• Wave 3 of Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Expanded model diversity with Claude and next-gen OpenAI models available today
• General availability of Agent 365 on May 1 for $15 per user
• General availability of the new Microsoft 365 E7: The Frontier Suite on May 1 for $99 per user

Frontier Transformation is a holistic reimagining of business, aligning AI with human ambition to achieve an organization’s highest aspirations. It is the next evolution of AI Transformation — not only do we need to deliver efficiency and productivity, but we need to democratize intelligence and do more for humanity. Companies do not want or need more AI experimentation. They need AI that delivers real business outcomes and growth.

In my daily conversations with customers and partners, they typically question what the most important components of an AI solution are. Is it the model? Is it silicon? At Microsoft, we believe the two most essential elements of Frontier Transformation are Intelligence + Trust. Organizations need to harness their own unique work intelligence as they build agents and solutions; and all AI artifacts across their technology stack must be observed, managed and secured to ensure they are delivering value responsibly. 

Intelligence that shows up in real work 

I often say that zero-shot artifact creation is nothing more than a parlor trick. Models can reason over data, produce draft documents, presentations and spreadsheets, but they do not understand work. Real differentiation comes from intelligence — deep work context, embedded in the tools people already use. AI should amplify your intelligence but do so in a manner that protects your differentiation and unique value.

Work IQ amplifies an individual’s IQ by tapping into your organization’s IQ. It is the intelligence layer that enables Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents to know how you work, with whom you work, and the content upon which you collaborate. That is why Copilot is faster, more accurate and more trusted than solutions built on models and connectors alone.

This month, we are unleashing Work IQ with our next generation of agentic experiences in Wave 3 of Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Employees will have an enhanced chat experience in Copilot with the ability to create and augment artifacts, and the power to build their own agents within the canvas they work in every day.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is model diverse by design. Rather than betting on a single model, we built a system that makes every model useful at work. Customers get the choice, performance and flexibility in an open, heterogenous environment.  Copilot leverages leading models from OpenAI and Anthropic, operating openly across clouds and data services without locking customers in. Claude is now available in mainline chat in Copilot via the Frontier program, alongside the latest generation of OpenAI models.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 3 is not just a singular release of new capabilities but rather a commitment to continuous innovation. We will bring frontier capabilities with enterprise promises for our customers in an open and model diverse manner. Another great example of this is Copilot Cowork, which is in research preview. Built in close collaboration with Anthropic, we are bringing the technology that powers Claude Cowork into Microsoft 365 Copilot to enable long-running, multi-step work that unfolds over time.  Click here to learn about our Wave 3 news in more detail.

These announcements come as our customers across industries are already seeing the value of Microsoft 365 Copilot. Microsoft recently delivered its strongest quarter yet with Copilot, with paid seats growing more than 160% year over year and daily active usage up ten times, as customers increasingly make Copilot a core part of everyday work. Expansion is also accelerating as the number of customers deploying Copilot at significant scale — more than 35,000 seats — tripled year over year. Just last week, Mercedes Benz announced a global rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot, following recent investments from NASA, Fiserv, ING, the University of Kentucky, the University of Manchester, the U.S. Department of the Interior and Westpac. This is in addition to the 90 percent of the Fortune 500 who now use Copilot.

Trust: from agent experimentation and sprawl to enterprise control 

The speed of agent development and proliferation tells us customers see value, but without guardrails the pace of adoption turns into blind spots, diminished ROI and real security risk. As AI agents become more capable and autonomous, trust is nonnegotiable. IDC predicts 1.3B agents in circulation by 2028, and 80% of the Fortune 500 are already using Microsoft agents, led by operationally complex industries like manufacturing, financial services and retail.

That is why I am excited to announce the May 1 general availability of Microsoft Agent 365, the control-plane for AI agents. Priced at $15 per user, Agent 365 gives IT and security leaders a single place to observe, govern, manage and secure agents across the organization — using the same infrastructure, applications and protections they rely on to manage people today.

We are seeing tremendous momentum with our preview customers. In just two months, tens of millions of agents have appeared in the Agent 365 Registry. We have tens of thousands of customers that are already adopting Agent 365 to securely govern and scale AI agents across enterprise workflows.

At Microsoft, we are also using Agent 365 as Customer Zero and the early signals are clear. We now have visibility into more than 500,000 agents across the company with the most widely used focused on research, coding, sales intelligence, customer triage and HR self-service. That adoption is translating into real work. Over the past 28 days alone, agents have been generating more than 65,000 responses every day for employees. This is evidence that we are not simply experimenting, we are embedding agents in the flow of everyday work and empowering human ambition.

Introducing the Frontier Suite

To meet this demand, I am thrilled to announce we are bringing Intelligence + Trust together with Microsoft 365 E7: The Frontier Suite. Microsoft 365 E7 unifies Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Agent 365 into a single solution powered by Work IQ and integrated with the apps and security stack customers already rely on. It includes Microsoft Entra Suite and advanced Defender, Intune and Purview security capabilities, delivering comprehensive protection across agents and employees.

Customers have told us E5 alone is no longer enough; they do not want multiple tools stitched together, they want one trusted solution. At $99 per user, E7 is priced below purchasing these capabilities à la carte, giving customers a simpler, more cost-effective way to deploy enterprise AI at scale.

With the general availability of Agent 365 and the latest agentic experiences in Microsoft 365 Copilot offered as one Frontier suite, AI moves from experimentation to durable, enterprise-wide value, built on a foundation of Intelligence + Trust. This is how we make Frontier Transformation real. Microsoft is not just imagining the future of AI, we are empowering organizations across industries and around the world to build it.

The post Introducing the First Frontier Suite built on Intelligence + Trust appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

New capabilities include the ability to surface relevant work-related information alongside patient data for customers using Microsoft 365 Copilot; partner-built AI apps and agents available through Microsoft Marketplace that extend intelligence across revenue cycle, clinical insights, and decision support; and expanded role-based experiences for physicians, nurses, and radiologists designed to scale securely across settings and geographies.

Transform the way care teams work with Dragon Copilot

Today, more than 100,000 clinicians rely on Dragon Copilot as part of their daily practice—supporting care for millions of patients every month. That kind of adoption doesn’t happen by accident; it happens when technology earns trust, fits naturally into clinical workflows, and proves its value day after day. As healthcare continues to accelerate, the question facing organizations is no longer if AI will be part of care delivery, but how quickly they can equip their teams with tools that scale safely, work across roles, and keep clinicians focused on patients. The new Dragon Copilot capabilities we’re introducing at HIMSS 2026 build on this proven foundation—extending trusted clinical support beyond documentation to meet the growing demands of modern care.

Clinicians need more than access to data—they need an AI assistant that works alongside them, understands context, and supports action across systems and settings. Built on Microsoft Azure, Dragon Copilot delivers this capability with enterprise‑grade security, responsible AI, and cloud scale—giving organizations the confidence to deploy broadly and grow with care teams wherever they work.

