The skills gap is widening, and it is our collective responsibility to bridge it. Business leaders and professionals are exploring ways to build and enhance critical skills within their teams, and Microsoft is leading the charge. 

In addition to launching ambitious skill-building initiatives such as the upcoming Microsoft AI Skills Fest, we’re also eager to spotlight innovative organization like Founderz, a groundbreaking online learning platform that has gone from a bold idea to a leader in AI skilling in just a few years. Their story is worth sharing not only because of their emerging role in ensuring the workforce is prepared for the future, but because it’s a testament to the power of innovation, perseverance, and the impact of just one company believing in a vision.  

One “yes” can change everything 

Co-founders Anna Cejudo and Pau Garcia-Mila had a simple but powerful idea: what if online business education could capture the depth, collaboration, and networking of the world’s top business schools—but in a way that was scalable, accessible, and built for the AI-powered future? 

“We felt there is still a big gap between the experience we have when we go to an on-site business school—where you meet the best professors, the best content—and the way we learn online,” explained Pau Garcia-Mila, Co-Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder.

They spent years building the technology behind Founderz, investing in AI-powered learning models that would make online education engaging, interactive, and deeply effective. But by 2023, they were at a breaking point. Funding had run out, and they needed a breakthrough.

In a final effort, they sent three emails to companies at the forefront of AI—hoping one of them would see what they saw: a future where AI education was truly transformative. Only Microsoft responded. 

Founderz was accepted into the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub, which provided access to industry-leading AI services, expert guidance, and essential technology to supercharge their growth. Entering the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub at Tier 4 also unlocked USD150,000 in Microsoft Azure credits, enabling the company to scale their platform, refine their AI-powered learning model, and start delivering high-quality AI education at scale. 

Today, Founderz itself is helping change lives.

“In 2024, we had roughly 10,000 users learning AI with Founderz,” recalled Anna Cejudo, co-CEO and co-founder. “By the end of the year, we were at 50,000. And now, by the beginning of March, we reached 100,000 users training in AI. The real revolution isn’t AI—it’s education,” added Anna, highlighting the fundamental role of learning in driving change. They’ve also become a Microsoft Training Services Partner, making the decision to offer training exclusively on Microsoft AI technology.  

AI skilling done differently 

Founderz is far from being just another online course provider. Pau, Anna, and their growing team are rethinking how AI is taught by blending structured learning with real-time collaboration, personalized AI-powered support, and a hands-on approach to applying AI in real-world scenarios. 

At the heart of the Founderz learning experience are high-quality, cinematic-style lectures. Unlike traditional online courses that rely on static, slide-based presentations, Founderz films its courses in a MasterClass-style format, featuring top AI experts from Microsoft and beyond. This approach allows learners to hear directly from the people shaping the future of AI. 

Expert content in student’s native language 

But Founderz goes beyond delivering engaging content—it’s about accessibility. A core mission is to provide top-tier AI education in students’ native languages. Next-generation lip-syncing technology ensures that learners experience AI-powered content seamlessly, without language barriers.

“I can watch a Responsible AI class from Microsoft’s Mihaela Vorvoreanu in my language,” says Pau Garcia-Mila. “She speaks in first person, saying, ‘When we built this Responsible AI model at Microsoft.’ I’d love to be able to learn from the source in my mother tongue.”

Small group collaboration  

While putting “thousands of people in a virtual room” enables Founderz to pay the best professors at a lower per-student cost, the company also sought to build a platform that supported meaningful collaboration. AI-powered tools match students into small, diverse learning circles, where they tackle real-world AI challenges, share insights, and build lasting professional networks. 

Multilingual student support around the clock 

To further support its rapidly growing user base, Founderz’ team of AI-powered teaching assistants or “Fellows” provide real-time multilingual support, allowing learners to receive help in their native language while keeping operations efficient for the human support team.  

As Pau Garcia-Mila explained, “The Fellows are speaking any language in the world, but our human team sees everything in English,” ensuring seamless interaction across different languages. 

These AI-powered teaching assistants provide real-time feedback, analyze student interactions, and escalate complex questions to human instructors when needed. Whether a learner is a complete beginner or an experienced professional, Founderz ensures they receive the support they need to succeed. 

Education means opportunity

Founderz’ journey from a bold idea to an emerging AI skilling leader is proof that AI education is more than just accessing information—it’s about unlocking potential. Its pioneering efforts continue to inspire countless organizations to embrace AI education and drive meaningful transformation worldwide.

As Anna Cejudo puts it, “Education means opportunity, and if we can deliver high-quality education to as many people as possible, we’re giving them the chance to change their lives and control their futures.” 

At Microsoft, we couldn’t agree more. Microsoft’s mission has always been about creating technology that empowers others to innovate and solve real-world problems. This holds true in the age of AI. Our commitment to skilling is not just about technology adoption, it’s about people development. Over the past year, Microsoft has trained and certified over 23 million people across more than 200 countries in digital skills, with the goal of ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to succeed in a world where AI will be commonplace and a natural extension of everything we do.  

Unlock the future—Join the Microsoft AI Skills Fest 

As part of our ongoing investment in global skilling, Microsoft is bringing AI skilling to everyone with the Microsoft AI Skills Fest—a global event designed to bring together customers and partners, tech and business professionals, and AI enthusiasts to help build the skills we all need to thrive in the AI economy.  

Beginning April 8, 2025, we’re kicking off the fun with an attempt to set a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for the most users to take an online multi-level artificial intelligence lesson in 24 hours. After that, we’re inviting everyone to continue building their skills with 50 days to explore Microsoft’s AI apps and services.  

Let’s make history together.

Microsoft AI Skills Fest

A global event designed to bring learners across the globe together to build their AI skills

Register now

¹IDC InfoBrief: sponsored by Microsoft, 2024 Business Opportunity of AI, IDC# US52699124, November 2024.

The post Founderz: Transforming AI education to unlock opportunity appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

Beyond the tools that empower businesses to shape their future with AI in a rapidly evolving market, our leaders at Microsoft are shaping our own organization with this technology. In this series, FYAI, we’ll highlight leaders from around Microsoft that are driving forces in our AI strategy for their unique perspective on our AI transformation; for your AI information, if you will.

Insights from Sarah Bird, Chief Product Officer (CPO) of Responsible AI

In this edition, we hear from Sarah Bird, Microsoft’s Chief Product Officer (CPO) of Responsible AI, ahead of her appearance at South by Southwest (SXSW) where she’ll be discussing the evolving safety practices for generative AI.  

In this Q&A session, Sarah shares her insights on various aspects of responsible AI, including her journey and dedication to responsible AI, her role as Chief Product Officer, the importance of integrating responsible AI early in the development process, and her insights on future AI breakthroughs and their safety implications. 

Let’s explore Sarah Bird’s experiences and perspectives on the evolving landscape of AI and discover how Microsoft is building trustworthy AI systems. 

FYAI: Responsible AI with Sarah Bird

 Who influenced you to pursue a career in responsible AI?

“For me, it’s less about who influenced me to pursue this career and more about who I’m helping every day through my work. AI is one of the most empowering technologies we have, but we can’t unlock its full potential without solving for responsible AI. That’s what makes this work so important—it’s about ensuring AI is safe and beneficial for everyone. And to do that, we have to work across boundaries. It reminds me of my grad school days—responsible AI is the ultimate group project, bringing together technology, society, and law to tackle these complex challenges in a meaningful way.” 

What does the role of chief product officer, responsible AI, actually mean? Tell us what your day-to-day looks like. 

“No two days are the same, and that’s what keeps me energized. At the core, my team is focused on three key things: spotting new risks, figuring out how to tackle them—especially when they’re things we’ve never seen before—and making sure our solutions are scalable so others can apply them easily. That framework guides us, but the reality is, AI is evolving fast. So a big part of our work is staying nimble—triaging issues in real-time, applying what we learn in practice, and adapting quickly to test and deploy new systems. It’s a mix of strategy and problem-solving, which is what makes it exciting.”

Where are you noticing gaps in companies’ implementation of AI safety practices?

