With manufacturing data solutions in Fabric and copilot template on Azure AI, manufacturers can better connect factory ecosystems, drive productivity, and enhance business operations using conversational assistants and accessible data analytics from the factory floor. To watch a live demonstration of these solutions, discover the additional capabilities of Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing and our partners, and to engage with subject matter experts, join us at the Hannover Messe Industrial Fair 2024, in Hannover, Germany from April 22 to 26, 2024 in Hall 17 Stand G06. 

Explore Hannover Messe announcements and Microsoft AI solutions

• Read Azure IoT’s industrial transformation strategy on display at Hannover Messe 2024.
• Read Microsoft unveils AI features for manufacturers at Hannover Messe 2024.
• Build intelligent apps at enterprise scale with the Azure AI portfolio.
• Reshape how everyone accesses, manages, and acts on data with a single, AI-powered platform.
• Work smarter, be more productive, boost creativity, and stay connected to the people and things in your life with Microsoft Copilot.

The post Accelerating industrial transformation with Microsoft AI solutions appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

There’s much to explore on this topic—that is why we developed A New Era of Industrial Transformation. This series, featuring analysts from Forrester, digs into the changing face of manufacturing, examining the related trends, use cases, and technology leading the way.  

A New Era of Industrial Transformation

Discover how technology is helping overcome modern manufacturing challenges

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Episode 1: Converging technology and its combinatorial effect

In the first conversation, Dominik Wee, Corporate Vice President of Manufacturing and Mobility at Microsoft, sits down with guest Paul Miller, Vice President Principal Analyst at Forrester, to discuss how manufacturing organizations are using technology to improve their operations. Acknowledging the challenges that manufacturers face today, Paul reviews some findings of our commissioned research conducted by Forrester Consulting, Accelerate Future Manufacturing Transformation. Focused on the industrial metaverse, the research examines why organizations are turning to this emerging category to integrate their physical and digital environments to find balance.  

While new, this confluence of technology is already providing value. Forrester sees organizations prioritizing technology investments in three key areas:

1. Technology that offers greater connectivity. Industrial environments have hundreds of moving parts, making connectivity essential. The internet of things (IoT) and wireless (5G) networks enable new organizational visibility that enable the data foundation necessary to industrial metaverse capabilities.  

2. Technology that offers greater simulation, modeling, and engagement. AI is influencing other technologies. This is especially true for extended reality solutions (for example, augmented, mixed, and virtual reality). From using digital twins to monitoring asset health to simulation optimizing industrial processes to mixed reality accelerating worker upskilling—manufacturing leaders are seeing real value.  

3. Technology that offers greater automation and computing power. With their industrial data gathered, manufacturers are turning to AI for a deeper analysis to do predictive maintenance and yield optimization or streamline production processes.  

Dominik uses Bridgestone, Bosch, and ALTANA stories to articulate the ways manufacturing organizations are using these technologies today and discuss how others can start. Catch up on episode one. 

Episode 2: Reengineering the product development lifecycle   

Episode two looks at product innovation. Here Simon Floyd, General Manager for Manufacturing and Mobility at Microsoft, chats with guest George Lawrie, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester, on what is happening inside the product engineering and design departments. Generative AI is at the heart of their transformation, helping these departments rethink the product lifecycle in three major ways: 

1. AI can enhance collaboration and productivity. Transform engineering and product design by automating tasks such as code generation, enhancing decision-making through knowledge discovery at scale, and advanced simulations. These capabilities streamline the development process, fostering innovation and ensuring products meet market demands more efficiently. 

2. AI can help address growing product complexities. Empower enterprises to manage the increasing complexity and diversity in product development by personalizing designs based on consumer data, ensuring regulatory compliance, and integrating sustainability into the design process. These capabilities facilitate innovation that better meet customer and market needs.  

3. AI can enable new product concepts. Bring concepts to life faster through generative design, simulations using cloud-based high-performance computing and advanced technologies such as digital twins and mixed reality. AI will not only streamline product exploration but also ensure that final products are more aligned with user preferences and trends. 

Simon uses Eagle Industries and Siemens stories to articulate the ways manufacturers are using generative AI in product lifecycle to reimagine products, while discussing how organizations can get started with AI in their engineering processes. Watch episode two. 

Episode 3: Transforming factories from the inside 

Paul Miller returns as a guest speaker. In episode three, he joins John Reed, Solutions Leader for Manufacturing and Mobility at Microsoft, exploring technologies’ impact on factories and production, globally. Their conversation highlights the four big trends that Forrester sees shaping the industry, as outlined in their Future of Manufacturing report: 

1. Integrating digital technologies with physical products. Most traditional industrial players are rushing to acquire and embed digital capabilities. But the physical products, and the hard-won industrial skills that create them, aren’t going away. Rather, digital technologies help augment these products and enable manufacturers to design, build, sell, use, reuse, support, and value it in new ways.  

