With the help of Microsoft partner SP Peru, María Almenara took the first step towards its digital transformation process. The bakery migrated to Azure, Microsoft’s cloud, leaving acquisition costs or digital infrastructure maintenance behind. “Thanks to the database, we can analyze customer buying frequency and average purchase amounts, optimizing our processes and reducing pressure on the shop and the manager. These steps directly affect the customer experience,” states Carlos Armando de la Flor, the bakery’s General Manager.

Integrating cloud functionality

When María Almenara decided to become a data-driven business, one goal was to reach a 90% fill rate. This indicator shows the ability to serve customers without running out of stock. Today, the bakery has reached a 99% fill rate, assuring an optimal experience for its customers.

Based on the work done with SP Peru, a system was also created with Azure Machine Learning. Its integration with the Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) and the development of a specific mathematical technique allows for daily and weekly predictions. This is how the bakery obtained sales estimates for each store and product, allowing for planning and adjustments to cover demand for each of the 8 locations, as well as the ability to ship precise orders.

Furthermore, with a goal of complete business transparency and real-time decision making, the bakery used different Human Resources survey systems like SAP, among others. With the help of Microsoft’s Power BI, management created a control panel to view 18 indicators in 3 areas: finances, expenses and budgets; human resources; and customer satisfaction.

The mathematical technique used for these predictions undoubtedly played an important role in this process. This technique was later replicated and tested by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where local partner SP’s technique performed better than that of the team from the prestigious academic institution.

Serving the person, not just the consumer

Thanks to integrating these changes and its technological foresight, the bakery was able to weather a year as challenging as 2020—and managed to reach a milestone for the industry. This also reflects a change in María Almenara’s ethos, which is made of three fundamental pillars: a) a scalable culture and business model with the single goal of making hearts happy; b) data as an essential asset for leading in the digital economy and c) focus on the person, that is, on partners and customers.

With each step of the digital transformation process, María Almenara realized that its partners had to grow with the company. This is reflected in its turnover rate, which is less than 1%. The industry’s turnover rate is usually 25%. Without a doubt, incorporating technology has created business growth and satisfaction for its 223 partners.

Carlos Armando de la Flor concludes: “Here at María Almenara, we see technology as a helpful tool, not just something to solve things. Thanks to the omnichannel retailing platform our business uses, we’ve been able to establish a way to work that allows pregnant women or women with young kids to serve customers from home, prioritizing their health and comfort, and reducing turnover rates.”

COMPANY INFORMATION

• Customer: María Almenara
• Partner: SP Peru
• Products and Services: Microsoft Azure
• Industry: Other
• Organization Size: Medium (50 – 999 employees)
• Country: Peru
• To contact this Partner, click here
• Click here to learn more about this company
• Tags: Customer Stories, María Almenara, Microsoft Azure, Perú

The post María Almenara: The First Data-Driven Peruvian Bakery appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

Today’s business environment demands more with less. Organizations must deliver better personalization, higher volume, and increasingly complex insights while operating with greater efficiency. The gap between stakeholder expectations and what teams can realistically deliver continues to widen. 

Microsoft’s recent insights on Frontier Transformation address these challenges by embedding AI into the core of operations. Frontier Firms are organizations that treat AI as a foundational capability and are already transforming how they work. 

Frontier Firms don’t simply automate; they adapt. By adding adaptive intelligence to existing systems, they unlock three advantages: 

• Awareness: Systems perceive conditions in real time. 
• Reasoning: They prioritize tasks based on business needs. 
• Interaction: They communicate in natural, intuitive ways. 

Early adopters see small improvements compound quickly. These include faster service, more accurate recommendations, fewer equipment surprises, and clearer insights into peak times and bottlenecks. As agentic AI matures, companies can offer guidance and assistance that feels intuitive. Employees gain more time for high-value work, and leaders gain deeper visibility into operations. 

Frontier Transformation is more than a technology upgrade. It represents a shift in operating model. Organizations that treat AI as a foundation will lead the next wave of business innovation. 

Agentic AI is reshaping customer experience 

This shift is already visible in retail, where agentic robots are transforming customer experience and improving operational performance. Customers expect fast, personalized service, yet retailers often face staffing constraints, training gaps, and unpredictable demand. 

Industry studies show: 

• 75% of consumers are more likely to purchase when recommendations feel relevant. 
• Nearly 40% of in-store complaints relate to wait times. 
• Inventory inaccuracies account for 4–8% of lost sales. 

These challenges reflect a broader pattern across frontline-heavy industries. Customer expectations continue to rise, and employee workloads grow more complex. 

Microsoft’s Work Trend Index reinforces this dynamic. Frontline employees say AI tools that reduce repetitive tasks, surface real-time information, and streamline customer interactions have the biggest impact on satisfaction and performance. As organizations integrate adaptive intelligence into daily workflows, these benefits build on each other and help accelerate Frontier Transformation. 

Recent industry research shows that retail and consumer packaged goods organizations are generating significant business value from generative and agentic AI, with early deployments consistently delivering multi-times ROI and accelerating impact across frontline operations.

Agentic AI creates new possibilities for stores. Instead of relying on rigid automation, it blends environmental awareness, adaptive reasoning, and conversational interaction to help teams respond in real time. 

ADAM: From beverage service to customer care 

Richtech Robotics’ ADAM beverage robot illustrates how quickly agentic systems can enhance the customer experience. Richtech, based in Las Vegas, designs and commercializes autonomous robotic solutions for hospitality, retail, logistics, and manufacturing. Through a close, hands-on collaboration between Richtech’s engineering team and the Microsoft AI Co-Innovation Labs, the two companies jointly developed new adaptive intelligence for ADAM—transforming it into a conversational, context-aware assistant powered by Microsoft Azure AI. These enhancements enabled ADAM to move beyond routine beverage preparation and support richer customer interactions.

Today, ADAM: 

• Adjusts recommendations based on weather, time of day, and promotions. 
• Responds naturally to customer requests like “less sweet,” “extra ice,” or “what’s seasonal?” 
• Notifies staff about ingredient or equipment issues before problems occur. 
• Uses vision models to maintain speed and quality during busy periods. 

Retailers report smoother operations and better customer feedback. ADAM is context aware, conversational, and reliable—qualities customers consistently reward and areas where AI has historically struggled. 