“We ultimately went with Microsoft because of the security, the compliance, the scalability, and the fact that they’ve delivered reliable solutions for years.”—Snehal Gandhi, MD, Vice President and Chief Medical Information Officer, Cooper University Health Care

See what Dragon Copilot has to offer:

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Unifying the disparate—so care teams can move faster, with confidence

By unifying information from across systems and sources, Dragon Copilot reduces fragmentation and unnecessary searching—bringing patient data, trusted clinical content, and partner powered AI insights into a single, contextual experience within the clinical workflow.

What makes this approach different is not just access to information, but how intelligence is delivered and applied. Clinicians can naturally query, summarize, create, and act using voice or text—without toggling between tools. Insights are surfaced instantly in one place, enabling care teams to move fluidly from understanding to action while spending less time navigating systems and more time with patients.

That intelligence is grounded in a broad set of trusted sources, including:

• Prebuilt trusted clinical content with citations
• Patient data like diagnoses, labs, medications, and allergies
• Organizational content such as policies, procedures, schedules, and communications

When needed, reliable web information can also be accessed through a safety‑first pathway—ensuring responses remain appropriate for clinical use.

Care delivery depends on more than clinical facts—it also depends on fast access to the work context around care. With Microsoft 365 Copilot, powered by Work IQ and accessible inside Dragon Copilot, clinicians can pull in relevant work-related information from connected apps and enterprise data, right where they’re already working. Work IQ is the intelligence layer that helps Copilot understand how people collaborate across emails, files, meetings, and chats—so responses are grounded in the right context. The result is a more unified experience that reduces time spent searching across tools and keeps momentum inside the clinical workflow.

Dragon Copilot extends clinical intelligence beyond any single system or screen. Instead of being locked into one interface, clinicians can invoke powerful AI capabilities wherever they’re already working—across applications, EHRs, and web pages. By simply clicking or highlighting text, Dragon Copilot can read, understand, and apply its intelligence directly in context, without forcing clinicians to switch tools or reenter information.

For example, a clinician reviewing a note can place their cursor over a sentence and say, “Add more detail about what the patient shared regarding their cardiac history.” Dragon Copilot immediately expands the documentation using the surrounding clinical context—no copying, no pasting, and no workflow disruption—helping clinicians move faster while keeping their focus on the patient, not the screen.

Building on this foundation, Dragon Copilot further unifies innovation through AI apps and agents available in Microsoft Marketplace. Developed by partners such as Canary Speech, Humata Health, Optum, and Regard, these solutions deliver capabilities across clinical insights, revenue cycle management, prior authorization, and clinical decision support. Organizations can easily purchase, deploy, and scale partner innovation—while clinicians experience those insights directly within their existing workflows.

Dragon Copilot/Marketplace video placeholder

“Sentara Health is integrating Regard’s diagnosis and documentation technology within Dragon Copilot to save time, improve revenue integrity, and most importantly improve care.

By combining Dragon’s ambient conversation capture with Regard’s ability to surface key insights from data, we expect to help our clinicians identify comorbidities and relevant diagnoses in real time without adding steps to their workflow. Our goal is straightforward: strengthen the clinical picture, reduce documentation burden, and support more informed decision-making at the point of care.”—Dr. Joseph Evans, Vice President, Chief Health Information Officer at Sentara Health

Simplifying the complex—so care teams can be present with patients

Dragon Copilot streamlines clinical documentation and routine tasks, so clinicians spend less time navigating systems and more time focused on patient care. By simplifying physician and nursing charting, notes, flowsheets, and radiology reporting, it reduces rework and cognitive burden—helping care teams work more efficiently and confidently across the day.

This simplification is powered by healthcare-grade AI models built for clinical accuracy, with clinical note quality evaluated using the Provider Document Summarization Quality Instrument (PDSQI9)—an industry standard developed with leading academic and healthcare institutions to ensure clear, consistent, and clinically appropriate outputs.

Beyond documentation, Dragon Copilot automates high friction tasks across the workflow. Persona specific note types, automated referral letters and after‑visit summaries, summaries of prior radiology reports, and proactive coding guidance reduce manual effort and unnecessary toggling—allowing care teams to focus on decisions, not data entry.

New and expanded capabilities include:

• Proactive ICD‑10 specificity suggestions, delivered during note review to support timely, accurate reimbursement.
• Reusable custom clinical documents, created from prompts or examples and managed as templates, allowing clinicians to get additional unique content created automatically, such as custom letters.
• Pull-forward workflow support to jump-start new documentation from prior notes.
• Multilingual conversation capture, connecting with patients in their language. Captures the conversation in 58 languages and automatically converts the encounter into a note written in the primary language used in each country.
• Seamless migration from Dragon Medical One, preserving existing commands, vocabularies, profiles, templates, and AutoTexts.

Scaling across roles, geographies, and devices

Dragon Copilot is designed with role-based experiences that deliver the right capabilities to each clinician, when and where they’re needed. Physicians, nurses, radiologists, and other care team members benefit from workflows tailored to their unique responsibilities—from documentation and care coordination to image interpretation—while organizations maintain consistency, security, and compliance at scale. With a single solution spanning multiple roles, including the only experience built for radiologists and demonstrated outcomes for nurses, healthcare organizations can simplify their technology footprint and drive greater return on investment.

Physicians

Dragon Copilot supports physicians across care settings through EHR‑integrated workflows and a dedicated app available on mobile (iOS and Android), web, and desktop. Physicians can document more efficiently, access timely clinical information, and reduce cognitive load—whether at the point of care or on the go.

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Together with partners, Dragon Copilot continues to scale globally and is now available in U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Nurses

Dragon Copilot enhances nursing workflows by ambiently capturing documentation at the point of care and transforming conversations into structured flowsheet entries. With expanded support for all med-surg flowsheet templates and lines, drains, and airways (LDAWs) additions and removals—nurses can document more completely without disrupting care.

Through a dedicated app available on mobile (such as iOS and Android), web, and desktop, nurses can also access information from trusted medical sources, query transcripts to surface key patient details, and create concise summaries—without leaving their workflow—reducing clicks, and keeping focus on patient care.

“Dragon Copilot gives power back to nurses to spend time at the bedside with face-to-face interactions.”—Stephanie Whitaker, MSN, Registered Nurse, Chief Nursing Officer, Mercy

Nurses using Dragon Copilot have reported reduced cognitive load, faster documentation, and improved patient experience, reinforcing the value of role‑specific AI designed for frontline care. The Dragon Copilot nursing experience is available in the United States.

“I can say that without a doubt, using Dragon Copilot has significantly reduced the time that I’m focused and worrying about sitting down and getting my charting done behind the computer.”—Christine Dupire, Registered Nurse, Mercy

Radiologists

Paired with PowerScribe One, Dragon Copilot helps minimize repetitive tasks such as reviewing prior reports and automates routine steps in report creation. It surfaces relevant clinical context, integrates customizable AI experiences, and provides intelligent access to credible information—helping radiologists stay focused and deliver high‑quality reports with confidence. The Dragon Copilot radiology experience is currently in preview in the United States.