2. Adapting to a changing world with local, near, and far capacity. Rumors of globalization’s demise was premature, but economic pressures, aging workforces, and technological advances are altering the balance. It’s no longer wise to assume everything will be made in China—nor anywhere else. Smart leaders are embracing more flexible and resilient supply networks. 

3. Electrifying, decarbonizing, and manufacturing sustainably. Electrification of industrial processes has been underway for years, and decarbonization projects are showing promise. However, most organizations are just getting started on sustainably. This will require them to reconsider the energy and raw materials connected to their finished goods.  

4. Getting the best from hardware, software, and people. Few industrial workflows will suit entirely automated, lights-out operation any time soon. Far from replacing human workers, well-deployed hardware and software automation augment them, extend their reach, removing administrative burdens that keep them from their work. 

John examines Intertape Polymer Group’s (IPG) story to discuss the role generative AI could have inside a factory. Working with Sight Machine, IPG is developing a factory copilot using Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service. While is it early, IPG has noticed a 50% decrease in manufacturing data platform onboarding time, a 25% increase in average weekly platform usage, and improved customer experience scores due to automatic report generation. John and Paul conclude the conversation with areas of AI-enabled quick wins, and where to start with embedded AI copilots. Don’t miss episode three.  

Advancing your industrial transformation strategy 

We are at a unique moment of change and convergence with data and AI becoming more accessible and fundamentally changing our relationship with products, processes, and places. This integration of digital and physical technologies presents a big opportunity to reinvent the entire value chain: 

• The vast amount of data and digital feedback loops from both consumers and connected products allows us to use AI-driven product design to deliver on individualized customer needs, enhancing customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. 

• In the factory, continuous monitoring of assets through sensors and data analysis helps workers anticipate maintenance needs to reduce unplanned downtime, enhancing asset reliability. 

• AI-optimized supply chains monitor pricing changes from suppliers, dynamically dispatch materials to meet production needs, and prioritize customer shipments based on fulfillment penalties. 

Next steps

Watch the New Era of Industrial Transformation series to learn more about how AI is driving transformation across manufacturing organizations and visit Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing for more resources and customer stories to inform your transformation.   

Forrester: The Future of Manufacturing: Disruptive Innovations In Manufacturing Will Reshape Entire Industries (2022). 

The post A new era of industrial transformation: 3 conversations to challenge your perspective appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

If 2023 was the year that governments recognized the potential of technology to tackle some of society’s biggest challenges, then 2024 is the year that governments are putting it to work.  

In my meetings and discussions with government leaders from around the world, what’s impressed me the most is the optimism so many have about the possibilities for generational transformation presented by modern cloud technology, especially generative AI. This is already translating into action and delivering amazing results in many corners of the world. As the leader of the Microsoft for Government team, I am excited by the prospect of governments becoming even more empowered with solutions that help provide better services, outcomes, and efficiencies.  

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2023: A year of government transformation through technology

Looking back at 2023, a common theme we saw across events and customer engagements was that many governments are no longer holding back but instead are investing, experimenting, and innovating with digital technology and AI. And it’s not just about generative AI, but also the many accompanying technologies that governments rely on—everything from hyperscale cloud to the Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, digital twins, and even body cameras on police officers. 

After my team’s participation in the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) conference in September 2023, I cannot watch a police cruiser go by without appreciating that officers and residents alike are safer thanks to the new communications and situational awareness capabilities provided by modern cloud technology.  

In October 2023, my view of international trade and safety (not to mention wildlife protection) was heightened by the World Customs Organization (WCO) Technology Conference, where the shift to cloud and AI is inspiring non-intrusive solutions for inspections, advancing automation, and providing better real-time insights. 

And it was phenomenal to witness the worldwide interest in AI at the Smart City Expo World Congress in November 2023. The sheer scope of energized keynotes, sessions, and conversations reflected an optimism that cloud and AI can help transform cities into more sustainable and livable spaces for all. I was gratified that Microsoft was named a trusted leader in Smart Sustainable Cities IoT applications by IDC, and excited to see the enthusiasm for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365, which had just been released.  

Generative AI has become an imperative for governments, and the recognition of this has spurred leaders across every type of agency and organization to upgrade their systems, processes, and even cultures. It’s an exciting time, with seemingly limitless possibilities.  