While ADAM is a retail example, the pattern extends far beyond beverage automation. Across logistics, healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing, Frontier Firms are adding ambient intelligence and agentic workflows to physical operations and seeing meaningful gains as a result. 

Unlocking retail transformation at scale 

Once retailers see how intelligence enhances a single customer interaction, the next question naturally follows: where else can this help? Building on the advancements made with ADAM, Richtech Robotics is extending these capabilities through its Agentic Store initiative. By applying vision, voice, and agentic reasoning to common in-store tasks, the initiative helps retailers address friction points that slow down the shopping experience. 

Examples under development include: 

• Robots that guide customers to products.
• Systems that detect empty shelves or misplaced items.
• Voice-enabled, in-aisle assistance.
• Real-time adjustments based on foot traffic or local events.

This approach does not require heavy hardware investments. These workflows are software-driven and build on existing store infrastructure. It reflects how Frontier Firms drive transformation by spreading intelligence across the ecosystem rather than upgrading a single process at a time. 

Retailers gain clearer visibility into peak demand, customer behavior, product movement, and service quality without increasing manual tracking. As one store manager described it, “it feels like having a second set of eyes that never gets tired.” 

Convenient, high-quality service becomes a blueprint for store-wide intelligence. In the coming years, a clear difference will emerge between retailers that treat AI as a tool and those that treat it as a foundation. The latter will set the pace for the industry. 

Steps toward Frontier Transformation 

Agentic AI gives retailers a practical and achievable path forward. It elevates customer experience, reduces operational strain, and creates the foundation for smarter and more adaptive stores. Organizations that embrace Frontier Transformation position themselves as Frontier Firms, ready to scale faster, work more intelligently, and unlock new value through the combination of human judgment and AI-driven insight. 

The journey begins with small, strategic steps and a bold vision for what is possible. To explore the broader business impact of AI across frontline and customer-facing roles, review Microsoft’s Work Trend Index: The year the Frontier Firm is born.

Explore how organizations are transforming with AI, and learn how you can build your own generative AI proof of concept with the Microsoft AI Co-Innovation Labs.

The post Frontier Transformation in retail: How agentic AI robots are redefining store experiences appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

Leaders in the AI era are reimagining what AI can amplify: creativity, expertise, and the human ingenuity and leadership that drives progress. A recent IDC study commissioned by Microsoft shows that Frontier Firms are customizing AI for their unique workflows and seeing three times greater returns on their AI investments. Why? Because this approach keeps people at the center. They’re using AI to tackle big challenges, empower higher-value work, and help industries adapt quickly in a world where efficiency and resilience are non-negotiable.

Becoming Frontier isn’t reserved for tech disruptors or startups. Legacy brands across industries are bending the curve on AI innovation, pairing decades of expertise with AI-first differentiation to reinvent processes and accelerate growth. In a world where more than 99% of companies fail to reach 100 years in business,¹ centennial companies—brands that have been around for 100 years or more—are proving that reinvention is the key to longevity. Today, they’re using Microsoft AI to eliminate the mundane and unlock creativity to accelerate their journey to becoming Frontier.

Companies including The Kraft Heinz Company, Levi Strauss & Co., Wells Fargo, and Land O’Lakes have been serving customers for more than a century and remain leading household names because they never stood still. They’re positioning themselves at the forefront of AI innovation.

When you think about how quickly humans have grasped the concepts of AI, it’s influencing how they do everyday life right now. Compared to past technologies introduced into business or corporate settings, the learning curve and the adoption rate are not something that you have to worry about as much because people are actually craving it and they’re looking for it.

—Ken Meyer, Chief Information Officer for Enterprise Functions at Wells Fargo

These centennial brands show that reinvention isn’t a one-time event—it’s a mindset. By pairing their own expertise with a trusted partner like Microsoft, they’re transforming operations, accelerating innovation, and setting new benchmarks for what’s possible. Let’s look at how The Kraft Heinz Company, Levi Strauss & Co., Wells Fargo, and Land O’Lakes are leading the way.

Influencing the future with the wisdom of the past

In the consumer goods industry where companies are balancing shifting consumer preferences, supply chain complexity, and speed-to-market, AI-powered insights are especially crucial. The Kraft Heinz Company, one of the world’s leading food and beverage companies, is demonstrating how it is reaching for historical data as it prepares the organization to thrive in the future with the recent introduction of The Cookbook.

Built on Microsoft Azure OpenAI and trained on a proprietary central database, The Cookbook is a proprietary AI agent that puts decades of institutional wisdom around HEINZ Tomato Ketchup production processes at employees’ fingertips. With The Cookbook, users can ask questions on everything from the thickness and color of a batch of ketchup to insights about the efficiency of production processes, and more. Preserving and digitizing institutional knowledge and subject matter expertise in this way supports improvements in production consistency, quality, and efficiency—leaning into a legacy of innovation to maintain the quality that’s made HEINZ the world’s best-selling ketchup.

As part of our long-term strategy, we’re harnessing disruptive digital solutions to fuel growth across the organization. In doing so, we’re transforming the way we work, streamlining processes, enhancing decision making, and more—all of which enable us to continue delivering the great-tasting products consumers know and love as well as continue to innovate and address evolving preferences.

—Oliver Ganschar, Head of Digital Product Management and Innovation at The Kraft Heinz Company

The Cookbook joins a robust lineup of generative and agentic AI-powered projects already in use at The Kraft Heinz Company to optimize marketing, production, supply chain functions, and more. They have streamlined operations for Claussen pickles, cut manufacturing waste, and dramatically reduced timelines for brand asset creation across The Kraft Heinz Company’s portfolio. The digital-first solutions empower employees to focus on high-value tasks, make decisions rooted in data, and enhance engagement.

“When it comes to AI, we’re exploring integrated solutions that can drive scalability and connectivity across our organization end to end, rather than siloed deployment or disconnected applications,” said Ganschar. “We aim to create a connected ecosystem that enables our teams to work more efficiently and effectively, and this includes evaluating applications of generative and agentic AI in ways that we believe can unlock further value for our teams and the business.”

The Kraft Heinz Company and Microsoft have also collaborated on a Supply Chain Control Tower to preempt interruptions and develop digital twins of the company’s manufacturing facilities to virtually test and troubleshoot new processes. Together, these efforts hone The Kraft Heinz Company’s competitive edge, strengthening its ability to get products to market faster, better serve customers, and drive innovation.