“It’s been really inspiring to see how much more mature customers are getting with their responsible AI roadmaps and deployment. There’s real progress happening. That said, people are still learning, and the level of maturity varies across industries—some are further along than others. If there’s one thing I could shout from the rooftops, it’s that responsible AI can’t be an afterthought. It needs to be built into the entire development process from the start, not just bolted on at the end. It’s about putting all the pieces together to create a complete, responsible AI lifecycle.”

When do you think the next AI breakthrough is going to happen and what does that mean for safeguards?

“As an engineer, I’m focused on problem-solving rather than predicting when the next big breakthrough will happen. But I will say—it’s an exciting journey, especially with the pace of innovation. And while we still need another major leap before we can talk about the reality of what’s next, what’s really exciting about this space is that the breakthrough isn’t just the technology itself—it’s how we apply it. The real magic happens at the intersection of tech and people, and figuring out how to bridge that responsibly is what makes this work so fascinating.”

Why do you feel safety and innovation go hand in hand? 

“A goal of ours as a company is to help people do more with AI. We are constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and doing so in a safe, trusted way. As I’ve said, safety is not just a ‘nice to have’ bolted on at the end of a project, but a critical piece of developing high-quality AI systems. I look at safety issues as a measure of quality – is your AI performing as well as it should be? We can’t innovate and drive meaningful progress if we don’t solve for this.” 

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Learn more about Microsoft’s responsible AI work 

At Microsoft, we’re committed to the responsible advancement and use of AI. Our approach is guided by principles that ensure AI development maximizes benefits and minimizes potential harms. We incorporate responsible AI practices from the beginning by training our employees to evaluate risks and collaborating with experts to review and test technologies. 

We believe that advancing safe, secure, and trustworthy AI requires a mix of industry commitments, policies, and global governance. Responsible AI is an ongoing journey that involves continuous learning and collaboration.

Sarah Bird is at the forefront of ensuring that AI technologies are developed and deployed responsibly, and her team is dedicated to building tools that test AI systems rigorously to ensure they work as intended and are safe, inclusive, and beneficial for everyone. As she highlights, by integrating responsible AI practices from the start, we can unlock the full potential of AI while maintaining the highest standards of safety and innovation. 

Want to learn more?  

• Are you attending SXSW? Check out Sarah’s panel on Wednesday, March 12: Building Trustworthy AI: Evolving Safety Practices for GenAI. 
• Visit our Understanding AI at Microsoft page to catch up on the latest content from our Building AI Responsibly blog series.
• Read Grow Your Business with AI You Can Trust to discover how safe and secure AI business practices can enhance performance and effectively drive impact.

The post FYAI: The role of responsible AI with Microsoft CPO Sarah Bird appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

It’s no secret that India is well-positioned to be a global leader in the AI era, having embraced the power of AI to reshape industries, drive innovation, and unlock new opportunities across the nation. Boasting a vast talent pool, proactive government initiatives, and a thriving startup ecosystem, India is uniquely equipped to leverage AI to solve pressing societal and business challenges and optimize operations across a wide array of civic and business verticals.

A long-standing partner in India’s technological growth, Microsoft has solidified its commitment with a US $3 billion investment to expand AI and Azure cloud infrastructure in the country. This initiative is designed to accelerate AI adoption across industries, empower businesses to integrate AI into critical processes, and nurture local talent to meet the evolving demands of the tech ecosystem. These efforts underscore Microsoft’s confidence in India’s position as a global leader in AI innovation and technological advancement.

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Local ingenuity was on full display during the Microsoft AI Tour stop in Bengaluru and New Delhi, where organizations showcased how they are leveraging AI to tackle complex challenges, streamline workflows, and drive transformative efficiencies across industries.

MakeMyTrip powers the future of travel with AI

MakeMyTrip (MMT), India’s leading online travel company, is at the forefront of enhancing the travel shopping experience with generative AI. Over its 24-year journey, MMT has served more than 77 million users, offering comprehensive travel booking services. A standout feature powered by generative AI is Myra, their conversational bot. MMT is integrating an AI-powered workflow within Myra to assist users seamlessly at every stage of their travel journey—from pre-trip planning to in-trip support and post-trip follow-up. Built using large language models (LLMs) and orchestrated via Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, these services ensure smooth assistance throughout the travel process. As one of the early adopters of generative AI in travel tech, MMT is leading the next generation of travel experiences.

Persistent Systems improves contract management with AI-powered agent

Persistent Systems, one of the world’s fastest-growing digital engineering and enterprise modernization service providers, faced recurring challenges surrounding their contract management: inefficient workflows and lengthy negotiation cycles were causing bottlenecks in an otherwise agile organization. Persistent turned to the power of generative AI and Microsoft’s technology stack to reimagine their approach to contract management, developing ContractAssIst, an AI-powered agent built using generative AI and Microsoft 365 Copilot, to transform collaboration and streamline internal contract negotiations. Built to help ensure security and access controls, the tool helps to enhance collaboration, streamline workflows, and accelerate decision-making. 

As a result, ContractAssIst has reduced emails during negotiations by 95% and cut navigation and negotiation time by 70%, a task that currently takes approximately 20 to 25 minutes. Persistent has deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot to nearly 2,000 users and plans to extend it to a broader audience.

LTIMindtree unlocks data management with Microsoft 365 Copilot

LTIMindtree, a global technology consulting and digital solutions company with more than 84,000 employees in more than 30 countries, is leveraging AI in innovative ways to drive digital transformation and enhance business and IT operations. They have demonstrated how Microsoft 365 Copilot technology and AI agents are transforming their critical business functions, such as pre-sales, resource management, and cyber security. For example, custom built AI agents assist the resource management teams to quickly find the right employees with relevant skills and match them to specific projects; and help pre-sales and account managers create high-quality responses using historical data to incoming requests for proposals (RFPs) and requests for information (RFIs). They are also using Microsoft Security Copilot to create a unified command center for investigations, threat intelligence, and incident response, empowering them to build a next-gen Security Operations Center (SOC). As a result, LTIMindtree has seen a 30% increase in overall employee efficiency, with 20% less time spent on emails and day-to-day task allocation.

Streamlining health claims with ICICI Lombard’s AI-powered solution

ICICI Lombard, a leading private insurer in India, has developed an innovative solution to streamline health claims processing. Traditionally, claim adjudicators manually filed claims, a time-consuming process involving the review of 20 pages of documents. Leveraging Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Azure AI Document Intelligence, and Azure AI Vision OCR service, ICICI Lombard’s new solution extracts relevant information from these documents, providing adjudicators with a consolidated view of the diagnosis and treatment. This innovation has reduced the time required to process claims by more than 50%.

eSanjeevani transforms healthcare access with innovative AI solutions

eSanjeevani, India’s National Telemedicine Service by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has integrated AI-enabled tools to enhance care quality and streamline teleconsultations, promoting equitable access to healthcare across the country. Powered by Azure, it offers secure, scalable, and accessible doctor-to-doctor and doctor-to-patient teleconsultations. eSanjeevani is advancing its AI journey with Microsoft AI, enhancing productivity, data analysis, and user experience. These innovations are helping eSanjeevani set new benchmarks in telemedicine and digital healthcare services. It is also developing a proof of concept with Microsoft Copilot to transcribe doctor-patient conversations in real time for advanced speech analytics, aiding data-driven decisions. Serving more than 330 million patients, 98% from rural areas, eSanjeevani is today the world’s largest telemedicine initiative in primary healthcare.

AI for everyone in India

India’s AI journey is not just about innovation, it’s about transformation across industries and lives. From travel to healthcare, banking to engineering, the case studies showcased here demonstrate the immense potential of AI when paired with the right tools, partnerships, and vision. Microsoft’s investments and technologies have enabled organizations in India to tackle challenges, streamline processes, and unlock new levels of efficiency and growth. As India continues to lead in the global AI revolution, these examples serve as a testament to how AI can create meaningful impact, fostering a future where innovation drives progress for everyone.