Technology impact on governments in 2024

As 2024 progresses, we are seeing some remarkable innovations. Here’s just a sampling of customer highlights: 

• In Greece, the Ministry of Digital Governance (MoDG) launched the nation’s first public-facing chatbot, which provides people with a simple way to interact with more than 5,000 processes of the government using technology. Built with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, the bot runs on government websites and provides accurate and up-to-date information on a wide range of services, policies, and procedures, without making users navigate across websites or contact multiple offices. Due to the partnership and collaboration between the ministerial office and Microsoft, the project progressed from a pre-demo solution to a stable and accurate service in less than three weeks.  
• In the United States, an advanced search tool was built for the Supreme Court of the state of Alabama to help justices locate case information more effectively. The new tool replaces a slow and error-prone legacy system and leverages Microsoft Azure AI services to provide fast, accurate, and comprehensive search results. The implementation improves the court system’s efficiency and helps ensure justice is served in a timely manner. 
• The Government of Albania recently released a new AI virtual assistant, designed to streamline and facilitate daily interactions with the government and simplify residents’ lives. Running on Azure OpenAI Service, the system meets the government’s requirements for uncompromised security and governance, and is designed to be scalable for the future. By design, it also provides full control and independence for the Albanian government, allowing the Agency for Information Society (AKSHI) the ability to manage, update, and modify the system in-house.  

Keys to enable AI innovation in government

Early use cases in government are often focused on improving efficiencies or providing new services that draw on readily available data and are relatively easy to build and deploy. We’re seeing a remarkable range of use cases—including chatbots and virtual assistants, content creation and design, language translation and processing, fraud detection, predictive analytics, medical research and diagnosis, and much more.  

Concurrently, agencies and organizations are deriving immediate benefits by adopting Copilot for Microsoft 365, which integrates generative AI into popular productivity applications and services. In the short time that it has been available to customers, Copilot for Microsoft 365 has demonstrated noteworthy value. According to a survey conducted by Microsoft, 70% of Copilot for Microsoft 365 users reported being more productive, and 68% said it improved the quality of their work. Overall, users were 29% faster in a series of tasks—such as searching, writing, and summarizing.¹

Many governments are also prioritizing the migration of their data and infrastructure to a hyperscale cloud platform such as the Microsoft Cloud, which provides the power and services to enable advanced AI, while meeting governments’ stringent requirements for security, privacy, and compliance. Advancing trust further is the recently announced Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, a solution built on Azure that gives governments greater controls over their data and increased transparency to the operational and governance processes of the cloud.  

Across all these scenarios, we believe it’s critical that governments partner with trusted solution providers that enable them to achieve their desired outcomes. At Microsoft, we regard our global partner ecosystem as essential to the success of our government customers by providing the local and regional expertise required to ensure success.  

Build for success in 2024

We’re excited to offer a variety of opportunities for government customers to explore and innovate with generative AI in 2024. We look forward to engaging with our customers and partners at events throughout the year, including: 

• The SXSW Conference and Festivals, on March 8 to 16, 2024 in Austin, Texas, where Microsoft will participate in panels, workshops and discussions around sustainability, transportation, and digital futures. We will also be a partner at the Innovation Bridge Europe (IBE) House, and we look forward to exploring innovative ideas with delegates and partners from around the world.  
• The Microsoft AI Tour event in Paris, France, on March 12, 2024, where senior government leaders, business decision makers, experts, and partners will learn, share, and connect.  
• The European Social Services Conference, on June 26 to 28, 2024 in Antwerp, Belgium, where Microsoft will be a sponsor in helping to bring together senior leaders from 180 government organizations from 34 countries.  

Discover government solutions with Microsoft

To learn more about how Microsoft is empowering governments with technology to help solve society’s biggest challenges:

• Visit the Microsoft for Government website.
• Read our Microsoft for Government e-book.
• Get in touch with your Microsoft sales representative.    

The post Microsoft for Government: Changing the landscape with cloud and AI appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Deployment of clean energy sources like solar, wind, and biofuels, carbon capture solutions, energy storage, and electric vehicles (EVs) help us get closer to a net-zero future. However, transformation requires investment, and modernizing infrastructure for operational efficiency and innovation can be cost-prohibitive. Last year, I highlighted energy organizations that are turning to Microsoft technology and the industrial metaverse for a sustainable, clean energy future.

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Metaverse in action: Transforming the energy sector

The industrial metaverse integrates technologies like IoT, AI, digital twin, and mixed reality technologies, using the Microsoft Cloud to provide persistent, interactive experiences based on an organization’s information technology (IT), operational technology (OT), and engineering technology (ET) data and applications.

AI is already playing a major role in improving productivity, operational efficiency, and workplace safety. In a recent Microsoft commissioned study by Forrester, we learned that energy firms view the industrial metaverse as a critical component to their organization’s evolution. While implementation costs and skilling questions remain, the industry acknowledges this technology convergence is helping target improved operating margins and increase productivity and profitability. 

AI is accelerating industrial metaverse interactions, helping organizations address their innovation barriers. For example, Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides, currently in private preview, combines the power of generative AI with mixed reality to help frontline workers complete complex tasks and resolve service issues faster with less operational disruption. Together these technologies provide frontline workers with real-time, contextual guidance and 3D instruction through point-and-ask guidance, spatial content generation, and step-by-step assistance.