Our collaboration with Microsoft has been an important part of our digital transformation, helping us drive innovation and efficiencies through machine learning and advanced analytics so we can get products into the market faster, better serve our customers and, ultimately, deliver on consumer demand.

—Oliver Ganschar, Head of Digital Product Management and Innovation at The Kraft Heinz Company

As The Kraft Heinz Company looks to continue leading the curve on AI innovation, it plans to scale The Cookbook beyond HEINZ Tomato Ketchup.

“We aim to use key learnings and insights from The Cookbook pilot phases to scale to other brands, products, and Kraft Heinz businesses, and we are currently in the process of exploring additional use cases for the technology,” said Ganschar.

Prioritizing data in decision-making at scale

Enthusiasm around AI is not just confined to the C-Suite—it is growing throughout entire organizations. Ken Meyer, Chief Information Officer for Enterprise Functions at Wells Fargo, says employees at every level are clamoring for AI products, with more than 30,000 using Microsoft 365 Copilot since it was rolled out in June 2025. The active usage rate for enabled employees is 92%, demonstrating the value the tool offers to the employees.

It’s really a proof point saying that not only did people want to use these products, but they were waiting for it and excited about it, and what’s really exciting is understanding the usage across the different ways in which they’ve engaged: creating content, doing summarization, and researching. That’s real time saved for our Microsoft 365 licensed users.

—Ken Meyer, Chief Information Officer for Enterprise Functions at Wells Fargo

This kind of data is the foundation of decision-making at the 173-year-old financial institution, particularly when it comes to choosing solutions to put in the hands of employees. Analytics drove Wells Fargo’s 2021 migration to Microsoft Azure as its primary public cloud provider and guided subsequent rollouts of Microsoft 365 and Microsoft SharePoint to enhance productivity and strengthen security. Now AI is increasing efficiency at Wells Fargo, with generative and agent capabilities in GitHub, Microsoft Copilot, and other Microsoft AI solutions equipping employees to more effectively support clients, each other, and the organization.

Organizations across the financial services industry are seeing the opportunities AI can create to unlock greater innovation and business value at an accelerated pace. It plays a critical role in streamlining operations and compliance management—making processes more efficient and secure.

Microsoft understands what it takes to be an enterprise business and do things at scale. When you think about being in a highly regulated industry, being a bank our size, and the commitments that we have to the number of clients that we serve, it’s important and it gives us a lot of confidence.

—Ken Meyer, Chief Information Officer for Enterprise Functions at Wells Fargo

Weaving innovation and intuition into all operations

In retail, as in finance, leaders must keep pace with their customers’ rapid adoption of emerging technologies. From evolving consumer expectations to the rise of omnichannel experiences, agility is key. Levi Strauss & Co., navigating new audiences and sales models, has partnered with Microsoft to stay resilient and innovative, using digital tools to streamline operations, personalize engagement, and scale sustainably in a fast-moving retail landscape.

Retail has always been a story of change. Microsoft is a big part of how we scale for the next 100 years.

—Jason Gowans, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Levi Strauss & Co.

On the heels of a massive cloud migration to Azure, the 172-year-old company is prepared to lead in a new era of agentic AI. The first five years of a seven-year digital transformation at Levi Strauss & Co. saw streamlined workflows, improved analytics and data quality, and more robust security—enabling the company to scale AI-powered innovation across the organization. 

Now, Levi Strauss & Co. and Microsoft are collaborating on AI-powered solutions that enhance employee decision-making, efficiency, and creativity with seamless access to insights. The newest example of this is the development of a new “superagent,” which has the intelligence to intuitively understand which applications and subagents to activate based on a user’s prompt. 

The foundation of the superagent streamlines the process to develop and integrate future agents—creating substantial savings. With AI woven into every experience for employees and fans, by extension, Levi Strauss & Co. is supercharging its trajectory toward becoming a fan-obsessed, direct-to-consumer business. 

We believe in performance, but our core value is also integrity. Whatever we choose to do with AI, it’s going to be grounded in making sure that it’s the right decision for our people, for the company, and for the community. 

—Sheena Kunhiraman, Vice President of People Systems and Analytics at Levi Strauss & Co.

Modernizing a trusted resource to elevate human expertise

Land O’Lakes, one of America’s premier agribusiness and food companies, is a member-owned cooperative with industry-leading operations that span the spectrum from agricultural production to consumer foods. Behind the scenes, the company has executed a sweeping digital transformation: migrating more than two-thirds of its IT environment to Azure, driving widespread adoption of Microsoft Copilot, and fine-tuning its enterprise copilot.

We are not a tech company, but a tech-forward company. Having a true technology partner that helps our digital transformation was the foundation of our partnership with Microsoft. We wanted a bigger bat to swing. Microsoft gives us that.

—Teddy Bekele, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Land O’Lakes

This modern infrastructure is the foundation for AI innovation and serves as the backbone for a new digital assistant called “Oz.” The assistant combines the power of Microsoft AI with Land O’Lakes’ deep agricultural expertise to help farmers make data-informed decisions to maximize yield potential and mitigate risk throughout the growing season.

Land O’Lakes is owned by highly knowledgeable agricultural retailers who act as trusted advisors to farmers. Historically, these retail agronomists have used the Land O’Lakes Crop Protection Guide, an 800-page agronomic resource built on 20 years of data and millions of agriculture-specific data points, to assist farmers. Oz allows retail agronomists to quickly surface critical agricultural information specific to a farm’s unique features and needs in a mobile-friendly format.

The idea has always been to make that agronomist the hero at the farm gate. Instead of flipping through a book, now agronomists can have this deep technical discussion with the AI. So, we go from a good recommendation to a highly customizable recommendation for that farmer.

—Teddy Bekele, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Land O’Lakes

Oz is just the latest example of how Land O’Lakes’ AI transformation has enabled them to bring cutting-edge, AI-powered solutions to the farmers they serve.

Bringing AI into the next Frontier

By thoughtfully integrating AI into many levels and functions of their businesses, centennial companies are demonstrating the ingenuity and resilience that has allowed them to dynamically navigate past moments of disruption for more than 100 years. We’re proud to partner with these Frontier Firms and support their continued transformation.

