Manufacturing is moving beyond local optimization toward a closed loop of end-to-end intelligent orchestration. Looking back at CES 2026, we can see that the industry narrative is quiet but fundamentally shifting. 

Across what we’re seeing with customers globally, three shifts stand out. First, the system shift. The operational foundation is evolving from digital to intelligent: more resilient, more real-time, and critically, more governable. Second, the data shift. The digital thread is no longer a static archive. It is becoming a living system—continuously updated and directly powering decisions as conditions change. Third, the work shift. We’re moving from copilots that assist individuals to agents that can collaborate and take on tasks—so the workflows themselves become more self-driving.

Together, these forces are raising the bar. Companies now need an end-to-end intelligent chain that turns AI from isolated point solutions into an organizational capability—reusable, scalable, and auditable. Drawing on Microsoft’s long-term work with manufacturers worldwide, and on how technology is evolving, I’d like to offer a practical framework for building that intelligent chain—so leaders can convert insight into action, and pilots into capabilities that scale.

AI use-case map for manufacturing: End-to-end intelligence from design to service

Scene One: Digital Engineering: Turning R&D into a profit engine

The role of the digital thread is evolving. Traditionally, it served primarily as a system of record—aggregating and archiving data. With AI and a unified data platform, it is becoming a real-time decision backbone spanning design, manufacturing, and service. Knowledge generated at one stage can now be applied immediately to improve outcomes in another. Generative and agentic AI are accelerating the core engineering loop—design, simulation, manufacturability analysis, and engineering change management—shortening iteration cycles and pushing risk discovery earlier in the process. Engineering data is no longer an R&D-only asset; it increasingly informs factory scheduling, quality strategies, maintenance policies, and service feedback loops.

This shift is already visible in practice. HARTING, a leader in industrial connectors, has deployed an AI assistant powered by Azure OpenAI and Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing, making connector design faster, simpler, and more intuitive than ever before. Customers can describe their requirements in natural language, and the AI translates these inputs into technical specifications, guiding them to the right product within a minute. Customers can also visualize their configurations in 3D, enhancing confidence in their decisions. Siemens DI provides comprehensive cutting-edge software, hardware, and product lifecycle management solutions for industries including automotive and aerospace.

Using Microsoft Azure AI, Siemens DI developed a Microsoft Teams application for its industry-leading product lifecycle management (PLM) solution, Teamcenter. This solution analyzes unstructured voice content in multiple languages, automatically generates summary reports, and delivers information precisely to the relevant design, engineering, or manufacturing experts within Teamcenter. Through this intelligent collaboration mechanism, field issues are resolved faster, and knowledge transfer efficiency is significantly enhanced.

Scene Two: Intelligent Factory: AI is rewriting scheduling, quality, and maintenance

Production, maintenance, quality, and inventory remain the four core modules of factory operations—and that does not change in a smart‑factory context. What is changing is how these modules run. AI is systematically reshaping their operating logic: inventory management is moving from static rules to dynamic optimization based on real-time signals; quality management is shifting toward earlier, more precise judgments through computer vision, time‑series forecasting, and anomaly detection; and maintenance is evolving from after‑the‑fact repairs to predictive maintenance—progressing further toward adaptive process control.

As OT and IT capabilities mature, factories are gaining the ability to reason and respond directly at the point of value creation—on the shop floor, in real time. Frontline teams, empowered by multimodal Microsoft Copilot, can push the boundaries of what they can diagnose, decide, and execute. Over time, this human‑machine collaboration forms operational “agents” that can be deployed into production lines and day‑to‑day routines—turning intelligence into repeatable execution.

Global candy maker Mars operates manufacturing facilities across 124 locations worldwide. To safeguard its global equipment network, Mars partnered with Microsoft to deploy the Microsoft Defender for IoT solution. This enables visual management and threat detection for industrial equipment within stringent air-gapped production environments. Simultaneously, the solution transmits critical security data to a centralized system, enhancing data visibility while ensuring production continuity. International technology group Körber has transformed its market-leading PAS-X MES product into a cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) solution to address the stringent and multifaceted production management demands of the pharmaceutical sector. Using the robust stability of Microsoft Azure, Microsoft for Manufacturing, and Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Service, this solution enables customers to achieve greater flexibility and scalability. Simultaneously, by integrating data from IT and OT systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), and manufacturing execution system (MES), it delivers near real-time, actionable insights from diverse systems to employees. This significantly enhances equipment uptime, employee productivity, product quality, and overall output.

Scene Three: Resilient supply chain: From insight to execution with agentic AI

Early AI in supply chains mostly provided forecasts and dashboards. Valuable as they were, humans still needed to translate insights into action. The next step is agentic AI that executes—coordinating with suppliers, triggering replenishment or re-planning, optimizing inventory, and managing exceptions in logistics. When this happens, the traditional plan–execute–feedback loop transforms into a continuous intelligent system. The result is more than improved service levels—it enhances structural resilience and sustainability, as the system senses disruptions earlier, acts faster, and learns continuously.

A China-based electronics manufacturer, Xiaomi has built a unified after-sales supply chain management platform based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform, using Azure for system integration and multilingual support. Utilizing Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Xiaomi has created a work platform that integrates financial processes, data integration, and security authentication across multiple communication channels. This platform also visualizes current inventory and proactively monitors and manages inventory levels in real time, enabling collaborative management between frontline services and backend supply chains. As a global leader in the smart terminal and home electronics industry, TCL is reshaping the industry landscape with its “Hardware + AI + Ecosystem” strategy, building a full-scenario ecosystem spanning multiple devices. Beyond driving innovative applications of Azure cloud and AI technologies in manufacturing, supply chains, and user experiences, TCL has pioneered the integration of Azure OpenAI, multimodal interaction, the intelligent Microsoft Copilot® assistant, and the Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) ecosystem into smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, air conditioners, and other home appliances. This enables seamless cross-device connectivity and immersive experiences.

Scene Four: Connected customer: The product doesn’t end at delivery

In an AI-native model, product delivery is no longer the finish line. Customer experience continues through Over-the-Air (OTA) updates, AI-guided diagnostics, predictive service, and personal recommendations. AI enables a true closed loop—from customer feedback to engineering, factory, service, and back—turning experience into a growth driver rather than a cost center. None of this can scale without trust. As AI moves from recommendation to execution, governance becomes essential. Organizations need model governance, data and access control, OT and endpoint security, and explainability with rollback capabilities. This layer underpins all use cases, ensuring AI operates safely and reliably.

Epiroc, a Swedish mining and infrastructure equipment manufacturer, uses Microsoft Azure Machine Learning to build predictive maintenance and equipment performance models, transforming machine data into actionable customer insights. By identifying potential failures in advance and optimizing maintenance planning, Epiroc delivers a more proactive and transparent service experience, deepening customer relationships while opening new service-driven growth opportunities. Lenovo partnered with Microsoft to deploy the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales platform, thereby transforming its global customer relationship management (CRM) system.

By consolidating fragmented customer data and standardizing sales processes onto a unified digital platform, Lenovo achieved end-to-end visibility from lead management to opportunity tracking. The transformation improved collaboration efficiency, strengthened data-driven decision-making, and reinforced a more customer-centric operating model. In the “Hyper-Competition in High Dimensions” of the smart electric vehicle industry, NIO significantly boosts R&D efficiency by generating 610,000 lines of code daily through its intelligent GitHub Copilot® copilot, achieving an acceptance rate of up to 33%. The in-vehicle assistant NOMI, built on Azure OpenAI, enhances driving safety and user experience through precise contextual interaction. Simultaneously, Microsoft security solutions safeguard NIO’s complex IT environment and hybrid AI platform, automating daily threat detection and enabling cross-device security coordination.

Scene Five: Trust, safety, and OT security: The non-negotiable foundation

None of these AI use cases can scale without trust. Once AI moves from a recommendation system to an execution system, governance becomes essential. Manufacturing organizations need four core trust capabilities: model governance (ModelOps and Responsible AI), data and access control (Zero Trust architecture and industrial data protection,) OT and endpoint security, and explainability with controllability and rollback, so decisions can be understood, constrained, and safely reversed when needed. This is not a separate chapter; it forms the operating layer beneath all use cases, ensuring AI operates safely and reliably across the organization.

Ford, a longstanding automotive manufacturer synonymous with innovation, has deployed Microsoft solutions—including Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Sentinel, and Microsoft Purview—across its global operations. This initiative enhances visibility, automates responses, and strengthens data governance within its hybrid environment as companies worldwide face escalating cybersecurity threats. AI models learn from every interaction to improve detection capabilities and reduce false positives. With a unified security platform, Ford can focus on business strategy while reducing complexity and boosting operational efficiency. Smart pet device leader PETKIT is currently upgrading its systems on the Azure platform to achieve standardized device connectivity, telemetry data aggregation, and global compliance and security for users worldwide. Microsoft’s products and services not only enhance the company’s technological depth but also provide a cloud-plus-AI platform for global market replication.