In Turkey, Enerjisa Üretim teamed with Senkron.Energy Digital Services to transition to a cloud-native ecosystem based on Microsoft Azure. By leveraging the new environment, the company was able to implement a new remote operation center for 20 hydropower, wind, and solar plants within four years. Now, Enerjisa Üretim uses advanced AI analytics to monitor real-time performance, forecast production levels, and predict maintenance requirements. The firm has strengthened its security operations as well. Overall, the solution has increased operational efficiency with well-timed preventive maintenance and advanced the company toward safer and more secure and sustainable energy management.

Industrial metaverse solutions can also include IoT technologies like Microsoft Azure IoT Operations and Azure IoT for energy, designed to help organizations optimize energy distribution while lowering operational costs.

As an integrated energy conglomerate, Ecopetrol operates across the entire hydrocarbon chain as well as linear infrastructure, such as energy transmission and road concessions according to John James, Enterprise Digital Architect at Ecopetrol. By harnessing the power of Azure IoT Operations, Ecopetrol is poised to continue expanding and enhancing its industrial IoT platform. This strategic move is designed to not only streamline and standardize intelligent edge solutions, but also to significantly improve operational efficiencies, minimize the carbon footprint, and enable rapid adoption of big data and AI technologies at the core of their business. This commitment is a testament to Ecopetrol’s dedication to leading the energy sector into a more sustainable and technologically-advanced future.

Highlighting a metaverse of customer innovation

Dutch-state owned utility provider Enexis wants to drive the energy transition at a national level. To meet its ambitious goal, Enexis needed to transform its workforce and infrastructure. With a solution based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides and Microsoft HoloLens 2, Enexis is enabling employees to master materials 40% faster than traditional methods. Next, the company plans to expand the solution to field work, with possibilities that include remote inspection and safety drills.

Global energy firm Chevron is adopting industrial metaverse technologies to realize their vision for their facilities and operations of the future—helping to improve safety with generative AI and automation while also lowering operating expenses. Assets connect to the Microsoft Cloud and edge technologies to enable intelligent monitoring and enhanced decision making. Chevron is also one of the first organizations using Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides in private preview, bringing the power of generative AI and mixed reality to frontline workers. 

Digital twins and AI can be adapted for a variety of sustainability scenarios. For example, Anglican Water, the largest water company in England, uses digital twins to protect river health efficiently, affordably, and with a smaller carbon footprint. Data integration, 3D modeling, and predictive capabilities help provide a better real-time understanding of river ecosystems and the impact of future change. The insights help protect river health and ensure safe, clean drinking water to 7 million customers.

Private 5G and Microsoft partners enabling energy innovation

Microsoft partners are actively developing solutions running on Azure private multi-access edge compute (MEC), a cloud-managed edge infrastructure and services combined with edge networking. These innovative solutions have been designed to help our mutual customers meet their transformation goals and adopt AI technologies:

• Cognizant: Private 5G Vision AI for Worker Health and Safety enhances workforce safety by identifying when workers enter a hazardous work-zone and taking proactive actions to protect them from injury.
• Tampnet: Offshore Private Mobile Network (4G/5G) provides high-speed, secure mobile connectivity to enable digitization of mission critical energy operations.
• weavix: Frontline Communication Platform advances frontline worker communication with wearable technologies, improves safety measures, and expands collaboration.

From improving workplace safety and operational efficiency to transforming infrastructure and delivering new services, energy organizations worldwide are using the industrial metaverse and AI to accelerate their energy transition journeys. Progress demands a global effort and Microsoft is committed to working with customers and partners to provide innovative solutions that enable a net-zero carbon economy. The industrial metaverse isn’t a distant vision, it’s part of today’s reality. Energy companies that embrace AI-powered tools and digital innovation now can meet their business goals and tackle new challenges while advancing a more sustainable future for the planet.  

Discover solutions for your energy transition

• Microsoft’s perspective on the industrial metaverse
• Microsoft for Energy and Resources
• Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides
• Microsoft Azure IoT for Energy
• Microsoft Copilot

The post Microsoft and the industrial metaverse are enabling and accelerating the energy transition appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Not surprisingly, AI, and in particular generative AI, was at the core of nearly every single conversation as one of the biggest and most disruptive transformative forces to impact the industry in recent memory. The question heard often was how to turn that excitement into action and tangible business outcomes. Microsoft had the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to the broad adoption and application of AI, and how our focus is bringing our capabilities to the industry in a way that solves deep business problems and creates new opportunities.

Generative AI will impact the entire mobility value chain—from customer experiences both inside and outside the vehicle, research and development (R&D) and design, core operations, and workforce skilling and empowerment.

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Making an impact with AI

During CES 2024, our customers and partners shared with us their incredibly exciting AI journeys. We talked about where they are today and where they want to be in the next 12 months. While we see companies at various stages of AI maturity, they all have one thing in common—they are all looking for cost-effective ways to harness the power of AI to drive value faster in their own businesses.

