Maritime trade accounts for more than 80% of global trade by volume, making ports a foundational pillar of the global economy, according to UN Trade & Development (UNCTAD).¹ As trade volumes grow and supply chains become more interconnected, ports are asked to do more than move goods efficiently. They must coordinate increasingly complex operations, integrate data across fragmented systems, and enable safer, more predictable decision-making across a diverse ecosystem of stakeholders.

Meeting these demands requires a fundamental shift in how ports modernize their operating models to meet these demands, moving from siloed, reactive operations toward integrated, data‑driven, and intelligently orchestrated systems.

From Port 4.0 to Port 5.0: Capability over complexity

Port 4.0—widely used across the industry as shorthand for digitalized, connected port operations—laid the foundations through shared data, connected infrastructure, and more informed decision-making.

In our Ports of the Future framework, Port 5.0 is how we envision the next stage of operational capability—where ports orchestrate flows of goods, data, energy, and trust through integrated platforms and governed intelligence.

At a high level, Port 5.0 is about:

• Moving from visibility to coordinated action
• Embedding intelligence into daily decisions, with people in control
• Designing collaboration, governance, and security from the outset

This evolution is shaped by interconnected building blocks—from AI-supported control towers and connected inland corridors, to energy aware operations, trusted data collaboration, advanced optimization, immersive digital twins, and all hazards infrastructure resilience.

A new wave of enabling technologies

In the Ports of the Future framework, Port 5.0 is defined by a set of core operational capabilities. What has changed in the last 12–18 months is the maturity of technologies that now make these capabilities practical to deploy at scale.

• AI-supported operations
  AI systems can now assist with multistep operational workflows—monitoring conditions, proposing replans, and surfacing high impact exceptions for human decisionmakers—moving control towers from visibility toward orchestration, while remaining governed.
• Confidential computing for sensitive collaboration
  Hardware- based trusted environments enable organizations to process sensitive data while maintaining strong protections, supporting cross agency analytics and collaboration without compromising established data handling policies.
• Advanced optimization approaches
  Quantum-inspired and heuristic optimization methods help ports address complex scheduling and routing challenges—berths, yards, rail paths, labor, and inspections—particularly under disruption, when suboptimal decisions compound quickly.
• Digital twins and simulation
  Immersive digital twins increasingly serve as shared operational environments, integrating real-time data with simulation to support planning, training, and coordinated decision-making. AI-based simulation contributed to improved vessel punctuality and measurable operational gains, according to a case study of Busan Port,² illustrating the potential of these approaches when deployed thoughtfully.
• Security and governance by design
  As ports become data hubs, cybersecurity, identity management, and access controls are increasingly embedded into platform architecture from the outset.

Together, these capabilities help ports move from reactive operations to coordinated, system level performance—while keeping people in control and governance at the center.

Develop core operational capabilities

The Ports of the Future whitepaper explores these building blocks in depth, with real world examples and a pragmatic 24–36 month roadmap that helps ports move from vision to execution.

Explore Microsoft for public finance to help reignite the economy and drive financial accountability with public finance technology solutions.

¹ Shipping data: UNCTAD releases new seaborne trade statistics 

² In August container ship punctuality at 65.3% — World Ports Org 

The post Ports of the future: Building a framework for the modern port appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

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

Moving from prediction to preparedness in Jakarta’s flood management 

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

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

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

Enhancing operations with AI: Evergy’s utility transformation 

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

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

Strengthening water resilience for future challenges 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Advancing sustainability and efficiency through AI

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

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

Building responsible, inclusive infrastructure for all

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The post How cities build resilient infrastructure with trusted AI appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

“Potholes not only tell you about the state of your infrastructure,” noted a Harvard researcher in 2019, “they also tell you about the nature of participation in your city.”¹ A city that fixes a pothole promptly is not just responsive, its constituents feel empowered to engage with government. 

In recent years, expectations have only risen on what governments need to deliver, leaving many cities struggling to deliver services in ways people prefer while also running a gauntlet of budgetary, regulatory, and societal challenges. On the one hand, citizens want to access great city services on par with how they do their banking or shopping—that is, secure, personalized experiences on smartphones and computing devices, rather than exclusively in-person. On the other hand, governments face unprecedented pressures in terms of funding, regulations, staffing, and cybercrime. 

To bridge this gap, more and more city governments are looking to use the force-multiplying power of generative AI. Its ability to converse in natural language and reason over vast stores of data, then find answers, compose messages, and orchestrate actions is not only solving longstanding modernization challenges, it’s also opening incredible new frontiers in city services. 

Helping city governments evaluate, explore, and successfully deploy high-impact solutions with AI is now the primary focus of our work at Microsoft for government. In cities around the world, we have seen dramatic acceleration in generative AI innovation, with new solutions that are helping cities to: 

• Deliver personalized services.
• Empower the professionals who serve the public.
• Derive better insights and greater value from data.

The future of the smart city is already here—in Abu Dhabi 

The President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, launched an ambitious drive around 15 years ago to make government services more accessible and service-oriented. In Abu Dhabi, the nation’s capital, those efforts took a giant leap with the advent of AI, accelerating innovation that led to the launch of a new AI-powered government services platform in October 2024. 

