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.

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.

The post How South Korea is building an AI-powered future for everyone appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

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

The post The UK’s opportunity to seize growth in the age of agentic AI appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

According to the 2024 Work Trend Index, a study exploring into the global trends affecting employee work and wellness, employees are struggling to keep up with the pace and volume of work. Many employees report feeling burned out and as a result, staff turnover is on the rise.

These trends have profound implications, underscoring a crucial shift: employees are now prioritizing their health and well-being over work. This is a pressing concern for all business leaders, particularly in customer service. 

At Microsoft, we recognize the vital role our customer service agents play in delivering world-class care. As the front line between our business and our customers, the quality of our customer care directly impacts customer satisfaction. 

Recently, Colette Stallbaumer, General Manager, Microsoft 365 and Future of Work joined Mala Anand, Corporate Vice President, Customer Experience and Success at Microsoft to discuss how our customer service teams are using AI solutions like Microsoft Copilot to ensure our customer service employees are empowered to focus on the most meaningful parts of their jobs. Here’s what she had to say: 

Adapting to the customer service surge with the power of AI 

Since 2019, Microsoft’s customer service teams, like many in the industry, have been managing a rising surge in calls from customers with complex needs. 

As a service industry veteran and leader of our customer service organization, Mala and her team realized that just adding more call-handling capacity wouldn’t suffice. Their goal was to help teams at scale—to empower them to manage more inquiries, address more complex customer needs, and to more rapidly onboard new employees to help with the surge. They also saw an opportunity to reduce case volumes by introducing self-service options for customers. 

The team began exploring the use of generative AI to enable a more consistent and seamless experience. Already one of the world’s largest support organizations using Dynamics 365 Customer Service, harnessing new AI capabilities could help the organization to automate and augment common support scenarios. As customer zero for our products, turning to Microsoft Copilot and Dynamics 365 Customer Service would enable us to quickly adopt the transformative power of generative AI, and share those learnings with business leaders to implement and improve their own customer support experience at scale.

Reimagining the customer experience with the power of AI

Stay competitive in today’s market with AI

Read more from Mala

Transforming the employee experience with generative AI 

As Mala explains in the interview, adopting Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Copilot Studio created an opportunity to transform work across four key areas of Microsoft’s customer service landscape. 

First, the Customer Service and Success team needed to speed up how quickly new hires could start helping existing customer service agents. Second, they wanted all support teams to access accurate information quickly and spend less time working across tools and data sources to collect customer and incident details. Third, they aimed to cut down on mundane tasks like data entry and paperwork so that customer service agents could focus more on complex issues that require empathy and judgment. Lastly, they aimed to improve self-help options for customers to handle their own questions, reducing the need for support requests. 

AI has the potential to drive operational excellence, nurture customer loyalty, and grow value through the entire customer journey—making it one of the most valuable tools for enterprises to create a consistent, differentiated experience, build meaningful relationships, and deliver better customer care.

Mala Anand, Corporate Vice President, Customer Experience and Success at Microsoft

1. Supporting new hires with better onboarding

The Microsoft Customer Service team introduced Copilot’s case summarization feature to break down complex information into simple summaries, helping new hires understand customer issues more quickly. By surfacing relevant information from diverse sources such as internal documentation, knowledge bases, and websites, Copilot accelerates the learning curve, enabling agents to resolve customer queries faster and deliver superior service. 

What’s more, Copilot supports new hires with ongoing learning and skill development by providing real-time assistance and insights. By using AI capabilities integrated into platforms like Dynamics 365 Customer Service, agents can more easily access tools and diagnostics and recommend optimal solutions. This empowers agents to deliver highly personalized customer experiences across all customer support needs, at a global scale.

2. Helping employees find the right information faster

With Copilot, agents can now find important information quickly, even if it was spread across different systems. Dynamics 365 Knowledge Assist helps agents zero in on the relevant information and articles faster than traditional search. It not only can suggest relevant information but provides context about the specific relevance of content and cites the source.

Having a more comprehensive and streamlined method to seek information not only helps agents solve issues more quickly—it gives them a more complete understanding of information relevant to the issue they’re trying to solve. Agents can now use this context, with Copilot, to craft a more thorough and accurate response to customers.

3. Automating burdensome tasks

Before Copilot, creating detailed case summaries could take up to 30 to 40 minutes. Now, with Copilot, it’s done in 15 minutes or less. This not only speeds up how quickly customer service agents can handle customer requests but also lets them manage more cases without sacrificing quality. 

Automating summaries and common email and communication tasks allows agents to spend much less time on repetitive tasks, giving them more time to focus on the more meaningful and often more rewarding aspects of their job.  

4. Transforming support with self-service

Prioritizing self-service by integrating Copilot Studio into our customer-facing experiences is starting to make a big difference in how Microsoft handles customer service. Now, customers can use the power of generative AI in Copilot Studio to access self-help resources.

This change has reduced the amount of work customer service teams have to do and lets agents concentrate on more complex issues where customers require assistance. As a result, they’re getting things done more efficiently, working together better, and feeling more satisfied with their jobs. 

Harnessing the business impact of Copilot  

As Mala explains in her interview, generative AI and Copilot have played a pivotal role in transforming our customer service organization at Microsoft, enabling teams to achieve more with fewer resources. Here’s what we’ve seen so far:

1. Improved collaboration: Collaboration required among customer support agents decreased by 13%, making case resolution smoother and operations more efficient.

2. Enhancing efficiency: With Copilot, average chat case handling time reduced by up to 16%, giving agents better access to knowledge and improving overall efficiency.

3. Increasing productivity: Agents using Copilot became more productive, handling up to 12% more cases, which allowed them to serve more customers effectively. 

And that’s just the start. Mala sees a future for Copilot that will revolutionize the customer services industry, making it more efficient, responsive, and customer-centric.  

These include things like automatically connecting customers with appropriate experts, helping customers solve complex problems on their own, predicting issues before they happen, and personalizing interactions based on customer information and preferences. 

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By automating routine tasks and helping teams find information faster, Copilot helps our employees focus on what really matters to them, allowing them to dive deeper into the parts of their jobs they love.  

The speed at which AI is transforming business today is unprecedented, reimagining the way we work. We envision a future where AI alongside human expertise reduces and eliminates the seams in the support experience. 

Mala Anand, Corporate Vice President, Customer Experience and Success at Microsoft

Today, the power of AI is revolutionizing how companies innovate and create large-scale impact in all areas. Leveraging generative AI throughout the customer journey enables businesses to foster enduring customer loyalty by improving the overall experience, adding value at each interaction. 