Explore examples of AI in action from this year’s Microsoft Ignite 2025 conference to envision how Microsoft’s industry-specific solutions can augment your organization’s expertise and experiences with AI.

Use our resources to innovate with AI and start your journey to becoming a Frontier Firm.

¹ Building Indiana Business, The Centennial Secret: How Do Companies Last 100 Years?, October 23, 2020.

The post From legacy to Frontier: How 100-year brands are leading AI innovation appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

It’s also transforming the way we shop. Increasingly, we’re embracing AI shopping tools that more easily help us find products. But that’s just the start of what conversational commerce can do. Just like consumers want in store, online they’re seeking recommendations that reflect their sense of personal style.

Enter Ask Ralph, a new AI-powered styling companion that not only helps with product discovery but also inspires consumers with Ralph Lauren’s unique and iconic take on style.

Azure AI: Design, customize, and manage AI apps and agents at scale

Ask Ralph: A style companion powered by AI

Ask Ralph is a conversational AI shopping experience built on Azure OpenAI and available in the Ralph Lauren app in the US. You can interact with Ask Ralph just like you would a stylist in a Ralph Lauren store by asking simple, conversational questions or using prompts to find the perfect look for any occasion.

Whether you’re refreshing your wardrobe for fall or wondering what to wear to a concert in the park, Ask Ralph responds with curated, fully stylized, visually displayed, and shoppable outfits from across the Polo Ralph Lauren brand, tailored to your unique prompts.

The delight of conversational commerce

Ask Ralph is part of a broader movement—one where AI doesn’t just assist, it inspires.

Using natural language, Ask Ralph interprets open-ended prompts, asks clarifying questions, and delivers beautifully visualized outfit recommendations that are tailored to your query—all based on Ralph Lauren’s real-time available inventory.

Built for the future, grounded in legacy

For nearly 60 years, Ralph Lauren has been a pioneer in creating transportive and cinematic retail experiences. Twenty-five years ago, Microsoft and Ralph Lauren teamed up to launch one of fashion’s first e-commerce platforms, setting an industry standard—and now, together, we are again redefining the shopping experience with Ask Ralph.

As Naveen Seshadri, Ralph Lauren’s Chief Digital Officer, shared in a recent interview, “At Ralph Lauren, our focus is always on the consumer. We harness innovative technologies to create an elevated, personalized experience that draws customers into Ralph’s iconic world at every interaction. The launch of Ask Ralph is a continuation of that commitment.”

To hear more from Naveen on the vision behind Ask Ralph, watch the Ralph Lauren customer video.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/JK1tqjqQeL8?playsinline=1&rel=0&modestbranding=1&enablejsapi=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.microsoft.com&widgetid=1&forigin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Findustry%2Fblog%2Fretail%2F2025%2F09%2F09%2Fask-ralph-where-style-meets-ai-a-new-era-of-conversational-commerce%2F&aoriginsup=1&gporigin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Findustry%2Fblog%2F&vf=1

Agentic AI: The new frontier

Ask Ralph is powered by Azure’s agentic AI capabilities—intelligent systems that plan, reason, and act. These agents are transforming retail by enabling immersive, personalized experiences at scale.

“At Ralph Lauren, our focus is always on the consumer. We harness innovative technologies to create an elevated, personalized experience that draws customers into Ralph’s iconic world at every interaction. The launch of Ask Ralph is a continuation of that commitment.”

—Naveen Seshadri, Chief Digital Officer at Ralph Lauren

Confidence, creativity, connection

At its heart, Ask Ralph is about inspiration. It’s about helping people find new ways to express their personal style.

This is just the beginning for Ask Ralph, which will continue to evolve with new features and offerings to offer an even more personalized experience, as well as expand across markets, platforms, and additional Ralph Lauren brands.

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Ready to transform the shopping experience with AI?

With Azure AI, retailers have the power to build immersive, intelligent shopping experiences that scale, adapt, and inspire. Whether you’re looking to personalize customer journeys, optimize inventory, or empower your workforce, Microsoft’s AI platform is ready to help you innovate with confidence.

Join us for an AI.deation workshop to explore how agentic AI can elevate your business—from concept to production. Let’s co-create the future of retail, one conversation at a time.

Learn more

• Read the press release on Microsoft News.  
• Learn more about Ask Ralph and download the app on the Ralph Lauren site.
• Read the full Ralph Lauren customer story.

The post Ask Ralph: Where style meets AI—a new era of conversational commerce appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

South Korea is rapidly establishing itself as a global force in AI innovation, propelled by a unique blend of industrial strength, technological ambition, and cultural adaptability. From healthcare to renewable energy, Korean organizations are actively deploying AI to reimagine systems, improve efficiency, and create entirely new value.

This nationwide momentum is supported by a growing ecosystem of partners with investments in infrastructure, cloud platforms, and nationwide skilling. Microsoft is expanding access to AI and strengthening Korea’s long-term digital resilience via partnerships with Korean enterprises and institutions, supporting responsible and scalable adoption grounded in transparency, security, and fairness.

At the Microsoft AI Tour in Seoul, Korean companies demonstrated how AI is moving beyond efficiency gains to become a true growth engine—reshaping customer experiences, opening new markets, and driving cross-industry collaboration for a more innovative, inclusive future.

KT accelerates AI transformation through strategic Microsoft partnership

KT, one of South Korea’s largest telecommunications and digital services companies, is driving large-scale AI and cloud. As part of its enterprise transformation, KT has deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot company-wide, using AI to streamline operations and enhance workplace efficiency. In collaboration with Microsoft, their dedicated Center of Excellence (CoE) supports the development of AI-powered systems across teams.

To meet the needs of highly regulated industries, KT is building a secure public cloud based on Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty. This infrastructure will support scalable, compliant AI adoption in sectors such as public services and finance.

Meanwhile, KT is also developing a large language model (LLM) optimized for the Korean language and cultural context. The model will be embedded into KT’s customer service to deliver next-generation AI experiences.

To promote broad, inclusive workforce development, the company is launching a nationwide AI skilling initiative with new training centers that will equip university students, professionals, and the general public with practical AI knowledge. With this multifaceted strategy, KT is advancing its digital capabilities and enabling AI innovation across Korea’s public and private sectors.