“As we embrace the next frontier of AI, we know that having cloud-based solutions that work seamlessly with our existing products and systems is paramount. Having Dragon Copilot as a companion for PowerScribe One gives me confidence that I can test and benefit from the latest AI advancements with minimal disruptions and distractions.”—Sean Cleary, MD, Vice Chair of Informatics for Imaging Sciences University of Rochester Medical Center

Restoring humanity to healthcare through AI

AI will only transform healthcare if it truly serves the people delivering care. Dragon Copilot is built for that purpose—bringing role‑based experiences, hands‑free workflows, and proactive clinical intelligence together in a way that fits naturally into how clinicians work. By unifying information, reducing friction, and extending trusted intelligence across the workflow, Dragon Copilot helps clinicians spend less time managing tasks and more time connecting with patients—restoring focus, confidence, and humanity to the practice of medicine.

Join the more than 100,000 clinicians already using Dragon Copilot

Connect with a Dragon Copilot product specialist

• Visit us at the HIMSS 2026 Booth #2812.
• Get the playbook to learn how clinicians utilize AI to work smarter.
• Download the white paper to explore AI use cases transforming healthcare.

The post Unify. Simplify. Scale: Microsoft Dragon Copilot meets the moment at HIMSS 2026 appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

To help customers accelerate and simplify agent adoption, we introduced the Microsoft 365 Agent Store earlier this year—a centralized, in-product experience that makes it easy to discover and engage with agents designed to work with Microsoft 365 Copilot. And today, we announced the launch of the Microsoft Marketplace, a single web destination for customers to find, try, and buy our full catalog of cloud solutions, AI apps, and agents. You can choose the solutions that meet your business needs either from the Microsoft Marketplace, or directly within Microsoft products, such as the Agent Store in Copilot.

Empower your organization with ready-to-use agents from the Agent Store 

In the Agent Store, employees can get started with ready-to-use agents tailored to their needs, boosting productivity and efficiency from day one. Personalized discovery surfaces the most relevant agents based on each user’s work context. Because the Agent Store is native to Copilot and integrated across Microsoft 365, the experience is consistent and familiar—right where work already happens.

The Agent Store features agents designed to solve real-world business challenges by helping with time-consuming and complex tasks such as comparative market research, inventory analysis, or IT helpdesk automation. Customers can choose from agents built by Microsoft, along with a robust catalog of agents from trusted Microsoft partners.

All third-party agents undergo a rigorous validation process to meet enterprise-grade security, compliance, and performance standards. Organizations can also build their own agents with Microsoft Copilot Studio and use the Agent Store as a distribution channel to make them available across the organization or to specific groups just for their organization. 

IT teams maintain full governance and control of the agents that employees can install from the Agent Store through the Microsoft 365 admin center. From there, they can curate a comprehensive catalog of agents, apply granular access controls for users or groups, and manage the entire agent lifecycle—including blocking, deleting, or handling ownerless agents. Built-in reporting provides clear visibility into adoption and usage trends across groups and the organization, enabling IT leaders to drive measurable outcomes and maximize impact. 

Accelerate AI transformation with partner-built agents in Copilot 

Through the Agent Store, customers can equip employees with pre-built agents from Microsoft’s trusted partner ecosystem, making it easy to incorporate the latest AI innovations into daily workflows. Today, we’re excited to showcase a few of these incredible partner-built agents, each solving real business challenges and available now:

• Snowflake Cortex Agents simplifies AI-powered data interactions for all enterprise users. It allows users to search, analyze, and generate insights from Snowflake data—structured or unstructured—using everyday language within Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Teams.

• Asana lets users turn conversations into action items to stay on track by helping them prioritize work, identify blockers, and summarize project statuses. This agent allows teams to access Asana’s collaborative work management platform using natural language within Copilot and Teams, enabling higher quality human and AI teamwork that drives better, faster business outcomes. 

• LexisNexis Protégé™ is a personalized AI-powered assistant that helps legal and business professionals reach new levels of productivity and value generation. Informed by trusted data and authoritative LexisNexis content, Protégé™ streamlines tasks, anticipates intent, and delivers uniquely tailored work products. 

• The Meltwater Agent for Microsoft allows customers to revolutionize their data experience, gain smarter insights, and make faster decisions. This agent allows users to interact with billions of data points conversationally to gain real-time, data-driven insights surfaced directly in Copilot and Teams. 

• SAP Joule makes every touch-point count and every task simpler, using its generative AI capabilities to understand requests, retrieve information, and complete tasks in a conversational way. SAP Joule guides customers through content discovery within the SAP Ecosystem, providing transparent, role-based access to the relevant processes from everywhere.

• Now Assist in Virtual Agent allows users to find answers, file requests, and complete ServiceNow tasks within Copilot and Teams. With the ability to execute actions and exchange data seamlessly with ServiceNow and existing enterprise apps, and find answers to frequently asked questions, users are empowered to reach new levels of productivity and efficiency. 

These are just a few of the agents being built and made available by our diverse partner ecosystem. For partners looking to distribute their agents and grow with Microsoft, check out Nicole Dezen’s blog post.

Discover the right agents for your business through a connected experience

While the Agent Store offers an in-product path to leverage agents designed to work with Copilot, today’s Microsoft Marketplace launch makes it easy to explore and buy cloud solutions, AI apps, and agents—including the full set of Copilot agents available in the Agent Store—from a single destination. Both experiences share a unified catalog, powered by the same publishing process and infrastructure, ensuring consistent listings, pricing, and management. Customers can research and transact on the Microsoft Marketplace, then deploy and manage agents through the Agent Store. 

Wherever you are on your AI journey—from your first agent to multiagent workflows—Microsoft meets you where you are. To learn more about how to get your employees started with the latest AI solutions, visit the Agent Store in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app and explore the Microsoft Marketplace today. 

Microsoft Marketplace

Explore cloud solutions, AI apps, and agents

Get started managing, building, and publishing agents today 

• Deploy and manage agents in the Microsoft 365 admin center 

• Get resources for building agents from the Microsoft 365 Dev Center, including decision guides, code samples, documentation, and tutorials 

• Start building agents with Microsoft Copilot Studio and Microsoft Visual Studio 

• Check out how Microsoft 365 Copilot Tuning can add skills to the models that power agents 

• Explore the AI Agents Hub to learn how to build and customize your agents 

• Get started publishing agents for Microsoft 365 Copilot 

The post Empower your workforce with agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

Thousands of global leaders are gathering at Climate Week NYC 2025, one of the largest events of its kind focused on climate action. From business and government to science and civil society, the conversations this year reflect both a shared urgency and a growing sense of possibility. 