This interview is part of our All in on AI series that explores how Microsoft is adopting AI across different areas of our business. Next, Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft Chief People Officer, sits down with Jared Spataro to share how AI is helping human resource teams do more with less and to share the transformative best practices she used to drive some of the highest, fastest AI adoption rates Microsoft has ever seen. 

The post All in on AI: Exploring Microsoft’s AI journey through customer service appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

As technology advances rapidly, AI emerges as a source of innovation, promising to redefine what’s possible in our world. This sense of wonder and anticipation was palpable during our recent stop in Sydney for the Microsoft AI Tour. The vibrant enthusiasm for AI was displayed by businesses and governments in Australia and New Zealand showcasing the region’s commitment to leveraging AI to transform services, enhance efficiency, and solve complex challenges with unprecedented agility.

Microsoft’s recent investment of AUD $5 billion in Australia’s digital infrastructure is a testament to our belief in AI’s potential to empower every individual and organization to achieve more. This significant investment not only reflects our confidence in AI’s transformative power but also highlights the pivotal role Australia and New Zealand are poised to play in global AI innovation. It is against this backdrop of optimism and groundbreaking investment that we delve into success stories that demonstrate the tangible benefits AI is already bringing to the Australia and New Zealand region.

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Telstra: Revolutionizing customer service through AI

Facing the challenge of improving customer service efficiency and reducing the need for repeated information, Telstra turned to Microsoft Cloud and Azure OpenAI Service to develop their generative AI solutions, “One Sentence Summary” and “Ask Telstra.” These tools, by summarizing customer histories and providing quick access to internal knowledge, have drastically improved the efficiency and personalization of customer service, setting a new standard in telecommunications.

The successful pilot programs underscored the solutions’ impact, demonstrating marked improvements in operational efficiency and customer satisfaction, prompting Telstra to expand these AI tools across its network. This strategic move underscores Telstra’s commitment to innovatively enhancing service delivery through responsible AI use, in collaboration with Microsoft and Accenture.

South Australia’s Department for Education: Empowering education with AI

Confronted with the advent of generative AI services like ChatGPT, the South Australia Department for Education harnessed AI to create EdChat, a pioneering chatbot designed to enrich teaching and learning. This innovative tool, developed in collaboration with Microsoft and IT partner, Insight Enterprises, has equipped students and teachers with a dynamic resource for exploring AI safely, fostering essential future skills.

The outcome of the eight-week EdChat trial revealed a significant shift in how students engage with information and learning, promoting a culture of inquiry and critical thinking, while ensuring a secure and ethical AI learning environment. EdChat serves as a secure environment where students can ask questions without fear of judgment, granting them increased agency over their own educational paths.

This initiative not only highlights the department’s proactive approach to educational challenges but also sets a precedent for integrating AI in education, empowering the next generation with the knowledge and skills for a future where AI plays a central role.

“EdChat is a truly inspiring example of how the education sector can embrace generative AI to deliver value to its most important stakeholders – students,” says Veli Mati-Vanamo, CTO (APAC) of Insight Enterprises.

CommBank: Enhancing financial services with AI

As an early adopter of AI in the banking sector, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CommBank) has embraced a variety of innovative AI use cases to redefine customer service and enhance operational efficiency. The bank ran a successful trial of GitHub Copilot with the goal of accelerating the coding processes, and it has deployed generative AI for personalized customer notifications, a Q&A tool to expedite staff response times, and AI-driven analysis to streamline loan processing.

Informed by these successes, Commbank recently announced an exciting expansion of their partnership with Microsoft. This collaboration will focus on generative AI to develop tools like the CommBank copilot to resolve customer queries faster and help customers better understand their money.

“Through our ongoing partnership,…we also see this as an opportunity to work together with leading global technology teams to ensure CBA’s safety and security is constantly upgraded and improved, to keep pace with the evolving threat landscape,” said Gavin Munroe, CommBank’s Group Executive, Technology and Group Chief Information Officer.

The partnership also emphasizes the development of AI-driven solutions to support CommBank staff and customers, with Microsoft engineers already collaborating on projects to elevate customer service and security.

This strategic and planned adoption of AI technologies is solidifying CommBank’s position as a leader in responsible and ethical AI use, demonstrating a forward-thinking approach to leveraging AI for comprehensive business and community betterment.

Australian Government: Innovating public service with AI

In a pioneering initiative, the Australian Government is harnessing generative AI through a strategic partnership with Microsoft to revolutionize public service. Through the current pilot, 7,000 government staff members are receiving AI literacy and skills training of Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 based on a six-month trial aimed to significantly enhance productivity and the delivery of services to the public.

“By strengthening our partnership with Microsoft, we are charting a course for the future of public service – one where generative AI is used responsibly to enhance the work of the APS in delivering for Australians without compromising on safety,” said Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese when he announced the trial in November 2023.

The initiative positions Australia at the forefront of global leaders in integrating AI within government operations, reflecting a deep commitment to innovation and responsible AI use, paving the way for a robust digital future.

LawVu: Transforming legal workflows with AI

Embedded deeply within LawVu’s operational fabric, AI is transforming legal workflows and decision-making processes. As a pioneer in Microsoft’s AI First Movers program, LawVu leverages Azure OpenAI Service to power its AI Assist feature, significantly streamlining contract reviews with rapid access to essential details, thereby bypassing exhaustive document examinations.

While LawVu’s focus is on streamlining internal processes for in-house legal teams, “Now, with the power of AI embedded in that workflow, we are taking a crucial next step in transforming what in-house legal teams can do and how efficiently they can do it,” said Sam Kidd, CEO and Co-founder of LawVu.

The use of AI extends beyond customer-facing features to internal operations, where LawVu harnesses ChatGPT for swift resolution of employee policy queries and GitHub Copilot to accelerate software development, embodying AI as a core component of its innovation strategy. This holistic adoption of AI not only alleviates administrative loads but also marks a profound shift towards efficiency and enhanced productivity, symbolizing a leap forward in legal technology evolution.

Qscan Group: Advancing medical diagnostics with AI

In the face of a global radiologist shortage and heightened demand for diagnostic imaging, one of Australia’s leading medical diagnostic imaging providers, Qscan Group, turned to AI to optimize the productivity of its radiologists. Utilizing Microsoft’s cloud and AI capabilities, including Nuance’s PowerScribe One, Qscan Group radiologists improved their productivity by more than 5%.