LG Electronics launches AI-powered home robot Q9

LG Electronics, a global leader in consumer electronics and smart home technology, is expanding the role of AI in daily life with the introduction of its AI home robot Q9, developed using Azure OpenAI Service. Designed to go beyond basic smart appliance control, Q9 supports functions such as elderly care, childcare, and overall home management.

The robot integrates Microsoft’s voice AI with LG’s own AI agent FURON to allow natural user interactions and adaptive learning. It serves as a central AI hub, connecting with and coordinating smart devices throughout the home to create a responsive living environment tailored to individual needs.

Q9 reflects LG’s vision for the smart home as an active, AI-powered ecosystem that enhances convenience, comfort, and support for daily routines. By combining conversational AI with practical applications, LG is shaping a new category of home technology focused on human-centered design.

Seegene advances molecular diagnostic development with AI system

Seegene, a leading biotechnology and molecular diagnostics company based in South Korea, is transforming how PCR testing kits are developed with its AI-powered Seegene Digitalized Development System (SGDDS).

Originally created by Seegene and further advanced in partnership with Microsoft, SGDDS automates the critical planning and design stages of PCR testing kit development—steps that have traditionally required large teams of experts. By streamlining these processes, the platform enables even non-specialists to participate, accelerating research timelines and improving development efficiency.

Powered by AI and data analytics, SGDDS helps standardize and simplify the development process, allowing Seegene to respond more quickly and precisely to emerging health threats. This capability expands access to accurate diagnostics and strengthens global preparedness for future public health challenges.

Through the integration of AI into its core research and development (R&D) operations, Seegene is building a more agile and scalable approach to healthcare innovation. Its collaboration with Microsoft also supports broader technology-sharing efforts designed to improve diagnostic infrastructure across global markets.

Hanwha Qcells optimizes solar energy with AI and IoT

Hanwha Qcells, a global leader in solar energy solutions, is advancing smart energy management by integrating Azure OpenAI Service and Internet of Things (IoT) technology. In response to the urgent challenges of climate change and resource depletion, the company is using AI to optimize solar power usage and enhance system efficiency across its operations.

By combining real-time data from IoT devices with AI-powered analytics, Hanwha Qcells is developing intelligent energy strategies that improve performance and support sustainability goals. The AI models help forecast energy needs, identify inefficiencies, and adjust power usage dynamically—laying the groundwork for more resilient and eco-friendly infrastructure.

Through its collaboration with Microsoft, Hanwha Qcells is not only improving operational efficiency but also creating scalable solutions for the global energy transition. These innovations support the development of clean energy ecosystems while opening new business opportunities in an increasingly AI-powered market.

Galaxy Corporation uses AI to transform creative enter-tech content

Galaxy Corporation, a South Korea–based AI enter-tech company, is reshaping digital content creation with Sora, its proprietary AI platform powered by Azure OpenAI Service. Designed to support creative professionals, Sora applies generative AI to assist in content development across video, animation, and other entertainment formats.

By embedding AI into the creative workflow, Galaxy Corporation is expanding the role of technology as an active partner in idea generation and production. Sora enables faster prototyping, helps refine concepts, and introduces new possibilities for immersive storytelling—bringing imagination to life with greater speed and scale.

Galaxy Corporation plans to continue expanding its AI offerings to meet the growing demand for innovation in entertainment. Galaxy Corporation is deeply committed to exploring the possibilities of the enter-tech creative vision of artists in this era of rapid innovation. By using AI to overcome creative limitations and redefine the standards of content development, the company is fostering a dynamic synergy between entertainment and AI technology. By positioning AI as a core creative tool, this approach not only reimagines experiences entirely but also delivers transformative content value to audiences, paving the way for a more meaningful, dynamic, and forward-thinking future in content creation.

Amorepacific simplifies complex beauty decision with AI

Amorepacific, South Korea’s largest beauty and cosmetics company, is known for its trend-setting brands and deep understanding of consumer needs. In the fast-moving K-beauty market—where skincare routines are complex and trends shift quickly—delivering timely, personalized guidance has become both a challenge and a competitive advantage.

To meet that need, Amorepacific is developing the AI Beauty Counselor (AIBC), a generative AI-powered app built on Microsoft’s Azure AI stack. The solution analyzes user photos to assess facial features and skin tone, then offers makeup recommendations informed by data from professional artists. To deepen personalization, users can chat with AIBC to share their skin care concerns, ask questions, and report on their post-sale experience.

By integrating AI into the consultation experience, Amorepacific is helping customers navigate beauty choices with confidence while staying ahead of evolving trends.

AI for everyone in South Korea

What sets South Korea apart in the global AI landscape is not only its rapid adoption of new technologies, but its intentional, people-centered approach to applying them. Korean enterprises are using AI to address real-world challenges, and these innovations are rooted in Korea’s industrial expertise and cultural context, with AI deployed to create practical value across sectors.

Aligned with the theme “AI for Everyone,” South Korea’s AI transformation reflects a belief that this technology should be accessible, inclusive, and impactful across all sectors of society. Microsoft supports this vision through close collaboration with Korean institutions and businesses—advancing skilling initiatives, education programs, and trusted cloud infrastructure to help turn bold ideas into lasting results.

Meanwhile, as AI becomes central to how organizations compete and collaborate, trust is essential. Microsoft’s focus on ethical development, responsible deployment, and secure systems enables Korean companies to build AI solutions that are not only powerful but grounded in both innovation and social responsibility.

South Korea’s AI momentum is accelerating, crossing boundaries between industries, strengthening competitiveness, and opening space for new partnerships. With the right foundation and a clear commitment to inclusion, responsibility, and innovation, the country is showing what a truly accessible, future-ready AI ecosystem can look like—for everyone.

Find the resources to support your AI journey

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

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The United Kingdom (UK) is on the brink of a half-a-trillion-pound opportunity, powered by AI and cloud technologies that are set to transform industries, boost productivity, and redefine the way we work. As Europe’s most advanced digital economy, home to 171 unicorns worth more than £800 billion, the UK has already proven its appetite for innovation, investing more than £20 billion in AI since 2016. But realizing AI’s full potential isn’t just about investment, it’s about action.

AI is no longer a distant concept. Businesses across every sector are already embedding AI-powered agents into their operations—automating workflows, streamlining decision-making, and eliminating digital drudgery to free employees for more impactful work. The rise of agentic AI—technology that doesn’t just respond to commands but takes action on our behalf—marks a major shift, poised to revolutionize everything from customer service to cybersecurity, driving efficiency, resilience, and innovation at scale.