Find the resources to support your AI journey

• Explore Microsoft’s AI solutions 
• Advance your AI transformation with AI business resources

The post Unleashing the power of AI in India appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

In the current AI landscape, inspiration and information are more important than ever for security professionals to stay ahead of threat actors. So if you’re looking to boost your skills and stay ahead of the threat landscape, join Microsoft Security at the top cybersecurity events in 2025.

Whether you join us at an industry staple like RSAC or one of our own events like Microsoft Secure, you can benefit in several key ways:

• Get insights and strategies needed to overcome obstacles and drive your security initiatives forward with confidence.
• See live demos of the latest products, product features, skills, and tools you can use in your work. Be among the first to hear about Microsoft Security innovations, such as Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative and XSPA (cross-site port attack) updates attendees of Microsoft Ignite 2024 heard.
• Learn from Microsoft Security experts on global threat intelligence.
• Network with other like-minded security pros, learn best practices from your peers, and meet one-on-one with our experts.

Whatever your role, there’s an event for you and a path to successfully safeguarding your organization.

Microsoft at RSAC

From our signature Pre-Day to hands-on demos and one-on-one meetings, discover how Microsoft Security can give you the advantage you need in the era of AI.

Register now 

Conferences to inspire and engage everyone

Security professionals of all levels can benefit from attending one of the biggest cybersecurity events, including RSAC, Black Hat, plus two premier Microsoft events—Microsoft Secure (virtual) and Microsoft Ignite (in-person and virtual). If you love being the first to hear about Microsoft product innovations, don’t miss these Microsoft events with insights every security professional can put to good use.

Microsoft Secure

Date: April 9, 2025
Location: Online only

Microsoft Secure is Microsoft’s cybersecurity conference. This year’s one-hour digital showcase will spotlight AI-first, end-to-end security innovations with clear use cases and customer stories of how they use our tools daily. Attendees will deep-dive into cybersecurity products and strategies along with thousands of other cybersecurity professionals.

RSAC

Dates: April 27-May 1, 2025
Location: San Francisco, CA

RSAC 2025 is a can’t-miss security conference, bringing together more than 40,000 security professionals to discuss the latest cybersecurity challenges and innovation with the best of the best. With the theme of “Many Voices. One Community,” RSAC will feature keynotes, track sessions, interactive sessions, networking opportunities, and an expo designed to foster advanced security strategies.

Throughout RSAC, Microsoft Security will showcase end-to-end security innovations and share world class threat and regulatory intelligence to give you the advantage you need in the era of AI. From our signature Pre-Day to hands-on demos and one-on-one meetings, discover how Microsoft Security can give you the advantage you need in the era of AI.​ Check out the full Microsoft at RSAC experience.

Learn more about the Microsoft Events at RSA Conference 2025

Black Hat

Dates: August 2-7, 2025
Location: Las Vegas, NV

The Black Hat Conference is a premier learning event in the cybersecurity industry, known for its in-depth technical sessions and cutting-edge research presentations on topics like critical infrastructure and information security research news.

Microsoft is a key sponsor of the conference each year, where we showcase our latest discoveries and AI research on real-world problems and solutions. Last year, our AI Red Teaming in Practice training sessions and our AI Summit roundtables were a hit. Black Hat is also known for its security community celebrations, including the Cybersecurity Woman of the Year Awards and the Researcher celebrations, which we take part in every year.

Learn more about the Black Hat Conference 2025

Microsoft Ignite

Dates: November 17-21, 2025
Location: San Francisco, CA, and online

Microsoft Ignite is Microsoft’s biggest annual conference for developers, IT professionals, business leaders, security professionals, and partners. Thousands of security professionals like you attend every year to hear the biggest security product announcements from Microsoft Security and gain training and skilling to prepare for future advancements in AI. Security professionals of all levels can join interactive labs, workshops, keynotes, technical breakout sessions, demos, and more, led by Microsoft Security leaders and experts.

Over the past few years, we’ve really boosted Microsoft Security experiences at Microsoft Ignite. Last year, we hosted the Microsoft Ignite Security Forum for security leaders and two workshops on AI red teaming and Microsoft 365 Copilot deployment. Plus, we hosted more than 30 sessions demoing new features to help you secure your environment, use your favorite Microsoft tools safely and securely, and make sure your organizational processes prioritize security first.

If you attend Microsoft Ignite in person this year, you won’t want to miss our Security Leaders Dinner or the security community party. If you’re not able to attend in person, you can register for our virtual event.​ Sign up to learn more.

Learn more about Microsoft Ignite 2025

Events for security leaders and decision-makers

Microsoft AI Tour

Dates: Through May 30, 2025
Location: Multiple worldwide

The Microsoft AI Tour is a free, one-day event for executives that explores the ways AI can drive growth and create lasting value in multiple cities around the globe. Whether you’re a functional decision-maker who evaluates investments, an IT team member charged with security, or a CISO revamping your security strategy, there will be valuable security content tailored to your needs.

Microsoft Security’s top business leaders attend AI tour locations worldwide to share with you how Microsoft Security Copilot lets you protect at the speed and scale of AI. They are also available to meet with you.

Reserve your spot at an event near you

Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit

Dates: June 9-11, 2025
Location: National Harbor, MD

The Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit (Gartner SRM) explores trends in cybersecurity risk management, including the integration of generative AI, being an effective CISO, the importance of balancing response and recovery efforts with prevention, combating misinformation, and closing the cybersecurity skills gap to build a resilient workforce.

Microsoft Security executives host sessions at Gartner SRM to help you ensure the security of AI systems and adopt AI to drive innovation and efficiency. Our most popular topics center around securing and governing AI.

Learn more about the Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit

Events for technical and security practitioners

Security teams look for conferences that provide specialized knowledge on the industry in which they work or on a narrow cybersecurity topic.

Legalweek

Dates: March 24-27, 2025
Location: New York, NY

Legalweek is a weeklong conference where approximately 6,000 members of the legal community will gather to network with their peers, explore emerging trends, spotlight the latest tech, and offer a roadmap through industry shifts. Topics explored at past Legalweek conferences include the ethical and regulatory impact of using your data to train AI, litigation in the age of cybersecurity, and maximizing efficiency and legal automation.  

This year, we’ll be sponsoring three sessions on AI and one on collaboration in complex litigation. As in years past, Microsoft is hosting an Executive Breakfast at Legalweek from 7:30 AM ET-8:45 AM ET on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. RSVP today and stop by Booth #3103 in New York Hilton Midtown Americas Hall 2 to learn more about the latest Microsoft Purview innovations. If you’d like to meet with our team while at Legalweek, sign up for a one-on-one meeting.

Learn more about Legalweek 2025

Identiverse

Dates: June 3-6, 2025
Location: Las Vegas, NV

Limiting access to AI, apps, and resources to those with the proper permissions is a crucial part of security. The Identiverse conference provides education, collaboration, and insight into the future of identity security. More than 2,500 attendees will share insights, develop new ideas, and advance the state of modern digital identity and security.

The event features sessions on best practices, industry trends, and latest technologies; an exhibition hall to showcase the latest identity solution innovations; and networking opportunities. Microsoft will host a booth where attendees can connect with Microsoft Security experts and leaders.

Learn more about Identiverse 2025

Events for developers

The cybersecurity talent shortage is requiring many to step up even if cybersecurity isn’t in their official job description. If you are an IT professional being tasked with cybersecurity or someone with an eagerness to learn cybersecurity tactics, join our Microsoft events aimed at helping you uplevel your cybersecurity skills.

Microsoft Build

Dates: May 19-22, 2025
Location: Seattle, WA

Security is a team sport and developers are increasingly the first string team members who build security into the development of applications. Microsoft Build Conference 2025 is Microsoft’s developer-focused event. It will showcase exciting updates and innovations from Microsoft Security for developers to create AI-enabled security solutions for their organizations.

The event includes connection opportunities, demos, and security-focused sessions. Past topics have included using AI to accelerate development processes, tools for enhancing the developer experience, and strategies for building in the cloud. Stay up to date on Microsoft Build news and find out when registration is open.