“We’ve seen some significant improvements in our cybersecurity posture and our overall technology performance by leveraging the Microsoft ecosystem,” says Simon Button, Chief Technology Officer at Qscan Group. “It ensures that we have a high performing, yet safe and secure organization.”

Qscan is already exploring ways that generative AI and the latest AI advances can improve patient and employee experience from improving the quality of radiology reports to automating call centers, setting new benchmarks for excellence in healthcare technology.

Stuff Group: Strengthening te reo Māori language with AI translation

In their ongoing effort to support the revitalization of te reo Māori, New Zealand’s Stuff Group Te Puna has launched an exciting pilot program that leverages AI to translate news articles, videos, and audio content at scale.

“Bilingual articles aren’t new at Stuff, we’ve been producing them for years,” said Stuff’s Pou Tiaki Matua Carmen Parahi (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Hine, Rongowhakaata). “But this is the first time we will be using AI to translate even more articles at scale, which will be quality-checked by a human translator and our editorial team before being published.”

Using technology from Microsoft and Straker Translations, the AI tool will not only multiply the number of articles published each week in te reo Māori but greatly increase its ability to translate live or breaking news.

Contrasted with his own experience as a young Māori in the 1970s and 1980s, Grant Straker (Ngāti Raukawa), Founder and Chief Executive of Straker Translations proudly noted, “Today’s generation of Māori and everyone that comes after will be able to engage with regular news content in their own language.”

Microsoft and ASD: Elevating cyber resilience with Sentinel-CTIS integration

The cybercrime threat landscape is escalating, with bad actors exploring the use of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI to research and plan cyber-attacks. As part of the Microsoft-Australian Signals Directorate Cyber Shield, Microsoft Australia and the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) Cyber Threat Intelligence Sharing program (CTIS) have partnered together to advance cyber resilience and ensure a safer future for Australians.

The collaboration will enable public-private exchange of threat intelligence to boost ASD’s Cyber Threat Intelligence Sharing program (CTIS) and a world-first integration with Microsoft Sentinel technology. Microsoft Sentinel customers will be offered a free download capability to integrate into the CTIS program more easily and benefit from Microsoft’s global threat analysis of more than 78 trillion signals every day to support the fight against the evolving cybersecurity threats.

“Cyber security is a team sport, and the collective efforts of both the public and private sectors are vital to defend our nation,” said Rachel Noble PSM, Director-General of the Australian Signals Directorate. “By fostering such partnerships, we can more quickly identify threats, combat threat actors and make a lasting impact on Australia’s state of security.”

By actively disrupting cybercrime, including dismantling phishing domains and targeting ransomware groups like Black Basta, the collaborative use of AI between government, industry, and international partners has proven effective in bolstering Australia’s cyber defense.

AI for everyone in Australia and New Zealand

These compelling stories from Australia and New Zealand illuminate the transformative potential of AI across sectors, serving as a source of inspiration for business leaders to explore how AI can revolutionize their operations.

Microsoft’s dedication to empowering organizations with AI technology and ethical guidance underpins a future where innovation leads to sustainable growth and enhanced human experience. As we continue this series, stay tuned for further insights and stories that celebrate the transformative journey of AI across industries and regions.

Take the next step in your AI journey by exploring Microsoft AI solutions, diving into The AI Strategy Roadmap, and getting skilled up with Microsoft Learn’s AI learning hub to ensure you’re ready to leverage Microsoft AI to its fullest potential.

The post A wave of AI innovation is overtaking Australia and New Zealand appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

In the ever-evolving world of technology, AI stands out as a beacon of transformative power, heralding a new era of innovation and opportunity. With a diffusion rate faster than any other technology to date, it is imperative to recognize that AI is not just a technological leap but a global opportunity that transcends borders, industries, and cultures.

Reflecting on my recent discussions during Microsoft’s first AI Tour in India, I’m thrilled by the seismic shift underway in India’s AI landscape. India’s GDP is on track to grow from about USD3.5 trillion to USD5 trillion in the next three years,¹ fueling expected digital technology growth beyond 20% in the same period.² Equally impressive is how the country’s talent and innovative spirit are propelling us into a new era of technological advancement. In fact, India boasts one of the world’s largest pools of AI developers, with more developers contributing to GitHub than almost anywhere else in Asia. Indian AI projects on GitHub account for a quarter of the global total. Simply put, India’s role in shaping the future of AI is undeniable.

Through the lens of India’s vibrant innovation ecosystem, we witness firsthand the remarkable potential of AI to redefine the way businesses operate, solve complex challenges, and create unparalleled value for customers and communities alike.

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Genpact’s AI Guru: Empowering teams through generative AI

The deployment of Genpact’s AI Guru, a generative AI chatbot, exemplifies the transformative impact of AI on employee learning and development. By leveraging Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Genpact, a global professional services firm, has revolutionized its internal learning platform, enabling employees to access a wealth of knowledge and expertise at their fingertips. AI Guru assists in everything from IT migration projects to providing management advice, showcasing the power of AI to enhance team collaboration, problem-solving, and productivity.

“Today it’s a learning companion,” said Prashant Shukla, who heads learning and content management for Genome, the company’s online learning platform and knowledge base for AI Guru. “The next step is guiding people on skills they should be learning. In future, we look at this as a coach for specific roles.”

This initiative not only boosts employee engagement and retention but also underscores the importance of continuous learning and adaptation in today’s fast-paced business environment.

Shiksha copilot: Revolutionizing education with AI

In the realm of education, the Shiksha copilot project, developed in collaboration with the Sikshana Foundation and powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, demonstrates the incredible potential of AI to enrich teaching and learning experiences. By generating customized lesson plans, activities, and resources in minutes, Shiksha copilot enables teachers to deliver more engaging and effective instruction, particularly in resource-constrained settings.

“Obviously, they like these experiments,” said veteran science and math teacher Mahalakshmi Ashok, who uses Shiksha copilot to find engaging lesson activities for her students. “Each and every class is becoming lively. The learning has become easier.”

Indeed, AI-driven innovation like Shiksha copilot is not only a time saver for educators, but it provides new avenues for student engagement and learning, democratizing education and fostering a love for learning among students.

Myntra’s AI shopping assistant: Solving the “search” problem for online retail

In the online fashion retail space, Myntra’s AI shopping assistant represents a leap forward in enhancing customer experience through generative AI. By understanding abstract user queries and offering personalized fashion recommendations, the AI assistant breaks new ground in search functionality, moving beyond keywords to understand the nuances of customer preferences.