Across industries, leaders are using AI to turn constraints into catalysts for innovation. Companies are using AI to help balance competing objectives such as reducing costs and environmental impacts while driving growth. 

The business case is clear: Morgan Stanley reports that companies investing in climate risk mitigation are seeing average returns of 8X on their initial investment.¹ And, according to the World Economic Forum, every dollar invested in climate adaptation and resilience can generate up to $19 in avoided losses.² 

Accelerate your organization’s resilience with AI

Read the e-book

AI in action: How leaders are driving change 

Sustainability challenges often span functions, geographies, and time horizons, and AI is proving valuable in helping people collaborate to solve highly complex problems. For example: 

• Faced with increasingly frequent flooding, the City of Stuttgart needed a faster way to prepare. Traditional geospatial modeling would have taken months. Instead, by partnering with Esri, Microsoft, and NVIDIA, city planners built a full-scale 3D digital twin in just 24 hours—a 99% improvement in processing time. With AI-powered simulations, these city planners can now visualize rainfall, model water flow, and test mitigation strategies in near real time. The result: faster response, smarter planning, and a more resilient city.

• In Japan, supermarket chain Super Hosokawa and logistics partner Imamura Shoji used Azure Databricks, Azure OpenAI, and Snowflake to build a demand forecasting system that shares two-day-ahead predictions across the supply chain. The impact was immediate: food waste dropped by over 50% for key products, and trial items outperformed expectations, even during periods of declining sales. These results are inspiring broader AI adoption across Japan’s food logistics ecosystem. 

•  In Washington state, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory partnered with Microsoft to reimagine how we discover next-generation battery materials. Using AI and Azure Quantum Elements, they narrowed down 32 million possibilities to 18 viable candidates in just 80 hours—a process that would traditionally take years. This is a glimpse into the future of scientific research and development: AI-powered discovery, faster time-to-impact, and new frontiers in energy and materials. 

Advancing the sustainability of AI with innovations in datacenter cooling

As AI adoption accelerates, managing its resource use is a strategic imperative, to enable customers and partners to scale AI responsibly and competitively. Three areas of focused investment for Microsoft include (1) optimizing datacenter energy and water efficiency, (2) advancing low-carbon materials, and (3) improving the energy efficiency of cloud and AI services.

The latest cloud and AI technologies run on chips that consume more power than previous generations, and the more power that runs through a chip, the hotter it gets. Future generations of chips for AI are expected to become even more powerful, with even greater demands on the cooling systems in datacenters. 

To help address this problem, Microsoft has successfully tested a new microfluidic cooling system with up to three times better cooling performance than cold plates, depending on the workloads and configurations involved. Taking the heat signatures of chips, we’re able to identify the hot spots and then etch channels into the back of the silicon chips to direct liquid coolant more efficiently to the hot spots, optimizing how we do cooling. These channels are micrometers in size, similar in size to a human hair.

As part of the prototyping effort, the team used AI to help optimize a bio-inspired design to cool chips’ hot spots more efficiently than straight up-and-down channels.

Microfluidics is part of our whole-systems approach to optimizing every part of the cloud and AI stack, from datacenters to servers to silicon. Because cooling impacts so many aspects of cloud infrastructure design, from server density to rack density to power management and load balancing between servers, these innovations promise improvements for sustainability as well as other metrics, such as cost, reliability, speed, and consistency.

Getting started with AI for sustainability 

Sustainability progress starts with curiosity. Begin by identifying where your organization can reduce risk and improve efficiency, whether through better visibility, smarter supply chain decisions, or new value streams.

To learn more about how AI can help your organization make tangible progress toward your sustainability and resilience goals, read Insight to Impact: AI Use Cases to Advance Sustainability. 

¹Corporate Sustainability: Long-Term Value Creation Opportunity, Morgan Stanley , July 30, 2015.

²With climate risks set to slash earnings, what can CEOs do?, World Economic Forum, December 12, 2024.

The post Accelerating sustainability and resilience with AI-powered innovation appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

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

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

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

Ask Ralph: A style companion powered by AI

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

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

The delight of conversational commerce

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

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

Built for the future, grounded in legacy

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

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

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

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

Agentic AI: The new frontier

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

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

—Naveen Seshadri, Chief Digital Officer at Ralph Lauren

Confidence, creativity, connection

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

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

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Ready to transform the shopping experience with AI?

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

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

Learn more

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

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

Scientists can now decode electrons, create new materials and even “talk” to trees. Generative AI tools are speeding up the pace of discovery and unlocking insights about everything from the cells in our bodies to the ecosystems that sustain them.

“Scientific discovery is one of the most important applications of AI,” says Peter Lee, Ph.D., head of Microsoft Research. “We believe the ability of generative AI to learn the language of humans is equally matched by its ability to learn the languages of nature, including molecules, crystals, genomes and proteins.”

In the first half of 2025, Microsoft published numerous research papers in peer-reviewed journals and introduced new tools and collaborations across fields such as medicine, energy, biology and quantum physics. The goal: to accelerate how scientists explore complex questions and translate their findings into real-world impact using AI that’s powerful, practical and trustworthy, Lee says.

Here are five areas where AI is already making a tangible difference — and where the next breakthroughs may be just around the corner.

A doctor in a white coat with a stethoscope sits at a standing desk using a computer monitor in a medical office.
Health: Advancing care and research
AI is emerging as a vital partner in healthcare, not just for automating tasks, but for helping clinicians and researchers see more, understand faster and act earlier. From clinical notes to pathology slides, these multimodal models analyze large, unstructured datasets to spot patterns that help detect diseases and guide more tailored treatments.

One example is PadChest-GR, a first-of-its-kind dataset of 4,555 chest X-rays with pinpointed findings in Spanish and English. Developed by the University of Alicante and Microsoft, it can help radiologists interpret images more accurately and train AI models that learn and improve alongside scientists.

Another is the new Microsoft AI Diagnostic Orchestrator (MAI-DxO), which emulates a team of doctors by reasoning over multiple data sources. This research shows how AI could help tackle tough medical cases with higher accuracy and lower costs.

They’re part of a wave of science-first AI tools in healthcare, including GigaPath, which analyzes pathology slides at massive scale, and a project in Kenya to help prevent childhood malnutrition by identifying at-risk communities.

Discovery: Faster scientific insight
AI is helping scientists speed up research by analyzing complex data and simulating natural processes at a scale and pace that would be impossible otherwise.

MicrosoftDiscovery is a new platform built with what’s known as agentic AI — systems that can reason, plan and take action, with permission — to act like a research teammate and automate tasks such as forming hypotheses, running simulations and refining experiments. It can recognize patterns and connections across large datasets, helping scientists test ideas more efficiently. In one early example, Discovery helped researchers identify a new datacenter coolant prototype in just over a week — a process that typically would have taken months.

Microsoft’s new AI model for Density Functional Theory (DFT) is helping solve a 60-year challenge in materials science by quickly and accurately simulating how electrons behave, which could help across applications from drugs to batteries and green fertilizers. Other tools like BioEmu-1, which helps decode protein structures, and MatterGen, which supports the development of new materials, are giving researchers more powerful ways to investigate and innovate.