2026: The inflection point when AI shifts from “more” to “different”

Once an end-to-end intelligent chain is in place, AI’s role inevitably shifts from offering advice to executing processes—and manufacturing moves from isolated efficiency gains toward full system redesign. In this sense, 2026 will be the year this transformation is proven on a scale. It will be a demanding moment for industry, but also a rare opportunity for leaders to make a true step change. This shift is becoming visible across several dimensions.

In 2026, AI in manufacturing will no longer exist as a collection of pilots. Instead, it will function as an enterprise nervous system—continuously sensing, learning, and coordinating decisions across functions. Organizations will move from experimenting with AI to running with AI, shifting from exploratory adoption to responsible, repeatable execution at scale.

Second, the ability to scale AI will become a key competitive differentiator. AI should not be confined to isolated applications but integrated into cross-departmental and cross-business collaboration to unlock its full potential. In other words, the gap between enterprises no longer lies in whether they deploy AI, but in their ability to achieve scalable implementation across the entire end-to-end value chain. Research from MIT and McKinsey suggests that leading enterprises can achieve up to four times the impact in half the time by building unified data and governance foundations.¹

Third, technical readiness will help define 2026. Edge inference, OT and IT integration, industrial networking, and model governance have matured to the point where AI can operate directly where value is created—on the plant floor, in real time, and within the flow of work. AI is moving beyond general content generation toward deep operational integration, spanning equipment, processes, quality, and logistics, and becoming an integral part of closed-loop industrial control.

Beyond technology, people, governance, and culture will emerge as true differentiators. In 2026, the primary constraint for many manufacturers will be organizational readiness—the ability to share data responsibly, collaborate across silos, and build AI literacy and operating rhythms that sustain change. Research on scaling AI highlights the “10–20–70 rule”: roughly 10% of success comes from algorithms, 20% from technology and data foundations, and 70% from people and processes.¹ Scaling AI effectively therefore requires building skills, accountability, and safety-and-governance capabilities in parallel with the technology itself.

Finally, the maturation of industry standards and ecosystems will accelerate broader AI adoption. Manufacturers face converging pressures—from geopolitics and cost to compliance and supply chain resilience. According to public records, 81% of manufacturers cite fear of falling behind as a primary driver of adoption.² The implication is clear: the question is no longer “Do we need AI?” but “Can we afford not to evolve?” As industrial data semantics, standardized APIs, reference architectures, and increasingly packaged solutions mature, time-to-value will shorten and complexity will fall—making AI feasible for a much broader set of manufacturers.

From insight to action: A 2026 checklist for manufacturing leaders

At this point, the question is no longer abstract: can your organization turn AI capabilities into sustainable, day-to-day operations—rather than pilots and demos? In conversations with manufacturers around the world, this question consistently separates leaders from laggards:

• Strategic clarity: Have you defined the core business problems AI must solve, beyond simply “adopting AI”?
• Data foundation: Can your data platform support real deployment, not just proof-of-concept results?
• Operational readiness: Are your factories and supply chains prepared for AI-powered routines in daily execution?
• Workforce capability: Does your workforce have the baseline skills to work effectively with AI systems?
• Ecosystem usage: Do your partners and platforms support continuous upgrades and rapid scaling?
• Governance and security: Is governance strong enough for AI to move from recommendation to execution?
• Resilience impact: Is AI measurably strengthening operational resilience?

We can already see the direction of travel toward the future. But trends alone do not create leaders. Execution does. The real differentiator will be who can turn AI from concept into action, from tool into capability, and ultimately from capability into resilience.

Advancing intelligent manufacturing with Microsoft

Manufacturing is entering a new phase—powered by actionable data, increasingly autonomous systems, and a more empowered workforce. Companies that unify their data, drive autonomy across planning and execution, and integrate the value chain through digital threads and digital twins will be best positioned to convert operational excellence and innovation into sustained growth.

Against this backdrop, Microsoft continues to work closely with manufacturers to expand what is possible across design, production, supply chain, and service. By combining cloud, data, and AI platforms that are advanced yet practical to deploy, we aim to help organizations build end-to-end intelligent operations—accelerating innovation while maintaining security, responsibility, and scale.

¹ KPMG, Intelligent manufacturing A blueprint for creating value through AI-driven transformation.

² businesswire, Ninety-Five Percent of Manufacturers Are Investing in AI to Navigate Uncertainty and Accelerate Smart Manufacturing, June 2023.

The post Manufacturing at the 2026 inflection point: How Frontier companies are entering the agentic era appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

AI is delivering real, measurable returns for telecom

AI is already delivering measurable business impact across industries, and telecom is among the leaders. A recent IDC study shows operators are achieving 2.8 times return on generative and agentic AI investments, with many leading companies reaching up to 5 times return. Frontier telecoms are realizing even greater returns from AI by making it foundational to how their business operates—from employees and core workflows to the end‑to‑end value chain. These leaders are moving beyond incremental efficiency by using an end-to-end AI platform and unified data approach that embeds AI into everyday operations, enabling faster decisions, tighter execution, and continuous performance improvements across their organization.

With more than 80% of the Fortune 500 building active AI agents, Microsoft Copilot is rapidly becoming essential to how employees think, collaborate, and deliver results. As AI proves its value, telecoms are moving beyond pilots to connected intelligence that elevates customer experiences, replaces manual workflows with autonomous operations, hardens and self‑heals networks, and drives new revenue opportunities. Connected intelligence will differentiate fast-moving telecoms across every area of business operation.

Read more about Frontier telecoms here.

Return on intelligence and trust

For telecoms, achieving value from scalable AI depends on two factors: intelligence and trust. Built from three complementary IQ elements—Work IQ, Fabric IQ, and Foundry IQ—Microsoft IQ is the intelligence layer that connects AI, data, and context across the business. It gives AI agents deep awareness of how people work, how the business operates, and how decisions are made. This intelligence layer accelerates decisions, improves customer experiences, automates operations and networks, and unlocks new ways to monetize AI‑based services. Trust is built through Microsoft’s carrier‑grade control plane, which provides built‑in monitoring and governance across the entire AI platform, including AI agents from our partner ecosystem, to allow telecoms to innovate responsibly, support regulatory compliance, and scale AI with confidence.

At MWC 2026, Microsoft is announcing new technologies that will help telecoms move forward with AI and use intelligence to drive the business.  Microsoft delivers this through a single platform that brings AI, unified data, trust, and governance together to enable telecoms with connected, actionable insights to accelerate innovation and growth.

Building the sovereign, AI-ready edge for telecom

For telecoms, thriving in the era of agentic intelligence begins with a resilient foundation. Today, we’re advancing Microsoft Sovereign Cloud with fully disconnected operations, extending cloud capabilities and AI-ready infrastructure deeper into operator networks than ever before. As demand accelerates for low-latency services, real-time processing, and stronger assurances around data sovereignty and regulatory compliance, the edge has become a critical extension of telecom networks and foundational layer of modern digital infrastructure. This is especially true for regulated industries and mission-critical scenarios where operational resilience and control over data are paramount.

To support these confidential environments, Azure Local offers full stack capabilities that support customers across connected, intermittently connected, and fully disconnected modes. This is essential for sovereign environments where uninterrupted access to operational, network, or customer-facing systems is non-negotiable. Azure Local disconnected operations keeps critical services running securely without connectivity to the cloud. At the same time, Foundry Local will be able to offer modern infrastructure and support for large AI models. Using the latest graphics processing unit (GPU) infrastructure from partners like NVIDIA means customers with sovereign needs will now be able to run models locally on their own hardware, inside strict sovereign boundaries enabling powerful, local AI inferencing in fully disconnected environments.

Customers can deploy and govern workloads inside their own datacenters, using familiar Microsoft Azure experiences and consistent policies, without depending on continuous connection to public cloud services.

AT&T uses Azure to support its cloud and edge strategy, enabling consistent operations across a distributed network footprint. By applying Azure’s management and governance capabilities across environments, AT&T can bring compute and data processing closer to where services are delivered while maintaining strong security and operational oversight.

“As we expand our network edge capabilities, Azure plays a key role in helping us apply cloud-native principles across our distributed infrastructure. The scalability and flexibility of Azure’s adaptive cloud approach allow us to deploy services closer to our customers, maintaining control while providing the reliability and performance they expect from AT&T. This long-standing partnership enables us to innovate and deliver next-generation experiences at the edge.”

—Sherry McCaughan, Vice President, Mobility Core and Services

Azure’s cloud-native management capabilities and global platform enable organizations like AT&T to modernize and scale edge environments, supporting next-generation services while maintaining consistent governance, security, and operational control. Native management capabilities and a global platform enable organizations like AT&T to modernize and scale edge environments, supporting next generation services while maintaining consistent governance, security, and operational control. 

We’re also investing in multi-rack deployment capabilities for Azure Local, extending scale points to support large-scale infrastructure for the most demanding, mission-critical workloads. Customers will be able to expand from single-node and cluster deployments to multi-rack environments designed for high availability, fault isolation, and operational simplicity at scale. Multi-rack deployment on Azure Local is currently in preview and will be available in the coming months.