As I reflected on our conversations, five key areas came to mind where AI can make the biggest impact for mobility companies:

1. AI is enabling the next generation of digital cockpits

Spoken language remains the most suitable way to interact with a vehicle—to keep hands on the wheel and the eyes on the road. Generative AI enriches conversational experiences. Think “ChatGPT in the car.” Moreover, with a growing ecosystem of third-party integrations into Microsoft Copilot, bringing the driver’s digital life into the vehicle becomes easier than ever before.

We believe that this will spark the next generation of in-vehicle experiences. Our approach is to build an open ecosystem of best-in-class products and technologies, enabled by the Microsoft Cloud and leading AI capabilities. Just as important is the understanding that automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) want to build differentiated experiences and don’t want to be disintermediated from their customers. Our approach aims to provide OEMs with:

• Ownership of the total brand experience.
• A deeper relationship with the end customer.
• Flexibility to adopt technology stack for their own needs.
• Protection of end-user data and privacy.

Supporting this growth, notable partnerships were announced during the lead up to and at CES 2024, amplifying how partners are leveraging Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and ChatGPT to provide OEMs and their customers with next generation in-car experiences.

TomTom announced their partnership with Microsoft and demonstrated their “digital cockpit” concept at CES 2024 to provide a more natural, conversational way to interact with vehicle features and information sources both inside and outside of the vehicle in a way that is safe and efficient. This solution will allow an OEM to provide a differentiated and unique cockpit experience that also preserves their own brand identity. This “in-cockpit” experience represents significant focus and growth across the ecosystem.

A new collaboration with Cerence focuses on the future of connected mobility. Cerence announced an in-car assistant that leverages ChatGPT and Azure OpenAI Service to support OEMs to implement next generation experiences into new vehicles as well as provide the ability to retroactively upgrade existing customer-owned vehicles—extending customer value through access to more frequent feature updates and generating new revenue opportunities for OEMs.

Current customer stories include an in-vehicle productivity integration with Microsoft Teams from Lynk & Co, creating a seamless, hands-free way to stay productive on the go, and the AI-powered digital companion Mercedes-Benz developed using ChatGPT. This solution has dramatically improved the responsiveness and accuracy of the in-car voice assistant by providing more meaningful answers to queries and enabling context driven communications that are beyond simple vehicle or navigation type questions. In a true execution of innovation “at the speed of AI,” Mercedes-Benz was able to envision, develop, test, and deploy this solution in just 12 weeks.

2. AI is creating more value-driven customer experiences

The desired goal for mobility companies including automotive, transportation, and logistics providers is driving increased customer loyalty, growth, and retention. When we talk about the shift from physical to digital, a focus on improving customer experience is a key outcome.

This software-powered expansion creates new revenue-generating opportunities like subscription models, new apps and features, and an improved service experience. Companies are creating new service offerings and even revamping the way customers shop, select, order, and experience the delivery of new products and services.

With the ability to share information across data ecosystems, it is possible to have a multi-modal, frictionless travel experience whether that is in a car, public transportation, or airline, for example. The developments of AI along with a software-driven focus provide longer-term value for the customer and revenue benefits for the organization.

An additional customer experienced focused announcement made during the week of CES 2024 included KPIT, with their creation of a new solution that also employs Azure OpenAI Service for root-cause diagnostics to improve time to first fix and reduce “no-trouble-found” warranty claims enabling improved customer satisfaction and retention for dealerships.

3. AI is accelerating product innovation

Successfully developing and launching a vehicle has become increasingly complex. At the same time, the competitive landscape has changed dramatically as new entrants outside of traditional OEMs that are already “software native” become more prevalent. As a result, we see our customers looking to apply AI to accelerate time-to-market and increase R&D productivity.

A growing development is the desire for OEMs to shift from hardware to software with software defined vehicles (SDV). This represents a significant change to how a vehicle is developed, enhanced, and maintained, and opportunities exist to support open collaboration across the industry to help advance the maturity of SDV.  

Supporting this development area, Microsoft is a contributor to the open-source collaboration of OEMs, suppliers, and technology providers in the Eclipse Software Defined Vehicle working group with contributors from across the value chain enabling non-differentiating advancement of SDV for the industry.    

SDV toolchain was featured at CES 2024 with the announcement by AVL, a leading mobility technology company using Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and GitHub Copilot to create new opportunities for OEMs to utilize cloud native capabilities that aid vehicle software development. This new capability can significantly reduce development time for software defined vehicles, improving innovation and time to market. 

Digital engineering enables automotive OEMs to connect data across the product lifecycle to transform the way they design, build, and deliver products. The opportunity for AI exists across autonomous development, SDVs as mentioned above, knowledge discovery, and generative design. We believe AI has the potential to do for product development what the Internet of Things (IoT) has done for production in the manufacturing space.

Software development is at the forefront of this. According to a report by McKinsey, software and electronics related to digital engineering will account for 50% of total car costs by 2030, compared to 35% in 2020. More importantly, software-related features and services will generate about 30% of total automotive revenue by 2030, up from less than 10% in 2020.¹ This means that automotive companies need to shift their focus from what was primarily manufacturing, selling, and servicing vehicles to providing value-added software solutions that enhance the mobility experience of their customers. AI and digital engineering are enabling this, allowing products to be delivered to market in less time.