Learn more about the Microsoft Build Conference 2025

Find your inspiration at an event this year

Cybersecurity events foster a culture of continuous learning and adaptation, empowering you to stay ahead of emerging cyberthreats and maintain a resilient security posture. The ideas will flow freely at these events. Whether you attend one of the biggest conferences of the year or a smaller event (or both), you’ll be in good company. Microsoft Security will be there be, too, excited to share and eager to learn.

Hope to see you at a future event!

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and X (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

The post Hear from Microsoft Security experts at these top cybersecurity events in 2025 appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

BlackRock’s move to the cloud

BlackRock’s tech platform, Aladdin, is a pivotal tool for investors. For years BlackRock had been pouring resources into maintaining its data center operations to support it. 

Five years ago, we began working on a strategy to move them into the cloud on Microsoft Azure. Today, all BlackRock’s technology platform clients and services are hosted in the Azure cloud, and as Lance shared with me onstage, it has been a profound unlock for the firm’s business processes that has allowed them to work more efficiently and get to market quicker. New rollouts now take weeks instead of quarters to complete. Their operations are secured with data encrypted at rest and in transit. 

With so much of the firm’s success driven by markets, the ability to manage through stress tests like index rebalances is also critical. With Azure, BlackRock is seeing significant improvements in performance during its most demanding moments. 

The pillars of AI Transformation

BlackRock has been developing AI solutions for years with predictive analysis, pattern recognition, and machine learning—even starting an AI Lab in 2018—but with the emergence of generative AI there were hundreds of considerations for how they could transform their business. Like most organizations and companies, the big question was where to begin.

Both internally at Microsoft and with our customers and partners, we have been using four pillars as the framework for AI Transformation to help prioritize projects that will deliver business outcomes.

1. Enriching employee experiences: Will you get more productivity out of your workforce? Will you attract better talent because you have the right assets that help people reach their potential faster? Will your employees feel more satisfied because they are eliminating tedious tasks from their day-to-day work?
2. Reinventing customer engagement: Will you generate more top-line revenue? Will your customer experiences be better? Will people come back for more as a result of the AI capability you have released?
3. Reshaping business processes: Will you improve your operations with AI-first thinking? How can AI technology make a process go faster? Or even better, how can a process be re-designed?
4. Bending the curve on innovation: Will you create products faster, get them to market quicker, respond and refine based on customer feedback, and design your offerings in a more differentiated way because of the AI capability that you are implementing?

My challenge has been that if the scenario does not fall neatly into one of these pillars with strong ROI justification—and projects can certainly span multiple pillars—then you should probably reconsider. This is the frame that we used together with BlackRock.

AI Transformation at BlackRock

According to Lance, BlackRock’s employee experience is being transformed in two key areas: one in productivity and the other in supporting investment signal analysis—what is known in the investing world as “alpha.” 

Identifying the alpha investment signal is all about driving more data into the investment life cycle with richer models that can find the signal in the data. For relationship managers, this translates to finding the right product for a given client’s investment strategy at the right market moment. Driving that signal is supported by Azure Machine Learning and the firm’s foundation models. 

On productivity, BlackRock believes that every job family can be supported through AI, helping employees with first drafts of an email, a pitch or code. In that spirit, the company has implemented Microsoft 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot. BlackRock is now reshaping business processes with bespoke workflows for different functions within the business.

BlackRock is bending the curve on innovation not just using AI internally with Copilot Studio to build agents and copilots while measuring their Azure consumption, but also using tools like GitHub Copilot to help infuse AI into product capabilities. My favorite example of this is the work they are doing to reinvent customer engagement.

The company has traditionally delivered its investment platforms through a set of user and application programming interfaces. But with the launches of the Aladdin and eFront copilots, they are now delivering a set of natural language interfaces—meaning customers can now have a conversation within an Aladdin environment with responsible AI safeguards built in.

Imagine asking your investment software questions like: “What is my exposure to companies building AI processors?” Before, this may have required a lot of searching and ultimately a phone call to the advisor. The ability to ask the Aladdin platform specific operational questions makes inquiries to support investment decisions much more efficient and satisfying. BlackRock technology clients are already using this capability today. 

Co-innovation with our customers and partners

I am grateful for Microsoft’s partnership with BlackRock, and Lance and I believe that both Azure and Aladdin are stronger for the collaboration. 

BlackRock has pushed us to make Azure better for all our customers around the world and that helped us successfully take the Aladdin offerings to market. Microsoft is fueling BlackRock’s internal transformation with solutions like Dynamics 365, customer relationship management business applications, and copilots to improve the work experience for their employees and customers.

Microsoft is co-innovating with thousands of the world’s most forward-thinking organizations, helping them realize the value and ROI AI is delivering today.

As companies embrace their own AI Transformation, we are here to help. Recently we’ve launched new resources to help business leaders explore some of the most common and impactful AI use cases, and to help organizations assess their AI readiness.

The post How BlackRock is finding new alpha as AI Transformation becomes a critical business driver appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

Germany stands at the forefront of a new era in AI, where strategic investments, public-private partnerships, and a focus on sustainable innovation converge to shape the future of industry and society. With significant governmental investment and growing adoption across key sectors, AI is poised to become a cornerstone of Germany’s economic transformation, ensuring global competitiveness and addressing critical labor shortages. 

The country’s rapidly advancing AI capabilities have been supported by significant investments and partnerships, with Microsoft playing a pivotal role. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced a €3.3 billion investment in Germany to expand its AI and cloud infrastructure over the next two years.¹ This initiative aims to double the AI infrastructure in the country and includes efforts to establish new datacenters in regions like North Rhine-Westphalia and Frankfurt, supporting key industries such as pharmaceuticals and energy through low-latency services. Microsoft is also focusing on sustainable operations, planning to power these facilities with renewable energy sources by 2025. 

In alignment with Germany’s broader national AI strategy, Microsoft has emphasized the importance of equipping workers with AI expertise, aiming to train up to 1.2 million people in new digital and AI capabilities by 2025.² This effort addresses labor gaps in sectors such as healthcare and manufacturing, which are adopting AI to increase efficiency and reduce operational costs. 

The recent Microsoft AI Tour event in Berlin, Germany, featured several innovative Germany organizations leveraging AI to advance to the cutting edge of their industries. Spanning from higher education to travel and manufacturing, these organizations present inspiring case studies and represent the tip of the iceberg in terms of what is possible at the intersection of German ingenuity and Microsoft AI technology.  

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IU International University of Applied Sciences (IU) prepares students for the future of work with AI-powered education  

IU International University of Applied Sciences (IU), Germany’s largest and fastest-growing university with more than 130,000 students, is using AI to advance its mission of democratizing higher education globally through a hybrid model of on-campus and online studies. By using the power of Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, the university developed Syntea, an AI avatar integrated into Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot, making learning more personalized, autonomous, and flexible.   

Syntea’s impact has been profound, driving a 27% reduction in the time students need to complete online courses. In addition, IU is testing a new model within Syntea’s exam trainer function to improve grading while upholding its same high-quality standards and ensuring the solutions to be dependable. These innovations enhance the quality of education while making it more accessible and equitable. 

To further equip students for an AI-powered future, IU partnered with Microsoft to create the IU Copilot School featuring Microsoft. With the IU Copilot School, every student gains access to Microsoft 365 Copilot and in the future seamlessly to Syntea, fostering familiarity with AI tools that will shape tomorrow’s workforce. This initiative ensures AI is embedded across all study programs, preparing graduates to excel as knowledge workers in the evolving job market.   

Looking ahead, IU’s team of developers is exploring ways to extend the way of exam grading by leveraging the next generation of Syntea with advanced AI agents. IU’s Syntea Newskilling project leverages the power of AI-driven mentorship to redefine workplace learning and development by seamlessly integrating personalized upskilling and onboarding journeys directly within Microsoft Teams, empowering employees to achieve both individual and organizational success.