Microsoft is collaborating with telecom operators to deliver sovereign cloud platforms and managed services that combine hyperscale innovation with local control, enabling enterprises to meet data residency, regulatory, and security requirements while accelerating trusted digital and AI transformation.

Agentic customer experiences that drive growth

With this foundation in place, telecoms can move beyond isolated use cases to scale intelligence across experiences and growth models. The same agentic capabilities that transform customer engagement also unlock new ways to monetize services, reduce cost to serve, and create differentiated value.

Today, telecom customer journeys are fragmented. Customers often switch channels to complete tasks, driving abandonment and cost. AI agents turn customer intent into end‑to‑end action across systems. Microsoft is now offering a telecom agentic store reference framework to replace click‑based journeys with natural‑language interaction. Coordinated AI agents handle discovery, sales, service, billing, and partner offers in the background—customers state their goal and agents deliver the outcome. The result is higher digital completion, faster resolution, and better experiences. This framework also creates a new monetization platform, enabling federated AI marketplaces with built‑in identity, billing, and sovereign deployment for trusted ecosystem commerce at scale. Telecoms are already working with Microsoft and system integrators to adopt this architecture—unifying sales and service, reducing cost‑to‑serve, and creating a scalable foundation for partner‑led innovation. 

FiberCop modernizes edge cloud and contact center

FiberCop runs Italy’s most advanced, far-reaching and pervasive digital network infrastructure. FiberCop recently announced that it has integrated Azure Local into its network, transforming the access infrastructure into an edge cloud platform capable of delivering cloud-native services, virtualized network functions, and advanced workloads while meeting sovereignty and compliance requirements. Today, FiberCop announces that it is accelerating its agentic transformation, moving to an AI‑first contact center model where autonomous AI agents, Copilot, and human expertise work together. By adopting Dynamics 365 Contact Center, FiberCop has begun modernizing customer engagement with unified data, intelligent routing, and AI‑powered self‑service and assisted service that delivers more efficient operations and better customer experiences at scale.

Introducing Ericsson Enterprise 5G Connect to reimagine customer experience

Ericsson announces ongoing collaboration with Microsoft introducing the Ericsson Enterprise 5G Connect solution—validated on Microsoft Surface 5G Copilot+ PCs and built on top of Windows 11’s Enterprise Cellular Managed Connectivity (ECMC) capabilities. This new offering enables enterprises to centrally manage secure, seamless 5G connectivity for mobile and hybrid employees, using automatic network switching and robust policy enforcement to enhance productivity and security. IT teams gain scalable management and control, while end users benefit from uninterrupted, AI-powered experiences across private and public 5G networks. The solution is currently being piloted by Ericsson and is in private preview. To learn more, visit our Windows IT Pro blog.

Intelligent business operations, built for telecom

Delivering connected customer experiences depends on what happens behind the scenes. Telecom operations require trusted, governed access to network and customer data. That’s why operators are moving from legacy data warehouses to a modern lakehouse that unifies business and network data.

Microsoft Fabric provides a single, policy‑governed data foundation for real‑time, operational, and analytical data to speed AI insights at scale. Building on this foundation, today we’re announcing Azure Databricks Lakebase will be available in March 2026, giving telecom operators a managed PostgreSQL environment with next generation separation of storage and compute for transactional data, providing instant availability, instant clones, and scale-to-zero. This brings online transaction processing (OLTP) capabilities to the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform on Azure designed for developer performance with low total cost of ownership (TCO), eliminating the traditional gap between operational systems and the lakehouse.

Partners are building on this data foundation as well. For example, Nokia integrates its data suite with Fabric to securely unify network telemetry and reduce AI use case development time by up to 80%.

MTN transforms fraud prevention with AI

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, identity theft and first-party fraud are escalating at alarming rates, posing significant risks to individuals and businesses across South Africa. MTN has made a bold move to transform its fraud management approach by harnessing advanced Microsoft technologies. Shifting from traditional, reactive methods to a proactive, AI-powered ecosystem, MTN is not only protecting its customers and strengthening revenue defenses but also reinforcing national digital resilience and contributing to a safer, more secure digital economy for all.

Amdocs powers intelligent business operations

Amdocs is making several announcements with Microsoft that deepen integration to deliver next-generation solutions. The first is AI-powered application modernization through the Amdocs Agentic Services platform, embedding Microsoft AI solutions such as Azure OpenAI and Microsoft Foundry into end-to-end modernization and migration to Azure. Second, Amdocs Cognitive Core platform built on amAIz, offering prebuilt agent libraries, cross-domain insights, and telecom-specific AI that integrates with any business or operating system stack and runs securely on Azure. Colt Technology is working with Amdocs and Microsoft to streamline operations and accelerate service delivery with real-time insight.

To learn more about transforming the OSS/BSS with agentic AI, read this blog.

Power autonomous networks with built-in trust and control

As intelligence is embedded across data and operations, the next frontier is the network itself. Agent-driven operations enables networks to move from reactive management to autonomous executions that respond faster, reduce risk, and improve resilience at scale.

To help operators move from pilots to production at scale, Microsoft is evolving its network operations agent (NOA) reference architecture—a proven framework shaped by real world deployments, industry collaboration, and learnings from Microsoft’s NetAI program.

NOA is built for today’s telecom realities: exploding event volumes, rising complexity, and persistent skills gaps. The latest evolution deepens integration with Microsoft AI and collaboration platforms, strengthens alignment with open standards, and delivers a modular, production-ready path to autonomy—without compromising telco-grade safety, governance, or human oversight. Operators engage AI directly through Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Teams, while Microsoft Foundry and the Microsoft Agent Framework provide a governed, observable runtime for multi-agent orchestration at scale. Expanded support for TM Forum Open APIs helps ensure interoperability across existing business and operations support systems, making NOA an open, secure foundation for autonomous networks. Read more about NOA.

Leading operators such as Far EasTone Telecom and Vodafone are already applying this blueprint to modernize network operations, reduce human error, accelerate recovery times, and enable engineers to focus on higher value work.

Far EasTone Telecom (FET) is turning agentic AI into real operations impact 

FET exemplifies how leading operators are turning this architecture into real operational impact. FET is using the NOA framework to redefine cloud native network operations by embedding agentic AI across its NOC and change management workflows. Today, nearly 60% of its NOC operations are AI-assisted, with about 10,500 operational tasks executed per month, including incident summaries, automated ticket closure, network checks, and proactive voice notifications. AI agents now handle largescale alarm correlation and root cause analysis in seconds, supporting nearly 7,000 monthly operational queries with an average response time of 16 seconds, and enabling most maintenance actions to complete within one minute. This shift has significantly reduced human error, accelerated recovery times, and allowed engineers to focus on higher value work.

Vodafone’s journey toward intelligent network operations

Vodafone is working with Microsoft to apply this proven AI‑powered blueprint for autonomous network operations across transport infrastructure and field‑force management. The collaboration combines Vodafone’s deep network expertise with Microsoft Foundry and the NOA framework to modernize how large‑scale telecom networks are operated.

This blueprint is built on Microsoft’s own experience running autonomous agents across its global Azure transport network, where AI continuously monitors performance, identifies root causes, and autonomously manages more than 65% of fiber‑break field dispatches—improving time to repair by up to 25% and accelerating root‑cause analysis by 80%. By applying these proven capabilities to Vodafone’s transport network, the two companies are accelerating the shift toward intelligent, automated transport network operations across the telecom industry.

“By working with Microsoft, we’re combining deep network expertise with proven AI‑powered operations to create something greater than either could achieve alone. Together, we’re building intelligent, automated transport network operations that empower our teams and deliver faster, more resilient connectivity networks for our customers.”

—Alberto Ripepi, Chief Network Officer, Vodafone

Other operators, including AT&T, T-Mobile, Telefónica, and MEO, are adopting Microsoft Foundry as a blueprint for scaling agentic AI across complex, multi-vendor networks. 

Today, Kenmei announces it is collaborating with Microsoft to help operators accelerate their path toward autonomous networks by combining Kenmei’s telecom intelligence offer with Azure and Microsoft Fabric to enable scalable analytics and agentic AI–powered operations. Already in use at leading operators like Telefónica and Etisalat (e&), this collaboration brings proven deployments into a broader cloud and AI ecosystem designed to reduce manual effort, speed decision‑making, and unlock new levels of network automation.

Microsoft achieves global milestone to extend internet access with Starlink

As telecoms scale intelligence across networks, operations, and experiences, connectivity remains the starting point. Because AI only delivers impact where access exists, expanding internet access is foundational to an intelligent and inclusive telecom future.

Today, 2.2 billion people around the world remain unconnected.¹ To help overcome this barrier, Microsoft pledged to bring access to 250 million people by 2025. We are pleased to share that we’ve expanded internet access to 299 million people through the power of technology and partnerships in communities around the globe. But we know there is more work to do to support unconnected communities and enable global participation in the AI economy.