Earth: New tools for a changing world
AI is moving from theory to real-world application as it helps scientists better understand the Earth’s complex systems and address environmental challenges.

Microsoft’s Auroramodel is one of the first AI foundation models trained on Earth science data. It goes beyond weather forecasting to model how the atmosphere, land and oceans interact, helping scientists anticipate events like cyclones, air quality shifts and ocean waves with greater accuracy so communities can prepare for environmental disasters and adapt to climate change.

Other projects are applying AI to sustainability challenges in new ways. Researchers from Microsoft and the University of Washington are developing a low-carbon cement by mixing in seaweed biomass, creating a more sustainable building material. Avanade’s Intelligent Garden app “talks” to urban trees using sensors to monitor data like moisture, air quality and growth patterns and translating it all into a comprehensive health report. And in Tanzania, AI is helping conservationists track and protect endangeredgiraffes by analyzing drone footage and identifying individual animals through their spot patterns.

Majorana 1 quantum chip
Quantum: Simulating nature
Quantum computing is expanding what’s possible in scientific research by simulating the natural world in ways conventional computers can’t. Traditional systems process information as ones and zeros, but quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which can represent multiple values at once. That allows them to explore many possibilities simultaneously, making them especially useful for modeling complex systems like chemical reactions or material behavior.

Microsoft is combining quantum physics with AI to advance that kind of research. A recent breakthrough introduced 4Dgeometriccodes, a new method for correcting errors in quantum hardware that makes it more stable, reliable and accessible. The company is also working with Atom Computing on a system using neutral-atom qubits, and its Majorana 1 chip represents an alternative quantum architecture to produce more reliable and scalable qubits.

Innovations like those are giving researchers new methods to model problems in areas where classical computing hits its limits, such as health, materials and climate.

A cable car tower and overhead cables traverse a dramatic Alpine valley with snow-capped mountains, green meadows, and forested slopes under a blue sky with white clouds.
Energy: Smarter, cleaner power
AI is playing a growing role in how we produce, store and use energy, by both optimizing current systems and helping build new ones.

Microsoft worked with Nissan Motor Corporation, for example, on a machine learning method that accurately predicts electric-vehicle batterywear — minimizing the need for lengthy physical testing — to help determine which batteries can be recycled instead of discarded. It’s an important part of Nissan’s initiative to reduce carbon emissions.

AI is also accelerating the development of nuclearfusionenergy, a long-term goal for clean power. By simulating complex physical processes, scientists are testing ideas faster and identifying promising reactor designs to bring this energy to the grid sooner. In the U.S., Microsoft is exploring how AI can help streamline the permittingprocess for advanced nuclear and fusion projects, which often face regulatory delays.

And in a step toward more sustainable energy storage, Microsoft used AI to screen more than 32 million candidates to discover a newmaterial that could that could reduce lithium use in batteries by up to 70%.

The post AI for science: 5 ways it’s helping solve big challenges — from the lab to the field appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

It’s a great question, considering that a year ago building an AI agent meant calling in an experienced IT team. Today, teams in finance, human resources, and communications are building their own using low-code tools and off-the-shelf AI like Microsoft 365 Copilot. What once took months and weeks now takes hours and minutes, and often fits right into the tools they already use. IDC predicts over a billion AI agents will be in use by 2028 as AI shifts from answering questions to taking action at scale.¹

Does that mean you should begin with agents? Not necessarily. With so many tools and promises in the market, deciding where to start can be overwhelming. That’s why we created The Business Guide to AI Solutions—to help you cut through the noise and focus on what matters: solving real business problems with the right kind of AI.

The Business Guide to AI Solutions

Choose and apply assistants, agents, and custom tools as part of a secure, scalable AI strategy

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Match the solution to your business goals

AI isn’t one-size-fits-all. The best results come from aligning the right AI solution with the specific problem you’re trying to solve. Whether your goal is to boost productivity, streamline operations, personalize customer experiences, or build something entirely new, there’s a path forward. Here’s how to think about your options:

Need to boost team productivity and reduce time spent on repetitive tasks? Start fast with assistants

Our recent 2025 Work Trend Index Annual Report contains a lot of insight into how AI is reshaping work. It also put a spotlight on something many employees struggle with that can stall a company’s progress: the infinite workday. The pace of work keeps accelerating—and for many, that means the day never really ends. People are starting earlier, working later, and staying buried in emails, Microsoft Teams chats, and meeting requests well into evenings and weekends.

Clearly, the pace of business is relentless. Our approach can’t be. A great place to start is AI assistants. And if your priority is to help your team be more productive, off-the-shelf solutions can deliver quick wins. Microsoft 365 Copilot is built into the apps your teams already use. Designed for fast deployment and immediate value across different roles, Copilot can help people work faster by summarizing content, generating drafts, and automating routine work in all functions—including sales, marketing, finance, and human resources.

For example, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) increased productivity by 10% to 20% for 84% of Copilot users and increased their job satisfaction by 68%. The business saved more than 2,300 person-hours with automation, reduced the time spent on writing internal audit reports by 30% and saved one month of processing time to analyze 8,000 survey comments. And XP Inc. uses Microsoft 365 Copilot to automate tasks, boosting productivity by saving over 9,000 hours—a 30% increase in audit team efficiency.

Struggling with complex, manual processes that slow down operations? Automate with agents

When you’re ready to streamline more complex, multistep processes, agents can help. These autonomous tools go beyond assistants by taking action on your behalf—coordinating tasks across systems, automating workflows, and supporting business operations at scale.

Agents are quickly moving from experimental to essential. We recently introduced advancements in memory, reasoning, and access control that make agents more effective across business environments. You can see this in action in the latest Microsoft 365 Copilot innovations, including multi-agent orchestration, agent tuning, and deeper integration with everyday apps.

With Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, developers can access a full stack agent factory with capabilities to automate business processes across the enterprise. For example, Fujitsu boosted sales proposal productivity by 67%, enabling their teams to focus more time on customer engagement.

We’re also investing in open standards to help agents operate securely across systems so they can scale with your business, not just your tech stack. Read the broader vision for what’s next to learn how AI agents are shaping a more open, connected, and productive future.

Whether built with low-code or pro-code tools, agents can have a big impact across teams. Carvana built an AI agent named Sebastian to guide customers through the car buying and selling journey. To continuously improve Sebastian’s performance, they developed Conversation Analysis Review Engine (CARE), an AI-powered platform that analyzes 100% of customer interactions. Together, Sebastian and CARE have helped Carvana reduce inbound calls per sale by over 45% in two years, reflecting a smoother, more efficient customer experience.