By seamlessly integrating AI into education and workforce preparation, International University of Applied Sciences (IU) is setting a bold precedent for how technology can redefine learning and unlock new opportunities for students and professionals alike. 

thyssenkrupp Automation Engineering alleviates labor shortage with Siemens Industrial Copilot 

Siemens and Microsoft have elevated the Siemens Industrial Copilot, now leveraging Azure OpenAI Service to meet rigorous manufacturing and automation demands at scale. The Industrial Copilot combines Siemens’ specialized industry expertise with advanced generative AI to address complex requirements, bringing new levels of efficiency and precision to industrial processes. 

thyssenkrupp Automation Engineering, a co-creation partner and one of more than 100 companies using the Siemens Industrial Copilot, plans to expand its use globally. The Industrial Copilot plays a critical role in thyssenkrupp’s response to the skilled labor shortage affecting Europe and the United States, enabling smoother operations even with less-experienced staff. 

A standout application is in thyssenkrupp’s battery quality systems, where the Industrial Copilot supports automated processes for battery assembly lines—key to the sustainable energy transition. For electric vehicle batteries, for example, the Industrial Copilot integrates sensors, cameras, and measurement systems to monitor quality at each production stage, detecting any issues that could affect reliability. By automating data management, sensor configuration, and stringent reporting requirements, the Industrial Copilot ensures precision in quality control, freeing engineers to focus on higher-value tasks. Additionally, the Industrial Copilot’s real-time problem-solving and documentation capabilities reduce downtime, while making machinery easier for early-career and unskilled workers to operate effectively.

Recognizing that technology oftentimes outpaces the machinery market, thyssenkrupp Automation Engineering is now the first to plan to use the Industrial Copilot globally, not only addressing labor challenges and advanced automation demands company-wide, but enabling their machines to keep pace with change into the future. 

Read more

• How AI is helping Siemens and thyssenkrupp bridge skilling gaps in manufacturing
• Siemens and Microsoft scale industrial AI

Ottobock revolutionizes prosthetics with AI for greater quality of life 

In pursuit of their mission to empower people with disabilities to move freely and independently, Ottobock is transforming individualized prosthetics and orthotics with the power of AI. For over a century, the company has faced a persistent challenge within the prosthetics and orthotics industry: achieving a perfect fit of body interfaces such as sockets or braces.   

With the help of the Microsoft Azure platform, Ottobock now analyzes detailed images of body parts to create customized body interfaces. This approach not only improves the precision and comfort of their devices, making high-quality solutions accessible to a broader range of patients, but also accelerates production while reducing costs. The streamlined process has further enabled less experienced technicians to deliver consistent, standardized products—helping alleviate the industry-wide shortage of skilled orthopedic technicians.   

Building on these successes, Ottobock is actively exploring additional AI applications to enhance the patient experience. With the potential of self-learning prosthetics on the horizon, Ottobock continues to elevate the quality of life for users by combining cutting-edge technology with compassionate care.

Lufthansa elevates customer experience and streamlines operations with AI-powered solutions  

Lufthansa Group continuously explores new ways to enhance premium travel experience of its passengers. This includes exploring possibilities of using generative AI. For example, in the Lufthansa Group Digital Hangar, an animated 3D avatar was developed as part of a test, guiding passengers from initial travel inspiration to flight booking through an exchange with an Avatar in natural language. Additionally, with the help of Microsoft’s generative AI, other applications were implemented, such as expanding the chat assistant, processing compensation claims, and automating website content creation.

Otto Group scales AI innovation, transforming e-commerce and healthcare 

Otto Group and its subsidiaries are harnessing the power of AI to accelerate innovation across industries. Group company OTTO has rolled out GitHub Copilot and the entire GitHub Platform for all software developers. This has enabled the teams to work numerous AI use cases simultaneously, which are used in e-commerce, live shopping, and by various subsidiaries of the Otto Group. One standout success is at Medgate, Otto Group’s leading telehealth subsidiary, which leverages AI-powered Copilot technology to address Germany’s healthcare challenges.   

Medgate developed a medical Copilot that transforms physician workflows and elevates patient care. Leveraging a custom-trained Azure speech and Azure OpenAI model, the Copilot summarizes consultations, supports triage, and provides real-time translations. In a medical chat powered by Azure OpenAI Service, physicians can enter keywords to generate follow-up questions and treatment recommendations. With this solution, Medgate reduces physicians’ administrative workload, giving doctors more time to focus on patient care—a critical advantage amid Germany’s shortage of 50,000 doctors and rising healthcare costs, which account for 12.8% of the nation’s GDP.   

The impact is measurable: case documentation times are cut by 10 to 20%, and AI-generated prompts reduce message drafting time by up to 40%. More than 60% of these AI-generated responses are utilized by doctors, demonstrating high acceptance and trust.

Otto Group’s successful integration of AI extends beyond Medgate, with the GitHub Cloud Platform enabling secure, scalable AI deployments across the Otto Group’s diverse operations. As Otto Group continues to lead in AI innovation, it exemplifies how technology can enhance both business performance and essential public services, driving meaningful impact across industries.

AI for everyone in Germany

As Germany cements its position as a global leader in AI, the ingenuity of its organizations continues to shape industries through transformative AI applications. From advancing education with AI-powered tools at IU International University of Applied Sciences to modernizing manufacturing at thyssenkrupp and enhancing healthcare services through Otto Group’s Medgate platform, these enterprises exemplify how AI can drive progress while addressing societal challenges.  

Microsoft’s investment in AI infrastructure and skilling reflects a long-term commitment to strengthening Germany’s digital capabilities and a shared goal to empower businesses and workers while fostering innovation that aligns with environmental sustainability and data security standards. Together, they are driving a future where AI not only serves as a tool for competitive advantage but also as a force for good—ensuring that Germany’s AI ecosystem becomes a model of innovation, resilience, and responsible development.

Find the resources to support your AI journey 

• Explore Microsoft’s AI solutions.
• Catch up on core concepts with AI Office Hours.
• Read the guide: An Introduction to Generative AI and Safety.

¹ The Federal Government, Investing in the digital future: Microsoft invests billions in Germany as an AI hub, February 15, 2024.

² Deutsche Welle, Germany: Microsoft to invest €3.3 billion in AI capacities, February 15, 2024.

The post German ingenuity meets the power of AI to shape the future of industries appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

The technological paradigm shift driven by AI solutions is redefining what current and future success looks like for every industry and market across the world. For a region like Latin America, this opens new paths to not only propel its economies but to positively impact each community. Crucially, it also presents powerful tools to address pressing challenges like skills development and sustainability, while being able to promote inclusive growth. The pivotal role cloud and AI solutions can play on Latin America’s development is substantial.

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Companies and organizations across the region are already showing eagerness to leverage this technology and realize the potential it entails. Countries like Colombia are home to innovative AI projects. While Brazil, the largest economy in Latin America, has the potential to propel its gross domestic product (GDP) growth by 4.2% through 2030 by strongly adopting AI, according to a study commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by the consultancy FrontierView in 2020.¹ Furthermore, the Brazilian market already represents the sixth largest GitHub developer community contributing to generative AI projects globally, demonstrating its appetite for innovation.²

These two markets are setting regional cloud and AI adoption examples on the global stage. Recently, Microsoft’s AI Tour visited both countries to highlight some of the most inspiring and impactful projects and initiatives driven by local organizations, companies, and communities in collaboration with Microsoft.

Project Guacamaya tackles deforestation in Colombia with AI

According to the Andean Amazon Monitoring Project, the Amazon rainforest lost about 3 million hectares to deforestation from 2022 to 2023.³ To address this worrying threat to one of the most diverse and complex ecosystem on the planet, various institutions, including Universidad de Los Andes, Instituto Alexander von Humboldt, Instituto Sinchi, IDEAM, and Microsoft AI for Good Lab, collaborated to create Project Guacamaya, a publicly available AI-powered tool to detect deforestation and biodiversity shifts.

This unique collaboration has brought the public and private sectors, educational institutions, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) together to create a powerful solution using satellite imagery, camera traps, and bioacoustics to track forest coverage and deforestation patterns, allowing conservationists to better understand its impact and improve prevention and mitigation efforts.

