Public sector leaders face a pivotal moment: complex regulation, workforce constraints, and rising expectations for digital-first, no-wrong-door service experiences, while AI accelerates what’s possible. Forrester’s new Industry Cloud evaluation is timely because it looks beyond generic enterprise software categories to assess mission-ready platforms built for government realities: transparency, adaptability, and the ability to modernize with AI-native mission delivery while improving the reliability, responsiveness, and continuity of critical services.

Industry clouds for public sector: Where agentic AI meets mission-ready platforms

Public sector leaders aren’t just modernizing apps—they’re modernizing mission delivery. Microsoft empowers government mission leaders with an agentic AI platform: a secure, interoperable foundation where AI can move beyond answering questions to reasoning and acting across workflows with the transparency, policy controls, and compliance agencies require. 

At the center is Microsoft’s intelligence layer connecting the two oceans of government data (structured systems of record and unstructured documents, email, and operational knowledge) to close the intelligence gap that holds AI back. Work IQ brings context on how people and teams work across Microsoft 365; Foundry IQ grounds agents in authoritative policies, procedures, and institutional knowledge; and Fabric IQ unifies mission data into consistent meaning so agents can take action with governed, real-time insight. Together with Microsoft Azure, Dynamics 365, and Power Platform, and built-in governance through Microsoft security and compliance, agencies can harness their data, build mission centric agentic AI workflows, and scale agents that deliver outcomes.

• Deliver constituent service by connecting intake, contact centers, and case work with Copilot and agents that summarize, recommend next steps, and automate routine updates.
• Modernize permitting, licensing, and benefits with configurable workflows and low-code automation in Power Platform, grounded in authoritative policy through Foundry IQ.
• Strengthen compliance and oversight with governed data, auditable processes, and security controls that help agencies adopt AI responsibly while meeting sovereignty and regulatory requirements.
• Coordinate mission operations across safety, justice, and resilience by unifying signals from people, systems, and knowledge so agents can support faster decisions and cross-agency collaboration.

What government agencies value most: Trust and measurable outcomes

Across government, the signal we’re hearing is consistent: leaders want modernization that earns trust and delivers measurable results fast—without forcing frontline teams to change everything at once. The strongest platforms are the ones that reduce administrative drag, connect data and workflows end to end, and make secure AI usable in the reality of public sector operations. 

Instead of copying and pasting, I enter information once and it shows up everywhere I need it. We can map our days faster, reduce human error, and get case plans in motion sooner.

Jayna White, Subject Matter Expert, Washington, DC Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA)

We also hear that AI only becomes transformative in the public sector when it can be deployed in a controlled environment, aligned to existing security protocols, and scaled quickly to the people doing the work. Sandia National Laboratories’ approach reflects a growing pattern: deliver the capabilities of modern models while keeping sensitive work protected within the agency’s boundaries.

We wanted the value of popular AI models, but we wanted to deploy that value in a very secure Azure environment. With this tool, we could take a snapshot of each new model released and give that to our employees without having to actually connect to a public model.

John Zepper, Information Engineering Executive Director and Chief Information Officer, Sandia National Laboratories

Together, these stories highlight the outcomes public sector organizations are prioritizing right now: 

• Faster, better-informed decisions with unified, person-centric case and mission data.
• Real time returned to frontline teams by eliminating re-entry, manual handoffs, and repetitive searches.
• Security-first AI adoption that fits government risk frameworks and protects sensitive work.

Extend mission outcomes with trusted partners

No single provider solves every government scenario out of the box, so extensibility matters. 

Microsoft provides a foundation across cloud, productivity, workflow, data, and AI—while partners add industry depth, localization, implementation services, and specialized workloads (including emergency response and dispatch scenarios). 

An open, interoperable posture—aligned to public sector standards—helps agencies avoid scenario-level lock-in while gaining the benefits of a governed platform. 

A platform path to responsible AI modernization

For government leaders evaluating industry cloud strategies, this recognition is a practical signal: 

• You can pursue AI-enabled modernization responsibly—with trust requirements front and center. 
• You can adopt a platform approach that scales across agencies and missions, instead of rebuilding the same capabilities program by program. 
• You can modernize in a way that supports compliance and sovereignty needs, while still enabling interoperability and innovation. 
• You can choose an approach that supports incremental adoption, meeting agencies where they are—whether starting with productivity and collaboration or expanding into data, low-code workflows, and mission systems. 

We appreciate Forrester’s recognition of Microsoft as a Leader in this inaugural evaluation, and we welcome the ongoing dialogue with public sector leaders on how to modernize services with AI—securely, transparently, and with the trust citizens expect. 

To explore the full evaluation, read The Forrester Wave™: Industry Cloud Solutions For Public Sector, Q1 2026.

Forrester disclaimer: Forrester does not endorse any company, product, brand, or service included in its research publications and does not advise any person to select the products or services of any company or brand based on the ratings included in such publications. Information is based on the best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. For more information, read about Forrester’s objectivity here.

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That’s why I’m excited to share that Microsoft Azure has completed an independent, industry‑led GxP supplier audit conducted through the Joint Audit Group managed by Ingelheimer Kreis (IK).

GxP refers to regulations that ensure quality, safety, and data integrity in highly regulated environments, particularly in life sciences. This milestone provides independent validation that Azure’s systems and processes meet the standards required to support regulated workloads in the cloud, giving organizations greater confidence to accelerate their AI transformation and scale innovation responsibly.

“Overall, the audit observed strong organizational maturity, robust processes, and effective governance structures. Microsoft demonstrated a high degree of transparency, collaboration, and readiness to address regulatory expectations. Furthermore, Microsoft demonstrated strong maturity in quality, security, compliance, engineering, and operational processes. The organization showed strong commitment from leadership and robust operational controls.”

As quoted by the Joint Audit Group managed by Ingelheimer Kreis

This milestone builds on Azure’s longstanding commitment to compliance, reinforcing trust across life sciences and other highly regulated industries while helping accelerate broader cloud and AI adoption.