Aptly called TAMM—which in Arabic translates to “consider it done!”—the platform began as a centralized portal several years ago and was revised to expand service offerings. With the application of new AI capabilities, it is now a one-stop digital hub, offering access to nearly 950 government services for citizens, residents, visitors, and investors. 

Built on Microsoft Azure OpenAI service, TAMM uses advanced AI to deliver new classes of benefits. The platform offers real-world examples of how AI can transform smart cities by unifying services and inviting engagement in new and powerful ways. 

Here are three noteworthy ways that TAMM improves city service delivery. 

1. Serve people as they like, with personalized interactions 

TAMM is designed to remove barriers between government services and the people who need them. In many cases, that means no longer forcing them to go to government buildings to get things done. 

The new TAMM includes a generative AI assistant that provides every day service, offering personalized access to services such as license renewals, utility bill payments, permit applications, healthcare, and more. There’s even a new photo reporting app, where people can take a snapshot of a problem they come across (including, yes, a pothole) and the assistant helps to fill out a report and later sends updates on the progress of repairs. 

TAMM also helps to untangle bureaucracy to simplify common yet complicated tasks. The process of registering a car, for instance, was dramatically simplified. What previously required days of visiting buildings and standing in lines can now be done quickly through the app—which also recommends the right type of insurance policy and synchronizes it with registration. 

2. Deliver better results with a more energized and empowered workforce 

Because TAMM handles so many more routine tasks than before (such as responding to basic questions on services issues or applications), city employees can focus more on high-value service delivery. With live services including video and audio options, agents can deliver high-touch assistance while still maintaining user privacy. 

A good example of this is the case of a foreign worker who lived in Abu Dhabi for 10 years and was told by an immigration agent that she couldn’t leave the country due to visa issues. In tears, she opened the TAMM app on her phone and was connected to a helpline, where an agent quickly eased her anxieties. “I said I don’t know what to do, and the agent was literally amazing,” the woman said. “[The agent] said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s getting updated now’—and I was on my way.” 

The approach to innovation behind TAMM also reflects an important trend: equipping public servants to work like product teams so that city services evolve like platforms. The TAMM organization operates in a unique “factory” in Abu Dhabi that operates like a startup—agile, data-driven, and obsessed with user satisfaction. The city’s employees don’t just execute services; they co-innovate with citizens and stakeholders to create them. Real-time dashboards, productivity-enhancing agents, and a culture of continuous iteration are driving success and proving that empowering the workforce is the foundation of smarter cities. 

3. Keep cities moving with services that listen, learn, and protect 

TAMM is designed to help people better navigate government services by understanding and responding to user needs almost instantly. It recognizes multiple languages and offers the option for spoken conversations, intelligently walking people through a broad range of complex processes. For example, for a family with a person who has a disability, TAMM can help navigate special services, significantly streamlining a qualification process that previously took weeks.  

TAMM not only remembers previous conversations and knows the status of an issue or process, it is also deeply integrated across major government entities in the city. Service can be coordinated with in-person service centers or agencies who help housebound people in their homes.  

The TAMM platform is powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI service and G42 Compass 2.0, a next-generation enterprise AI platform that provides sovereign cloud services. It also uses open-source models, including JAIS, a high-performing Arabic Large Language Model, and Azure OpenAI GPT-4.

The TAMM app now assists Abu Dhabi’s 2.5 million citizens to conduct than 10 million transactions a year. Helping to protect data and ensure privacy within these transactions is the world class cloud security provided by the Microsoft platform—reflecting our commitment to security above all in delivering AI services, as codified in our Secure Futures Initiative.

Keys for building a foundation of success with AI 

The noteworthy innovation happening in Abu Dabhi is a great example of a city realizing the transformative potential offered by generative AI. Many others are following the trend, and the results are exciting. 

As we look across the global landscape, we note a set of common factors that consistently underpin successful AI adoption. We would advise every city to consider the following: 

• A mission-first mindset drives smarter AI adoption. Cities that anchor AI initiatives in clearly defined public outcomes—such as reducing response times to citizen queries or improving access to social services—are better equipped to prioritize high-impact use cases and rigorously measure results. Aligning AI innovation with policy goals improves clarity and can also boost community trust.
• AI literacy must span the entire workforce. Successful implementations include investments to build AI literacy across all levels of the public workforce—from IT and data science teams to case workers and city clerks. With effective training and a culture of learning and sharing, cities have more empowered workforces and enjoy better outcomes.
• Strong data foundations are critical. Cities that proactively clean, integrate, and govern their data estates—including structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data—are better able to operationalize AI faster, more securely, and at scale. A modern data platform emphasizes robust privacy and access protections as prerequisites for AI success, helping civic leaders avoid common pitfalls such as model bias, incomplete datasets, or compliance gaps. 

Learn more about AI technology for governments

To help your city government make the most of modern cloud and AI technology, contact your local Microsoft representative or certified technology partner. Together, we can help you explore options, identify use cases, and transform your ideas into meaningful solutions.