“This is big,” said Arit Mondal, director of product management at Myntra, “Why? Because this is the first time we have a solution which is solving the unsolved ‘search’ problem in the fashion, beauty and lifestyle industry. And it’s live for customers at scale.”

Beyond streamlining the shopping experience, Myntra’s AI assistant reveals new possibilities for product discovery, significantly increasing the likelihood of purchase and customer satisfaction. Myntra’s success story illustrates the power of AI to understand and cater to the diverse needs of consumers, setting a new standard for personalized online retail.

Jugalbandi: Bridging language barriers with AI

The Jugalbandi project, an AI-driven chatbot initiative, showcases the transformative potential of AI in bridging language barriers and enhancing access to government services for India’s diverse population. By enabling users to interact with the chatbot in multiple languages and receive information in their local dialect, Jugalbandi democratizes access to essential public services and information, empowering individuals and communities.

“It understands your exact problem in your language and then tries to deliver the right information reliably and cheaply, even if that exists in some other language in a database somewhere,” said Abhigyan Raman, a project officer at AI4Bharat, an open-source language AI center based at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Chennai that is a collaborator on the chatbot. “This is revolutionary for people who could not interact with tech because of language barriers.”

This initiative exemplifies the role of AI in fostering inclusivity and equity, ensuring that the benefits of technology reach every corner of society.

Air India’s AI.g: Pioneering AI in aviation customer service

Air India’s introduction of AI.g, the world’s first generative AI virtual agent in the airline industry, marks a significant milestone in leveraging AI to enhance customer service. Handling a wide array of queries across multiple domains, AI.g exemplifies the efficiency and scalability of AI in managing customer interactions, reducing the need for human intervention in routine tasks, and allowing human agents to focus on more complex issues.

“After the emergence of Large Language Model-driven Generative AI capabilities, we are increasingly seeing a definitive shift in guest preferences to use chat interactions to get the information and support they need quickly and directly as compared to browsing several web pages,” said Satya Ramaswamy, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Air India.

Air India has set a new benchmark for responsive customer service excellence in the aviation industry.

Karya’s platform narrows the digital divide while generating data

I also want to share how Karya is bridging the digital opportunity gap by providing people in India’s low-income and marginalized communities with access to AI-enabled digital work. Capitalizing on the increasing affordability of smartphones and data, Karya has developed a smartphone-based platform that integrates AI into daily life, opening up a range of language-based digital tasks to those in underserved rural areas. Serving not only as a source of income but also as a means to enhance digital literacy, Karya highlights the multiplex possibilities of AI to create economic opportunities and narrow the digital divide.

IndiGo’s 6Eskai chat assistant slashes workload for customers service agents

India’s leading airline, IndiGo, has introduced 6Eskai, an AI chat assistant built on Microsoft’s GPT-4 designed to revolutionize customer service by providing assistance in 10 languages and simplifying the ticket booking process. This initiative, developed in-house by IndiGo’s digital team in collaboration with Microsoft, has significantly reduced the workload on customer service agents by 75% and improved the efficiency of the booking journey.

“This innovative tool will offer seamless support to our passengers, providing quick and personalised assistance for their travel needs,” said Summi Sharma, Senior Vice President at IndiGo, “reflecting IndiGo’s dedication to technological advancements and customer-centric services.”

Equipped with 1.7 trillion parameters, 6Eskai offers a wide array of services, including ticket bookings, promotional discounts, and trip planning, through both type-written and voice-to-text natural language interactions, setting a new standard in airline customer service.

AI for everyone in India

The instances showcased in the blog reflect a larger story of Microsoft’s dedication to bolstering Indian enterprises through AI, fostering remarkable gains in efficiency and innovation. At the Mumbai tour, I encountered numerous business leaders who testified to the tangible benefits and significant return on investment (ROI) from AI integration. Avinash Raghavendra, President and chief information officer (CIO) of Axis Bank, remarked, “Our AI collaboration with Microsoft not only drives optimized and robust processes but also delivers employee satisfaction by providing the means to be always productive and resourceful.”

Similarly, Anup Purohit, CIO of Wipro, emphasized the transformative impact of generative and foundational AI: “Solutions such as Copilot have aligned with our objective of empowering our teams to achieve more efficient workflows and deliver high quality output. It has driven innovation and reinvention of our processes while helping us render better services to our clients.”

India is gaining attention not only for its output in terms of AI innovation but for the incoming investment it is attracting. During his visit in February 2024, Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Satya Nadella underscored the company’s dedication to bolstering India’s shift towards an AI-first economy, mirroring the country’s ambition for self-reliance through AI proficiency. Speaking at the Microsoft CEO Connection event in Mumbai, Nadella unveiled the ADVANTA(I)GE INDIA initiative aimed at equipping 2 million Indians with AI skills by 2025, addressing the national skills shortage and positioning India as a frontrunner in the AI domain.

This initiative not only reflects Microsoft’s commitment to closing the AI skills gap but also showcases India as a pivotal center for output and a prime destination for Microsoft’s investment.

“India is uniquely positioned to make the promise of AI a reality,” said Nadella. “We are committed to partnering broadly across the public and private sector to help close the nation’s AI skills gap and create new opportunity throughout the country.” 

Indeed, India’s innovative spirit and synergistic endeavors with Microsoft stand as a powerful testament to AI’s capacity to forge a more efficient, inclusive, and innovative global future. We can expect that India will continue to lead and innovate in the AI domain, punching above its weight on the global stage.

Take the next step in your AI journey

The era of AI is a global opportunity, beckoning us as business leaders to explore, innovate, and lead the way in shaping a future where technology and humanity converge to create a better world for all.

Take the next step in your AI journey by exploring Microsoft AI solutions, diving into The AI Strategy Roadmap, and getting skilled up with Microsoft Learn’s AI learning hub to ensure you’re ready to leverage Microsoft AI to its fullest potential.

Footnotes

¹The Economic Times, India to become USD 5 trillion economy, third-largest by 2027: RBI DG Patra.

²Reuters, India’s AI market seen touching $17 bln by 2027, notes Nasscom-BCG report.

The post India’s AI ambition: Pioneering the tech frontier appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

To this end, earlier this year, we introduced Microsoft Copilot for Dynamics 365, the world’s first AI copilot natively built for CRM and ERP. Since then, more than 130,000 organizations have experienced copilot capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform firsthand. In fact, a survey revealed that 70 percent of the Copilot users were more productive, 73 percent could complete tasks faster, and 68 percent of users improved the quality of their work.