Raising the bar for cloud trust in life sciences and beyond

IK conducted a GxP-aligned supplier audit of selected aspects of Microsoft’s cloud service operations within an agreed scope. The sessions provided insight into governance, security and software engineering practices, and operational processes that may impact regulated GxP use of Microsoft Azure and related services. The audit was performed using a spot-check approach and reflects the information presented by Microsoft during the sessions. The IK audit results provide IK members with assurance regarding the Azure controls environment, enabling members to work to remove compliance blockers, accelerate their adoption of Azure services, and obtain confidence and trust in the security and sovereignty controls of Azure.

The joint GxP audit provides pharmaceutical and life sciences organizations with a higher level of confidence that Azure’s operational, security, and compliance practices meet industry expectations for validated GxP workloads. By having a coalition of major pharmaceutical manufacturers audit Microsoft’s cloud controls, customers gain assurance that Azure’s change management processes, evergreen update model, and underlying operational rigor align with the standards historically required in on-premises validated environments. This independent industry assessment reduces longstanding adoption barriers for regulated workloads and gives customers a basis for trusting Azure as a compliant, reliable platform for GxP relevant applications.

Microsoft Azure is designed to meet stringent requirements for data residency, privacy, and compliance. With Microsoft, organizations can keep sensitive data within defined geographic boundaries and under local jurisdictional control.

Microsoft offers a comprehensive set of compliance offerings to help organizations comply with national, regional, and industry-specific requirements. Backed by more than 100 compliance certifications—including ISO, HIPAA, and HITRUST, Azure meets rigorous security and privacy requirements across global and industry frameworks.

Securing the future: a collaborative approach

Security and compliance in the cloud is a shared responsibility, and the division of those responsibilities between the cloud service provider and customer depends on the cloud offering utilized. Microsoft works to ensure that we are compliant with industry and international standards, and customers are responsible for ensuring their data within the Microsoft Cloud is protected in a manner that is compliant with the standards and regulations imposed on the customer.

Azure integrates with services such as Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager and Defender for Cloud to provide organizations with visibility into their compliance posture and enable proactive governance across cloud environments.

We also provide clear guidance and detailed, auditable evidence through the Microsoft Trust Center and the Service Trust Portal. These tools exist to give customers transparency and confidence, pairing high‑level trust principles with concrete proof customers can use to meet their own regulatory and assurance needs.

With independently audited controls now recognized by leading multinational pharmaceutical companies, Azure gives life sciences organizations the confidence to run their regulated workloads in the cloud—so they can focus on what truly drives value: discovering new therapies, accelerating R&D, scaling clinical operations, and manufacturing medicines reliably at global scale. Instead of diverting resources toward duplicative cloud platform audits, customers can trust that Azure’s underlying operational rigor, change management processes, and security practices meet GxP expectations.

The audit strengthens the foundation that lets life sciences innovators move faster, modernize safely, and keep their focus on bringing breakthrough medicines and devices to patients. For more information on the audit, contact the team.

Empowering our customers

Microsoft remains committed to meeting today’s compliance, security, and regulatory standards. Across our cloud platforms and services, we maintain rigorous and independently validated controls, adhere to applicable laws and industry requirements, and continually strengthen our frameworks to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of customer data. This commitment is reinforced by foundational company policies, a robust global compliance program, and active oversight from senior leadership—ensuring that every Microsoft offering is built on trust, transparency, and responsible innovation.

By working with industry leaders and regulators to shape compliance frameworks and advance sovereign cloud capabilities, Azure supports the next era of regulated AI innovation. By upholding these standards, we empower organizations in regulated industries to operate confidently, knowing their workloads run on a platform designed to meet stringent expectations today and evolve alongside emerging regulatory guidance, validated by independent experts and experienced by customers every day.

More on our approach to trust and compliance

• Dive deeper into how leading life sciences organizations are building readiness and resilience with trusted cloud platforms. Explore the e-book, Reshaping Manufacturing and Supply Chain in Pharma and MedTech, to discover actionable strategies for compliance, innovation, and operational excellence in regulated manufacturing.
• Explore From Vision to Value: AI Use Cases Transforming Healthcare to learn how healthcare and life sciences organizations are applying AI today on trusted cloud platforms.
• To learn more about Microsoft’s approach to trust and compliance, explore resources at the Microsoft Trust Center.

Connect with us at upcoming industry events to see how Azure can help your organization achieve more with confidence.

The post Microsoft Azure achieves GxP milestone, reinforcing trust for regulated workloads appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

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

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

Reenergizing change management with AI

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

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

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

Powering AI change management end-to-end

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

Some key capabilities set it apart:

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

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

Transforming change management at Coca-Cola Beverages Africa

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

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

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

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

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

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

—Joshua Motsuenyane, Chief Information Officer, CCBA

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

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

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

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

Ready to simplify change and accelerate execution?

Product Change Management agent template

Join the public preview

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

Shaping the manufacturing Frontier

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

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

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

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

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

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

Five trends shaping Asia-Pacific utilities

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

1. Population and demand growth

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

2. Economic expansion and energy use

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

3. Carbon intensity and fossil fuel dependence

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

4. Renewable energy expansion

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

5. Grid modernization and decentralization

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

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

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

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

1. Enterprise knowledge advisor for power plant operations

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

2. Generative AI for permitting

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

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

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

4. Visual anomaly detection and predictive maintenance

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

5. AI for forecasting and decision support

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

Microsoft for energy and resources

Drive innovation to achieve net zero and deliver safe, reliable, equitable energy for a sustainable future.

Explore solutions

Shaping the future of energy

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

Learn how Microsoft can support your organization’s journey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rockwell Automation describes today’s opportunity:

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

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

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

Transforming the product testing lifecycle

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

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

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

Augmenting R&D innovation

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

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

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

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

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

Optimizing factory operations

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

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

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

—Carol Wittgren, Head of Digital Acceleration at Aurobay

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

Modernize your manufacturing

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

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

Modernize for AI innovation

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

Learn more

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

The post Unlocking the potential of manufacturing with cloud modernization appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Over the past year, Microsoft engineers have road-tested that combination with executives, technicians, customer support representatives, and developers. Regardless of geography or market, operators voiced three universal priorities: break down operational silos, unlock data’s latent value, increase efficiency, and accelerate innovation without eroding trust. At TM Forum DTW Ignite 2025 in Copenhagen, Microsoft is demonstrating how the complementary relationship between ODA and agentic AI converts those ambitions into measurable business outcomes. 