• For in-depth guidance and resources on designing, deploying, and sustaining AI-powered solutions in city government, visit the Public Sector Center for Digital Skills.
• For workforce development and training resources and guidance tailored to cities and other government organizations, visit Microsoft Learn for Government.
• For more on how Microsoft is helping to empower governments with AI, read our blogs. 

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Sources:

¹ Harvard Griffin GSAS, “Pothole Politics”, January 2019.

The post From potholes to personalization: What Abu Dhabi is teaching us about AI-powered smart cities appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

These are just a few of the incredibly broad range of scenarios in which people around the world look to government social services entities for help and support. In fact, more than half the world’s population (52.4%) are covered by at least one social protection benefit.¹ As these services expand, dedicated public organizations and agencies strive to administer benefits programs, enhance access to healthcare, and protect vulnerable populations—even as they face growing pressure to do more with less. 

Helping government agencies and organizations explore the potential of AI and build new solutions that deliver both near-term impact and long-term transformation is central to our work at Microsoft for Government. We cultivate longstanding partnerships with government organizations of all types to help innovate and deliver secure, trustworthy services that promote safety, health, and prosperity. 

How generative AI is opening new avenues of impact 

Fueled by a convergence of modern challenges, AI has quickly emerged as a uniquely transformative solution in delivering social services. Budgetary and workforce pressures, the proliferation of data, and constituents’ demands for services that mirror private sector offerings all add to the pressure. And that’s not to mention escalating cyberthreats and the complexity of business and technology.  

Generative AI—with its unique abilities to synthesize data, understand natural language, retain contextual information, summarize content, and write documents and code—is uniquely suited to help answer these challenges. With powerful solutions like Microsoft 365 Copilot, custom-developed agents and chatbots, and other innovations that integrate AI into regular workflows and processes, governments have the opportunity to not just fix the old but invent the new.  

Around the world, agencies and organizations have had remarkable success in early AI use cases designed to help improve efficiency, streamline service delivery, and gain powerful insights from data and predictive analytics. Here are three examples of critical impact we’ve seen in the past year:  

1. Enhance constituent experiences with easier access to information 

As expectations for fast, personalized digital services grow, many governments are seeing immediate impact with AI-powered chatbots or other virtual assistants to handle ranges of inquiries and assistance.  

These innovations are available at any hour of the day and are well equipped to handle large volumes of requests for help with things like licensing, transit, taxation, and more. They let people engage on the channel of their choice—such as phone calls, digital chat, and social media—and use different languages to rapidly get the right information, apply for benefits, receive updates, and report incidents. 

A great example is a chatbot called Boti, which the government of the City of Buenos Aires recently revamped using Microsoft Azure OpenAI services to revolutionize public interactions. Trained on an extensive government database, the chatbot uses natural language interaction to handle 2 million queries per month, helping citizens find services—everything from basic services like driver’s license renewals to public health information and personalized information for tourists. Along the way, it has lowered the operational burden by 50%. 

The beauty of these kinds of solutions is that they ease the burden of finding and getting the best possible service, even when people have little idea of who or what agency to contact. AI makes it easier for a constituent to explore their options. And then, when they do engage, they only need to provide their critical information one time.

Not forcing someone to continually supply the same information as they move through the system is a huge consideration in cases where people have experienced traumatic, emotional, or embarrassing events. Participation is strained when a person is forced to re-explain and re-live unpleasant experiences. So, AI’s ability to retain essential details through a case management process and retain context from queries helps ensure an experience that is not only more efficient but also more dignified.  

AI also plays a role in helping constituents when they are unhappy with their services. An AI-powered contact center, like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center, can provide new levels of support that can enhance human decision-making. For example, an AI-powered contact center can trigger an escalation to a customer service representative when sentiment analysis detects a person getting frustrated or upset. Using intelligent routing, it can connect the constituent to the best representative based on context and need, and assist the representative by summarizing the person’s situation, suggesting optimal solutions, and even drafting response recommendations. 

2. Boost the efficiency and effectiveness of staff 

One of the most vital advances in the digital evolution of government is the shift away from cumbersome tasks involving antiquated websites, electronic forms, even paper-based processes, to automated, intelligent systems that not only ease data collection but also interpret data, learn from it, and even act on it.  

With AI acting as an intelligent, ever-present assistant, social services case workers and caregivers are able to focus more on helping people and spend less time on tedious tasks than before. These new tools give workers instant access to relevant information from across data silos—including unstructured data such as content in PDFs, files, websites, and even digitized hand-written documents—all of which had largely been unavailable to analysis before. 

For example, the Torfaen County Borough Council in Wales, United Kingdom, saw gains in productivity after they adopted Microsoft 365 Copilot, which integrates generative AI into everyday applications including Word, Excel, and Outlook. The process of taking and recording notes, for example, has been dramatically simplified, which is freeing workers to spend more time engaging with residents and providing personalized services. 