In support of this on-going effort, we are unveiling a new collaboration with Starlink designed to bring Microsoft’s experience with governments, local operators, and community partners together. With more than 9,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit, Starlink will extend digital infrastructure to rural, agricultural, and hard-to-reach communities. You can read more about how we met this milestone and are continuing to extend AI-enabled connectivity aligned with community needs.

Join us at MWC 2026 to learn more

Frontier telecoms are already proving what’s possible when AI, data, trust, and governance come together on a single platform to power faster operations, autonomous networks, intent-driven engagement, and real return on intelligence.

Join Microsoft At MWC 2026 to see how operators and partners are moving from AI promise to production through real deployments, live demos, and customer stories.

¹Facts and Figures 2025, ITU.

The post Microsoft accelerates telecom return on intelligence with a unified, trusted AI platform appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

With advances in AI—especially intelligent agents and the automation patterns emerging from agentic design—insurers worldwide are recasting their most critical operations and offerings. From marketing and customer engagement through underwriting and claims processing, the industry is rapidly evolving, with AI as a central driver.

At Microsoft, we identify organizations that embed AI agents deeply across their operations as Frontier Firms. These are innovation leaders who are blending human judgement with AI agents and who, according to a November 2024 IDC study commissioned by Microsoft, report returns roughly three times higher than slow adopters.¹

Insurers and other financial services companies make up the highest concentration of Frontier Firms, which is not surprising given the competitive nature of the sector and the outsized impact of agentic AI.

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How AI is transforming the end-to-end insurance value chain 

Insurers can potentially realize transformative benefits with AI without needing to replace their core platforms, but rather by augmenting and accelerating them through targeted, extensible, AI-powered capabilities. Through advances such as intelligent agents and the automation patterns emerging from agentic design, insurers are consolidating fragmented workflows into connected, intelligent, adaptive systems.

Consider the impact on claims processing. In 2024, more than 30 million personal auto claims were reported in the US alone.² Each one typically required adjusters one to three days just to gather, read, and interpret documents. The slow, manual nature of traditional claims processing is one of the most labor intensive and high impact functions in insurance. It is also where agentic AI delivers some of the fastest return on investment (ROI). For example, AI can help automate document understanding and summarization for faster and more accurate processing. In policy and coverage validation, it can help reduce back-and-forth queries between adjusters and underwriters and speed the approval of well-qualified claims. In contextual triage and routing, it can help improve the productivity of employees across claims processing by enhancing early fraud detection and reducing delays caused by manual sorting or misrouting. With millions of claims processed annually and cycle times measured in days or weeks, even modest improvements can potentially create significant financial and customer experience gains.

Agentic AI is reshaping much more than claims. Across the value chain, a unified agentic ecosystem can deliver measurable outcomes.

In underwriting, agents can automate information gathering processing to help sales agents submit more complete requests for quotes to underwriters. Agents can help interpret submissions, orchestrate scenarios and catastrophe modeling, and assist in generating proposals aligned to client mandates.

In marketing and distribution, agents can redefine the customer experience by increasing personalization at scale with speed and boosting sales opportunities. Agents can flag top renewals and generate personalized outreach, help prioritize leads, optimize campaigns and prepare tailored client briefs and pitch materials in seconds.

In customer onboarding and service, service become more anticipatory and less reactive. Agents can help validate information across documents automatically and detect missing forms or inconsistencies early. Virtual assistants can answer inquiries around-the-clock with contextual accuracy and trigger proactive outreach if a customer shows signs of churn or claim frustration.

In risk and compliance, teams move from firefighting to orchestrating safe, scalable operations. Under the direction of qualified processionals, agents can help monitor exposures continuously across economic, climate, and portfolio data, read regulatory updates and support assessment workflows, and help detect fraud by surfacing potential issues to the appropriate teams and workflows.

How agentic AI is benefiting insurers worldwide

Already, we’re seeing the impact of agentic AI building on the benefits of generative AI to deliver transformative new benefits for insurers.

For example, Generali France is transforming insurance operations with intelligent agents that empower front‑line workers and experts across the business to achieve a people-centric vision for product and service delivery. The firm has built more than 50 agents with Microsoft Copilot Studio and Azure OpenAI to address a broad range of specialized used cases. These agents do more than generate content, they act across complex information flows, from extracting information from unstructured data and running hyper-personalized marketing campaigns, to assisting with content creation and standardizing responses to requests for proposals (RFPs). These powerful solutions allow experts to focus on judgment and customer care, measurably helping Generali achieve top‑ranked customer satisfaction.

Elsewhere, a major global insurer strengthened its crisis response in near real-time by using AI to rapidly compare property locations with public wildfire evacuation data. Instead of hours of manual analysis, teams quickly generated clear, actionable risk insights, improving situational awareness and enabling faster, more confident communication with stakeholders.

Another insurance and financial services company took a proactive approach to risk mitigation, using AI to scan records for a brittle material linked to structural failures in older buildings, helping to identify and assess risks before losses could occur.

These real-world scenarios are only the tip of the iceberg, giving an early view of the broader transformation that is quickly redefining the competitive landscape. In upcoming blogs, we will share deeper examples and customer‑aligned scenarios across the end-to-end insurance value chain.

The journey to becoming a frontier insurer starts now

To unlock the value of agentic AI, Microsoft offers an end‑to‑end cloud and AI platform that insurers can incorporate powerful agents into their technology ecosystems. Microsoft Foundry provides the developer platform for building, testing, deploying, and orchestrating AI agents and applications, and Microsoft Agent 365 offers a control plane to help govern, secure, monitor, and manage agents across an enterprise, regardless of where they were built. This means that insurers can design, customize, deploy, and integrate intelligent agents across the value chain, with enterprise‑grade governance and a comprehensive suite of AI models and services.

Microsoft further strengthens this foundation with industry‑specific data models, process frameworks, and prebuilt connectors that simplify integration with core insurance systems, analytics environments, and workflow applications. This helps ensure faster time‑to‑value and accelerates modernization of claims, underwriting, servicing, and risk operations.

And critically, insurers also benefit from a deep, global partner ecosystem of trusted technology and solution providers who are well versed in delivering mission-critical solutions on the Microsoft Cloud, combined with our deep, long‑standing expertise in the insurance sector. Together, this ecosystem empowers insurers to innovate confidently, scale securely, and realize measurable impact with agentic AI.

The journey to agentic AI involves identifying high-impact workflows early, creating a unified data platform, addressing governance from the start, and empowering teams with smart change management. By embracing a frontier firm mindset—human led, agent operated—insurance leaders can unlock new value and innovate in the new competitive landscape. To continue your AI journey, contact your Microsoft representative or technology partner.

Next steps on your journey to agentic AI

• To explore solutions and resources for insurers, visit Microsoft for Insurance.
• To learn how frontier firms in financial services are using AI to improve efficiency, innovation, and customer satisfaction, get the e-book.

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

² Verisk, ClaimSearch Trends Report, 2024 Year-end Analysis

The post From bottlenecks to breakthroughs: How agentic AI is reshaping insurance appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

Manufacturing’s moment: Why AI, why now?

Today, AI isn’t just a buzzword or a distant promise. It’s a practical lever for manufacturers to unlock new value, drive efficiency, and build resilience for the future.

At Microsoft Ignite 2025, our team explored how industrial AI is reshaping the economics of manufacturing. Drawing from real-world customer stories and the latest research, we’ll unpack where the ROI is real, what’s driving it, and how you can take the next step on your own AI journey.

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Return on Intelligence: Scaling Business Value with Industrial AI

Get the e-book

From siloed data to intelligence on tap

Every manufacturer knows the pain points: unplanned downtime, inefficiencies that eat into margins, and supply chain blind spots that disrupt delivery. Too often, these issues are compounded by fragmented systems and a lack of real-time data visibility. The result? Slow decision-making and missed opportunities.

But the landscape is changing. According to a 2025 commissioned  Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact™ study on the economic impact of industrial transformation with Microsoft AI, manufacturers that invest in unified data platform and bring together data across IT and Operations Technology (OT) systems could see the following benefits¹:

• Up to 50% reduction in defects
• Up to 50% fewer inventory shortages
• Up to 40% decrease in frequency of equipment failures
• Up to 457% projected ROI over three years

Take KUKA, a global automation leader. Facing fragmented systems and a growing robotics skills gap, KUKA turned to Microsoft Azure AI and Microsoft Foundry Models. The result? Programming time cut by up to 80%, democratizing robotics and accelerating workflow deployment. With predictive insights and real-time analytics, KUKA broke down data silos and empowered teams to innovate faster.

Sustainability: A greener, more profitable path

Manufacturers today are under intensifying pressure from regulators, customers, and their own boards to reduce emissions, increase energy efficiency, and eliminate waste. Yet many sustainability challenges stem from the same root problem: disconnected systems that make it difficult to measure, optimize, and scale improvements across facilities.