Microsoft’s next chapter with the Open Digital Architecture 

Microsoft has been a hands-on contributor to TM Forum initiatives for well over two decades, coauthoring Open APIs, chairing working groups, and donating production hardened code that turns standards into deployable solutions. The ODA has become a focal point of that collaboration. By aligning Microsoft Azure cloud-native foundations with ODA’s composable blueprint, Microsoft helps operators assemble best-of-breed solutions without the drag of proprietary silos. 

Engineering teams from Microsoft work with communications service providers (CSPs) and industry suppliers to validate specifications, publish reference implementations, and channel field experience back into the standard. The result for operators is faster interoperability, reduced integration cost, and quicker time-to-value for new digital services. 

Yet a common obstacle remains: fragmented observability. Every vendor captures telemetry differently, leaving operations teams to deploy ad hoc log aggregators and parsers that inflate costs and slow incident response. Microsoft’s latest ODA contribution addresses this head-on. 

• ODA Observability Operator (open source on GitHub)
  The operator prescribes a common logging contract, integrates with Azure Monitor, and exposes health data through TM Forum nonfunctional APIs. In early trials, carriers shrank the meantime to detect billing anomalies significantly, freeing teams to focus on proactive optimization rather than forensic log diving.
• ODA Landing Zone for Azure
  Guidance and a best practice guide on infrastructure-as-code templates that hydrate into an ODA compliant environment—policy, security, and monitoring.

The “Growing B2B with autonomous agents” catalyst project, involving players like Microsoft, Vodafone, and various industry partners, leverages the ODA Accelerator to transform B2B sales for mid-tier enterprise customers by enabling flexible quoting and commerce through generative AI. It enables flexible quoting and commerce, allowing customers to find relevant products using semantic search and create customized solutions that meet their specific business requirements, budgets, and timelines. 

These assets illustrate a simple truth: standards only matter when they migrate from documentation into running code. By operationalizing TM Forum guidance, Microsoft accelerates engineering productivity, slashes integration costs, and strengthens the capabilities of telecoms, as well as providing a feedback loop for continual improvement. 

Empowering network monetization through network APIs 

Through our engagement with CAMARA and GSMA Open Gateway, Microsoft has played a pivotal role in helping operators monetize their networks via a robust partner ecosystem. This ecosystem supports the provisioning, aggregation, and routing of network API requests, enabling seamless integration and enhanced functionality. Our collaboration with industry leaders such as Aduna, Infobip, and Vonage brings aggregated network APIs directly to the Azure Marketplace. This integration grants Microsoft’s global community of developers and enterprises effortless access to essential network functions, including SIM swap detection, phone number verification, real-time device location, and on-demand quality-of-service controls. Standardized through the CAMARA open-source project—co-led by GSMA and the Linux Foundation—these APIs are designed for seamless integration, ensuring that operators can efficiently use network capabilities to drive innovation and growth. 

Giving the network a trusted Copilot 

Anyone who has joined a major incident conference bridge understands the sense of urgency—and the expense. Multiple teams chase clues, minutes feel like hours, and every second of downtime erodes customer experience and brand equity. Network Operations Agents built with Azure AI Foundry offer another path to successful resolutions. As Cristina Moura Rebelo, Head of AI Community and Ecosystem Engagement at MEO, describes it: 

“MEO is transforming into an AI-powered techco, infusing AI into key domain areas and leveraging innovation and technology to create a competitive advantage, business growth, and operational excellency. The first steps made with Azure AI Foundry were key in unlocking the potential of use cases to streamline operations with ChatGOC and the HekaBot, in a scalable, iterative, and agile way, within a very short period of time, delivering outcomes and scaled efficiency to the teams. This is our path to becoming an AI-powered techco.”   

—Cristina Moura Rebelo, Head of AI Community and Ecosystem Engagement, MEO

These AI companions ingest real-time telemetry, topology graphs, historical tickets, and vendor manuals; reason over anomalies; then recommend—or even execute—remediation steps under strict guardrails. Every action is logged, policy checked, and auditable so that safety and compliance are part of the operational flow.

“At a time when pressure to grow has never been greater, data and AI are illuminating the path forward, helping telcos simultaneously achieve three critical goals of growth, efficiency, and security.”

—Praveen Shankar, Executive Vice President I Capgemini 

At TM Forum DTW Ignite 2025, Microsoft will be presenting on how we are transforming telecom operations with agentic AI, and unveiling the Network Operations Agent Framework, a reference architecture and working pilot environment that operators can explore hands-on. The package includes infrastructure-as-code templates, sample knowledgebase content, and step-by-step guidance for integrating Azure AI Foundry with existing telemetry pipelines. With these assets, communications service providers can progress from proof of concept to production in a matter of weeks—and do so with the assurance that every remediation action remains within corporate risk tolerance. 

Unifying data with the Telco Analytics POC Accelerator 

Data is the fuel for agentic AI, yet it often sits stranded across disparate clusters, data marts, and line-of-business applications. The Telco Analytics POC Accelerator removes that friction, deploying a domain specific data estate on Microsoft Fabric complete with service assurance, revenue management, and subscriber 360 schemas; lineage policies aligned to data mesh principles; and guidance to connect your backend data sources. 

Beyond core ingestion pipelines, the accelerator provides predefined tables for service assurance, revenue management, and subscriber 360, alongside sample queries and dashboards that surface quick wins. Built-in sample data allows developers to prototype AI workloads safely—accelerating experimentation while protecting customer privacy.

When operators gain control of their data estate, they monetize faster, govern better, and feed AI models richer context. Microsoft provides the launch pad.

“Fabric let us build on the familiarity, security, and scalability of Azure. It unites data flows, storage, analytics, and machine learning in a single experience.”

—Jerod Ridge, Director of Data Engineering, Lumen

This unified approach empowers operators to achieve real-time insights and smarter decisions, driving business growth and innovation.

Reimagining business support systems for an agentic world 

Business support systems (BSS) are the commercial nerve center of a telco, yet many still feel like 1990s ERP software: dense menus, arcane codes, and labor-intensive workflows. Microsoft’s agentic BSS proof of concept charts a different course. 