With the help of AI assistance, a case worker can serve constituents far more effectively. Client meetings, for example, can be completely transformed. Meeting preparation can be done faster and far more comprehensively, with insights and recommendations gleaned from information across the enterprise, including from files that were previously inaccessible, restricted, or difficult to extract meaningful insights from. The meeting can be recorded and automatically transcribed, which enables the case worker to focus on their client versus note-taking. Afterwords, Microsoft Teams can transcribe and summarize the meeting, with details and action items imported directly into case management systems. 

3. Enhance processes and outcomes with advanced analytics 

Perhaps the most transformative aspect of AI is the power of advanced analytics. This refers to AI’s unique ability to turn raw data into actionable insights by identifying patterns, making connections, and even predicting outcomes. In health and social services, this can translate into a variety of useful benefits. 

For instance, AI can help turn the often-cumbersome process of evaluating applications for benefits or other social services into a faster, more precise, and user-friendly process. It can analyze information against policy rules, interpret regulations to help ensure criteria are met, and cross-check submitted data with official records. This means fewer errors that might lead to incorrect approvals or denials, and greater client satisfaction. 

Collectively, these abilities can transform important social services initiatives. For example, they play a crucial role in a new digital platform built by the Department of Human Services (DHS) in South Australia to modernize how high-risk domestic violence cases are managed. Previously, agencies relied on physical documents and semi-structured Excel spreadsheets to track cases, which hindered information sharing, decision making, and coordination across agencies. The new Family Safety Portal, integrating AI with Microsoft Power BI, transformed DHS’s domestic violence response into a proactive, highly adaptive, and evidence-based system. Referrals that once took days are now done in real-time, and 10 agencies now share data in a centralized system that is highly secure.  

In terms of improving public health and wellbeing, AI and analytic tools can collect, analyze, and report on public health or program data to gain a holistic view of individuals receiving services to improve care. A case worker, for example, can use AI to see beyond isolated data points and gain a far more complete view of a person’s situation, needs, and history. With less administrative burden, this provides critical context to ensure that the constituent receives precisely the right support and enhance care coordination and interventions.  

The other essential benefit provided by analytics is in the realm of fraud, waste, and abuse. By analyzing vast amounts of information in real time and leveraging data from past records and experiences, AI can spot patterns, identify irregularities, and flag suspicious behaviors far more effectively and faster than traditional methods. This can help organizations proactively detect and mitigate fraud risks—for example, by evaluating submissions as they arrive instead of through audits, automating verification in seconds by cross-checking IDs and application details, or comparing an applicant’s behavior with previous submissions to ensure they are legitimate. 

Move forward in your AI journey 

Virtually any government agency can derive immediate benefits from generative AI. However, to unlock the full power of modern analytics and advanced AI, an organization needs to modernize their cloud environment and ensure an AI-ready data estate.  

Every organization’s journey is unique, and it’s important to build a long-term strategy with trusted technology partners. To help your government organization take the next step, contact your local Microsoft representative or certified Microsoft technology partner. They can help explore options, identify use cases, and transform your ideas into meaningful solutions.  

Discover more

• Visit the Microsoft for Government website and read more of our blogs.
• Visit us at the European Social Services Conference (ESSC), in Aarhus, Denmark.

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¹ International Labour Organization, “World Social Protection Report 2024,” September 2024.

The post 3 ways that AI is driving the evolution of social services in government appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

The answer is, of course, as unique as the organization. The myriad considerations of government priorities, regulations, legacy systems, and more all play into an administration’s approach to IT investment and AI innovation. There is no one-size-fits-all answer. However, through our work with Microsoft for Government, we see trends across tax administration for AI innovation, the value it is delivering for organizations, and the steps required for success.  

The compelling AI benefits for tax and revenue agencies 

At the core, the value of AI is all about simplifying the taxpayer experience while enhancing revenue collection. When taxpayers have an easier time filing and accurately paying their taxes, employees can work more productively, compliance can be assured more readily, and fraud can be detected more rapidly.  

The journey begins by identifying strategic objectives and then innovating solutions for specific challenges that translate into measurable outcomes. In our work with tax and revenue agencies, we see how AI and cloud technologies can improve experiences for both taxpayers and employees by helping to support the following outcomes: 

• Modernizing taxpayer services.
• Boosting tax employee productivity.
• Streamlining revenue collection processes.
• Accelerating error and fraud detection.
• Optimizing audit case management.

In helping every unique agency navigate the many options and issues involved in building a near-term as well as long-term AI strategy, we emphasize the importance of incorporating a set of key principles to help ensure trust in the tax ecosystem. Effective innovation must be implemented with a commitment to the following: accountability and transparency to manage public funds efficiently, ease of use for taxpayers to reduce friction and help ensure compliance, an outcomes-driven approach to measure impact of tax policies, and a 360-degree view of taxpayer data to support personalized and proactive services.  

Five areas of AI impact in tax administration 

Tax agencies worldwide are already realizing important benefits in the most essential aspects of their operations. Here is an overview of these focus areas, with specific outcomes for our customers.  

1. Modernizing taxpayer services  

Solutions built with modern cloud technology can help enhance trust with taxpayers by improving collection and reducing the cost of compliance. Advanced analytics give a 360-view of taxpayers to enhance experiences and make it easier to comply and pay taxes. 