An example highlighted at CES 2024 was the announcement with Cognata, where AI is used to aid the virtualization of automated driver assistance (ADAS) and autonomous vehicle (AV) sensors in a simulated environment. The efficiencies gained will aid OEMs with their validation and integration processes to bring new automated driving features to market faster.

As companies use the power of AI and digital engineering to differentiate, we believe our core value is in enabling the transition with our customers, by building the “platform for platform creators” with our trusted and secure cloud-enabled services such as Azure, AI and Microsoft Copilot, Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, and our partner ecosystem.

In my next blog, I will dive deeper into this topic and share my thoughts about ways companies can accelerate R&D with generative AI.

4. AI is enabling deep insights into operational performance

To better serve your customers and develop innovative products and solutions, you need to have a tuned operation and supply chain. Manufacturing has made incredible advancements in efficiency with information technology (IT), operational technology (OT), and IoT technology enabling automation, data insights, and analytics. Now with AI, not only is this data leveraged to aid decision-making but it can also be harnessed to drive innovation in solution development, aiding operations and frontline workers in areas such as anomaly detection, problem-solving, and real-time collaboration as our customers ZF and Siemens illustrate.

5. AI is also improving productivity in the back office

In the culture of “do more with less,” Microsoft has long provided the ability for individuals and organizations to achieve more. Tools and open-source environments like GitHub spark creative, problem-solving application development. Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams offer streamlined collaboration and productivity for back-office environments, and Dynamics 365 enriches sales, marketing, and frontline worker data integration that empowers companies to lead their digital transformation.

AI is already helping people and teams be more creative in their work—improving personal productivity and reducing the routine, repetitive elements across functions. We are betting big on AI copilots which use generative AI to empower people and augment their capabilities and ingenuity, while keeping them in control of the final decision-making process and outcomes. This means the workforce can focus more on value-driven projects, freeing up time—and money—to invest in skilling and innovation realization.

Enabling innovation—Mobility reference architectures

Our customers are looking to Microsoft to help them accelerate the adoption of AI and the development of advanced mobility solutions. They also seek to do this in a way that enables control of their brand identity and experiences with their customers.

At CES 2023, Microsoft launched three mobility reference architectures. At CES 2024, we released an additional four. Together, these seven reference architectures help our partner ecosystem leverage the Microsoft Cloud and AI solutions to support their customers across research and development, manufacturing, supply chain and logistics, marketing, sales, and aftersales. You can learn more about these reference architectures and supporting ecosystem on our mobility documentation page.

A look ahead

We leave CES 2024 excited about the immediate future that AI and other developments supporting the automotive, travel, transportation, and logistics industries will bring. We extend our appreciation to our customers and partners who supported us at CES 2024 and are embracing the paradigm shift that is creating tremendous opportunities across the mobility ecosystem. I look forward to diving deeper into discussion on these and other important mobility topics in my upcoming blogs.

• Explore announcements at CES 2024 from Microsoft.
• Learn how you can accelerate the future of mobility.
• Stay up-to-date on the latest from the Microsoft Industry Blog.

¹ McKinsey & Company, Outlook on the automotive software and electronics market through 2030, January 2023.

The post Learning from CES 2024: 5 ways AI is reshaping the future of mobility appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

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Companies aren’t waiting to drive momentum with AI

While global technology, energy, and policy continue to unify around unlocking AI’s potential to help speed the development of sustainability solutions, many organizations are already driving forward. These leaders understand the exponential value of responsible AI¹ to help bend the curve on innovation toward transformation and growth. In many cases, they’re working together to cover more ground faster, which is one key to addressing net zero goals. The following efforts have inspired me and others to keep pushing forward. 

The National Football League’s Las Vegas Raiders have upped their game at their home stadium, Allegient. Using Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, a growing set of ESG capabilities that includes increasing use of automation and AI, stadium engineers are able to track energy, water, and waste metrics, such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) electricity usage, and plan reductions based on AI-driven insights. For example, they can analyze weather data and regulate the stadium’s temperature from any connected device—such as a smartphone—enabling a more comfortable stadium experience as well as better, faster decisions for saving energy, time, and money—not to mention elite-level sustainability publicity.

Denmark- based FLSmidth, a provider of equipment and service solutions to the mining and cement industries, is using Microsoft Sustainability Manager to reach zero emissions and zero waste by 2030. Knowing that measuring performance will be key to success, the company is using the extensible solution to establish emissions baselines, set incremental goals, and track progress to build new sustainability solutions for customers. It’s also investing heavily in the Internet of Things (IoT) and AI technology to enable a continuous sustainability data stream. This helps FLSmidth optimize equipment and plant performance and forecast and prevent problems. With huge potential gains in efficiency and speed, the company is looking to AI to help dramatically improve its own sustainability outcomes and customers’.   