Want to tailor AI to your business without starting from scratch? Extend prebuilt solutions

Once you’ve started using Microsoft 365 Copilot, built-in extensibility gives you a way to go further. With Microsoft Copilot Studio, you can connect AI to your own data, fine-tune prompts, and integrate functionality into your existing systems. This allows you to adapt AI to your workflows—without the time and complexity of building something entirely new.

A case in point is Pets at Home, the United Kingdom’s leading pet care business, which used Microsoft Copilot Studio to extend Copilot’s capabilities for its profit protection team. By building a tailored agent that compiles cases for human review, the company streamlined internal workflows and expects to drive seven-figure annual savings, all without starting from scratch.

Looking to create a competitive edge with something truly unique? Differentiate with custom AI

When your needs are highly specific, customization enables you to design unique solutions that reflect your organization’s DNA. With Azure AI Foundry you can build your own agents, train models with your data, and create experiences specifically made for your business.

For example ABB Group, a global leader in electrification and automation, built a custom AI solution called Genix Copilot using Microsoft Azure OpenAI service to tackle complex industrial challenges like asset performance, energy optimization, and emissions monitoring. The result? Up to 35% savings in operations and maintenance, 20% improvement in energy efficiency, and an 80% reduction in service calls, all through a differentiated, AI-powered experience tailored to their customers’ needs.

You can also build AI solutions tailored to your industry using Microsoft’s industry-specific models and tools in Azure AI Foundry. Whether you’re in healthcare, retail, manufacturing, financial services, or education, our Microsoft Industry Clouds provide prebuilt data models, templates, and AI services to help you move faster and deliver value sooner—without compromising on security or compliance.

Build on a foundation of trust

As AI becomes more powerful, so do the risks. Business leaders are asking the right questions: How do we protect sensitive data? How do we ensure compliance? How do we build AI systems that are fair, transparent, and accountable?

At Microsoft, responsible AI isn’t an afterthought—it’s built into every layer of our platform. Our approach is grounded in clear principles: fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability.

We also provide the tools and governance frameworks to help organizations:

• Protect sensitive data in every interaction.
• Detect and respond to emerging threats in real time.
• Enforce access control and compliance policies at every level.
• Build user trust through transparency and oversight.

When you invest in AI, you’re not just investing in innovation—you’re investing in long-term resilience. That means choosing a partner who puts trust at the center of every solution.

2025 Responsible AI Transparency Report

Explore progress on our commitments to building responsible AI

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Make your next move with confidence

Whether you’re just getting started or ready to scale, Microsoft offers AI business solutions that meet you where you are—and grow with you.

• Download The Business Guide to AI Solutions to explore your options and design an AI strategy that fits your organization.
• Visit the Copilot Studio agents hub to see how businesses are using agents to transform operations.

The pace of AI innovation isn’t slowing anytime soon. But with the right strategy, the right tools, and the right partner, you can move forward with clarity and confidence.

¹ IDC Info Snapshot, sponsored by Microsoft, 1.3 Billion AI Agents by 2028, Enterprise Grade and in Production, US53361825, May 2025.

The post Choosing the right AI path for your business: A practical guide for business leaders appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

For example, 15 million developers are already using GitHub Copilot, and features like agent mode and code review are streamlining the way they code, check, deploy and troubleshoot.

Hundreds of thousands of customers are using Microsoft 365 Copilot to help research, brainstorm and develop solutions, and more than 230,000 organizations — including 90% of the Fortune 500 — have already used Copilot Studio to build AI agents and automations.

Companies like Fujitsu and NTT Data are using Azure AI Foundry to build and manage AI apps and agents that help prioritize sales leads, speed proposal creation and surface client insights. Stanford Health Care is using Microsoft’s healthcare agent orchestrator to build and test AI agents that can help alleviate the administrative burden and speed up the workflow for tumor board preparation.

Developers are at the center of it all. For 50 years Microsoft has been empowering developers with tools and platforms to turn their ideas into reality, accelerating innovation at every stage. From AI-driven automation to seamless cloud integration and more, it’s exciting to see how developers are fueling the next generation of digital transformation.

So, what’s next?

We envision a world in which agents operate across individual, organizational, team and end-to-end business contexts. This emerging vision of the internet is an open agentic web, where AI agents make decisions and perform tasks on behalf of users or organizations.

At Microsoft Build we’re showing the steps we’re taking to make this vision a reality through our platforms, products and infrastructure. We’re putting new models and coding agents in the hands of developers, introducing enterprise-grade agents, making our platforms like Azure AI Foundry, GitHub and Windows the best places to build, embracing open protocols and accelerating scientific discovery with AI, all so that developers and organizations can go invent the next big thing.

Here’s a glimpse at just a few of the announcements today:

Reimagining the software development lifecycle with AI
AI is fundamentally shifting how code is written, deployed and maintained. Developers are using AI to stay in the flow of their environment longer and to shift their focus to more strategic tasks. And as the software development lifecycle is being transformed, we’re providing new features across platforms including GitHub, Azure AI Foundry and Windows that enable developers to work faster, think bigger and build at scale.

GitHub Copilot coding agent and new updates to GitHub Models: GitHub Copilot is evolving from an in-editor assistant to an agentic AI partner with a first-of-its-kind asynchronous coding agent integrated into the GitHub platform. We’re adding prompt management, lightweight evaluations and enterprise controls to GitHub Models so teams can experiment with best-in-class models, without leaving GitHub. Microsoft is also open-sourcing GitHub Copilot Chat in VS Code. The AI-powered capabilities from GitHub Copilot extensions will now be part of the same open-source repository that drives the world’s most popular development tool. As the home of over 150 million developers, this reinforces our commitment to open, collaborative, AI-powered software development. Learn more about GitHub Copilot updates.
Introducing Windows AI Foundry: For developers, Windows remains one of the most open and widely used platforms available, with scale, flexibility and growing opportunity. Windows AI Foundry offers a unified and reliable platform supporting the AI developer lifecycle across training and inference. With simple model APIs for vision and language tasks, developers can manage and run open source LLMs via Foundry Local or bring a proprietary model to convert, fine-tune and deploy across client and cloud. Windows AI Foundry is available to get started today. To learn more visit our Windows Developer Blog.
Azure AI Foundry Models and new tools for model evaluation: Azure AI Foundry is a unified platform for developers to design, customize and manage AI applications and agents. With Azure AI Foundry Models, we’re bringing Grok 3 and Grok 3 mini models from xAI to our ecosystem, hosted and billed directly by Microsoft. Developers can now choose from more than 1,900 partner-hosted and Microsoft-hosted AI models, while managing secure data integration, model customization and enterprise-grade governance. We’re also introducing new tools like the Model Leaderboard, which ranks the top-performing AI models across different categories and tasks, and the Model Router, designed to select an optimal model for a specific query or task in real-time. Read more about Azure AI Foundry Models.
Making AI agents more capable and secure
AI agents are not only changing how developers build, but how individuals, teams and companies get work done. At Build, we’re unveiling new pre-built agents, custom agent building blocks, multi-agent capabilities and new models to help developers and organizations build and deploy agents securely to help increase productivity in meaningful ways.