And yet, a stark AI divide is emerging. More than half of UK organizations still lack a formal AI strategy, and 57% of business leaders report a growing gap in productivity between AI adopters and non-adopters. With employees and leaders already stretched thin, the demand for AI-powered solutions has never been more pressing.

The question is no longer whether AI will reshape the UK economy, but how quickly businesses will step up to seize the opportunity. Organizations that act decisively—building clear AI strategies and investing in the right capabilities—will be the ones that thrive. I highlighted several of these leading organizations during my AI Tour keynote, and I’m excited to share more of their journeys here. 

Pets at Home reimagines integrated pet care with AI

Pets at Home, the UK’s largest pet care company, is transforming its operations with AI agents powered by Microsoft Copilot Studio. The company, which includes 450 retail stores, an online platform, veterinary practices, and grooming services, initially operated in silos but underwent a digital transformation to unify the customer experience across all channels using Microsoft Azure.

With a centralized data platform in place, Pets at Home turned to AI to enhance efficiency. One of the first AI agents supported fraud detection, swiftly analyzing vast amounts of data to identify suspicious transactions, such as repeated use of the same image for fraudulent refund claims. This has significantly improved fraud investigation speed and accuracy.

AI is also powering personalized customer interactions. With 8 million loyalty program members and 10 million pets, the company uses machine learning to recommend tailored pet care solutions across its retail, veterinary, and grooming services. This ensures customers receive relevant, stage-specific pet care guidance.

The company’s veterinary practices are using AI to reduce administrative tasks, allowing clinicians to focus more on patient care. AI-powered transcription services assist during consultations and operations, while scheduling automation improves efficiency, enhancing clinical focus, and aligning with the company’s mission of better pet care.

By integrating AI agents, Pets at Home has enhanced fraud detection, improved personalization, and streamlined veterinary operations, driving innovation and efficiency across its ecosystem.

Amey embraces AI agents for a safer, more connected workforce

Amey, a UK-based engineering firm, plays a vital role in designing, maintaining, operating, and building the country’s infrastructure. With services impacting 75% of the UK population daily, ensuring safety and efficiency is a top priority.

Access to safety information has long been a challenge for frontline workers, who previously had to stop tasks and manually sift through folders full of paper documents for relevant details. Without regular access to laptops or computers, Amey opted to democratize information access for its workforce with mobile-friendly AI-powered agents.

Now, 99% of its 118 million files are stored on SharePoint, and AI allows employees to retrieve answers instantly through a chat interface. No more digging through folders—critical safety information is now just a few taps away, preventing issues and resolving others faster.

The AI system boosts efficiency and safety by providing instant access to essential information, real-time troubleshooting, and multilingual support while maintaining English documentation. By filling gaps where supervisors aren’t always available, it reduces risks and empowers employees to work more confidently and get home safely every day.

With AI now embedded in everyday operations, Amey is setting new standards for workplace safety and efficiency, proving that technology is a powerful ally in protecting and empowering its workforce.

Nationwide streamlines operations and cuts response times with generative AI

Nationwide, the world’s largest building society, serves 17 million customers across more than 600 UK branches. After merging with around 250 smaller societies, it faced a tangled web of data. By applying Microsoft Azure, Azure Databricks, and Teradata’s VantageCloud, it streamlined everything into a powerful, centralized platform, empowering employees to access a complete view of customer needs in seconds, delivering faster, more personalized service with greater efficiency.

Nationwide has built upon that infrastructure by integrating GPT-4 within Azure OpenAI Service to augment various business functions. One of the most impactful applications has been in customer correspondence, where AI-generated letters have reduced response times from 45 minutes to approximately 10–15 minutes, a 66% improvement in efficiency. AI has also been deployed to automate routine back-office tasks, allowing employees to focus on addressing more complex customer inquiries and improving overall service quality, which reflects Nationwide’s philosophy of using AI as a “copilot” to assist employees rather than as an “autopilot” to replace them.

Nationwide has established an AI Centre of Expertise and an AI Council to oversee responsible AI use, ensuring transparency and responsible standards in collaboration with Microsoft. This framework builds customer trust while guiding the expansion of AI into contact center operations, credit risk assessment, economic crime monitoring, its virtual assistant Arti, and CO₂ emissions reporting.

Be My Eyes puts AI into the hands of blind and low-vision individuals

Be My Eyes has long connected blind and low-vision people with sighted volunteers and partner companies through live video assistance. Now, with AI, it’s radically improving accessibility. In collaboration with Microsoft, Be My Eyes is making AI models more inclusive for the 340 million people worldwide with no or low vision by integrating accessibility data to serve diverse needs better.

A key innovation is Be My AI, a tool that helps users independently navigate their digital world by providing AI-powered descriptions of on-screen content. Part of Be My Eyes for Windows, Be My AI makes it easier to browse websites, use applications, or read documents. It also provides descriptions of locally stored images, offering clarity on personal photos and saved graphics. Online images can be analyzed simply by copying them to the clipboard for a detailed text description. The tool even helps users prepare for video calls by checking if they are centered in the frame and describing their background before going live.

An interactive chatbot allows users to ask follow-up questions about descriptions for a more dynamic and personalized experience. While the app is still in beta, ongoing improvements and new features will continue to expand its capabilities, allowing Be My Eyes to improve accessibility and redefine independence for blind and low-vision people.

Virgin Money’s virtual assistant is “Redi” to transform customer service

Virgin Money, serving 6.6 million retail and business banking customers, sought to enhance digital customer experience by developing “Redi,” an award-winning virtual assistant. Built using Microsoft Copilot Studio and integrated with Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Redi bridges the gap between digital adoption and customer confidence.

Developed in close collaboration with frontline contact center staff and seamlessly integrated with the Dynamics 365 Knowledge Base, Redi features an intuitive digital journey that provides customers with timely and effective assistance. A core value to the company, the virtual assistant maintains Virgin Money’s distinctive brand voice, understanding colloquialisms and responding to informal language.

Virgin Money collaborated with compliance teams to ensure Redi’s interactions are clear and secure. The assistant introduces itself transparently and seamlessly transitions customers to human agents when handling complex issues, effectively triaging 90% of inquiries, boosting customer satisfaction ratings, and allowing contact center agents to focus on more complex tasks.