OSTP Group, a Nordic manufacturer of steel tubes, pipes, and fittings, worked with Microsoft partner Fellowmind to build a Microsoft Sustainability Manager-based solution for CO2 data gathering and reporting. With automated reporting and AI-driven analytics, OSTP can spend less time collecting data and more time analyzing progress toward its goal of carbon neutrality by 2025. OSTP recognizes that with increasing regulatory requirements and customer expectations, sustainability progress and transparency are becoming important differentiators for growth. 

Powering AI and new business models with ESG data 

Behind every transformative AI solution sits a strong data foundation for managing ESG data. Such an infrastructure collects diffuse data from operational sources on a near real-time basis and stores it in connected solutions that can be used to track ESG performance, prepare for regulatory reporting, and open up entirely new business models. 

At COP28, our Chief Sustainability Officer Melanie Nakagawa talked with Satish Thomas, our Corporate Vice President of Industry Clouds, and Shelly Blackburn, Vice President of Cross Solutions, about the foundational role of ESG data to create new business in the nascent climate economy that’s now valued in the trillions. With data management technologies like Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, a growing number of organizations are delivering industry solutions that tackle data complexity and build comprehensive ESG data estates—centralizing and harmonizing environmental, financial, and operational data from across business units and supply chains to use in analytics. The variety of ESG data innovations is multiplying and evolving—it’s an exciting space to watch. 

One example of evolving ESG data business is AspenTech, which began its technical innovation in response to the 1970s energy crisis. After developing the chemical industry’s first computer-based modeling and simulation technology, the company went on to drive industrial optimization advancements that now include sustainable industrial AI solutions, such as self-optimizing plants, sustainable battery technology, and work with Microsoft on technology for streamlining Azure-driven data migration.  

Collaboration is a requisite for progress and a potential boon for growth 

73% of business leaders say they’re willing to collaborate with competitors on net-zero transitioning.² I’m energized but not surprised by this statistic. Initiatives and best practices are meant to be shared—positive business growth can be, too. 

At COP28, our Microsoft Chief Sustainability Officer Melanie Nakagawa, Google Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Bioinformatics Analyst Daniela Russo exchanged ideas about the critical role of technology and AI for improving access to climate information. They highlighted applications that are already accelerating sustainability progress, from resilience-building to extreme weather forecasting to clean energy deployment, creating opportunities for innovators. And they agreed that we need AI not only to help us optimize our existing energy and resource use but to better respond to the impacts of climate change. Collaboration is a necessary element for furthering progress and opportunities. 

Indeed, transformative collaboration is becoming more than a nice-to-have. It will be instrumental in driving a collective commitment to build ever-more relevant technology solutions, faster. Together, we have the ingenuity to develop whole new systems that can invigorate companies and propel business into a brighter future.

Discover more solutions for sustainability

Join us on February 13, 2024 for a free digital event, “This is AI…for Sustainability,” with Melanie Nakagawa, Chief Sustainability Officer, Shelly Blackburn, Global Vice President for Sustainability Go to Market, and Satish Thomas, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Industry Clouds. Get guidance for your sustainability journey and learn how to drive business transformation with Microsoft data and AI solutions. Register now.

Also coming in February 2024—we’ll be introducing new capabilities across Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability. Stay close to our sustainability industry blog for announcements. 

Learn more about our Microsoft sustainability journey.

¹ Microsoft, Governing AI: A Blueprint for the Future, May 25, 2023.

² The Race to Net Zero, Baker-McKenzie, 2023.

The post COP28: Expediting sustainability progress and growth with innovation and partnership appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

“Command and control is essential for decision-making. But in the end, that has to include some combination of AI, machine learning, and all the other adaptations technologically, alongside in parallel with an exquisite timing with a human ability, and the human value of making decisions in that cycle. So, I think that the digital world has changed command and control, but the objective of that is to make really good decisions.”

The current geopolitical environment is entering a heightened phase of competition with adversaries looking to exploit technological advancements to get ahead. Over recent decades, defense and intelligence organizations have seen unparalleled and constant change, as they respond to the emergence of a new and transforming world. The rapid and disruptive advance of technology may be at the forefront of change (particularly as accelerated by COVID-19), but the digital transformation of defense organizations should also be viewed through the lens of the changing geopolitical situation and evolution of warfare. This evolution is most impacted especially across the landscapes of global threats, regional instability, emergency response, hybrid warfare, cyberattacks, and grey zone activities designed to disrupt both military and industrial infrastructure. 

As we delve deeper into technological advancements, the Microsoft Defense and Intelligence team understands that AI stands at the forefront, driving innovation and transformation across various sectors. It, along with the growth in the Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities, is driving maturity in sensors, data gathering, and analysis and visualization—all of which can be delivered at the tactical edge for deployed forces. Further, cloud computing capabilities and sophisticated simulation techniques are being fused with new and evolving communications technologies, such as 5G and space-based capabilities. Together, these technologies aren’t just a trend, but a significant stride towards a technologically advanced defense system that can revolutionize mission planning, rehearsal, and execution.  