But the momentum is shifting. According to the Forrester study on the economic impact of Microsoft’s industrial AI capabilities, manufacturers see AI as a critical lever to drive measurable environmental and financial gains by optimizing energy usage, refining processes, and reducing carbon emissions. With Microsoft AI solutions, surveyed manufacturers who are Microsoft Azure customers expect to achieve:

• 78% expect to reduce energy consumption
• 88% expect to improve energy efficiency
• 53% expect to reduce CO₂ emissions

Take Schneider Electric, a global leader in energy management with ambitious sustainability goals to reduce environmental impact and improve efficiency across its operations. By integrating Azure OpenAI and Azure Machine Learning into its EcoStruxure platform, Schneider gained real‑time insight into energy usage, carbon‑related performance, and optimization opportunities. The impact? AI‑powered models that surface efficiency recommendations, accelerate sustainability decision‑making, and help facilities cut waste at scale. And because EcoStruxure underpins thousands of customer deployments, these AI‑powered insights also lets its customers pursue their own sustainability goals with greater speed, accuracy, and measurable operational improvements.

Empowering people: AI as a workforce multiplier

Labor shortages, rising workload complexity, and persistent training bottlenecks continue to stretch manufacturing teams thin. Many frontline and knowledge workers spend too much time searching for information, navigating outdated systems, or performing repetitive tasks that slow productivity and sap morale.

But AI is shifting this dynamic. Manufacturers are adopting intelligent assistants, predictive tools, and automated workflows that free employees to focus on higher‑value work. According to recent industry data, organizations are already seeing material gains:

• 66% of repetitive tasks automated
• 70% of organizations report productivity gains
• 75% reduction in onboarding time

Take Audi AG, a global automotive leader navigating rising internal demand for support and process guidance. To alleviate mounting human resources and IT strain, Audi launched its first AI-powered self-service assistant using Foundry that was deployed in just two weeks. The impact? Faster access to information, fewer routine queries, and more time for teams to focus on meaningful, high-value work. Audi’s example shows how AI doesn’t replace people but amplifies them.

The agentic era: What’s next?

Manufacturers are moving beyond task‑level automation toward a new operating model where AI works alongside teams to coordinate decisions, optimize workflows, and adapt to changing conditions in real time. This next era isn’t about experimenting on the margins, but about treating AI as a core capability that strengthens every part of the enterprise.

Platforms like Azure OpenAI, Microsoft Fabric, Foundry Models, and Microsoft 365 Copilot are already helping organizations make that shift. And the economic signal is strong. Forrester’s Total Economic Impact study attributes the financial upside of the broader Industrial AI value stack to improvements across operations, productivity, and supply chain performance:

• Up to 457% projected ROI over three years

These gains compound as AI becomes embedded across the business, accelerating impact as intelligent systems take on more routine work, surface insights faster, and support teams in making better decisions at every stage of production. Manufacturers who fail to operationalize AI risk falling behind peers who are building intelligence directly into their processes, products, and customer experiences.

A practical path forward: How to get started

To fully realize this next chapter, manufacturers need a clear, actionable roadmap grounded in governed data, scalable AI systems, and measurable business outcomes.

Here’s a practical roadmap from aspiration to action:

• Identify high-impact use cases: Focus on areas like predictive maintenance, supply chain optimization, and quality control where AI can deliver quick, measurable wins.
• Define success metrics: Set clear key performance indicators (KPIs) to track ROI and impact across teams and facilities. What gets measured gets managed.
• Leverage proven platforms and partners: Don’t reinvent the wheel. Use established AI platforms like Azure and work with partners who understand both technology and manufacturing.
• Start small, scale fast: Begin with urgent, actionable business challenges. Build on proven frameworks and architect for scale. As Audi AG showed, operational AI can be deployed at enterprise scale in weeks, not years.
• Invest in data foundations: Migrating legacy systems to the cloud and breaking down data silos are essential. Unified, AI-ready data is the backbone of successful industrial AI initiatives.

Learn how industrial AI can transform your business

Industrial AI is no longer a vision for the future, but a proven source of measurable value today. The manufacturers pulling ahead are the ones building AI into how they operate, scale, and compete. Whether you’re laying the groundwork or accelerating existing initiatives, now is the moment to turn momentum into impact.

Return on Intelligence: Scaling Business Value with Industrial AI

Deeper insights, real-world case studies, and a practical roadmap

Download the e-book

Start your journey toward smarter, more resilient, and more competitive manufacturing.

¹ New Tech: The Projected Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft Artificial Intelligence Solutions For Industrial Transformation. Results are over three years for a composite organization based on interviewed and surveyed customers.

The post The ROI of AI in manufacturing: Where adoption becomes advantage appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

At Microsoft, we see retail moving forward into a world where agents strengthen and streamline human action through automation and intelligence on tap. Cutting-edge agentic technology will enable retailers to move faster and smarter. But the emotional connection with the consumer, the trust, creativity, and empathy that define great brands, cannot be automated. Delivering authenticity at scale will rely on a workforce model that consciously centers and invigorates the collaborative human experience—one that sees agents as force multipliers for workers to deploy in pursuit of their best work. As one retail analyst put it, “Technology alone isn’t enough—real transformation requires rethinking how we work within human-plus-agentic teams.”³ Success in the next chapter in retail will accrue to the organizations who maximize the power of these human-agent teams—what we at Microsoft call a Frontier Firm. 

That’s why we believe the agentic future should be human-led, with automation embedded in key workflows and a return on intelligence that helps people move faster and smarter. Retail executives echo this vision: “AI tools can free up front-line employees to prioritize tasks that require a human touch, such as engaging with customers and designing stores.”⁴ Consumers will continue to seek out and reward authentic, down-to-earth experiences, even as they embrace AI for convenience. The retailers who win in 2026 and beyond will be those who combine the best of both worlds: the speed and precision of agents with the creativity, empathy, and expertise only humans can deliver.

How Microsoft agentic solutions are helping move retail forward

We are excited and proud to be leading the evolution of agentic retail with right-sized development options for every organization—whether they’re looking for a fully-configurable, pro-code development experience or a low-code/no-code, fully-managed environment. 

Microsoft Foundry enables professional developers to build, optimize, and govern sophisticated AI solutions that run at the edge or in the cloud. Retailers seeking deep customization benefit from the widest selection of foundation models on any cloud, including models tailored for the retail industry, open agent frameworks, vast integrations, enterprise scalability, and organization-wide observability and controls. For example, Foundry IQ helps organizations securely ground AI apps and agents on enterprise data stored in any location, while Foundry Tools allows agents to automate workflows and respond with real-time precision across more than 1,400 business systems like SAP, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Shopify, Stripe, Adobe, and Dynamics 365. This enables retailers like The ODP Corporation and Bayer to drive business results with action-oriented and context-aware agents as part of their broader application landscape. 

Organizations looking to rapidly prototype conversational commerce and worker empowerment agents will appreciate Microsoft Copilot Studio easy low-code/no-code configurability and straightforward integrations. And for retailers looking for a turnkey experience with minimal time-to-value, we offer a curated group of managed agent templates in Copilot Studio that will help these organizations deploy enterprise-ready AI agents without starting from square one.

Each template comes preconfigured with proven logic, connectors, and workflows backed by rigorous evaluation, model tuning, and quality controls. Retailers can deploy agents with confidence knowing that Microsoft security, compliance, and lifecycle governance are built in. Native integration across Microsoft 365 and Power Platform makes it easy to embed intelligence into existing applications, automate workflows, and streamline data orchestration.

Together, these capabilities reduce implementation time, lower IT overhead, and accelerate time-to-value—quickly moving organizations from pilots to real, scalable outcomes.

Today, we are introducing three agents built specifically for retail: one for product discovery, one for catalog enrichment, and one for store operations. Each is designed to help retailers tame complexity, improve data quality, and deliver higher-value customer and employee experiences.

Personalize retail journeys with the personalized shopping agent

The personalized shopping agent template serves as a digital expert associate available across retail channels. It goes beyond basic search-and-scroll by delivering guided, natural language product discovery that helps the shopper feel like a knowledgeable store associate is assisting them.

Instead of returning loosely related results, the agent asks clarifying questions, interprets nuance, and offers informed recommendations that reflect real customer needs. Retailers can tune the agent’s voice, language, and style to match their brand, ensuring every interaction reinforces the retailer’s identity and expertise.

Whether customers are searching for a fragrance that evokes a memory, planning an outfit for a themed event, or finding the right running shoes for an upcoming marathon, the agent engages in thoughtful conversation to guide decision making. Built on Microsoft Foundry’s enterprise grade AI stack—including Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models, Azure Machine Learning prompt flow, and Microsoft Fabric—the agent delivers personalized discovery at scale while remaining easy to integrate across web, mobile, and in-store experiences.

Its headless and tailless architecture allows retailers to pull from multiple systems and maintain a consistent, branded experience anywhere it is deployed. Cross-sell and upsell intelligence, financing suggestions, and even in-home service recommendations help retailers drive higher conversion and customer satisfaction.