At its heart is Microsoft Copilot Studio, which leverages TM Forum Open APIs, the Model Context Protocol, and secure tool registration to let AI agents act on behalf of customer care reps. Consider an agent who says, “Upgrade Alessia’s plan to unlimited data and add a family hotspot.” The AI agent validates entitlements, calculates prorated charges, and triggers fulfilment—no swivel chair required. Subscribers upgrade in the time it takes to sip coffee.

Microsoft is equally optimistic about the potential of an Order Fallout Agent. Up to 3% of orders stall in fragmented fulfilment chains. The agent monitors the queue, diagnoses failure patterns, and either self heals or curates a guided fix. In short, the Order Fallout Agent turns a perennial pain point into an autonomous, closed loop process—freeing care agents to focus on higher value conversations and giving customers the seamless experience they expect.

KPN has extended the use of AI companions to their sales operations with Microsoft 365 Copilot. KPN used Microsoft 365 Copilot to enhance their sales operations, streamlining processes, improving customer engagement, and driving business outcomes.

“From the moment a customer contact becomes an opportunity, we link to that information in Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales, so we can see all relevant data to prepare for a conversation with the customer,”

—Pierrette de Leeuw-Koumans, Lead Generation Team, KPN

Copilot provides real-time data analysis, predictive insights, and automated workflows, enabling the sales team to focus on strategic activities and deliver personalized experiences. 

These demonstrations illustrate how BSS complexity can melt away, replaced by conversational experiences powered by open APIs and trustworthy automation. The journey is incremental—operators can start with a single fallout queue or upgrade flow and expand outward. 

Momentum stretching from lab to live network 

Innovation without adoption is theatre. Microsoft’s ecosystem partners are translating blueprints into operational gains: 

• Microsoft and leading BSS suppliers are exploring joint proof of concepts that integrate the Telco Analytics POC Accelerator and Observability Operator into next generation revenue assurance workflows.
• PLDT has implemented the Amdocs Customer Engagement Platform, a robust, telco-grade solution jointly engineered by Amdocs and Microsoft elevate customer experience management. “By combining the AI, generative AI, cloud, and deep telecom expertise of Amdocs and Microsoft, PLDT an end-to-end solution that will drive higher agent productivity, operational efficiency, and significantly improve customer loyalty,” said Anthony Goonetilleke, Group President of Technology and Head of Strategy at Amdocs.
• Nokia’s NetGuard Cybersecurity Dome is providing comprehensive security for 5G networks, leveraging AI and automation to detect, manage, and respond to threats in real-time.
• Accenture, Capgemini, TCS, Tech Mahindra, and other global SIs are collaborating with Microsoft on service offerings that accelerate deployment of AI-ready data estates—combining migration expertise, reference architectures, and operator specific best practices. 

The breadth of deployments demonstrates that Microsoft’s approach scales across geographies, regulatory regimes, and network generations. 

Charting the first step 

Building toward autonomous operations seldom begins with a blank slate. The most effective starting point is a business moment that already matters—whether it’s easing congestion at a busy urban cell site or clearing a stubborn order backlog. Instrument that scenario end to end, unify the supporting data, introduce a focused agent, and track the results with discipline. Momentum builds quickly when measurable wins are visible to both engineers and executives. 

Microsoft and its partners stand ready to help, whether through co-innovation blueprints, rapid pilots leveraging the ODA Accelerator for Azure, or structured engagements that blend domain expertise with change management. 

Telecommunications remains, at its core, a human endeavor: engineers who safeguard critical infrastructure, customer care teams who build loyalty, strategists who spot the next market opportunity. Agentic AI amplifies that expertise—it automates repetitive analysis, highlights hidden insights, and executes well understood actions—while judgment, creativity, and empathy stay firmly in human hands. By pairing people with autonomous assistance, operators can scale excellence without sacrificing the personalized touch that defines great service. Microsoft invites the industry to explore that partnership at TM Forum DTW Ignite 2025 and beyond. 

Join the journey 

Learn more by visiting the Microsoft Telecommunications Industry hub, where solution briefs, customer stories, and partner offers provide actionable next steps. Together, the industry can turn aspiration into action and chart the next great wave of telecom innovation. 

Microsoft for telecommunications

Accelerate telecom transformation in the era of AI

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The post Powering the future of telecom: Microsoft brings agentic AI to life at TM Forum DTW appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

It’s remarkable to think how far we’ve come since Microsoft was founded 50 years ago. But what’s truly astonishing is the pace of progress we’re now seeing, as rapid advancements in AI create opportunities to solve industry problems that once seemed intractable. 

Microsoft has been at the frontier of AI research and development for decades, and we’re committed to sharing our learnings and insights with stakeholders throughout healthcare and life sciences. That’s why we’ve created the 2025 AI in Healthcare Decision Brief. This in-depth industry analysis is split into two parts: Part 1: Insights on navigating the AI platform shift, and Part 2: Perspectives on the role of AI in shaping the future of healthcare.  

Each part features expert perspectives from Microsoft leaders, inspirational examples of AI successes in healthcare and life sciences, and practical advice for accelerating AI adoption in your organization. 

Here’s an overview of what you’ll find in the report. 

The current state of AI in healthcare and life sciences  

Over half (57%) of life sciences organizations and 45% of healthcare organizations see generative AI as the most important technology to adopt, and 79% are currently using some form of AI.¹ While early use cases for generative AI typically focus on boosting productivity, as trust and adoption continue to grow, new use cases will emerge that have a transformational impact on the entire sector—and on patients’ health. 

Realizing this AI-powered future of health will require organizations to:  

• Create trustworthy AI.
  Trustworthy AI is essential for systems that have a direct impact on drug development and patient care—the stakes are too high to compromise on security, privacy, and safety. That’s why the work of collaborative industry bodies like the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) and the Trustworthy and Responsible AI Network (TRAIN) is so vital to build confidence that AI solutions are safe for use in medical research and clinical practice. 

• Overcome adoption challenges.
  While all organizations must overcome concerns around skills, security, compliance, and change management, healthcare-specific AI solutions must also prove their worth in existing workflows. 