Organizations, however, depend on a range of business applications across roles and functions, from customer relationship management (CRM) systems for marketing, sales, and service roles to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for finance, supply chain, and operations departments. At Microsoft Ignite, we are announcing new Microsoft Copilot experiences that empower organizations to unlock value from a multitude of systems of record. In conjunction with these copilot experiences, we are announcing new and updated copilot capabilities in Dynamics 365 applications.

Microsoft Ignite 2023

Access recordings of keynotes and sessions, including opportunities to learn about the copilot capabilities announced.

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Announcements include:

• Updates to Copilot for Dynamics 365 to drive efficiency across the organization, featuring capabilities that help marketing, sales, and field service professionals provide exceptional customer experiences.
• Introduction of Microsoft Copilot for Service and Microsoft Copilot for Sales, the evolution of Sales Copilot, bringing together the power of Copilot for Microsoft 365 with role-specific insights and actions. Both provide flexibility to integrate with an organization’s existing contact center and CRM systems respectively. 

Together, these capabilities empower organizations to harness secure and enterprise-ready, generative AI experiences, helping employees to perform at their highest potential across every role and function. 

Reimagine ways to drive efficiency across the organization with Copilot for Dynamics 365

We’re introducing new and enhanced copilot capabilities for Dynamics 365 that help marketers, sellers, and field service professionals elevate customer experiences.

The following Copilot updates are in addition to recently-announced copilot and demand planning capabilities for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, as well as the 2023 release wave 2 for Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform, a six-month rollout of new and enhanced capabilities scheduled for release between October 2023 and March 2024.

Copilot delivers answers and information to field service workers in a chat-based conversation

Field service workers depend on quick access to a variety of customer and technical information precisely at the moment it is needed. A recent survey by Microsoft highlighted that not being able to easily find the information they need ranks in the top five disruptive issues faced by frontline workers in their current day-to-day role.¹ This can significantly affect key performance indicators such as first-time fix rates, customer satisfaction, and retention.

We’re introducing AI-powered experiences for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service, available for preview in December, that enable frontline workers to quickly access information on a job site by asking questions in conversational language, directly within Teams.

We’re also announcing the general availability of AI-assisted work order creation and technician scheduling, and the public preview of financial and inventory data flow between Dynamics 365 Field Service and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. Additionally, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist are available at no additional cost.

Explore the full set of updates to Dynamics 365 Field Service.

Reimagining CRM systems with natural language experiences

The innovation and scale of Copilot have established Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales as an innovative leader in sales technology, as recognized by Gartner and Forrester. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales enhances seller productivity and effectiveness in their flow of work, enabling them to automate the sales processes and make informed decisions with AI-powered insights and actions. Copilot features help sellers save time, boost productivity, and eliminate mundane workloads to maintain focus on connecting with customers and closing deals.

We’re announcing new copilot experiences in Dynamics 365 Sales that allow sellers to interact with their data using natural language.  

Now in preview, sellers can use their own words to get contextual insights and recommendations for leads and opportunities.

In addition, Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales has a new full-screen view where sellers can use natural language or prebuilt prompts to gain a quick understanding of customers, deals, meetings, forecasts, and more. The feature is now available in Asia and Europe and will be available in North America in December.

Deliver more personalized customer experiences with Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights

New capabilities for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights provide a deeper understanding of target customers and segments, helping to hyper-personalize campaign content and improve engagement.

Available for preview in December, sellers can use Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to instantly generate a customer profile summary—including demographic, transactional, behavioral, and analytics data—to uncover key insights on customers. The capability is available for organizations that have both Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise or Premium subscriptions.  

We continue to build capabilities that enable a seamless handoff from marketing to sellers. Now in preview, marketers can qualify their leads using metrics such as engagement scores, ensuring marketing and sales teams maximize the opportunity pipeline and improve win rates.  

Adding to our growing ecosystem, we’re announcing a unique partnership with Optimizely. In preview this December, organizations can use the segments and journeys built in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights directly within Optimizely. This enables Optimizely users to build personalized campaigns in real time without writing any code. Through bi-directional integrations, organizations can deliver hyper-personalized omnichannel experiences across web, social, email, and offline channels.

Bring together the power of Copilot for Microsoft 365 and business insights and actions

Most organizations depend on a range of applications to manage the business, including CRM, ERP, and supply chain management systems. Integrating innovative technology, like generative AI, into these systems can be challenging—especially when security, privacy, and compliance are a top priority.

Responding to this need, we’re introducing a new category of Microsoft Copilot solutions that tap into data from various applications—including Microsoft 365 and third-party systems of record—to bring a new level of efficiency and automation to business functions across the organization. 

Modernize the contact center with Microsoft Copilot for Service

In a recent Microsoft survey, it was revealed that three out of four customer service agents feel less inspired and motivated by their work. With insufficient focus time, over half of them are struggling to deliver exceptional customer service and efficiently address customer issues.¹ The surveyed agents express confidence that AI can positively impact their performance, as well as provide, analytical insights, including trend and sentiment analysis. 

We’re meeting the needs of service agents with a Microsoft Copilot solution that integrates generative AI capabilities into the tools and processes that they depend on every day. Microsoft Copilot for Service integrates an organization’s trusted knowledge with the power of Copilot for Microsoft 365 to boost agent productivity in the tools they already use every day, such as Outlook and Teams; providing AI-guided answers and resources personalized for each customer issue and conversation. 

Microsoft Copilot for Service provides the flexibility to integrate with an organization’s existing CRM and contact center systems. Organizations can train Microsoft Copilot for Service using trusted websites, knowledgebase articles, files, and other critical data sources from their existing contact center to unlock generative AI-powered guidance across all of their data. Microsoft Copilot for Service provides out-of-the-box integrations with Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zendesk, and can be extended to other systems through a vast array of more than 1,100 prebuilt and custom connectors.

MICROSOFT COPILOT STUDIOLearn more 

Copilot for Service can be further customized with Microsoft Copilot Studio, also announced at Microsoft Ignite 2023. With Copilot Studio, service teams can fine-tune copilot experiences by incorporating their own data, logic, and actions tailored for specific scenarios, frequent conversations, or other unique use cases.

Copilot for Service will be available in public preview in early December and generally available in early 2024. Pricing is USD50 per user per month. Learn more about Microsoft Copilot for Service.

Unlock sales productivity in the flow of work

Microsoft Copilot for Sales is the evolution of Sales Copilot, used by leading brands including 10,000 sellers within the Microsoft sales team. A recent survey revealed that 83 percent of Microsoft sellers claim that Microsoft Copilot for Sales helps them improve productivity, with sellers saving an average of 90 minutes per week.¹ Read our ebook on the AI advantage for sellers for details. 