Leading retailers are already putting this to work. Ralph Lauren’s “Ask Ralph” virtual stylist runs on this agent template, with comprehensive knowledge of the brand’s products, design philosophy, craftsmanship, and history, emulating the immersive experience of a Ralph Lauren flagship store.

Catalog enrichment: From messy product data to meaningful content

For more than three decades, retailers optimized their product catalogs for three-word search terms. But conversational search shines when it can query catalogs full of detailed, multi-dimensional product attributes. Retailers eager to surface the perfect personalized product suggestions to their customers can quickly improve the accuracy and relevance of conversational search results by augmenting their catalogs with a rich set of attributes for each product.

Modernizing and enriching product descriptions is no small task, however. Even if a retailer could resolve all the gaps and inconsistencies in their legacy product catalogs, manual data entry, inconsistent vendor information, and the scale of product refresh cycles promise ongoing operational friction and disappointing conversational search results.

The catalog enrichment agent template solves this by automatically cleaning, completing, and standardizing product information. Designed for simplicity and accessibility, the configured agent integrates directly into familiar environments like Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, where merchandisers can review flagged items, approve updates, and act quickly as product offerings change.

Because the agent does not rely on a fixed schema or centralized data source, it can ingest product details from images, PDFs, structured tables, or unstructured documents. It then transforms that information into clean, brand-aligned catalog entries. The agent can work independently or alongside existing systems, giving retailers a flexible, modular way to improve data quality without large-scale re-platforming.

Once data is ingested, the agent extracts key attributes, applies brand guidelines, aligns content to the retailer’s taxonomy, and generates consistent product descriptions. It can process thousands of products—flagging low-confidence entries and producing review-ready outputs—before teams even start their day.

As merchandisers provide corrections, the agent learns and improves over time. Whether operating in auto approval mode or with human review, it dramatically reduces manual workload and improves the accuracy of product data. The result is better product discovery, higher customer confidence, and more scalable catalog operations.

“With Microsoft’s catalog enrichment template forming the backbone of our personalized shopping experiences, we can turn product details into meaningful insights that help shoppers discover styles in real time, receive tailored recommendations, and explore complete looks. It’s a powerful step forward in our commitment to delivering service that’s as dynamic our brand.”  

David Torrecilla, Head of Innovation at Guess

Store operations: Turning real world signals into real time action

The store operations agent template is a prebuilt, low-code solution that converts real-world signals into timely, actionable guidance for every store. It continuously monitors external factors—weather, events, holidays, and seasonality—and triggers operational recommendations when conditions change.

Store managers can review, approve, or refine these suggestions, and the agent improves with each piece of feedback. Once approved, the agent orchestrates execution through Microsoft Teams Planner, creating and assigning tasks with clear instructions, due times, and progress tracking. This keeps teams aligned, improves task compliance, and shortens the signal-to-action cycle.

The agent includes integration stubs and templates so retailers can connect to inventory, shipping, workforce planning, and other systems. It can be tailored to specific policies, playbooks, KPIs, and regional requirements, enabling day-to-day operational precision.

Strandbags, the largest specialty luggage and accessories retailer in Australia and New Zealand, is one of the early adopters. Their teams are using the store operations agent template to act more quickly on local insights and stay ahead in a dynamic retail environment.

Murdoch’s Ranch & Home Supply is also deploying the store operations agent template in locations across six U.S. states.

 “Beyond efficiently aggregating data, the agent provides valuable insights into community events, sales trends, and actionable recommendations for improving store performance. A key aspect of this agent is its integration into our ecosystem, allowing us to continuously refine its capabilities and enhance the value it delivers.” 

Steven Potratz, Senior Learning and Development Leader at Murdoch’s

Shirley Gao, Chief Digital and Information Officer of PacSun, shared that the objective of the store operations agent template deployment underway in PacSun’s retail locations is “to embed AI at the core of store operations, equipping associates with predictive intelligence, actionable workflows, and real-time business alerts. This enhances operational visibility and accelerates data-driven decision-making at the store level. Through continuous co-creation and adaptation to our unique processes, we ensure AI delivers meaningful impact for both our business and our people.” 

Transforming retail end-to-end

Every product, every collection, and every campaign is part of a broader narrative retailers use to connect with customers. But delivering those experiences consistently requires precision, context, and agility.

Microsoft’s retail agent templates are designed to make that possible.

• The personalized shopping agent template turns product discovery into a tailored conversation.
• The catalog enrichment agent template ensures foundational data is accurate, complete, and aligned to the brand.
• The store operations agent template transforms signals into action and orchestrates execution at scale.

Together, they form a connected ecosystem that supports the full arc of retail storytelling—from data to discovery to delivery. By pairing agentic automation with human judgment, these solutions help retailers scale their brand, delight customers, and achieve greater return on intelligence (ROI).

All three agents are available today in Microsoft Copilot Studio and Microsoft Marketplace.

Retail is entering a new era—one built on intelligence, speed, and empowered teams. I’m excited to partner with you as we take the next step forward.

Join me on Monday, Jan 12, 2026 on the Big Ideas stage at NRF 2026 for Becoming a Frontier Firm: Unlocking the New ROI—Return on Intelligence as I explore the journey to an agentic future. 

Hear from Kathleen Mitford, Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Industry Marketing in conversation with Adobe and The Coca-Cola Company about the future of retail growth on the Big Ideas stage. Don’t miss Personalization at Scale: Using AI to unlock the next phase of growth on Sunday, January 11, 2026.  

Enjoy an illuminating fireside chat, The future of an icon: Ralph Lauren’s journey of heritage, innovation and partnership with Microsoft on the keynote stage on Monday, January 12, 2026. Featuring Shelley Bransten, Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Worldwide Industry Solutions and David Lauren, Chief Branding and Innovation Officer at Ralph Lauren, this session will explore how iconic brand heritage and digital creativity converge to shape the future of luxury retail. 

Interested to learn how you can jump-start your agentic future? Visit us at Booth #4503 to experience:

• AI-powered shopping journeys.
• Intelligent merchandising and catalog enrichment.
• Dynamic supply chain orchestration.
• AI-assisted workforce solutions.
• Customer stories across throughout in-booth demos and theater that showcase the ROI of AI and agents today.

Explore solutions and more

• Find out how you can start deploying agents across your organization with Microsoft Agent Factory. 
• Learn how agentic AI and Microsoft Dynamics 365 are helping organizations shape the future of retail.
• See Forrester’s Predictions 2026: Digital Commerce.
• Discover how your organization can become a Frontier Firm at a Microsoft AI Tour event near you.
• Explore key retail AI use cases, customer stories, partner solutions, and more on the Microsoft for Retail homepage.
• Follow Microsoft Cloud on LinkedIn.
• Read about how Microsoft is setting the standard for responsible AI practices.

¹ Morgan Stanley, Here Come the Shopping Bots, December 8, 2025.

² Adobe, Adobe: Cyber Monday Hits Record $14.25 Billion in Online Spending with Over $1 Billion Driven by Buy Now Pay Later, December 2, 2025.

³ Slalom, Industry Outlook, Retail Industry Trends 2026.

⁴ Snowflake, The AI Tipping Point: What Retail Leaders Need to Know for 2025, February 4, 2025.

The post Return on intelligence: The human edge in an agentic era appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

What is a Frontier Firm?

Microsoft defines a Frontier Firm as a human-led but AI-operated organization that integrates AI agents as core team members—enabling rapid scaling, agile operations, and enhanced productivity through hybrid human-agent collaboration and on-demand intelligence.

Microsoft identifies four key pillars of AI transformation:

1. Enrich employee experiences: Empower people with AI tools that remove friction and unlock creativity.
2. Reinvent customer engagement: Deliver transparency, personalization, and trust at scale.
3. Reshape business processes: Automate and optimize operations for speed, safety, and sustainability.
4. Bend the curve on innovation: Move beyond pilots to bold, repeatable frameworks that accelerate transformation.

Microsoft mining and metals customers Ma’aden, Petrosea, and Outokumpu bring these pillars to life and drive efficiency, productivity, cost reduction, safety, and sustainability. I’ll talk more about each one below.

From reactive to proactive: How AI and agents transform mining operations

Frontier Firms are deploying AI and agents across the mining value chain—not just to automate tasks, but to enable supervised autonomous systems that can monitor, reason, and act. AI-powered innovations are already delivering measurable results. For example, BHP and Microsoft have partnered to use advanced AI and machine learning technologies to enhance copper recovery at the world’s largest copper mine. AI-powered systems adapt in real-time to more variability. This optimizes recovery rates, improves throughput, and grade control. It also reduces downtime, waste, water usage, energy consumption, and costs.

With AI and agents, mining companies are not only addressing today’s challenges but are also building resilience and agility for the future—empowering their workforce, optimizing operations, and accelerating progress toward sustainability and growth.

The Frontier Firm in action: Empowering people with Microsoft Copilot and agents

Ma’aden, a leading mining and metals company, aimed to transform into a Frontier Firm by using digital innovation and AI to stay competitive in a resource-intensive industry while supporting sustainability and growth.