• Understand how to succeed.
  Successful adoption depends on having a clear understanding of organizational readiness and the drivers of AI value. The report offers a wealth of best-practice guidance and expert advice on key considerations and practical actions for achieving your desired outcomes with AI. 

• Learn from the industry’s AI pioneers.
  The report also features success stories from Microsoft customers in healthcare and life sciences, showing how they’re overcoming common hurdles and accomplishing ambitious goals. 

Today’s AI innovations—and tomorrow’s possibilities 

AI innovators are already delivering meaningful impact in healthcare and life sciences—from creating synthetic data to accelerate drug development to supporting physicians with real-time clinical insights at the point of care. New technology advances will allow innovators to create solutions that will have an even greater, industry-wide impact, dramatically improving health equity and care outcomes for patients worldwide. 

• Organizations leading the innovation charge.
  Part two of our report explores examples of how startups, established technology companies, and research organizations are innovating and collaborating to advance AI capabilities in healthcare and life sciences. 

• Technology advancements supporting the next wave of innovation.
  Significant advances in underlying infrastructure, data platforms, and foundational models are creating the conditions for a “Cambrian explosion” of AI innovations that will propel scientific progress and support a new age of precision medicine and predictive health. 

Advice from Microsoft leaders for accelerating AI success  

As we celebrate the accomplishments of Microsoft employees, alumni, partners, and customers over the last half-century, we’re also looking ahead to what the next 50 years could bring, as we continue our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. 

Wherever your organization is on its AI journey, we’re here to make the path smoother and help you achieve the right outcomes. 

Get The 2025 AI in Healthcare Decision Brief, Part 1: Insights on navigating the AI platform shift now for Microsoft AI leadership perspectives on:  

• Generative AI’s impact in healthcare—Joe Petro, Corporate Vice President, Healthcare and Life Sciences Solutions and Platforms 

• Staying ahead of emerging challenges and threats with AI and security for AI—Ann Johnson, Microsoft Corporate Vice President and Deputy CISO 

• Navigating the future of healthcare together—Kees Hertogh, Vice President, Healthcare and Life Sciences Marketing 

• The role of partners and startups to advance innovation—Sally Frank, Worldwide Lead, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Microsoft for Startups 

• Building trust to operationalize responsible AI in healthcare—Dr. David Rhew, Chief Medical Officer and Vice President for Healthcare 

Read The 2025 AI in Healthcare Decision Brief, Part 2: Perspectives on the role of AI in shaping the future of healthcare for more leadership perspectives on: 

• Empowering people to deliver and receive better health—responsibly and purposefully—Dr. Peter Lee, President, Microsoft Research 

• The real-world impact of AI in healthcare—Matthew Lungren, MD MPH, Chief Scientific Officer, Healthcare and Life Sciences 

• Microsoft’s commitment to supporting customers to succeed with AI—Patty Carrolo, Corporate Vice President, US Healthcare and Life Sciences 

• Building the AI-powered future of health—Kathleen Mitford, Corporate Vice President, Global Industry Marketing 

Explore the 2025 AI in Healthcare Decision Brief 

• For insights on how to navigate the AI platform shift, read Part 1.
• For perspectives on the role AI plays in shaping the future of healthcare, read Part 2. 

¹McKinsey, Market perspective: AI and GenAI in Life Sciences 

The post The AI-powered future of health: Insights from Microsoft leaders appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Industrial AI in Action 

Through 31 demos, 53 theater sessions, and three ancillary events, Microsoft highlighted how AI agents are helping manufacturers unlock new levels of productivity, resiliency, and growth. As the new interface to industrial data and operations, generative AI tools allow every worker—from the factory floor to the boardroom—to surface timely, relevant insights that drive decision-making. Test agents built with the power of Microsoft Copilot Studio for yourself. 

In the booth, Microsoft focused on the entire manufacturing value chain: advancing innovation in digital engineering with generative AI, preparing the factory edge for AI, AI agents supporting the development of frontline workers, and finally making intelligent digital threads a reality. Microsoft brought these four opportunities to life through four distinct neighborhoods filled with demos, partners, and customer stories. Highlights included collaborations with Rolls-Royce, Siemens, PTC, Sandvik, Husqvarna, Sight Machine, Sanctuary AI, SymphonyAI, Bridgestone, and Databricks. Microsoft’s Hannover presence garnered incredible media attention, notably several news channel interviews with Anges Heftberger, CEO, Microsoft Germany, and a visit from Roland Busch, CEO, Siemens AG. 

This year, Microsoft’s centerpiece displayed the Rolls-Royce transformation journey from design engineering through the factory to maintenance operations. For over a century, Rolls-Royce has been a force for progress; powering, protecting, and connecting people everywhere. Today, with digital transformation at the forefront, the company is redefining how its world-class products are designed, built, and maintained. With help from Siemens and Microsoft, Rolls-Royce is now using AI to streamline production, boost engine efficiency, and predict maintenance needs before issues arise.

Making intelligent digital threads a reality 

Grounded in unified operational (OT), enterprise information (IT), and engineering (ET) data, digital threads connect every phase of manufacturing—delivering timely, actionable insights to every team, from design and production to maintenance and customer support. This continuous, connected flow of data enriches every stage of the manufacturing value chain. 

Without a strong data foundation, manufacturers will struggle to tap into the full potential of AI. Data quality, standardization, and integration are often inconsistent, making insights hard to access and trust. Microsoft Fabric is helping manufacturers overcome these barriers—turning fragmented data into intelligent digital threads that power better decisions, faster innovation, and operational excellence. Alongside Fabric and Microsoft Dynamics 365 demos, Microsoft partners AVEVA, Databricks, Kongsberg, and Parsec displayed how AI is influencing real-time production monitoring and predictive maintenance to fuel resilient, efficient, and sustainable manufacturing. 

Engineering with generative AI 

AI is disrupting design and engineering, unlocking new levels of innovation, speed, and creativity. With generative AI, manufacturers can now rapidly explore a wide range of possibilities, optimizing products for performance, manufacturability, and cost. Microsoft partners PTC, Sandvik, Schneider Electric, Eplan, Rescale, and NTT DATA demonstrated real-world applications of AI reshaping product development and lifecycle—from accelerated design iterations to predictive simulations. The result is higher-performing, more customer-centric products brought to market faster and more efficiently. 