This strategic AI deployment exemplifies Virgin Money’s commitment to exceptional customer experience and recognition that the major role of agentic AI has in delivering that now and into the future.

AI for everyone in the UK: Decisive action

The UK’s AI journey has already been transformative, but the next era—powered by agentic AI—has the potential to be truly revolutionary. By and large, UK organizations recognize the competitive advantage AI has to offer, but have yet to fully unlock AI’s potential, citing barriers such as workforce readiness, strategic alignment, and regulatory uncertainty.

Overcoming these hurdles is challenging but certainly achievable. It requires investment not only in AI infrastructure but also in skills development. Microsoft has stepped in with full support for the UK economy, having made a multibillion-pound commitment to AI-enabled datacenters and bringing AI skills to an additional 1 million people by the end of this year, on top of the 1.5 million it has already given digital skills to.

This shared foundation is essential to putting the AI-powered economy within reach, but success will depend on how quickly and effectively businesses themselves take strategic steps to embrace AI. I posed these questions to those who attended the Microsoft AI Tour event in London, and I urge you to consider them as well: 

1. What are you trying to achieve in the next six months, and how can AI help you get there faster? 

2. How are you and your team set up to embrace the change, and what culture shifts are needed to ensure AI adoption is unencumbered? 
3. How can Microsoft and its partners be part of that journey? What do you need from us to accelerate your progress and deliver real outcomes? 

Together, we have the opportunity to shape an AI-powered future where businesses flourish, employees thrive, and the UK cements its position as a global leader in innovation. The time to act is now.

Find the resources to support your AI journey 

• Advance your AI transformation with AI business resources
• Microsoft Agents of Change
• ‘AI divide’ across UK organizations risks growth for many, new Microsoft research reveals

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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.

Dynamics 365 Business Central brings the power of AI to small and medium-sized businesses to help companies work smarter, adapt faster, and perform better. AI in Dynamics 365 Business Central improves the way work gets done, enabling you to:

• Get answers quickly and easily using natural language.
• Save time by automating tedious, repetitive tasks.
• Spark creativity with creative content ideas.
• Anticipate and overcome business challenges.

Reclaim time for important work

In a small or medium-sized business, there is often a lot to do and not many people to help get it all done, so it’s important to make the most of your limited resources to accomplish your goals. Everyday activities like tracking down documents and bringing new employees up to speed can drain your valuable time. What if you had an AI-powered assistant ready to help you find exactly what you need without the hassle?

Available in early 2024, conversational chat using Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central helps you answer questions quickly and easily, locate records faster, and even learn new skills—all using natural language. Save time and effort by navigating to documents without having to use traditional menus, and rapidly onboard new users with answers to questions on how, when, or why to do things. Copilot is your everyday AI companion, helping you to speed through tasks, build momentum, and free time for your most impactful work. 

Streamline month-end tasks with enhanced bank reconciliation

Reconciling bank statement transactions with your financial system has often been a tedious monthly chore. Meticulously matching every line item to new or existing accounting entries takes time (and isn’t the most exciting way to spend an afternoon.) In the past, Business Central helped by auto-matching many of the simple one-to-one transactions, but the logic wasn’t able to decipher more complex scenarios such as when multiple charges were paid in a single transaction.

Now, Copilot in Business Central makes bank reconciliation even easier by analyzing bank statements that you import into Business Central, matching more transactions, and proposing entries for transactions that weren’t auto-matched. By comparing and interpreting transaction descriptions, amounts, dates, and patterns across fields, Copilot can help you improve the accuracy of your bank reconciliation while reducing manual effort.

Unlock creativity with marketing text suggestions

Copilot in Business Central helps product managers save time and drive sales with compelling AI-generated marketing text suggestions. Using key attributes like color and material, Copilot can create product descriptions in seconds tailored to your preferred tone, format, and length. Once you’ve made any adjustments, you can easily publish to Shopify or other ecommerce platforms with just a few clicks. Discover how Copilot can help you banish writer’s block and launch new products with ease.

Boost customer service with inventory forecasting

Effective inventory management is crucial in a competitive business environment as it can significantly influence a company’s success and customer retention. This process involves balancing customer service with cost control. Maintaining low inventory reduces working capital, but risks missing sales due to stock shortages. Using AI, the Sales and Inventory Forecast extension uses past sales data to forecast future demand, helping to prevent stockouts. Once a shortfall is identified, Business Central streamlines the replenishment process by generating vendor requests, helping you keep your customers happy by fulfilling their orders on time, every time.  

Reduce risk with late payment prediction

Managing receivables effectively is vital for a business’s financial wellbeing. With the Late Payment Prediction extension, you can reduce outstanding receivables and refine your collections approach by forecasting if outstanding sales invoices are likely to be paid on time. For instance, if a payment is anticipated to be delayed, you could modify the payment terms or method for that customer. By proactively addressing potential late payments and adapting accordingly, you can minimize overdue receivables, reduce risk of non-payment, and ultimately improve your financial performance.

Improve financial stability with Cash Flow Analysis

Powered by AI, Business Central can create a comprehensive Cash Flow Analysis to help you monitor your company’s cash position. Cash flow is a critical indicator of a company’s solvency, and cash flow analysis is an important future-focused planning tool that helps you maintain control over your financial health and make proactive adjustments to meet all your financial commitments. With insights from Business Central, you can pivot quickly to safeguard your company’s fiscal wellbeing, such as obtaining loans to cover cash shortfalls or cutting back on credit when you have surplus cash.

Work smarter with Copilot in Business Central

Copilot in Business Central gives your company an edge with AI-powered innovations that are a catalyst for unleashing human potential, fostering creativity, and driving efficiency in ways previously unimaginable. The integration of AI into everyday business processes is not just about staying ahead in a competitive market, it’s about redefining what’s possible in the workplace. With Business Central, your company is empowered to navigate today’s complex business environment with agility, precision, and a renewed focus on what truly matters.

The post Transform the way work gets done with Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

Throughout history, the right tool, in the right hands has always sparked transformation. From moving water across hundreds of miles via ancient aqueducts to putting the world’s knowledge at our fingertips with the advent of smartphones, these tools change our lives. And now we’re seeing the potential of the next great shift: the new era of AI.