The company faced pressure to modernize operations without disrupting workforce roles—balancing efficiency gains with its commitment to empower employees rather than replace them and ensuring adoption of AI tools aligned with cultural and operational needs.

Ma’aden deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot and agentic AI capabilities across workflows—integrating generative AI into collaboration and decision-making. The focus was on augmenting human expertise, enabling employees to automate routine tasks, and free time for strategic thinking.

The transformation improved productivity, saved time, and enriched employee experiences—positioning Ma’aden as a Frontier Firm in mining. Employees reported higher engagement and confidence, as AI functioned as a trusted assistant, not a substitute—driving faster decisions, better collaboration, and sustainable growth.

“We intentionally gave Copilot to early adopters—people who are excited about technology—because they would act as change agents for the rest of their teams.”

—Khalid AlMutairi, Vice President, IT at Ma’aden

Turning obstacles into intelligent opportunities

Petrosea, a leading Indonesian mining and energy services firm, faced intense price wars and operational inefficiencies. To sustain growth and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments, it needed to differentiate beyond cost and embrace innovation.

Legacy batch processes and limited data access hindered real-time decision-making. Remote sites and rising sustainability requirements amplified complexity, requiring a shift to advanced digital capabilities for competitive resilience.

Petrosea launched its 3D strategy: diversification, digitalization, and decarbonization—deploying the Minerva Digital Platform on Microsoft Azure, integrating Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, predictive analytics, and digital twins. It adopted Microsoft Azure OpenAI, Copilot Stack, automation agents, and advanced security.

The company achieved a 15% increase in productivity, a 9% reduction in operational costs, improved safety, and was selected by the World Economic Forum to join its Global Lighthouse Network. Petrosea transformed adversity into innovation, building competitive differentiation as a Frontier Firm through AI-powered workflows.

The integration of IoT sensors, predictive maintenance, and a Remote Operations Center reshaped their business processes—shifting from manual, site-based oversight to centralized, data-driven control that improved efficiency and safety.

“All these innovations led to a 9% reduction in operation costs, decrease in incidents, and enhanced safety measures with real-time corrective actions.”

—Krishna Nawacandra, Digital Project Manager, Petrosea

AI-powered sustainability as strategy

Outokumpu, a global stainless-steel leader, faced mounting pressure to meet ambitious climate targets and comply with Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) reporting while embedding sustainability into its core strategy. Steel accounts for 10% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, making decarbonization critical.

Manual, fragmented sustainability reporting hindered transparency and efficiency. Outokumpu needed a unified, intelligent data approach to accelerate green value creation and explore AI-powered ESG innovations for competitive advantage.

Outokumpu partnered with Microsoft to deploy the Intelligent Data Platform, Microsoft Fabric, and Sustainability Manager—automating environmental data processes, enabling advanced analytics, and training leaders through the AI data-driven green value creation program.

Outokumpu achieved up to 75% lower carbon footprint versus industry average, launched Circle Green® stainless steel with 93% lower carbon footprint, and helps customers cut 10 million tons of CO₂ annually. Data and AI now fuel new business models, cost savings, and sustainable growth.

By using Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform and AI capabilities, Outokumpu is not just improving sustainability reporting—it is bending the curve on innovation by accelerating the development of new low-emission products and unlocking green business models that deliver both environmental and commercial impact.

“We have set a very clear goal for ourselves. We want to achieve something remarkable.”

—Heidi Peltonen, Vice President of Sustainability at Outokumpu

Advancing the Frontier for mining organizations

Across these three customer stories, a common thread emerges: transformation is not accidental—it is intentional. Frontier Firms combine human ambition with AI, Copilot, and agents to create scalable impact. Ma’aden reimagined productivity, while Petrosea transformed adversity into innovation, and Outokumpu turned data into a strategic asset.

What sets these leaders apart is discipline: they do not stop at adoption. They measure outcomes, codify frameworks, and scale with intent. Technology is a purpose multiplier, enabling safer operations, faster innovation, and sustainable growth.

As Frontier Firms continue to redefine what’s possible in mining, the horizon is filled with opportunities for AI-powered solutions—from predictive maintenance and autonomous operations to intelligent exploration, workflow automation, and sustainability platforms—each poised to unlock new levels of efficiency, safety, and innovation across the industry. The Microsoft GenAI for Energy Permitting Solution Accelerator applied to mining represents a promising step for Frontier Firms seeking to transform permitting from a bottleneck into a strategic advantage. Built on the Microsoft Cloud, the accelerator aims to help mining companies accelerate permitting timelines, improve compliance confidence, and enhance transparency with regulators and communities.

With these and other innovative solutions, the future belongs to Frontier Firms. Are you ready?

Discover solutions

Using Copilot in energy and resources

Explore the possibilities of AI transformation

Learn more

• Visit Microsoft for energy and resources and Microsoft for the mining industry.
• Explore Azure Arc.
• Learn more about Microsoft Security for enterprise.
• Discover over 1,000 AI customer use cases in the blog AI-powered success—with more than 1,000 stories of customer transformation and innovation.
• Read the latest International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2025.

The post Transforming mining: How Frontier Firms lead with AI and agentic innovation appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

Becoming a Frontier Firm in media and entertainment

A Frontier Firm is a next-generation media organization that reimagines what’s possible—across storytelling, audience engagement, operations, and monetization. These companies embrace agentic AI to unlock creativity in every corner of the business, from editorial and production to marketing, distribution, and strategy. By deploying AI agents that act, learn, and adapt, Frontier Firms empower teams to focus on high-value work, accelerate innovation, and deliver intelligent, personalized experiences at scale.

In the era of the Frontier Firm, AI is not just automating tasks in media and entertainment—it’s unleashing creativity across the workforce.

• Enrich employee experiences: AI helps employees by taking care of repetitive tasks, giving them more time to focus on creative and strategic work, and connecting their tools and data into smooth, intelligent workflows.
• Reinvent audience engagement: AI transforms how media companies connect with audiences by enabling hyper-personalized content, adapting stories to viewer preferences, and delivering experiences that drive deeper engagement across platforms and formats.
• Reshape business processes: AI streamlines media operations—from metadata tagging and localization to campaign management and distribution—by automating routine tasks and enabling agile, outcome-driven teams that focus on strategic oversight and creative excellence.
• Bend the curve on innovation: Generative AI accelerates content creation in media by helping writers, editors, and designers ideate, produce, and refine assets faster, while preserving creative uniqueness and unlocking new formats like synthetic video and multimodal storytelling.

As McKinsey’s Technology Trend Outlook 2025 notes, “Those who act with focus and agility will not only unlock new value but also shape the future of their industries and the future of today’s emerging frontier technologies.”

Microsoft media and entertainment customers trailblazing AI innovation

Media and entertainment customers today are embracing what it means to be a Frontier Firm by leading with vision, investing in talent and technology, and boldly experimenting to shape the future of entertainment and drive industry transformation. The Frontier Firms of media and entertainment are not defined by the size of their library or reach, but by the boldness to reimagine how stories are created, how teams collaborate, and how value is discovered in every moment. Microsoft is helping organizations around the world build the foundation for this future.

Streamlining media workflows

The next wave for media is not about automating yesterday’s processes but rather about reimagining the entire back office operation and production pipeline. From streamlining editorial workflows to managing the full content lifecycle, leaders in media and entertainment are looking for tools that free teams to focus on storytelling innovation instead of manual tasks. Examples of our customers reimaging their business operations include:

• The National Football League (NFL) is one of the world’s most popular sports leagues, with 335 events each season and hundreds of millions of fans across the globe renewed its partnership with Microsoft. Incorporating the new Microsoft solutions will help drive innovation and enhance the game day experience leaguewide from the sideline to team headquarters to the league office. The NFL is implementing Microsoft Copilot and Azure AI to enhance sideline evaluation and workflows, scout new talent, and streamline operations that keep the stadiums running smoothly. The NFL added an AI assistant to its existing Combine App, using Azure OpenAI Service to deliver fast, accurate answers to natural language questions in real-time. Teams now access insights in seconds, helping coaches and scouts evaluate talent faster—even while athletes are still on the field.
• The National Basketball Association (NBA) transformed fan engagement, operational agility, and data security by migrating to Microsoft Azure—unlocking real-time insights, scalable AI innovation, and personalized digital experiences across its global ecosystem.
• The Indiana Pacers use Azure AI Speech to create a solution that delivers real-time captions with the speed and accuracy required for a live game-day experience. Using Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, Pacers Sports & Entertainment pioneered a real-time captioning system that transforms live basketball into an inclusive, immersive experience for deaf, hard-of-hearing, and non-English-speaking fans redefining accessibility in sports.
• LaLiga uses Microsoft Azure Arc to unify cloud and on-premises operations across 42 stadiums, enabling low-latency AI-powered insights and seamless fan experiences that boost productivity, security, and engagement.
• Dentsu implemented Microsoft Azure AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI Services to build a predictive analytics copilot that supports media insights, cutting analysis time by 80% and overall time to insight by 90%.
• Kantar modernized its global IT infrastructure using Microsoft 365 Copilot to streamline endpoint management, reduce costly manual processes, and boost employee productivity—ultimately enhancing client outcomes through improved operational efficiency.
• The International Tennis Federation (ITF) transformed match-day strategy and coaching effectiveness by deploying Microsoft Azure Databricks, Azure SQL Database, Surface devices, and Azure Data Lake to deliver real-time performance insights through the Billie Jean King Cup Match Insights app, empowering athletes and coaches with data-driven decisions.