Preparing the factory edge for AI 

AI is redefining factory operations. Manufacturers must integrate industrial edge solutions with the cloud to fully capitalize on their shop floor investments. The Microsoft Azure adaptive cloud approach captures data from industrial equipment assets and devices, normalizing it at the edge, sending insights to the cloud and back. Along with partners Accenture Avanade, Cognite, Litmus, Schneider Electric, Sight Machine, Rockwell, and Tulip, Microsoft showcased how AI at the edge is transforming real-time factory visibility and performance monitoring.  

Supporting frontline workers with AI agents 

AI transformation is reshaping every aspect of manufacturing operations. As the industry grapples with high turnover, upskilling the workforce has become a critical challenge. AI agents are now giving frontline workers real-time guidance to help them make faster, better-informed decisions. AI-powered agents are streamlining industrial environments, allowing operators, production teams, and facility managers to access insights and optimize processes through natural language interactions. By accelerating issue resolution and root cause analysis, the agent improves day-to-day productivity and operational resilience. In addition to Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service demos, partners Sanctuary AI and SymphonyAI highlighted how AI and automation are redefining the future of frontline work. 

Driving AI leadership and industry innovation 

The Microsoft theater was busy this year. Moved in the booth, this space connected business leaders, innovators, and customers to the experts, creating a forum to discuss the unique challenges facing manufacturing and how AI and cloud technologies are helping address them. Here are a few highlights from the theater: 

• “Celebrating women in manufacturing” brought together influential female voices in manufacturing to explore their career journeys, achievements, challenges, and advice to inspire the next generation of talent. Thank you to panelists Elise Hersko, Sandra Anderstedt, and Monica Ugwi.  

• An Industrial AI leadership conversation between Roland Busch, Siemens CEO, and Uli Homann, Microsoft CVP of Cloud and AI, who shared their learnings on leading in AI. Both agreed that success depends on a trusted data ecosystem, responsible AI practices, and a commitment to scaling AI initiatives that start with the customer.  

• Microsoft Intelligent Manufacturing Award (MIMA) showcase, in partnership with Roland Berger, celebrated the winners of the MIMA, recognizing innovation in smart manufacturing across Europe, Middle East, and Africa. The 2025 winners included Continental, Diehl Metering, Philip Morris Manufacturing & Technology, ZEISS Digital Innovation, plus Cereal Docks and MIPU.  

Unlock new possibilities with Microsoft 

Thank you to the customers, partners, and the thousands of attendees who engaged with the Microsoft booth throughout the week. We’re looking forward to HANNOVER MESSE 2026. 

The post Hannover Messe 2025: Microsoft puts industrial AI to work  appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

By using more intuitive, natural interfaces to knowledge and information, retailers can start addressing some of retail’s age-old challenges—like finding and retaining the best talent, getting them up to speed quickly, and simplifying store operations so associates can focus on delighting and assisting shoppers.

No matter the size of the retailer, choosing which AI technologies to prioritize and where to start can be challenging. However, there are many ways retailers are now using AI to deliver measurable value and real return on investment (ROI). Research shows that for every $1 a company invests in generative AI, the ROI is 3.7 times across industries and regions (compared to 3.5 times in 2024).¹ Top leaders using generative AI are realizing significantly higher returns, with an average ROI of $10.30—nearly three times more.¹

To build a foundation for AI success, focus on your business strategy—how AI supports your business goals. Start by identifying the business outcomes you’re aiming for and how AI can help you achieve them.

Here’s a glimpse into how you can start making gains with your AI investments today by focusing on store operations and the frontline.

The frontline is first in line with AI

As the face of retail, frontline workers play a crucial role in the shopper experience. According to recent research by McKinsey, there is a strong relationship between the employee and customer experience, as empowered employees are more likely to deliver superior customer service.² Yet many frontline workers spend too much time searching for information, and this is one of the top five reported obstacles to their productivity.³

Generative AI offers significant potential for enhancing frontline productivity and wellbeing, with evidence that most frontline workers think it could help, and they would be comfortable using AI for administrative tasks.³ Generative AI can automate routine tasks, allowing associates to engage more with customers. This shift can lead to a more stimulating work environment, which leads to higher job satisfaction and can help retailers combat ongoing challenges with employee turnover, seasonal hiring, and training.

At a more macro level, generative AI can also allow retailers to continuously learn and feed insights back into their business processes and to grow their products, services, and competitive differentiation. Retailers can do that by identifying patterns in recurring employee questions so they can get to the root cause of operational challenges and address key gaps in training and store processes.

Here are some other ways retailers are using generative AI today:

• Swedish retailer Lindex created Lindex Copilot to offer tailored support to store associates and better understand store needs. Generative AI facilitates this bidirectional learning.
• MediaMarktSaturn lets associates to have voice conversations with generative AI, accessing details for every product, service, and warranty while staying engaged with the in-store customer, maximizing conversion and increasing customer satisfaction—all while wearing an earbud.
• Store associates at gourmet chocolatier Venchi use detailed product knowledge and customer insights to address the diverse chocolate preferences of shoppers, achieving a customer satisfaction score of 4.9 out of 5.

While generative AI technologies are still relatively new, these examples offer a glimpse of what’s possible, and help retailers build an AI foundation for more powerful capabilities emerging with agentic AI.

Agents are revolutionizing retail operations

Investing in generative AI is crucial for retailers looking to reinvent customer engagement, empower store leadership and employees, and stay competitive—and now that opportunity has skyrocketed with agents.

Agents use AI to automate and execute business processes, working alongside or on behalf of a person, team, or organization. Now retailers can leverage agents to help their teams work more efficiently and effectively by giving them faster access to information so they can better support customers and be more productive.