Copilot for Sales brings together the power of Copilot for Microsoft 365 in seller workflows, using customer data within the CRM system they already use, along with information in documents, email, and chats from Microsoft 365 applications.

The innovations enabled in Copilot for Sales include a newly integrated experience with Microsoft Word and Teams. Sellers can prompt Copilot to create a meeting preparation brief in Word, automatically populated with customer information such as an account and opportunity summary, names and titles of meeting participants, pending tasks, and highlights from recent meetings and email threads. In addition, meeting recaps in Microsoft Teams can surface action items and tasks, key performance indicators (KPIs), and sales keywords mentioned. These experiences help sellers save time and energy, generate innovative ideas, build stronger customer relationships, and ultimately close more deals.

Like Copilot for Service, sellers can customize AI-assisted sales processes with Copilot Studio, bringing tailored experiences informed by their own data, logic, and actions for specific scenarios.

Copilot for Sales² will be available in the first quarter of 2024 for USD50 per user per month.

Learn more at Microsoft Ignite

Register for Microsoft Ignite to access on-demand recordings of keynotes and sessions, including opportunities to learn about the copilot capabilities announced. You have the opportunity to engage with the global community online, regardless of your location, and participate in live discussions at no cost. To get started, we recommend the following sessions: 

• Becoming an AI-powered organization with Microsoft Copilot (keynote, in-person and online)
• Transform customer experience with Dynamics 365 and next-generation AI (breakout, in-person and online)
• Transforming service organizations with generative AI (breakout, in-person and online)
• ERP in the era of AI: A new face of business efficiency and agility (breakout, in-person and online)

In addition, learn more about what’s possible with Copilot for Dynamics 365 and get started on your journey today. 

¹ Microsoft 2023 Work Trend Index survey

² Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise and Premium customers will retain rights to capabilities in Sales Copilot. As today’s news demonstrates, copilot capabilities in Dynamics 365 Sales will continue to innovate. To get the full value of the new Copilot for Sales, including access to Copilot for Microsoft 365, customers will work with their Microsoft account representative to upgrade.

The post Introducing new Copilot experiences to boost productivity and elevate customer experiences across the organization appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

Organizations like 3M, Prada Group and Campari have been testing copilot features in Dynamics 365 and Power Platform firsthand, while General Motors, Visa, KPMG, AGL, Data #3, Bupa, NAB, Powerlink Queensland, Rest Super and Suncorp are now part of the Microsoft 365 Copilot Early Access Program. Our collaboration with IBM is helping clients accelerate the deployment of generative AI with its new Azure OpenAI Service offering, and we are enabling thousands of organizations like PepsiCo, Vodafone and Voya Financial with Azure cloud services through our expanded partnership with Oracle. To empower employees across 34 countries, Grupo Bimbo developed a solution with an integrated copilot in two weeks to help prevent non-compliance and save time when asking questions about company policies. All of Microsoft’s AI-powered copilots are backed by our Copilot Copyright Commitments to extend IP and legal protection to enterprise customers who use these services, building upon our AI Customer Commitments.

Helping healthcare professionals and providers focus on patient care and support through secure data automation and training

By securely centralizing its data in an AI-powered intelligent data platform on Azure, Mercy is able to use generative AI to help patients schedule appointments more efficiently and better understand their lab results. Mayo Clinic is deploying Microsoft 365 Copilot to ease the burden of administrative demands on healthcare providers so they can focus on patient care, while Duke Health is partnering with Microsoft to responsibly and ethically harness the potential of generative AI and the Microsoft Cloud to redefine the healthcare landscape. To speed up care and improve patient experiences, MultiCare has automated its medication reconciliation process and increased efficiency by 175% with help from Microsoft and partner 3Cloud. By consolidating data such as lab results, medications and plan coverage in the cloud, Blue Shield of California is making services more accessible to members while reducing the cost of care. With help from Healthanea, France-based insurance company AXA is connecting hospitals, pharmaceuticals, health tech solutions and insurers to provide patients with reliable and accurate health information while protecting sensitive health data through the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare. Paige and Microsoft are collaborating to transform patient care by building the world’s largest image-based AI to detect cancer with higher accuracy. To ensure patient confidentiality and automate threat reporting, Hamad Medical Corporation is working with Mannai to proactively detect and respond to cyber threats while providing real-time visibility to its executives. Sanofi is improving training and collaboration for employees in different locations with HoloLens 2 — saving two weeks of training time for its production line operators and meeting increased demand for pharmaceuticals.

Empowering government workers, non-profit volunteers, students and teachers to expand social impact and save costs with data and AI

Working with AltaML, the Government of Alberta has built an AI-powered tool to help firefighting duty officers become more confident in predicting and sustainably managing the risk of wildfires, creating the potential to save up to $3 million in annual operating costs. In the U.K., Aberdeen City Council is making it easier for workers to access social care data within minutes to provide faster and more accurate service to vulnerable citizens while saving more than $2 million annually on manual data collection. To help ensure seamless service to citizens and prevent cyberattacks to critical infrastructure like traffic light systems and utilities, the City of Brampton is helping its IT team improve its cybersecurity maturity and reduce attack alerts by 70% with help from partner Difenda. To quickly scale the creation of thousands of audiobooks and reduce volunteer labor, nonprofit Project Gutenberg is making its e-books more accessible to people with visual impairments by using text-to-speech capabilities in Azure AI and Microsoft Fabric. German-based Nationalpark Bayerischer Wald is using AI to help research students pre-classify wildlife images in two days instead of 30 — saving 95% on the cost of wildlife monitoring and distance measurement. Working with teachers to offer more individualized support to students, New York City Public Schools has developed a secure, custom AI-powered teaching assistant on Azure OpenAI to answer questions and give real-time feedback.

Providing financial services employees and customers with AI capabilities for more meaningful and personalized interactions

Ally Financial launched a proprietary platform as its foundation for generative AI innovation across the company, including live summarization of customer service calls so employees can spend more time focusing on customer interactions. With Azure OpenAI, Swiss investment firm Vontobel is boosting employee productivity in programming and data analysis, while automatic payments company Sem Parar is responding intelligently and contextually to customer inquiries to help them resolve their questions more quickly. Emirates NBD is empowering more than a thousand developers with its coding assistant leveraging the capabilities of GitHub Copilot X, while automating repetitive tasks and content generation for employees using Microsoft 365 Copilot. MetLife is helping pet parents access health records and connect with veterinary technicians more easily through its app built with AI-powered search and machine learning capabilities. With a focus on making financial services more accessible in Qatar, CWallet has saved $1 million by building its secure and compliant fintech platform on Azure to meet data regulations in the Middle East, and now plans to explore AI capabilities to simplify customer transactions.