Empowering content creators

For media and entertainment, Microsoft Copilot is an intelligent assistant creators have always needed—from answering simple data questions to supporting advanced production work that was once out of reach. By putting AI at the side of every editor, producer, and storyteller, we’re not just making processes faster—we’re expanding what’s possible. That means more capacity for creativity, stronger content lifecycles, and measurable business impact at every stage.

• WPP’s T&Pm agency revolutionized creative workflows by using Microsoft Azure OpenAI and Sora to rapidly prototype and scale personalized video content—enabling faster production, deeper experimentation, and more emotionally resonant storytelling across global campaigns.
• Penguin Random House (a subsidiary of Bertelsmann), the world’s largest book publisher, partnered with Microsoft to address the European Union Accessibility Act and promote inclusivity by automating the generation of high-quality, context-aware alternative text for images in over 160,000 eBooks. Using Azure and Azure AI Foundry, the solution extracts image context from digital books and generates descriptive captions, dramatically reducing manual effort while ensuring compliance. The initiative not only enhances accessibility for visually impaired readers but also delivers projected annual savings of USD1.5 to 1.8 million.

“Our collaboration with Microsoft’s Industry Solutions Engineering team has enabled us to meet the requirements of the EU Accessibility Act and continue our quest to make accessible content for all our readers. Building on the Azure platform allowed us to utilize out-of-the-box security and functionality to craft a cost-effective solution that pulled together efficient compute functions alongside AI Foundry. Our ability to build quickly in a controlled environment will allow us to deliver compliant and accessible content in a fraction of the time and cost.”

—Chris Hart, Vice President at Penguin Random House

• By integrating solutions like Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service, Dentsu is accelerating every stage of the creative cycle—from brainstorming and briefing to campaign execution and performance analysis. Concept art and campaign assets that once took weeks can now be produced in days or even hours, meeting the rising expectations of clients for speed and quality. In fact, 62% of their surveyed users reported a noticeable improvement in the quality of content created with Microsoft 365 Copilot, while teams are gaining deeper insights into campaign performance and audience segmentation.¹

“Copilot helps close the loop after a campaign goes live, enabling creators to quickly determine what’s working and why—making it an indispensable partner for modern creative teams” 

—Kate Slade, Head of Responsible AI, Dentsu

• HyperCinema transforms live entertainment by using Azure OpenAI to generate hyper personalized, real-time storytelling experiences that immerse guests in brand worlds—scaling effortlessly across exhibitions, theme parks, and retail venues.
• Pixar Animation Studios democratized high-fidelity rendering for global creators by leveraging Microsoft Azure HPC, enabling anyone—from students to professionals—to participate in its RenderMan® Challenge with scalable cloud compute power.

Elevating fan engagement and unlocking monetization

The real opportunity for media and entertainment lies in the synergy of AI and data. By unifying content signals with audience behavior in real time, AI is unlocking new ways for engagement and monetization. It’s not just about driving the next click—it’s about creating responsive experiences that build lasting loyalty. When data becomes actionable through AI, media and entertainment customers are connecting stories to audiences in ways that were never possible.

• Premier League is redefining the fan experience with its new fan-facing digital platforms that leverage Microsoft’s cloud and AI technologies to usher in a new era of intelligent and intuitive fan experiences. This partnership marks one of the most significant technological transformations in the league’s history, anchored around four key areas: fan engagement, match insights and analysis, cloud transformation, and organizational productivity. Leveraging Azure AI Foundry and OpenAI, the partnership will deliver real-time match data, interactive analysis, and secure media experiences—setting a new standard for global sports technology.
• Major League Soccer (MLS) transformed its fan engagement strategy by integrating Microsoft Azure AI into its revamped league app, delivering real-time match insights, personalized content, and interactive features through the new Sidekick companion experience. Sidekick uses agentic AI to anticipate fan needs—delivering real-time match insights and personalized content exactly when fans want it. Co-developed with Microsoft and OpenAI, Sidekick adapts to each user, testing and refining engagement to maximize relevance for millions of fans.
• The NBA transformed its global fan engagement and operational agility by migrating to Microsoft Azure and Azure OpenAI Service, enabling real-time data insights, scalable AI innovation, enhanced security, and personalized digital experiences across its ecosystem.
• Art Basel transformed global art fair experiences by deploying Microsoft Azure AI Foundry and Copilot to power a secure, real-time companion app that bridges physical and digital worlds, enabling instant artwork recognition, personalized guidance, and deeper visitor engagement across five international cities.
• Fukuoka SoftBank HAWKS revolutionizes the stadium experience by deploying a lifelike AI avatar of retired star Ryota Igarashi—powered by Microsoft Azure AI—to engage fans in real time, driving full-season suite sellouts and redefining digital fan interaction. The AI avatar, trained to match Igarashi’s intonation, speed, and lip sync, appears on a large display and communicates in real time, answering questions from users, giving player information, commenting on the current game, and cheering for the SoftBank HAWKS.
• Universal Destinations & Experiences, a division of Comcast, is transforming theme park operations and guest experiences by leveraging Microsoft Azure and Azure Data Explorer to deliver real-time data insights, enhance personalization, and streamline digital innovation across its global attractions.

AI-powered Microsoft platform enables ecosystem co-innovation

Microsoft offers comprehensive cloud and AI solutions that enable media and entertainment businesses to improve efficiency, deliver personalized and engaging experiences, and unlock new revenue. As platform-first company, we also empower our partner ecosystem with AI-platform, Azure cloud infrastructure, and robust tools to extend Microsoft offers or build industry-specific solutions that drive real business impact. Discover how some of our leading partners are shaping the future of media and entertainment:

• Adobe Experience Cloud and Dynamics 365 integrate seamlessly with Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing AI-powered marketing directly into Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and Word. Media teams can now create campaigns, manage approvals, and track performance—all within familiar workflows, accelerating time-to-market and scaling audience engagement.
• MediaKind and DAZN delivered the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 globally using Azure’s cloud-native infrastructure, enabling dynamic scaling and broadcast-quality streaming for millions of fans.
• Support Partners’ Catalyst, built on Azure, empowers retailers to automate video production with brand-trained AI agents—cutting costs and delivering content faster across every channel.
• SOUTHWORKS, MediaKind, and Microsoft Security launched the first Media Security Copilot, protecting streaming workflows and ensuring content security at every stage.
• Cognizant is helping media organizations modernize business processes by deploying Dynamics 365 into core workflows, enabling them to take full advantage of Microsoft’s AI platform to unlock efficiency and insight.
• UIC Digital is leveraging our entire AI technology stack to automate live broadcasts, complete with real-time language translation and personalized experiences that bring events closer to audiences everywhere.
• At IBC, IPV is unveiling Curator’s next evolution, powered by Azure Content Understanding and Microsoft Foundry APIs for advanced image and video generation.

From marketing and sports to security and creative workflows, Microsoft and its partner ecosystem are redefining what’s possible—helping media and entertainment companies invent the future of storytelling with AI.

Join the movement of Frontier Firm

The future of media and entertainment is being written today by organizations that blend human creativity with AI-powered intelligence. Join the movement. Join us at IBC 2025, attend sessions, check out demos, and meet with Microsoft executives who are accelerating frontier creativity with AI. Check out this document for details of Microsoft presence at IBC2025.

¹ An upcoming commissioned Total Economic Impact™ study of Microsoft’s Gen AI and Agentic AI Solutions for media and entertainment organizations conducted by Forrester Consulting, 2025.

The post Microsoft at IBC 2025: Accelerating the frontier of media and entertainment with AI appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

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

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

Ask Ralph: A style companion powered by AI

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

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

The delight of conversational commerce

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

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

Built for the future, grounded in legacy

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

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

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

Agentic AI: The new frontier

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

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

—Naveen Seshadri, Chief Digital Officer at Ralph Lauren

Confidence, creativity, connection

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

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

Azure AI solutions

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Ready to transform the shopping experience with AI?

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

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

Learn more

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rockwell Automation describes today’s opportunity:

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

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

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

Transforming the product testing lifecycle

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

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

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

Augmenting R&D innovation

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

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

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

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

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

Optimizing factory operations

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

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

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

—Carol Wittgren, Head of Digital Acceleration at Aurobay

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

Modernize your manufacturing

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

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

Modernize for AI innovation

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

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

The post Unlocking the potential of manufacturing with cloud modernization appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.