Agents vary in levels of complexity and capabilities depending on the need. Agents can help frontline workers with a variety of time-saving tasks—from quickly surfacing real-time product information or details about store policies and procedures to support Q&A or troubleshooting. In addition to helping speed information retrieval, agents can help frontline workers with more advanced features like automated task creation or even advising and summarizing information—such as listing open tasks for a shift handover or flagging missed communications. Agents can also operate independently to dynamically plan, orchestrate other agents, and learn to improve over time. For example, an automated stock transfer agent might scan sales velocity across multiple stores and automatically transfer goods between locations if one store is oversupplied while another is understocked, minimizing manual intervention.

Find in-the-moment answers fast

One important way to get business value from agents is to help store associates find information about company policies or procedures when a customer is waiting for an answer.

SharePoint agents can help store associates find quick answers from internal company sources in seconds. Using the power of natural language, associates simply ask what they’re looking for on their tablet or mobile device and the agent responds in natural language with a link to the policy documentation for reference.

These agents go beyond information retrieval to also generate step-by-step instructions, synthesize product information, and support frontline managers to create and smart-assign shifts, and auto-validate task completion.

Agents can help associates reduce customer wait time, increase information accuracy, and possibly facilitate sales.

Simplify store processes

Complex business processes are another ongoing operational challenge and opportunity for custom agents to help improve productivity.

Custom-built agents can help retailers connect to external data sources and systems so store associates can find information such as product inventory availability in or near their store, shipping status, or how to initiate a return.

Frontline workers simply ask, “Help me initiate a return,” and the agent guides them through the process by clarifying the worker’s intent and providing them with next steps, all through a chat interface.

Custom agents are best suited to also streamline complex workflows like task management, that often involves multiple steps. Using custom agents built with Microsoft Copilot Studio, frontline workers can easily create a task and send it through a task management system that sends automatic alerts as needed, all from a single pane of glass.

Meeting you where you are on your AI journey

Microsoft offers AI solutions that you can customize to meet your unique needs and scale. There are several ways agents can be deployed, from no code to low code and pro code. Here are a couple options available today.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is a new offering that adds pay-as-you-go agents to our existing free chat experience for Microsoft 365 commercial customers. Copilot Chat empowers retailers to get started on their AI journey today and includes querying the public web (such as a retailer’s website) for free. To enhance Copilot Chat, retailers can also build custom agents using Copilot Studio and SharePoint agents that enable access to retail systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and product information management (PIM), and to documents on SharePoint. These paid agents are available on a metered basis, so you only pay for what you use.

Store Operations Agent is a pre-built agent available on Copilot Studio enabling retailers to get started fast with a prebuilt solution that acts as an “associate” to your store associate. With this agent, retail employees can:

• Access data from LOB systems: Look up product inventory, check order status, find customer information and compare products.
• Access store policies and procedures: Quickly find answers to questions from knowledge bases such as SharePoint, websites, and across select internet portals.
• Raise incidents for quick resolution: Connect to incident management tools by using more than 1,000 connectors in Power Platform to raise incidents and alert store teams.

Using Store Operations Agent, employees at leading Nordic retailer Kappahl can quickly and securely surface product information, store policies and procedures, and more, increasing store associate productivity and upleveling the shopping experience for customers.

A new era of retail fueled by AI, powered by people

The range of potential gains with AI extends across retail operations—from people to processes to customers, helping make retail more human at every step of the way. From delighting shoppers to helping associates feel more supported and productive, AI can boost store operations efficiency, creating an environment where both shoppers and workers thrive.

Savings achieved using AI can be reinvested to create a better employee experience, fostering a work environment where employees are enthusiastic ambassadors of the brand, bringing the life of the store to customers every day.

Microsoft is the proven leader for AI transformation with the full technology stack and portfolio to help retail and consumer goods organizations power their business with AI. We can help you assess your agent environment, ideate on agent use cases, and establish success criteria for evaluating ROI so you can decide what agent is best for you.

Learn more

Learn more about how these forward-thinking companies are driving ROI with Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents—and illuminating the path ahead for every organization.

• Microsoft’s responsible AI principles
• How CMOs can personalize marketing and optimize spend with AI
• How merchants can drive velocity with AI
• Enhancing supply chain efficiency in the retail and consumer goods industry with agentic systems
• How unifying data improves shopper experiences

Microsoft Cloud for Retail

Connect your customers and your data

Explore solutions

¹ Generative AI delivering substantial ROI to businesses integrating the technology across operations: Microsoft-sponsored IDC report – Middle East & Africa News Center.

² How retailers can build and retain a strong frontline workforce in 2024.

³ Work Trend Index: Will AI Fix Work?

The post More human-centered retail with AI appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Why does this matter? For every $1 an organization invests in generative AI, they are realizing an average of 3.7x return.¹

In recent research we commissioned through Devoncroft Partners, it became clear that media and entertainment customers are at different stages of adoption.

“We were a launch customer for a customer service focused AI technology company. We expected it to drive tremendous savings versus historical, labor-intensive customer service groups. It did. What is beyond belief is the fact that customer satisfaction goes up. The customers are happy about it. They get a better response. So, it’s not just about defraying costs. It’s about the fact that we can actually defray costs at the same time, we’re providing a better product or service to our customer. It’s definitely an industry shift.”

OTT Streaming Company

“I have my team run AI tests across a variety of use cases (production, processing, distribution … ) every six months. AI isn’t ready to replace our existing processes. However, every six months the tests are showing double digit improvement. I have never seen this in any other technology…and the trajectory has not flatted out. It’s really impressive.”

Media Conglomerate

Technology decisions made today will dictate the direction and capabilities of the media industry for the next 10 to 15 years, significantly impacting workflows and strategic opportunities.

We are committed to working with our media and entertainment customers and partners to advance AI while addressing some of the key obstacles to adoption. Here are some valuable resources for you to have on hand, wherever you are on your journey.

How you can advance AI in your organization

Discover how our media and entertainment customers are optimizing operations, empowering content creators, and unlocking new monetization opportunities:

Universal Destinations & Experiences

Universal Destinations & Experiences’ award-winning theme park destinations are adopting predictive maintenance across many of its state-of-the-art attractions to help further improve guest satisfaction, using Microsoft Azure and Azure Data Explorer. This has resulted in streamlined operations and maintenance efforts at this attraction, with a 66% reduction in labor hours on work orders related to its blaster network.