Equipping manufacturing workers with AI-driven data and insights to improve customer support and streamline complex operations

Using Azure OpenAI, electrical equipment manufacturer ABB is integrating generative AI into its platform and applications to provide industry executives, specialists and engineers with real-time insights for better decision making and increased productivity. To reduce waiting time for customers, Dubai-based BMW Group importer AGMC is building an AI solution to more quickly locate and transport vehicles from its largest service center. By creating a scalable AI platform in Azure, Swedish steel manufacturer Epiroc is helping automate complex processes for its global employees to ensure consistent quality of its products, increase efficiency and reduce waste. Printer and imaging company Lexmark has improved its technician support efficiency by 20% with AI-driven predictive modelling, contributing to a 20% increase in customer satisfaction ratings. Xiaomi has developed an AI service bot with Power Virtual Agents to handle customer questions more efficiently and is better using Azure Translator to quickly generate product manuals in multiple languages. Indian textile company Arvind is leveraging the integrated AI capabilities of Power Apps to reduce sampling errors by 90%, production errors by 70% and order turnaround time by 30%.

Enhancing employee productivity and providing customers with AI-enhanced solutions across professional services 

Lumen Technologies is empowering employees across organizations with Microsoft 365 Copilot, making it easier for customer service teams to access repair manuals and helping sales teams summarize actionable steps from customer communications. In France, consulting firm Arthur D. Little is unifying its complex, unsorted data while maintaining data confidentiality and maximizing human capital — helping its consultants prepare for client meetings faster and curate presentation content in 50% less time. Jacobs Solutions is making it easier for staff to access and share high-quality data by integrating Microsoft Fabric with its end-to-end platform for seamless data management and advanced AI capabilities. INSPIRE Environmental is reducing costs and client turnaround time for image analysis of complex ocean data using Azure AI and machine learning. By leveraging Azure OpenAI, Orca Security is speeding up response times to customers and increasing data security while meeting regulatory compliance, Amadeus is working with Microsoft and Accenture to assist corporate travelers with trip logistics through its interactive assistant — as well as building a plug-in for Microsoft 365 Copilot, and professional services firm Atera is helping IT technicians focus on high value work while improving efficiency by 10x with its AI-powered platform.

Today’s AI advancements have also generated new opportunities for digital natives to build upon their cloud-first strategies and shape the future of industry. To combat and identify cyber financial crime behaviors, SymphonyAI developed an AI assistant to help investigators securely and automatically collect, collate and summarize financial and third-party information. By applying AI capabilities across thousands of interactions each day, CallMiner is unlocking insights that empower organizations with a better understanding of the customer journey. Striving to be a leader in empathetic personal intelligence, Inflection AI is developing an AI chatbot that helps people accelerate development while reducing downtime. Building upon its cloud-based solution on Azure, Elastic is giving customers more focused answers to search queries by combining internal company knowledge with context from actual documents. With Azure OpenAI and Azure Cognitive Services, DeepBrain AI is cutting down chatbot development time and reducing manual processes while increasing language understanding and translation capabilities; while Commerce.AI has already started driving up to 50% increases in productivity for clients with its consumer sentiment analytics solutions.

We have a collective opportunity to put generative AI to work to help solve the biggest challenges facing organizations, industries and society today. Microsoft is helping customers and partners prioritize work and pragmatically innovate with generative AI to meet their most pressing business needs. From our unwavering commitment to building products responsibly and securely to how we engage with our customers and partners, I am proud of the trust we have forged along the way. Whether you are leveraging our copilot capabilities across the Microsoft Cloud, working with our partners to apply industry-specific cloud and AI solutions or seeking to co-innovate and co-develop to build custom solutions, I look forward to working alongside you to accelerate your AI transformation.

The post Innovating with responsibility: How customers and partners are bridging data, AI and trust with the Microsoft Cloud 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.

Explore AI solutions

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

The post Shaping the future with the cloud built for the era of AI appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

Copilot is designed to help people do their very best work—and we’re seeing real value to support this vision. Today, I’m excited to share the most widely used scenarios and performance metrics from employees at Microsoft and leading organizations using Copilot capabilities across the customer journey. These stories and insights showcase what’s possible when employees are assisted by AI in the flow of work—helping them to boost productivity, perform tasks more efficiently, and focus on what matters most.

Transforming customer experience in the age of AI

Sellers, service agents, and marketers share a common goal: developing exceptional customer experiences that ultimately impact the bottom line. In July, we introduced the next wave of Copilot and AI capabilities to deliver connected customer experiences—from within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, all the way through to the customer interactions in Outlook and Microsoft Teams powered by Microsoft Sales Copilot. With Dynamics 365 Copilot and Microsoft Sales Copilot, marketers can use everyday language to create relevant and targeted campaigns and brainstorm creative copy; sellers can move from one customer call and email to the next with relevant context on the opportunity at their fingertips; and service agents can become super agents with the help of AI to serve up relevant information to close customer cases more quickly.

Assisted by Dynamics 365 Copilot, Microsoft Support team resolves more cases faster, with less effort

At Microsoft, we’re also leading our own AI-first transformation and, since April, have been using Copilot capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service within our Customer Service and Support (CSS) team—one of the largest customer service organizations in the world. Today, we can share how Copilot has impacted the way agents work to resolve support cases, and the impact on their efficiency and productivity.

Microsoft’s Office of the Chief Economist, in partnership with the Dynamics 365 product group, evaluated how Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service has impacted agent productivity since April. The initial results shared here reflect those of 11.5K agents, with 6.5K agents who used Copilot and the control group of 5K agents who did not use Copilot.

The findings demonstrate how Copilot can support agents of all experience levels in their workflows to increase efficiency and quality of customer engagements. Key results included:

• Expedited agent onboarding. High turnover rates are common for service teams across industries, placing a burden on organizations to onboard new agents to be productive quickly. Copilot has been particularly effective in helping newer agents who don’t have years of experience or institutional experience get up to speed and find relevant information more quickly, the study found. Specifically, for low-severity chat cases in one area of our commercial support business, we observed a 12 percent reduction in average handle time—the time actively spent on resolving a customer case.
• More cases resolved faster—without peer assistance. In the most productive scenario, the study found that in one support business, 10 percent of cases that normally require collaboration with peers were resolved independently. This means fewer customers had to experience being put on hold.