Powering world class sustainable and secure cloud and AI infrastructure

Microsoft continues to evaluate and diligently work to address sustainability and resource needs associated with infrastructure growth. An agreement signed with the Amazon Reforestation Fund operated by Brazilian-based startup Mombak will provide a total of up to 1.5 million tons of carbon removal by 2032 from native biodiversity reforestation projects across the Amazon. This project provided the foundation for the World Bank to issue a USD225 million Amazon Reforestation-Linked Outcome Bond.

Another agreement was signed with Brazilian company re.green that aims to deliver approximately 3 million tons of carbon removal credits over a 15-year period, supporting the restoration of over 16,000 hectares of forest across Brazil, including the states of Maranhão and Bahia. Such programs join initiatives such as Microsoft’s 15-year renewable energy contract signed with AES Brasil for a wind generation project through the Cajuína Wind Complex, located in Rio Grande do Norte, and the agreement with BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group (TIG) to provide Microsoft with up to 8 million nature-based carbon removal credits through 2043 to be delivered from TIG’s USD1 billion reforestation and restoration strategy in Latin America, which includes the Cerrado biome in Brazil.¹

Colombia’s financial and insurance sectors lead the way in AI adoption

As one of the oldest banks in Colombia with a history that goes back to 1875, Bancolombia brings together tradition and fierce innovation by becoming the global leader in GitHub Copilot adoption. Empowering a technical team of 4,000 people, including 3,400 software and infrastructure engineers, the bank has achieved a 30% increase in code generation, boosting automated application changes to an average of 18,000 per year, with a rate of 42 productive daily deployments. This is the most recent development in Bancolombia’s continuous digital transformation journey to serve its 15 million customers in the region.

For its part, insurance company SURA is employing AI solutions for genomic sequencing processing and clinical and genetic data analysis as part of the work carried out by its Omics Sciences Center. The Center, which aims to transform the treatment of genetic diseases affecting millions of people in the region, led the National Association of Colombian Business Persons (ANDI) to recognize SURA as the most innovative insurer in the country.⁴ The AI-powered platform has had a significant impact on improving diagnostics, personalized treatment, and scientific research by generating more than 11,500 reports related to hereditary cancer panels and exomes.

ConectAI empowers Brazilians to reap the benefits of AI

In collaboration with 26 organizations in Brazil, including non-profits, educational institutions and governments, Microsoft launched ConectAI (formerly Conecta+), a program designed to provide AI skills training to 5 million people in the country. This ambitious initiative includes collaborations with the National Service for Industrial Training in São Paulo (SENAI), the Ministry of Labor and Employment through the “School of Workers 4.0” program, the non-profit Nova Escola providing training for educators, UNICEF to bring AI skills to people between 18 and 25 years old, and the National School for Public Administration (ENAP) to foster technological innovation in the public sector, among others.

The program represents the next stage in Microsoft’s continued push to enable greater innovation and increased competitiveness for the Brazilian market. Since 2021, Microsoft has fostered digital literacy in the country by engaging with 12.7 million people through the Mais Brasil program, a commitment exemplified by the recently announced investment of BRL14.7 billion in cloud and AI infrastructure over three years, the largest single investment in the company’s 35 year history in the country. 

The stage is set for Latin America’s new phase of development through AI

The amount of talent, creativity, and ambition in Latin America has made the region a hub for innovation in recent years, one now further empowered by recent developments in AI. The projects seen during Microsoft’s AI Tour editions in Colombia and Brazil are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the potential and competitiveness AI and cloud technologies are unlocking across crucial industries and sectors in each country. I am convinced the coming years will bring exciting new paths for success as these tools continue to deliver unprecedented solutions to both business and social challenges when combined with the exceptional ingenuity of Latin American markets.

Find the resources to support your AI journey

• Explore Microsoft’s AI solutions
• Download the AI readiness worksheet

• Continue your AI learning journey
• Read An Introduction to Generative AI and Safety

¹Microsoft announces 14.7 billion Reais investment over three years in Cloud and AI infrastructure and provide AI training at scale to upskill 5 million people in Brazil, Microsoft News Center Brasil.

²Octoverse: The state of open source and rise of AI in 2023, The GitHub Blog.

³Proyecto Guacamaya usa modelos IA contra la deforestación, Microsoft Source.

⁴Seguros SURA, a subsidiary of Suramericana, is the most innovative insurer in Colombia according to the most recent ANDI ranking.

The post Colombia and Brazil embrace the potential of cloud and AI solutions to drive growth and tackle social challenges appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

As various industries and different markets continue to adopt AI, its impact at the local level is also increasingly evident. Recently, the Microsoft AI Tour event in Mexico City highlighted the variety of ways in which AI is enabling Mexico to become a premier innovation hub.

Last year, Microsoft unveiled our vision for AI transformation, and we are already witnessing how AI is revolutionizing businesses and delivering tangible outcomes. As we continue to embrace AI transformation, our mission to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more is clear and attainable.

Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella announced that Microsoft Corporation is reaffirming its commitment to Mexico with a new investment of $1.3 billion over the next three years. This investment aims to enhance AI infrastructure and promote digital and AI skills through initiatives like the Artificial Intelligence National Skills program, which seeks to democratize access to AI skills and reach 5 million people. The investment will also focus on improving connectivity and encouraging AI adoption by small- and medium-sized businesses to accelerate their digital transformation and business operations within the country.

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Mexico is poised to become a regional leader in leveraging AI solutions as key drivers of business innovation across sectors. The potential seen in the country is further showcased by the recent availability of a new datacenter region built in Querétaro. Through the joint work of Microsoft, its partners, and cloud-using customers, it’s expected to create more than 300,000 jobs over the next four years.¹Microsoft, celebrating its 38-year presence in Mexico, recognizes AI’s role as a catalyst for social and economic growth. The company is expanding its AI infrastructure in Mexico, involving a significant investment to increase local computing capacity and encourage innovation.

Cemex leverages AI to enhance operations, productivity, and customer experiences

As a global leader in building materials, Cemex continues to focus on developing innovative and sustainable construction solutions. Partnering with Microsoft, Cemex initiated a journey to leverage AI capabilities that enhance productivity and reinvent customer experiences.

Cemex joined the Microsoft 365 Copilot Early Access Program, which integrated generative AI into their operations, allowing employees from different areas and roles to increase their productivity and efficiency. Additionally, Cemex’s developers have further immersed themselves into AI by utilizing GitHub Copilot to extend the possibilities the technology brings to different business areas through specific applications. This vision is reflected in Cemex Go, the company’s End- to End commercial platform which consolidates commercial processes and order tracking to enable more agile and intelligent order and purchase management. Customers can navigate the company’s solutions catalog in a more intuitive manner through an optimized user experience. 

Cemex also introduced Technical Xpert, a generative AI-powered tool built internally using Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, as one of a series of knowledge assistants to revolutionize its sales process. Technical Xpert provides sales agents with instant access to comprehensive product and customer solution information, significantly reducing search time by 80%.  

Grupo Bimbo embraces AI with “Copilot for All” strategy

Recognizing the potential of AI to enhance productivity and operational efficiency, Grupo Bimbo—the world’s largest baking company (in Spanish)—has partnered with Microsoft to integrate advanced AI solutions into its operations.

Grupo Bimbo’s initial AI strategy, branded “Copilot for All,” empowers 3,500 corporate associates across various departments, including human resources (HR), sales, and procurement, to leverage AI. By utilizing Microsoft 365 Copilot, they improved efficiency in tasks such as content creation and process management. Leveraging Microsoft Copilot Studio, they created two unique Copilots to address specific business areas. The Internal Control & Risk Management Copilot consolidates nearly 200 internal policies. This tool promotes compliance with Grupo Bimbo’s policies which apply to all Bimbo collaborators across the 34 countries where the company operates.

They also developed the Procurement Copilot, which extracts data from various sources to provide answers without users having to perform the analysis themselves. This further consolidates operations by automating data extraction and policy management.