With the general availability of Azure AI Foundry Agent Service, Microsoft is bringing new capabilities to empower professional developers to orchestrate multiple specialized agents to handle complex tasks, including bringing Semantic Kernel and AutoGen into a single, developer-focused SDK and Agent-to-Agent (A2A) and Model Context Protocol (MCP) support. To help developers build trust and confidence in their AI agents, we’re announcing new features in Azure AI Foundry Observability for built-in observability into metrics for performance, quality, cost and safety, all incorporated alongside detailed tracing in a streamlined dashboard. Learn more about how to deploy enterprise-grade AI agents in Azure AI Foundry Service.
Discover, protect and govern in Azure AI Foundry: With Microsoft Entra Agent ID, now in preview, agents that developers create in Microsoft Copilot Studio or Azure AI Foundry are automatically assigned unique identities in an Entra directory, helping enterprises securely manage agents right from the start and avoid “agent sprawl” that could lead to blind spots. Apps and agents built with Foundry further benefit from Purview data security and compliance controls. Foundry also offers enhanced governance tools to set risk parameters, run automated evaluations and receive detailed reports. Learn more about Microsoft Entra Agent ID and Azure AI Foundry integrations with Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager.
Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot Tuning and multi-agent orchestration: With Copilot Tuning, customers can use their own company data, workflows and processes to train models and create agents in a simple, low-code way. These agents perform highly accurate, domain-specific tasks securely from within the Microsoft 365 service boundary. For example, a law firm can create an agent that generates documents aligned with its organization’s expertise and style. Additionally, new multi-agent orchestration in Copilot Studio connects multiple agents, allowing them to combine skills and tackle broader, more complex tasks. Check out the Microsoft 365 blog to learn how to access these new tools as well as the Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2 spring release, which has moved to general availability and begins rolling out today.
Supporting the open agentic web
To realize the future of AI agents, we’re advancing open standards and shared infrastructure to provide unique capabilities for customers.

Supporting Model Context Protocol (MCP): Microsoft is delivering broad first-party support for Model Context Protocol (MCP) across its agent platform and frameworks, spanning GitHub, Copilot Studio, Dynamics 365, Azure AI Foundry, Semantic Kernel and Windows 11. In addition, Microsoft and GitHub have joined the MCP Steering Committee to help advance secure, at-scale adoption of the open protocol and announced two new contributions to the MCP ecosystem, an updated authorization specification, which enables people to use their existing trusted sign-in methods to give agents and LLM-powered apps access to data and services such as personal storage drives or subscription services, and the design of an MCP server registry service, which allows anyone to implement public or private, up-to-date, centralized repositories for MCP server entries. Check out the GitHub repository. As we expand our MCP capabilities, our top priority is to ensure we’re building upon a secure foundation. To learn more about this approach see: Securing the Model Context Protocol: Building a Safe Agentic Future on Windows.
A new open project called NLWeb: Microsoft is introducing NLWeb, which we believe can play a similar role to HTML for the agentic web. NLWeb makes it easy for websites to provide a conversational interface for their users with the model of their choice and their own data, allowing users to interact directly with web content in a rich, semantic manner. Every NLWeb endpoint is also an MCP server, so websites can make their content easily discoverable and accessible to AI agents if they choose. Learn more here.
Accelerating scientific discovery with AI
Science may be one of the most important applications of AI, helping to tackle humanity’s most pressing challenges, from drug discovery to sustainability. At Build we’re introducing Microsoft Discovery, an extensible platform built to empower researchers to transform the entire discovery process with agentic AI, helping research and development departments across various industries accelerate the time to market for new products and accelerate and expand the end-to-end discovery process for all scientists. Learn more here.

This is only a small selection of the many exciting features and updates we will be announcing at Build. We’re looking forward to connecting with those who have registered to join us virtually and in-person, for keynote sessions, live code deep dives, hack sessions and more — much of which will be available on demand.

Plus, you can get more on all these announcements by exploring the Book of News, the official compendium of all today’s news.

The post Microsoft Build 2025: The age of AI agents and building the open agentic web appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

AI is rapidly accelerating Japan’s transformation—driving innovation, unlocking new opportunities, and helping organizations reimagine what’s possible. Across industries such as manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, and IT, we’re seeing businesses embed AI into their core operations to improve efficiency, enhance service, and stay competitive. At the same time, government agencies at every level are embracing AI to modernize how they serve citizens and meet the needs of a changing society.

One of the most exciting developments is the rise of AI agents—autonomous systems that can reason, respond, and act with minimal human input. These agents have the potential to play a central role in Japan’s future. Interpreter agents, for example, could help overcome long-standing language barriers, enabling Japanese companies to participate more fully and confidently in the global economy.

At Microsoft, we are proud to support this momentum. Through our growing ecosystem of AI tools, cloud platforms, and strong local partnerships, we are committed to helping Japan lead in this new era. That commitment includes one of our largest-ever investments in the country, focused on expanding cloud infrastructure, advancing cybersecurity, developing talent, and deepening research.

These themes came to life at the recent Microsoft AI Tour in Tokyo, where I had the privilege of joining thousands of business leaders and developers to explore the future of AI. The energy and ambition on display made one thing clear: Japan is not just adopting AI—it is shaping the future with it.

Japan Airlines transforms inflight events reporting with AI-powered app

Japan Airlines (JAL), Japan’s flagship carrier, is developing the JAL-AI, an AI-powered app that streamlines how cabin attendants document inflight events. Previously, reporting events like medical emergencies or delays could take up to an hour and were prone to omissions. Now, using Microsoft’s Phi-4 small language model, attendants can enter keywords and select relevant options, and the AI is designed to generate detailed reports—even offline.

The tool has cut reporting time by up to two-thirds, allowing crew to spend more time with passengers and enhance service quality. JAL’s future objective is to facilitate the automatic generation of reports based on transcribed verbal accounts from cabin attendants.

The app is part of a broader generative AI rollout launched in mid-2023. All 36,500 JAL Group employees now can assess AI tools with JAL-AI on Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service platform for tasks like email drafting, document summarization, and translation. JAL sees generative AI as central to transforming operations and customer service, with people and AI working together to improve performance.

Sumitomo Corporation gains productivity and operational efficiency with Microsoft 365 Copilot

Sumitomo Corporation implemented Microsoft 365 Copilot company-wide as part of a strategic push to boost productivity, empower employees, and drive sustainable business growth. The rollout followed Sumitomo’s participation in the Early Access Program (EAP) in September 2023, where executives and tech savvy employees tested Copilot in practical, day-to-day scenarios and reported high satisfaction, especially from those managing heavy information loads.