Direct feedback from Microsoft Support agents reveals how Copilot improves interactions with customers:

• “Just wanted to share my gratitude to Copilot as a person who always struggles to wrap up wording before sharing with the customer—amazing time and pain saver for me!”
• “[A] customer switched language mid-chat from English to Spanish. Copilot enabled me to continue to solve the problem regardless of the language shift.”
• “I used Copilot to help a customer and got CSAT [customer satisfaction score] 5 out of 5. Their feedback was, ‘Very informative and to the point.’”

While the study captures just the first few months of AI-assisted service within the Microsoft Support organization, the results should encourage other organizations looking to optimize service operations with AI. The findings offer a glimpse of efficiencies and productivity gains that other organizations might experience when using Copilot. Read more details about the Microsoft Support team’s experience with Copilot on Microsoft Source. For the full story and video testimonial about the team’s transformation journey, check out the case study.  

In addition to performance metrics, Microsoft employees provide feedback to the development team, helping to ensure every new capability provides the best possible benefit for users. This step is crucial as we roll out new features across Dynamics 365 Copilot—including a feature available today. Copilot summarization, now generally available, helps agents to quickly review the details of a case without sifting through notes, chat transcripts, and emails. This feature generates automatic conversation summaries, helping service agents to quickly understand highlights of a case—such as key customer problems and steps that agents took to resolve the case.

The Copilot summarization feature joins a host of upcoming Copilot capabilities for service teams, from the call center to field service professionals. View the release plans for Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service for details. 

Service organizations expect Copilot to help deliver new levels of agent productivity and customer experiences

In addition to the early results from the Microsoft Support team, we’re hearing directly from leading organizations getting an early start with Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

Prada Group, a global leader in luxury brands, is using Copilot to improve experiences for its discerning customers. “We’re excited to be one of the early adopters of the new Dynamics 365 Copilot AI tool,” shared Francesco De Giampaulis, Global Client Service & e-Commerce Payment Gateways and Anti-Fraud Manager, Prada Group. “By integrating it with our Knowledge Base and other internal sources, Copilot will assist our Client Service Advisors speeding up the onboarding process, offering a fast and smooth assistance to our customers, saving time searching for answers and focusing on providing a great experience, including suggestions for the right product or look.”

One of the leading investment management and advisory services, Vanguard Group, shared its initial experiences with Copilot. “Vanguard is utilizing Dynamics 365 Customer Service to support its agents in client service and knowledge management scenarios, as well as a custom bot to manage customer inquiries via its website,” explained Grant Pharez, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Specialist at Vanguard. “We are seeing promising results in testing the generative AI capabilities in these applications to help our customer care teams and self-service customer applications deliver exceptional service.”

Sellers reach new levels of productivity with Microsoft Sales Copilot

Concurrent to the Microsoft Support team’s experience, Microsoft deployed Microsoft Sales Copilot (previously Viva Sales) to 10,000 sellers within its sales organization. Early results show that 85 percent of surveyed sellers report completing one or more tasks faster, and 70 percent claim that Microsoft Sales Copilot helps them improve productivity.

Organizations like Securitas, a leading provider of custom security and guarding solutions, are noting the ability for sellers to focus time on what matters most. “Opportunity summary in Microsoft Sales Copilot is a huge and important leap in our direction to save more time for our sales personnel,” said Philip Eklund, Vice President, Client Engagement Services, Securitas. “With this capability in the hands of our sellers, they can spend more time equipping organizations with best-in-class security solutions to help make our world a safer place.”

Sellers using Microsoft Sales Copilot benefit from AI capabilities that help streamline the workday. Features slated for general availability in September and October include AI-generated preparation notes for customer conversations and opportunity and lead summaries. In addition, Microsoft Sales Copilot improves teamwork and knowledge sharing, providing sellers with collaboration spaces in Teams that integrate with CRM data and contact cards that surface CRM records directly in Microsoft 365 apps. View the release notes for Dynamics 365 Sales and Microsoft Sales Copilot for details. Get the e-book, “The AI Advantage: Driving Sales Performance with Next-Generation Tools”, which details how AI supports sales teams throughout the day. 

Marketers surface deeper insights, optimize customer journeys with Copilot

Like sales and service professionals, marketing teams using Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights report tangible business benefits. TTEC Digital, a global customer experience (CX) technology and services company and Microsoft Gold Partner, shared how Copilot democratizes marketing tasks. According to Karl Phenix, VP at TTEC Digital, “Copilot in Customer Insights makes marketing employees more comfortable in doing complex tasks such as segmentation, which previously required specialists such as data scientists.” Karl added that “Copilot frees up time by generating emails in minutes, so marketing employees can do more to drive sales activities and accelerate the pipeline.”

Copilot features now generally available help marketers to deliver a consistent brand narrative and customer experience. Marketers can craft email content by prompting Copilot to curate content, change the tone and voice, or adjust the length of the copy. Available in preview, marketers can also create customer journeys simply by describing actions at each step, such as: “When a contact registers for an event, send a thank you email.” In fact, 59 percent of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights customers* have used Copilot when creating segments and 36 percent of customers used Copilot to ask questions to uncover customer and business insights. View the release notes for more details.

Start transforming customer experiences with Dynamics 365

Dynamics 365 is a complete suite of CRM and ERP applications that helps you manage your businesses across sales, marketing, service, finance, and supply chain.

Dynamics 365 Copilot is the world’s first AI copilot integrated into CRM and ERP applications in the cloud. Unlike other solutions, generative AI features are included in Dynamics 365 subscriptions for enterprise customers at no additional charge.

Take a guided tour of Dynamics 365 applications and get started today with a free 30-day trial.

View the Dynamics 365 licensing guide to choose options that suit your business, and contact your Microsoft representative to learn more about the value and return on investments, as well as the latest offers—including a limited-time 26 percent savings on subscription pricing for Dynamics 365 Sales Premium.

If you are a Dynamics 365 customer, use Copilot capabilities today. Visit the Dynamics 365 release planner to view features coming soon and available to try now.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 and Power Platform

Copilot features are empowering marketing, sales, and customer service teams in new ways.

Read how

*Dynamics 365 Customer Insights customers that have access to copilot capabilities, US only, based on telemetry data.

The post From Microsoft to global brands, Dynamics 365 Copilot is helping transform customer experiences across service, sales, and marketing appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.