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The technological advantage 

An increasing race for technological advantage means allied nations must consider how they can increase their tech intensity,¹ to provide “digital advantage” over their competition. For defense and intelligence, achieving “digital advantage” is key as it will cement the bedrock for the provision of information superiority on mission and provide the foundation for accelerating the design, build, and transition into service of new and innovative capabilities. This will speed the capability lifecycle and also provide simulation technologies for optimizing force generation activities.  

To achieve this, these organizations will need to compete continuously across all military domains—adopting better, smarter, and more flexible operations. The adoption, continuous innovation, and democratization of technology will be critical to enabling this response. It will also require a growing reliance on sharing data across a secure, singular, resilient, and adaptive digital continuum, and exploiting that data through contemporary developments that enhance human and machine teaming. 

Move to hyperscale with help from Microsoft

This need to continuously innovate and transform requires defense and intelligence organizations to move to hyperscale with urgency. The necessary transformation can’t be delivered from current siloed and technologically constrained Information and Communication Technology (ICT) environments. Therefore, the answer to this dilemma is through the five imperatives that will increase your digital advantage.  

1. Innovation and speed to value: Defense organizations need to stay at the forefront of technological advancements to enhance defense system capabilities and innovation and stay ahead of their adversaries, leveraging vast digital data for invaluable insights crucial to national security. Moving from on-premise to hyperscale cloud will be a pivotal catalyst in supporting innovation as it enables the rapid adoption of new and innovative developments from industry, facilitates the efficient processing and analysis of immense datasets, and also offers a scalable and agile platform that will adapt to the evolving technological landscape. The future of innovation is the cloud. 
2. Connectivity and interoperability: Military organizations demand seamless global collaboration, necessitating connectivity from headquarters to the tactical edge. Microsoft Azure’s worldwide network—distributed across multiple regions—forms the backbone of its cloud services. It enables low-latency access for global application deployment and management, ideal for achieving connectivity and interoperability across diverse defense forces.¹ 
3. Security: Air-gapped environments face growing vulnerabilities—particularly from insider threats and private clouds—even at an enterprise scale, typically lack the robust network security systems and monitoring capabilities found in hyperscale security operations centers (SOCs). In the past year, military organizations have faced a surge in targeted cyberattacks, emphasizing the need for AI-driven defenses with access to hyperscale data. Microsoft’s exceptional AI supercomputer processes an extraordinary 750 million security signals per second, enabling rapid real-time threat analysis and responses that surpass the capabilities of private networks. 
4. Computational power: Unconstrained access to computational power is crucial for real-time data collection, fusion, and analysis—addressing immense computational needs beyond what is realistically available on-premise and essential for informed decision-making in military simulations and strategic planning. To maintain a digital advantage, defense organizations must adopt hyperscale solutions like Microsoft Azure, which efficiently meet growing data demands and enhance computing resources without the constraints of on-premise requirements and costs. 
5. Reliability and resilience: Reliability and resilience considerations for defense must address both kinetic and cyber-attacks, with hyperscale cloud providing comprehensive cyber protection against diverse threats, setting a benchmark for collective defense that requires a unified approach involving allies, partners, and agencies. Microsoft Azure—as the first ISO-22301 certified hyperscale cloud provider—showcases its ability to prevent, mitigate, respond to, and recover from incidents. It offers a secure haven for a nation’s critical data during conflicts, ensuring a level of resiliency unavailable with on-premise solutions and preventing potential disruptions to national operations. The impact of data loss or compromise in an on-premise system during a kinetic attack underscores the critical importance of secure cloud solutions for maintaining a nation’s smooth functioning. 

Increasingly, defense organizations are reliant on the global defense industrial base to maintain digital advantage and industry is well placed to respond, with access to the resource and innovative culture required to deliver. However, this cannot be done by industry alone, defense organizations also need to come to the table with a desire to unburden its procurement constraints, which will aid greater innovation, and to take on the task of vigorously reviewing its policy stances and their place (or not) in a modern digital world, which can often stifle progress.

Resources to help with your transition

To learn more about how the Microsoft Defense and Intelligence team can help in your transition to hyperscale cloud and hear from former defense leaders, we encourage you to visit the Public Sector Center of Expertise and listen to: 

• Digital Transformation in Modern Military Operations, insights from General Bob Brown.
• Technology Trends and Decision Advantage in Defense with retired Vice Admiral Ann E. Rondeau.
• Military Lessons on Cyberdefense with retired Major General Dr. Marcus Thompson.

Or you can get in touch with your Microsoft sales representative or technology partner. 

¹ CSIS, Seven Critical Technologies For Winning The Next War, April 2023.

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