Simultaneously, Grupo Bimbo is deploying Microsoft’s industrial AI technologies to modernize its manufacturing processes. This includes implementing AI assistants at key facilities in the US and Mexico to optimize production and reduce downtime. The collaboration aims to enhance asset reliability and worker safety while establishing a unified, data-driven framework across factories.

The integration of Microsoft’s cutting-edge AI services is expected to drive significant cost savings, improve operational efficiency, and empower global innovation.

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Capgemini accelerates Mexico’s AI transformation

Capgemini Mexico is part of the global Capgemini Group, a worldwide leader in consulting and digital transformation that employs more than 340,000 professionals. In Mexico, the company has responded to rising IT service demands by integrating advanced technologies like cloud computing, data analytics, AI, and digital engineering.

At Capgemini Mexico, developers have embraced and integrated GitHub Copilot throughout the software development lifecycle to significantly accelerate the development process—from planning and coding, to testing and development. By taking this approach, they ensure high-quality, customizable software solutions. The use of generative AI addresses some of the major challenges in software engineering by speeding up development phases, enhancing product quality, and reducing time to market.

Capgemini Mexico has been impressed with GitHub Copilot’s ability to support scalable AI implementations, which has led to improved customer experiences and increased efficiency. Their north star is to have all software engineers leverage Generative AI, which offers new opportunities for Capgemini’s partner ecosystem, and drives growth and innovation in the software engineering field. You can read more on their use of generative AI for software engineering.

APEC uses AI to advance Retinopathy of Prematurity diagnostics

Retinopathy of Prematurity (RoP) is a serious eye condition and the leading cause of blindness in newborns in Mexico. Microsoft Mexico, in collaboration with Business Data Evolution and the Asociación Para Evitar la Ceguera (Association to Prevent Blindness-APEC), a leading institution in ophthalmology in Mexico dedicated to the prevention and treatment of visual diseases, are tackling this medical condition through a groundbreaking AI-powered diagnostic tool.

Leveraging Microsoft Azure cloud and deep neural network algorithms based on machine learning, APEC developed an app that enables healthcare providers to capture retinal images or videos of a baby’s eye using a smartphone camera. Azure AI uses the collected images to train the algorithm to recognize common patterns among affected eyes and identify signs of RoP. The app has significantly increased the accuracy of identifying the condition to 90%—well beyond the human capability of 60%.

This mobile app also means greater access to advanced diagnostics in rural areas where ophthalmologists are scarce. It also provides a platform for training future specialists to help reduce blindness rates and enhance the overall efficiency and reach of medical care in Mexico. The goal is to offer a free service accessible globally, which can positively impact you. You can watch a video on the solution here: APEC in Mexico creates algorithms based on Microsoft Azure AI to prevent blindness in newborns.

Tecnológico de Monterrey’s empowers educators and students with AI-powered resources

Founded in 1943, Tecnológico de Monterrey is a leading private institution in Latin America with more than 60 campuses and a student body of 90,000.

The institution launched TECbot, a virtual assistant which provides all day support for its educational offerings. Recognizing the need for more advanced capabilities, they then created TECgpt, a marketplace for AI-powered tools that enables educators and students to access tailored resources, from library assistance to physics tutoring. By integrating the solution with Skills Studio, it can also generate educational content and problem-solving examples. The implementation was developed utilizing Microsoft’s Azure platform and generative AI technologies.

TECgpt continues to expand Tecnológico de Monterrey’s IT capabilities. They’ve enhanced operational efficiency to enrich the teaching-learning process, and improved feedback quality with an eye on the next generation of scholars. You can learn more about this case here: Discover TECgpt.

AI for everyone in Mexico

AI is enabling companies and individuals to transform their activities by reshaping processes and opening new paths towards development. From students to health professionals, and across diverse industries, it has been inspiring to see the creativity and ingenuity that Mexico’s organizations showcase in harnessing AI and cloud solutions to tackle real-world challenges and open new opportunities. These initiatives are only a few examples of Microsoft’s commitment to empower Mexican organizations through the latest technological solutions. I am eager to see how they will continue to leverage the limitless potential of AI and enable their own success.

Find the resources to support your AI journey

• Explore Microsoft’s AI solutions

• Download the AI readiness worksheet

• Continue your AI learning journey
• Read An Introduction to Generative AI and Safety

¹Microsoft launches its first hyper-scale cloud datacenter region in Mexico – News Center Latinoamérica.

The post How Mexico is pioneering AI innovation for a global future appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

Last year’s AI Tour gave senior business leaders and technical practitioners a platform to come together and explore the transformative potential of AI, and we couldn’t be happier with the response it received. That’s why we’re hitting the road again, and this time we’ve tripled the cities on the itinerary to ensure we can reach more of our customers and partners around the world. We hope you’ll join us.

A global movement

The Microsoft AI Tour is more than an event; it’s a global movement that will begin September 24, 2024, and span over 60 cities around the world, from Mexico City to Johannesburg, Mumbai to Sydney, Seoul to Berlin, and many more. This free, one-day and in-person experience offers AI thought leadership, sessions to help build AI skills, hands-on workshops and connection opportunities designed to inspire attendees, while providing practical approaches for using the power of AI to improve productivity and deliver solutions that drive real impact for businesses. We’ll also showcase local customer and partner stories at each stop, which makes the AI Tour a great chance for attendees to deepen their connections with local peers.

Something for everyone

Whether you’re a senior business leader or a technical practitioner, you’ll find valuable insights and actionable solutions at these events. We’ve built the Microsoft AI Tour from the ground up to be a comprehensive AI experience at no cost to you.

For technical practitioners, the Microsoft AI Tour is a platform for learning, collaborating and staying ahead of AI trends. It offers immersive workshops on the latest AI technologies, hands-on experience with Microsoft and partner experts and a vibrant community ready to exchange ideas. We’ll also provide insight into the future of AI, helping attendees stay updated on the rapidly evolving tech landscape.

For senior business leaders, the AI Tour is a unique opportunity to understand how AI can drive growth and innovation for their organizations. Through expert-led presentations, attendees will gain insights into how to best leverage AI to solve complex problems and create lasting value. Plus, dive deep into how AI fits into the Microsoft roadmap, which will help those present align their AI strategies with the latest technologies and best practices.

Learn from Microsoft leadership

During the event, attendees will have the opportunity to engage with industry-leading experts, partners and members of Microsoft’s senior leadership team. Leaders such as Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, and Judson Althoff, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, will join us at select stops on the tour, where they’ll share how this new generation of AI is reshaping how people live and work.

We can’t wait for you to join us

AI innovation continues to grow, and how we conduct business and develop solutions will never be the same because of it. By joining us at the Microsoft AI Tour, you can position yourself at the forefront of that innovation and ensure you are prepared for whatever’s next on the horizon.

Ready to join this innovation revolution? Visit the Microsoft AI Tour website and request to attend the Tour when it comes to your city.

The post Unlocking the future of innovation: the Microsoft AI Tour appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

1. Amplify human ingenuity with a copilot for everyone: Offering built-in and extensible AI capabilities in Microsoft Copilot to help people be more productive, creative, and efficient.
2. Deliver transformational experiences with build-your-own intelligent apps: Making it easy for customers and partners to build their own copilot solutions using the same stack and AI services Microsoft used to build its own copilots.
3. Safeguard business and data with a trusted AI platform: Microsoft has demonstrated leadership and delivered powerful tooling to help build safety and responsibility into AI solutions from the start—this includes guidance and best practices around responsible AI as well as secure AI principles that empower organizations with an end-to-end cyber risk approach that reinforces human control.

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Part of enabling customers to adopt AI and deploy copilots includes empowering partners. Microsoft helps partners benefit from its unified data estate platform to create personalized, role-specific AI that can empower customers with meaningful and relevant experiences. Copilots can enhance development capabilities and allow partners to share the value of their domain experience with customers, reinforcing their commitment to innovation and excellence. Partners can extend and customize existing copilots from Microsoft or modify how copilots assist with core business functions, such as human resources, sales, or customer service interactions.