An example of this is innovation by the Egypt Tax Authority, which contended with a longstanding shadow economy that was costing the country significant tax revenue. In response, they developed an e-invoicing and e-receipt solution built on Microsoft cloud services. The solution improved compliance by making the process easier for taxpayers, allowing them to choose the most appropriate channel for submitting receipts and invoices according to their current systems. The adoption of AI promises to further enhance these capabilities, supporting early-stage fraud detection and generating greater economic value. 

“The e-invoices have eliminated arbitrary estimations and reduced the tax examination to several hours, laying the foundations of an advanced tax system comparable to other countries.”

Mrs. Rasha Abdel Aal Radi, Head of the Egyptian Tax Authority

2. Boost employee productivity 

Cloud and AI technologies can empower tax agency employees to work and collaborate more efficiently and in a secure manner. Automating processes frees professionals to focus on tasks that are the most impactful for the agency and the taxpayer. Detailed insights, analytics, and reports can help break down data silos so teams can make more informed decisions. 

In Finland, the Finnish Tax Administration needed to ensure security in processing confidential data from 5.5 million citizens. Renowned for taking a digital approach to taxation that is widely popular with citizens, the agency turned to secure cloud-based solutions as they recognized the escalating threat of global cyberattacks. They started adopting Microsoft solutions in late 2018 and continue to benefit from ongoing AI enhancements to the Microsoft security stack.  

Beyond effectively helping to mitigate potential threats and identify false positives, the move also helps the administration’s security professionals work more efficiently and effectively.

“Until a few years ago, if we received an alert for a potentially nasty virus, it could take days before we could establish for sure if it was a false positive. Nowadays, [Microsoft solutions] make triage much faster, down to ten or fifteen minutes.”

Mikko Hakuli, Chief Security Information, Finnish Tax Administration

3. Streamline revenue collection processes 

AI streamlines the revenue collection process by automating the recording and reconciliation of tax data within the general ledger. Modern solutions provide agencies with real-time forecast data and AI-powered predictions for better services. This helps to ensure accurate and timely reporting, facilitating better financial management and forecasting. 

In England, the Somerset Council, a local government unitary authority, merged five distinct councils into one centralized financial system. By building upon their existing Microsoft platform, the council was able to streamline business planning, forecasting, funds disbursements, and financial reporting for all program areas. The implementation of automated workflows led to reduced errors in revenue collection and faster processing, which freed up employee time for more strategic activities.  

The council leadership is now exploring new possibilities around automation, analytics, and Microsoft Copilot as it expands ways to serve the greater community. 

4. Accelerate error and fraud detection and prevention 

Using machine learning and predictive analytics, AI identifies potential error or fraud cases by analyzing tax data and detecting patterns and anomalies in the economic activity of the taxpayer. This helps tax administrations proactively address error and fraud, which helps reduce revenue loss. 

The finance department in the state of Ceará, Brazil wanted to enhance tax compliance monitoring among retail vendors, so it implemented the new HMX Tax Intelligence System (TIS), which now processes more than 2.5 million transactions daily from more than 60,000 point-of-sale devices operated by 36,700 vendors. Using AI to analyze millions of digital sales receipts daily, the system identifies potential errors and tax avoidance and provides detailed explanations for compliance issues.  

“A big part of the power for TIS comes from its construction as a Microsoft Azure-native product. That provides the flexibility to scale up and down as needed, and TIS deploys in a hybrid, public-private cloud.” 

Michael Barnett, Executive Vice President for Cognitive Engineering

In one year, the solution delivered a 21% increase in new tax revenue from the previous year and an 84% improvement in audit efficiency. Additionally, the early warning capabilities of TIS can spot trends indicating fraud, and new noncompliance patterns are more easily detected with the new information 

5. Optimize tax and audit case management 

AI-powered case management systems can automate the flow of data in key workloads, which helps ensure accurate and comprehensive views of taxpayer economic activities and interactions. This enhances the efficiency of processes such as tax collection, audits, and appeals. 

In Costa Rica, the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), which provides technical assistance to the tax administrations of its 42 member countries, wanted to improve the efficiency of data collection processes and curb fraud and revenue loss, so they enlisted Microsoft to develop a cloud-based solution. The result was the e-Invoicing Anomaly Detection Solution Accelerator, which effectively optimizes data collection, automates routine tasks, and uses machine learning to strategically allocate efforts where they are needed most. 

To cite just one benefit, the accelerator identified actionable insights based on detailed business analytics after detecting validation errors during the e-invoicing process.

“Getting these insights allows for faster and more confident decision-making and resource allocation.”

Mario Ramos, General Director of Taxation for Costa Rica

Read the ebook and learn more 

For more on how Microsoft is helping governments solve society’s biggest challenges, visit Microsoft for Government. Also, to learn how Microsoft is helping to drive financial accountability with public finance technology solutions, visit Microsoft for Public Finance and read the ebook.