This shift isn’t coming a few years down the road, or even in a few months. Your opportunity to lead in this new era of AI is right now. It’s one of the most exciting shifts of our generation, and we’re just starting to see the impact.

We believe leaders will see this impact take shape across three key dimensions—for individuals, for business functions, and for entire industries.

Transforming productivity for every individual

AI is fundamentally changing how we as individuals relate to and benefit from technology. Our own natural language is now the key to unlocking value—we think of it as having a copilot to navigate any task.

A copilot is an AI-driven partner guided by an individual to amplify creativity and accelerate results. As tasks get more complex, a copilot can deliver even greater value. But an individual is always in control—it’s a copilot, not an autopilot. Individuals determine, guide, and approve the output.

We recently announced our vision for Microsoft Copilot, a digital companion for your whole life. And to be your AI assistant at work, Microsoft 365 Copilot works across calendars, emails, chats, documents, meetings, and more. It’s already being used by tens of thousands of enterprise users in our Early Access Program including customers at companies like Visa, General Motors, KPMG, and Lumen Technologies, and will be generally available on November 1, 2023.

And we know productivity looks different for specialized roles, like developers. With GitHub Copilot, developers can get guidance and suggested code right in line, simply by describing what they want using natural language. At General Motors, developers are using GitHub Copilot to get up to speed faster, so they can start collaborating with more seasoned peers right away. New developers don’t have to spend as much time on structure or formatting—instead, they can focus on adding value and contributing check-ins.

In today’s world, we have access to more data and information than ever before. But how do we make sense of it all? That’s where AI can help. When we don’t need to spend as much cognitive energy on figuring out what happened in that meeting, getting caught up on email, or finding that document from that chat last week, we can spend more time on the substance of our work.

Using AI effectively means augmenting human capability and accelerating everyone’s innate ingenuity. For individuals, AI clears the space for human creativity to flourish. 

Transforming work with Microsoft Copilot

Designed to help you be more productive, spark your creativity, and to meet the everyday needs of your business.

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Shifting what success looks like for every role and function 

Nearly every leader is looking to optimize their core business functions. They’re looking for cost savings, increased efficiency, modernized operations, topline revenue growth, or market growth. Today, AI is becoming the catalyst that can accelerate these outcomes across every business role and function.

Take sales, for example. Sales leaders have many highly specific priorities, including optimizing seller time with customers, ensuring data quality and pipeline hygiene, and shortening the sales cycle so they can deliver revenue faster. However, traditional sales technology often gets in the way. Sellers are juggling highly manual and disjoined processes spanning email, spreadsheets, and customer relationship management (CRM) software. It’s no wonder that 78 percent of sellers would be happy to have some help from AI to make everyday tasks easier.¹

With Microsoft Sales Copilot, we’re already seeing organizations like global security services provider Securitas empower their sellers to spend less time on data entry and focus more of their energy on customers. Philip Eklund, Vice President of Client Engagement Platform at Securitas, says, “Opportunity summary in Microsoft Sales Copilot is a huge and important leap in our direction to save more time for our sales personnel.”

Let’s consider another critical business function: security. For security professionals, AI is the game-changer we’ve been waiting for. It’s not just about defense, it’s about taking the initiative, learning from the environment, and adapting faster than the threats can evolve. Asset management firm Bridgewater, one of the organizations currently previewing Microsoft Security Copilot, claims that this leap forward is so momentous that security operations from 2021 may seem “prehistoric” by December 2024.

These core business functions are undergoing a fundamental shift, with AI redefining what success looks like and how organizations can deliver value.

Envisioning a new future for every industry

Every industry is facing unique challenges, opportunities, pressures, and constraints, and the effects of generative AI will be felt in radically different ways depending on whether you’re in the energy sector, financial services, manufacturing, or any other industry. But one thing is clear—the potential for impact is incredible.

This potential is perhaps most evident when we consider healthcare. AI can help reinvent care delivery with more personalized patient experiences, increase the productivity and efficiency of care practitioners to address industry challenges like clinician burnout, and unlock predictive insights that help to improve the quality and accessibility of healthcare services. We’re proud to partner with industry leaders like Epic to bring together Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare with Epic’s deep healthcare expertise. Capabilities like Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Nuance DAX Copilot, and our partnership with Epic are revolutionary for the healthcare industry—take a look at how our AI-powered solutions can help clinicians reduce administrative burden and enable them to spend more time focused on direct patient care.

Another industry in which AI will have an incredible impact is retail—in fact, McKinsey estimates that generative AI could deliver increased revenue of up to $660 billion each year for the retail and consumer packaged goods sectors through increased revenue, greater customer loyalty, or operational efficiencies.² We’ll see this transformation take shape with more personalized customer experiences, conversational commerce, analytics, customer service, more productive store associates, and new supply chain efficiencies, just to name a few.

One retail use case gaining traction is frictionless shopping. Facing narrow profit margins and a labor shortage impacting much of the world, retailers are looking for ways to drive down operational costs while continuing to delight their customers—and AI is putting autonomous, frictionless shopping experiences within reach for retailers large and small. Choice Market, a small but growing convenience chain, is using Microsoft Cloud for Retail to better understand its customers so they can offer the right product, at the right price, in the right place—including their best-selling breakfast burrito.

Our responsibility to shape the future together

As we transform productivity for every individual, shift the definition of success for every role and function, and envision new futures for radically different industries, considering AI safety is not an optional feature. It’s a requirement, and it can’t be an afterthought. 

That’s why Microsoft is committed to responsible AI, an approach to developing, assessing, deploying, and using AI systems in a way that aligns with human values and does not cause harm to individuals, communities, or society. We are committed to sharing our learnings around responsible AI as we’ve developed and deployed our own AI solutions, and offering tools and resources to help our customers approach AI responsibly for their own organizations.

And as you chart your path in this new era of AI, we are committed to supporting you with guidance, resources, and information you can use.

We’ve worked with customers, industry experts, and Microsoft leaders to identify five critical factors for AI success that you should consider as your organization looks to the future. You can also explore some of the top use cases we’ve seen deliver impact across industries, as inspiration for how you can get started.

The opportunity before all of us to shape this new era of AI is simply extraordinary, and it’s one of the most significant shifts of our generation. We’re excited to partner with you on this journey.  

Sources

¹ How Sellers Can Use AI to Better Engage with Customers

² The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier, McKinsey Digital

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