Building with partners

Partners play a crucial role in extending Microsoft’s offerings to customers with their domain expertise. When tailored to specific roles, copilots can personalize generative AI experiences, offering access to relevant business flows and data, when and where users need it.

The partners featured here have created copilots and AI platforms that support a wide range of industries and lines of business:

• TomTom has created its Digital Cockpit to turn cars into conversational companions.
• Modern Requirements has created an AI work item and requirements management assistant for healthcare, finance, automotive, aerospace, government, and defense industries.
• Dynatrace has developed Davis® AI which empowers countless use cases, supporting Microsoft Azure customers in areas like observability and security.
• Intellect Design has developed generative AI-powered copilot which allows a relationship manager to generate valuable insights from ISO 20022 payments repository data thereby helping corporations manage their funds better.
• Datamatics has created a partner onboarding copilot to help streamline and reduce the time spent on the onboarding process for vendors, partners, and more.
• MiHCM has developed an AI-powered human resources (HR) copilot called MiHCM SmartAssist.

TomTom

The TomTom Digital Cockpit is an open, modular in-vehicle infotainment platform. Their new AI-powered voice assistant enables users to engage in natural conversation with their cars and tackle complex driving requests. The voice assistant can handle follow-up questions and maintain contextual understanding, which means users can engage in multi-turn conversations and get relevant responses.

Key features include:

• AI-powered voice interaction: The digital cockpit enables natural voice communication with the vehicle, allowing drivers to control navigation, infotainment systems, and vehicle settings through voice commands.
• Integration with Microsoft Azure: TomTom utilizes Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Azure Cosmos DB, and Azure Kubernetes Service to provide a robust and scalable infrastructure, supporting advanced data handling and AI capabilities that enhance responsiveness and personalization.
• Customizable user interface: Automotive manufacturers can customize the digital cockpit to match their brand’s aesthetics and functionalities, making it adaptable to different vehicle models and consumer preferences.
• Cost efficiency: The system offers a cost-effective solution that reduces development expenses by up to 80%, providing a sustainable and economically viable option for car manufacturers.

Modern Requirements

Copilot4DevOps Plus is an AI-powered work item and requirements management assistant, which can be utilized by multiple industries such as healthcare and medical devices, finance, automotive, services and technology, aerospace, government, and defense. This tool, seamlessly integrated with Azure DevOps, optimizes requirement workflows with an easy-to-use interface and improves the requirements management process by enabling several key functions:

• Efficiency and productivity: It allows teams to focus on meaningful work by automating repetitive tasks and improving collaboration. In addition to powerful AI elicitation, analysis, conversion, and summarization, it gives teams cutting-edge features like pseudocode generation, dynamic prompts, and test script creation.
• Enhanced quality and security: Copilot4DevOps improves the quality of requirements by analyzing and refining them according to best practices in technical writing. It also incorporates Microsoft and OpenAI’s latest security features to help ensure data security.
• User control and customization: Users have the final say over the AI-generated content, with options to pick, edit, and refine outputs as per their specific needs.

Copilot4DevOps Plus is available as an add-on with Modern Requirements4DevOps or as a standalone in the Azure and Visual Studio Marketplaces.

Dynatrace

The Dynatrace platform delivers AI-enhanced cloud observability, security, and overall operational efficiency for global enterprises across all industries. With Davis® AI copilot, Dynatrace combined its predictive and causal capabilities and generative AI, built with Azure OpenAI, to bring Dynatrace Davis® hypermodal AI to market. This boosts the technical capabilities of IT teams by simplifying complex processes, enabling businesses to focus more on innovation and less on operational management.

Key features include:

• Davis® AI Engine: This core component leverages predictive, causal, and generative AI to provide deep insights and actionable recommendations. It automates tasks like anomaly detection, root cause analysis, and workflow automation, significantly reducing the manual effort required in managing complex IT environments.
• Predictive operations: The platform predicts potential issues before they impact operations using AI to forecast and automate responses, thereby ensuring reliability and proactive management of IT systems.
• Intelligent observability: Dynatrace uses AI to analyze real-time data across applications, services, and infrastructure. This helps in pinpointing issues quickly and accurately, which is crucial for maintaining optimal operational performance.
• Automation and integration: The platform’s automation capabilities extend to auto-discovery, auto-instrumentation, and auto-baselining, ensuring comprehensive coverage and real-time, dynamic responses to changes within the IT landscape.
• Azure native software as a service (SaaS): Azure Native Dynatrace Service seamlessly provides deep cloud observability, advanced AI for IT operations (AIOps), and continuous runtime application security capabilities native to all Azure customers empowered with Azure OpenAI generative capabilities.

Intellect Design

The iGTB Copilot helps banking professionals generate insights and provide cross-sell assistance in commercial and corporate banking. It leverages generative AI to streamline operations and client interactions, allowing relationship managers to spend less time on manual data analysis and more on strategic client engagement. Here are the key functionalities:

• Comprehensive payment analysis: It enables users to perform detailed analyses of historical payment data, helping to identify trends and patterns without the need for any programming skills. It also helps in identifying delayed payments.
• Visual data summarization: The iGTB Copilot can automatically transform complex data into easily understandable visual graphics and provide insights and suggested actions.
• The iGTB Copilot, composed on the Purple fabric of eMACH.ai, is powered by Azure OpenAI, GPT-4 Turbo model, and other Azure infrastructure services.

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Datamatics

Datamatics Copilot for Partner Onboarding is integrated with Microsoft Teams and leverages Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft Teams bot framework, and Azure OpenAI technologies. The application is designed to streamline the onboarding of vendors, business partners, freight forwarders, and employees across different geographies, making what is traditionally a complex and tedious process much more efficient.

Key functionalities include:

• Natural language querying: Users can query the status of onboarding processes and receive updates using conversational language.
• Automation and integration: The Copilot automates the creation of partner records and integrates seamlessly with other business systems for efficient data management.
• Real-time updates and communication: Enables prompt communication with partners about their onboarding status, including rejections, directly from Teams.
• Document management: Maintains and enforces compliance by specifying required documents for each country, ensuring partners submit the correct documents.

MiHCM

MiHCM SmartAssist is an AI-powered HR copilot designed to streamline HR processes. This tool is part of the MiHCM platform and offers a range of functionalities and customizations that simplify various HR tasks.

Key features include:

• Document generation: SmartAssist, built on top of Azure with services, including Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Search, Azure App Service, and Azure SQL Database, and leveraging Microsoft’s Copilot framework, can quickly generate employee letters with just a few keystrokes. It ensures that these documents are personalized by dynamically incorporating employee data.
• Job description creation: It automatically generates job descriptions that reflect the company’s unique voice and tone, including key performance indicators (KPIs), qualifications, and experience requirements.
• Customization capabilities: Users can easily adjust the content generated by SmartAssist, ensuring the output meets their specific needs.
• Data analysis and reporting: SmartAssist leverages employee data to analyze and calculate statistics, generate reports, and provide information at high speeds, enabling business leaders to make informed decisions quickly. This tool can answer high-level questions, going beyond mere facts and figures to provide valuable insight quickly. Information that would take days to gather can now be analyzed and provided in seconds.

Next steps to adopt AI and deploy copilots

• Check out our digital session at Microsoft Build 2024, that discusses enabling independent software vendors (ISVs) to transform industries in the age of copilots.
• Assess the drivers of AI success so you can realize meaningful business impact with AI.
• Learn how to power your AI transformation with Microsoft.
• Learn more about creating generative AI experiences with Microsoft Cloud across many Microsoft solutions.
• Envision boosted creativity and work productivity with Copilot for Microsoft 365 and learn how to extend it.
• Start using GitHub Copilot and Microsoft Copilot for Sales, now generally available.
• Learn how to build safety and responsibility into your AI journey from the start.
• Learn more about the featured ISVs: TomTom, Modern Requirements, Dynatrace, Intellect Design, Datamatics, and MiHCM.

The post Building AI solutions with partners: Empowering transformation with copilots appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.