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According to Gartner, “Government employees are too often battling with friction in antiquated citizen-facing and back-office systems and increasing cycle completion times, leaving them frustrated and sometimes cynical.”¹ The good news is that governments are actively seeking ways to mitigate this concern across multiple agencies.

Across industries, while end-to-end digital transformation initiatives are redefining how employees perform their roles and how services are delivered, governments need to take it a step further by investing in the necessary training and skills needed to recruit and retain a digitally-savvy workforce. Per IDC, “by 2025, 40 percent of national governments will adopt immersive learning technology in critical sectors to accelerate education, hone skills, and engage and retain employees”.² This is because government employees care about a variety of factors including improved well-being and the availability of technology that makes it easier to effectively do their job.

Microsoft for Government partners with governments around the world to help empower the government workforce and improve employee engagement, streamline workflows, and uncover actionable insights across agencies. We are committed to helping improve the lives of the people who keep our communities safe and operational using innovative technology. This commitment takes shape in different ways across the public sector. Showcased below are impactful examples of how Microsoft has helped accelerate digital transformation within government agencies and helped empower the workforce to achieve their mission.

1. Transforming internal operations to accelerate the delivery of services.

As the primary delivery arm for information and communications technology, the Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA) has been driving the government’s transformational policies for more than 20 years.

“MITA seeks out the most innovative initiatives to lead our country’s ambitious transformation toward a first-class digital society. As we deployed more and more programs, we needed a consolidated workplace to improve collaboration and accelerate service delivery, with security standards matching our government requirements.”—Mariano Debono, Manager of Software License Management, MITA.

MITA implemented Microsoft 365 productivity tools, such as Microsoft Teams and Microsoft SharePoint online to connect more than 23,000 public service employees across all ministries on a single platform.

“The single collaboration hub simplifies work and makes communication a lot quicker. For example, we sometimes had to spend half the day traveling to attend one meeting with our ministry colleagues on the Island of Gozo. These meetings can now be held remotely.”—Jonathan Cassar, CTO, MITA.

This is just one example of how government agencies, like MITA, are partnering with Microsoft for Critical Infrastructure to transform government operations and empower the workforce to be more productive, collaborative, and efficient.

2. Streamlining administrative processes to provide coordinated care for vulnerable populations.

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program’s participation rates were declining rapidly nationwide leaving the most vulnerable people without service—even though they were eligible. This decline was due in large part to duplicative and cumbersome registration processes across adjunct programs like Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

New Mexico WIC saw an opportunity to reverse the downward trend using technology to streamline processes yet program staff members often spend their brief time with clients gathering basic information already provided to other state agencies, saddling state administrators with an additional burden of 10 to 15 minutes per applicant.

“WIC offers a holistic approach. We educate folks about nutrition and lifestyle and maximize their SNAP and WIC dollars.”—Gavino Archuleta, Program Analyst, New Mexico WIC.

Teaming up with the Human Services Department (HSD), they integrated the application process across state-administered programs. Using Microsoft Dynamics 365 and data analytics through Microsoft Power BI, the teams built a solution that notifies the New Mexico WIC program whenever an individual qualifies for a new program. Then, the program informs the individuals of their ability to receive benefits. This has increased access to key resources for vulnerable populations and minimized paperwork, freeing staff time, and letting nutritionists focus on nutrition.

New Mexico WIC is an inspiring example of how public health and social services agencies can partner with Microsoft to modernize processes and reduce the administrative burden on employees so that they can spend more time doing what they love—serving the community.

3. Upskilling the banking workforce to drive financial stability.

The Bank of Canada isn’t just your neighborhood bank. As its name suggests, it’s everyone’s bank—it’s Canada’s bank. As such, it has great responsibilities which include setting monetary policy, distributing currency, and maintaining the country’s financial stability. This is all captured in its public mission “to regulate credit and currency in the best interests of the economic life of the nation.”

The pursuit of that goal requires significant computing resources, and the bank’s IT department is crucial in executing the day-to-day operations. The bank decided that it was important to develop and maintain the skills required to realize that mission. Using new technologies, adapting to new ways of working, and designing and operating new digital products and services all require new skills. An ongoing training initiative identified immediate and emerging skills and integrated associated upskilling courses into an online learning experience platform.

Claude Guimont, Senior Learning Specialist, and his team worked closely with Microsoft to find opportunities to incorporate an ideal mix of online on-demand and instructor-led content that would best fit the bank’s transformation effort. He says, “working with the Microsoft Learn team, we identified and refined that content to build self-paced modules starting with fundamentals all the way through to certification, if that’s what the learner wants.” It’s important to provide staff with the means to pursue both highly focused task-specific training and topics of less targeted, more general interest that may lead to future opportunities. 

Bank of Canada is a prime example of how public finance organizations can empower their workforce with the skills required to digitally transform the workforce in order to ultimately drive informed budgeting, provide financial stability, and serve the public today—and into the future.

4. Enhancing collaboration across the public safety and justice ecosystem.

As criminal activities are on the rise, public safety and justice agencies are increasingly gravitating towards digital tools—tools that help address situational boundaries that bad actors have long exploited. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) conducts criminal investigations across the state and supports agencies within the state when needed.