HyperCinema

The creative minds behind New Zealand startup HyperCinema had a revolutionary idea: What if a show could be generated in real time as you walk into a venue and immerse you more deeply than ever in the story world of the brand or attraction using generative AI? The company puts 50,000 images and 6,000 30- to 45-second videos through its HyperEngine every day to deliver automated and hyper-personalized in-person storytelling experiences in real time, all powered through Azure and Azure OpenAI Service.

Promo.com

Promo.com has revolutionized its video creation services with Azure and Azure OpenAI Service.

Evolving from a browser-based video editor, Promo.com now helps small businesses and agencies effortlessly produce a month’s worth of marketing videos in minutes with PromoAI. By generating videos in just two minutes, Promo.com has increased its user engagement and grown its PromoAI product, adding over 1 million USD in new annual recurring revenue just five months after launch, while enhancing customer retention by 40%.

LALIGA

LALIGA’s partnership and move to Azure has transformed fan engagement, driven revenue growth, and created new opportunities for sports clubs, leagues, and federations.

Beyond Stats, a fan-facing data and insights platform powered by Azure 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. This partnership is one of many that is showcasing how Microsoft is helping transform sports with cutting-edge technology.

For more media and entertainment customer stories visit our repository online and search by product, industry, business need or organization size.

What holds some media and entertainment companies back from adopting AI, and what you can do about it

Data and security concerns along with lack of skilling are two key barriers to AI adoption for all industries, according to the IDC.² Media and entertainment executives are understandably concerned about protecting creators and content and many are looking for ways to provide employees with skilling and the opportunity to safely experiment with AI while avoiding risk to their core business.

Here are a few resources to take advantage of, depending on the challenge you may be facing:

Protecting creators and content

Andrew Jenks, Microsoft’s Director of Media Provenance and Executive Director of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), speaks to what Microsoft and other companies are doing to “fight the fakes” in this article from Technology Record.

As well, 80% of leaders across all industries cited leakage of sensitive data as their main concern. Our pledge to our customers and our community is to prioritize your cyber safety above all else. We’re continuously applying what we’ve learned from incidents to improve our methods and practices, ensuring that security is paramount in everything we create and provide, through our Secure Future Initiative (SFI).

Skilling

Microsoft recently announced a strategic collaboration with Pearson, the world’s lifelong learning company, to help address one of the top challenges facing organizations globally: skilling for the era of AI.

The partnership will focus on providing employers, workers, and learners with new AI-powered products and services to help prepare the current and future workforce across industries for the era of work in an AI-powered economy. By combining Pearson’s expertise in learning and assessment with Microsoft cloud and AI technologies, this partnership will play a foundational role in helping organizations realize the full value of AI through reskilling.

For additional resources to brush up on AI skills, visit Microsoft Learn where you can start with a single course such as the Fundamentals of generative AI or create your own personalized plan with AI. While you are there, register for the Microsoft AI Skills Fest to unlock your future with 50 days of AI discovery and learning.

Low-stakes opportunities to experiment

Copilots are infusing AI into every function and role—and are one easy way to experiment with generative AI. And many companies are doing more than experimenting. In fact, more than 85% of Fortune 500 are using Microsoft AI, with 70% of Fortune 500 companies already using Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Copilot can be woven in to help streamline media workflows to allow people to continue to be at the center of creative and strategic work. Here are a few easy-to-use Copilot use cases to get you started:

Empower content creators

• Idea generation: Use Copilot to brainstorm different ideas that may appeal to certain audiences. Copilot can analyze trends and audience preferences to suggest fresh and engaging content ideas.
• Storyboarding: Have Copilot come up with a storyboard to get to the next stage quicker. Copilot can outline scenes, suggest dialogue, and create visual elements to help bring your ideas to life.

Optimize operations

• Campaign development: Work with Copilot to develop strategic and personalized campaigns. Copilot can analyze customer data to create targeted marketing messages and suggest the best channels for promotion.
• Collaboration management: Task Copilot with taking organized and effective notes during Microsoft Teams meetings that can be actioned upon quicky. Copilot can help you stay on top of action items and make the collaboration experience easier than ever.

Unlock monetization

• Data synthesis: Use Copilot to gain quicker, more actionable insights from your data. Copilot can analyze large datasets to identify trends, patterns, and opportunities, allowing everyone to synthesize insights quickly and make informed decisions.
• ⁠Personalized recommendations: Copilot can use predictive analytics for ad campaigns, subscriber churn identification, and personalized recommendations to improve user satisfaction and retention, optimizing advertising revenue.

Find these Copilot use case scenarios and more in the Microsoft Copilot Scenario Library.

Explore these additional resources to see how generative AI can transform your business

• Read the Devoncroft white paper for a deeper understanding of how the media and entertainment industry is adopting AI technologies.
• How real-world businesses are transforming with AI — with more than 140 new stories.
• Coming soon: The Media and Entertainment AI Toolkit—designed specifically for media and entertainment professionals—provides insights, strategies, and recommendations to help you use AI responsibly and effectively. You’ll see a range of AI technologies, including Copilot and Azure AI Foundry, and how they’re already providing benefits to organizations all over.

We are incredibly excited about what our customers and partners are doing with AI. We love to hear about what’s working, what’s challenging, and how we can help. And we can’t wait to share more success stories and lessons learned with you.

Join us at NAB to learn more

If any of the resources, topics, or new content in this blog have piqued your interest, come see us at NAB Show, where you can experience some of our latest AI solutions for yourself.

From theater and keynote sessions to cutting edge demos, let’s reimagine media with AI together. Learn more about Microsoft’s NAB Show presence, including our Microsoft Experience Room, sports floor AI-powered transformation exhibits, and keynote session showcasing the latest innovations from Microsoft, our customers, and partners. 

Microsoft’s commitment to the media and entertainment Industry 

Microsoft enables media organizations to achieve more through a trusted and secure platform, built to empower content creators and distributors, enhance the viewer experience, and reimagine monetization strategies.

Microsoft for media and entertainment

Transform the future of creativity, content, and experiences

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^1,2 IDC, Business Opportunity of AI | Generative AI Delivering New Business Value and Increasing ROI, 2024

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