North Carolina SBI chose Microsoft 365 as their secure communication platform to help accelerate collaboration and secure data sharing. This has helped inform positive outcomes for their employees and the communities they serve. The integration of these collaborative applications has contributed to heightened effectiveness in combating crime in this day and age.

Ease of use and versatility is key in ensuring the adoption of any new technology in a work environment. Since Microsoft Teams can be installed on many mobile devices, it goes along with the employees on missions and lends a hand towards real-time collaboration, data sharing, and virtual work while in the field.

“Microsoft Teams integrates with other Microsoft 365 apps, it’s familiar and it’s easy to use. Our agents are busy people who really appreciate tools that just work”.—Mike Denning, IT Director, North Carolina SBI.

Microsoft also helps investigators manage the large quantities of digital evidence involved in modern investigations. While only 20 years ago it was unusual to have digital evidence at the center of a case, today digital evidence is involved in nearly 90 percent of all crimes committed. It’s now a significant part of the evidence that determines a defendant’s outcome. Without the help of innovative technology such as Azure Cognitive Services, analyzing all that data would be a massive undertaking for investigators.

This is one of the many great examples of how Microsoft for Public Safety and Justice helps to be more efficient and effective.

When the government workforce thrives, we all thrive

Microsoft is continuously inspired by our government customers around the world and their commitment to serving their communities and employees. We proactively play a key role in their digital transformation initiatives and provide innovative technology solutions that empower their hybrid workforce.

To explore more workforce transformation stories across government, visit our Microsoft for Government webpage and follow us on LinkedIn at Microsoft in Government.

Intelligent government solutions

Inclusive government technology that seamlessly blends into everyday life.

Learn more

¹Gartner, Top Trends in Government for 2022: Total Experience, Apeksha Kaushik, Arthur Mickoleit, Daniel Snyder, 18 January 2022.
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

²IDC, IDC FutureScape: Worldwide National Government 2023 Predictions, 27 October 2022.

The post 4 impactful ways Microsoft is empowering the government workforce appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

Here at Microsoft, we’ve made a big commitment to help cities and governments become “smart.” What does that mean? It means we believe there is a huge opportunity for technology to help cities become more responsive to their residents, reduce the environmental impact of transportation and utilities, improve public safety, enhance communication and citizen engagement, and much more.

In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an inflection point, as the need for effective hybrid work and improved urban resilience has driven a dramatic increase in how city governments view and use technology. We’re now seeing digital infrastructure integrate with the build environment in ways we didn’t think possible just a few years ago. The pandemic has accelerated the use of technology and has put it on value. It has also changed our habits regarding work, social behaviors, and consumption. Read more about the 10 keys to understanding the post COVID-19 city.

With that in mind, we’re pleased to be taking part in the 2021 Smart City Expo & World Congress, the premier event focusing on urban innovation. After missing 2020, the event is back—albeit in hybrid form. While many participants will visit Barcelona, the physical site of the expo, there also will be a parallel digital program broadcast by Tomorrow.City. Learn how to register here.

This year’s expo will explore topics ranging from urban mobility, to improved governance, to driving more efficient economies, to safety and security.

We’ll be represented by a range of Microsoft experts and partners. Jeremy Goldberg, Microsoft’s Director of Critical Infrastructure, will appear November 16, 2021, in a plenary session titled “Inclusion, Right, and Ethics at the Core of Digital Transformation.”

Over the last several months, Microsoft and Accenture have been teaming up to help solve transportation challenges and we are excited to have Accenture presenting a live demo at the Microsoft Booth during Smart Cities Expo. This new platform will provide cities, departments, and transportation agencies with the ability to use data more effectively for more efficient operations, enhanced safety, and better day-to-day experiences for city residents.

Another partner of ours, Swedish ClimateView provides ClimateOS platform, a collaborative decision-making SaaS for local governments to plan, simulate and execute their climate transition. Pioneering cities across Europe and North America use the platform to reach their Paris Agreement targets and build zero carbon economies. Built on Azure, it enables faster delivery and financing of climate action by combining data, advanced modeling, and beautiful visualization in a single easy to use platform.

Our work with cities also will be a highlight of another November 16 session: “Cutting-Edge Urban Technologies.” We’ll be discussing the work of Microsoft Qatar on the TASMU Platform, which we think is a ground-breaking piece of work for smart cities. Built on our secure Azure cloud, TASMU works as a digital marketplace in Qatar that streamlines the delivery of public services and makes it easier to perform tasks ranging from pay bills to making healthcare appointment to managing home and office.

In addition, Microsoft program manager Sergio Gonzalez will be giving a “solution talk” on Azure Precept, an easy-to-use, secure platform for creating edge artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. Using Precept, IT administrators in city governments can develop new and innovative ways to perform tasks such as managing transit, detecting pollution sources, oversee emergency responses, or take on any other challenge they might face.

At digital “side events,” several of our partners will discuss:

• Digitising Municipal Services and Operations in support of Government Recovery and Resilience Goals
• Enabling Urban and Rural Sustainability

One interesting project is the new Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), an European Union initiative designed to help member countries respond to economic and social disruptions caused by COVID-19. Projects such as the RFF show real promise in helping countries weather disruptive events, whether it’s a pandemic or related to climate change.

We’re excited about this opportunity to share our vision for smarter cities, while also learning from experts who will be attending from around the world. Cities do so much for people—they create jobs, create vibrant cultures, and lead to a myriad of social interactions not available elsewhere. Everything social happens at cities. It’s our hope that technology can make cities even more exciting and dynamic in the year to come.

The post Microsoft to present smart-city solutions at Smart City Expo appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

I love cities. I’ve been fortunate to live, learn, and work in some of the best in the world. Cities are hubs of cutting-edge technology and human productivity. But they also have rich histories, beautiful architecture, and complex cultures. Cities are places where the old constantly meets the new. For me, the creative energy that comes from cities is inspiring and exciting.

Still, over the past decade, we have seen some ambitious “smart cities” projects fail. Sometimes technology is treated like a science project, rather than being tied to a specific problem. And sometimes cities aren’t set up to support these projects because they do not have the right people or processes in place. In my experience, data must be at the center of the conversation. Too often it is a secondary consideration.

Technology as an enabler

What makes a city “smart”? It isn’t technology, as such. It’s the degree to which technology gives residents better lives, thriving businesses, and governments that provide great service. The success of smart cities rests on our foresight to build for accessibility, and solutions that can adapt as conditions and priorities change. Urban planners, politicians, civic-minded organizations, and scholars have been working on these solutions for decades. But the scale today is larger than ever.

In 2018, the United Nations Population Division reported that about 55 percent of the global population lived in cities. It projected that by 2050 the number will rise to 68 percent.¹ As city populations continue to grow, we must support increased demand.

But it is not just a matter of population growth. Sameh Wahba, global director for urban resilience and land practice at the World Bank, put it plainly: “COVID-19 has laid bare many of the problems and inequities in cities and amplified the devastating health and economic impacts of urban poverty around the world. Cities are also on the frontlines of the global fight against climate change, which means they also can be at the center of a green, resilient, and inclusive recovery. Cities provide an escalator out of poverty if they are planned, managed, and governed well. But this is easier said than done and will require sustained and concerted global effort.”

With hundreds of millions of people moving into cities in the coming decades, a failure to invest now in the next generation of digital infrastructure and government could mean those millions go underserved. The good news is that new technologies can meet the rising scale and levels of demand and in many cases, are already doing so. For example, the city of Stockholm quickly realized the value of using 3D visualization to engage inhabitants in the urban planning process.

Planning for the future

To succeed, we need to plan with our past and present cities in mind. The future of cities lies in blending new technologies with existing infrastructure to tackle tangible, pressing issues such as environmental sustainability and economic opportunities.

A recent ESI study found that sustainable cities are also leaders on data. After all, cities are complex places. Understanding them requires managing large volumes of data and harnessing the compute power necessary to deliver real-time insights. Decision-makers must be armed with accurate, consistent data and work closely with members of the community to understand the needs of residents and businesses. They also need to communicate the positive impacts of the work that might go unnoticed, such as increased energy efficiency.

Successful smart cities will build a strong, flexible, digital infrastructure that integrates new technology into existing structures. Successful plans rest on three principles:

• Building for people—the impact of the work on real people must be at the forefront of any decision-making.
• Enabling creativity—solutions should be a springboard to public and private sector creativity and productivity.
• Solving real problems—let real issues, not a desire to implement a particular technology, guide your priorities.

Making an impact

I vividly remember the first time I set foot on the New York City subway and the realization I had of just how important the system is to city life. Years later it became a central part of my daily routine.

Mobility is one of the most prominent urban issues in recent years. And for good reason—it touches all the important elements of urban living. Moving around the city easily is vital for the people who live there. Mobility generates tremendous amounts of data that can help cities manage themselves. As climate change looms, switching rapidly to efficient, sustainable solutions for mobility is imperative. When someone steps on the subway, they might not have all of that in mind. But it is up to governments to get them where they need to go while responsibly protecting our environment.

For me, there are three central ingredients that will ensure a successful practical implementation of technology in our cities:

• Truly representative data that enables better and more equitable decisions.
• Security first, to protect privacy and build trust.
• Sustainability in all things as a unifying goal across projects.

Building future cities

Our cities will thrive in the future by building and upgrading infrastructure that makes urban spaces work for everyone. Employing the right technology and tools will help us solve the problems right in front of us, as well as the ones coming down the road—and enable future generations to tackle the issues we have not even thought of yet. In the same way, our cities are a place where old meets new, they are a place where the present will meet the future and that means action cannot wait.

Learn how the cities of London, United Kingdom and Bogota, Colombia are building for the future, and visit our website to learn more about the way in which Microsoft is enabling governments and empowering citizens around the world.

References:

¹United Nations, 68% of the world population projected to live in urban areas by 2050, says UN, May 16, 2018.

The post The future of “smart” cities starts with people, not technology appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.