Copilot has since been deployed to all 8,800 Sumitomo employees and temporary staff, supported by a robust change management strategy including everything from posters and videos to seminars and prompt templates. In addition, the Copilot Champions appointed within each strategic business unit (SBU) act as on-the-ground advisors to build confidence and drive momentum. Likened to such essential infrastructure as phones and PCs, Sumitomo has encouraged employees to adopt generative AI early and take advantage of being ahead of the curve.

By embedding generative AI directly into the Microsoft 365 tools employees already use daily, the company aimed to eliminate time-consuming, repetitive tasks and unlock greater creativity and efficiency across its workforce. These efforts have already delivered measurable impact, with the company reporting annual cost savings of JPY1.2 billion through improved efficiency and productivity, bringing the company closer to their vision of being “No. 1 in Each Field.”

Turing accelerates autonomous driving with Microsoft Azure

Turing Inc. has leveraged Microsoft Azure to accelerate the training, development, and deployment of advanced AI models, with the goal of achieving fully autonomous driving. By harnessing Azure’s scalable computing power and robust infrastructure, Turing has streamlined complex AI workflows, reduce development time, and push the boundaries of safe, self-driving technology.

Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education equips student with AI hackathon

The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education organized a hackathon for public junior and senior high school students, focused on building digital skills through hands-on experience with Microsoft Copilot and Power Platform. Students used the tools to plan and complete their own projects, applying AI and low-code technology in a practical setting.

Every participating team successfully completed their project, resulting in a 100% completion rate. The outcome underscores the effectiveness of integrating generative AI and accessible development platforms into education, enabling students to move from concept to execution with real-world tools.

Aisin expands accessibility with AI-powered speech transcription tool 

Aisin Corporation, best known for automotive components, has extended its innovation efforts to develop the YYSystem—an AI-powered application that transcribes speech into text in real time for individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Built on Microsoft Azure’s AI tools, including generative AI and translation services, the system provides highly accurate transcription, summarization, and translation.

Initially created during COVID-19 to help employees document meetings, the tool proved especially valuable for staff who were deaf or hard-of-hearing. It can recognize and transcribe the unique speech patterns often associated with hearing loss—a breakthrough that has given many users a renewed sense of connection and inclusion.

Encouraged by its impact, Aisin expanded the technology for broader public use, deploying it in government offices and retail settings to promote more inclusive communication.

AI for everyone in Japan

The promise of AI in Japan goes far beyond technology—it’s about creating opportunity for every individual, every business, and every community. Whether in classrooms, public institutions, or corporate offices, AI is already reshaping how we work, learn, and serve. And the momentum is only growing.

At Microsoft Japan, we are deeply committed to making this transformation inclusive and far-reaching. That’s why we are investing not only in infrastructure, but in people. The launch of Microsoft Research Asia–Tokyo in late 2024 marks an important step forward—establishing a hub for advanced research in areas like embodied AI, societal AI, and neuroscience, tailored to the needs and aspirations of Japan.

At the Microsoft AI Tour in Tokyo, we also introduced CyberSmart AI, a new initiative to support small and midsize businesses with AI-powered cybersecurity tools—free of charge for eligible organizations. And through AI Skills Navigators, we’ve set an ambitious goal to help 3 million people in Japan build AI fluency by 2027.

These efforts, together with our USD2.9 billion investment in cloud and AI infrastructure, expanded developer workshops, AI seminars for subject matter experts (SMEs), women-in-tech programs, and a new micro degree in partnership with the United Nations University, reflect our long-term partnership with Japan.

Our vision is clear: to ensure that AI in Japan is not just powerful, but empowering—for everyone.

Find the resources to support your AI journey

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

The post Transforming Japan with AI: 5 companies from the front lines of innovation appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

At Microsoft, we’ve seen this transformation firsthand. Azure AI Foundry is now used by developers at more than 70,000 enterprises and digital native companies, including Atomicwork, Epic, Fujitsu, Gainsight, H&R Block, and LG Electronics, to design, customize, and manage AI apps and agents. In just four months, over 10,000 organizations have adopted our new Agent Service to build, deploy, and scale agentic systems. More than 230,000 organizations, including 90% of the Fortune 500, have already used Microsoft Copilot Studio. 

As agents take on more sophisticated roles, they need access not only to diverse models and tools but also to one another. That is why we are committed to advancing open protocols like Agent2Agent (A2A), coming soon to Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio, which will enable agents to collaborate across clouds, platforms, and organizational boundaries.

We’re aligning with the broader industry push for shared agent protocols—doing what we’ve always done: embracing openness, supporting real-world developers, and turning experimentation into enterprise-grade platforms. Our goal is simple: empower both pro and citizen developers to build agents that interoperate across clouds and frameworks.  

We believe that Microsoft Copilot will empower every employee and act as the “UI for AI” to connect with agents and agentic systems—networks of agents that reason, act, and adapt across boundaries. As customers scale these systems, interoperability is no longer optional. They want their agents to orchestrate tasks that span vendors, clouds, and data silos. They want control, visibility, and trust—without being locked in.  

A2A can enable structured agent communication—exchanging goals, managing state, invoking actions, and returning results securely and observably. Developers can use tools they know, like Semantic Kernel or LangChain, and still interoperate. Every call travels through enterprise-grade safeguards: Microsoft Entra, mutual TLS, Azure AI Content Safety, and full audit logs. Azure AI Foundry is built with trust by default, and as agent ecosystems grow more open and distributed, safety, compliance, and accountability remain first-class.  

What we are delivering 

With support for A2A: 

• Azure AI Foundry customers can build complex, multi-agent workflows that span internal copilots, partner tools, and production infrastructure—while maintaining governance and SLAs.
• Copilot Studio agents will be able to securely invoke external agents, including those built with other platforms or hosted outside Microsoft.
• Enterprises gain a path to composable, intelligent systems that scale across organizational and cloud boundaries.
• Microsoft’s contributions will accelerate development and adoption of the open A2A protocol across the industry.

This is just one step on a longer journey. As we’ve done with innovations like Autogen, Semantic Kernel, our contributions to Model Context Protocol (MCP), and our catalog of open models, we will continue to evolve the platform to support the protocols, models, and frameworks that matter most to developers and enterprises. We see protocols like A2A and MCP as important steps in the direction of realizing our vision for the agentic future.    

What’s next 

Agentic computing isn’t a trend—it’s a foundational shift. It changes how software is built, how decisions are made, and how value is created. 

We have joined the A2A working group on GitHub to contribute to the spec and tooling. The A2A public preview in Foundry and Copilot Studio will arrive soon.  

By supporting A2A and building on our open orchestration platform, we’re laying the foundation for the next generation of software—collaborative, observable, and adaptive by design. The best agents won’t live in one app or cloud; they’ll operate in the flow of work, spanning models, domains, and ecosystems. We’re building that future with openness at the center—because agents shouldn’t be islands, and intelligence should work across boundaries, just like the world it serves.  

Getting started 

We’ve introduced a new sample in Semantic Kernel (available in Python) that demonstrates how two local agents can collaborate using the A2A protocol. In this example, the agents work together to plan a travel itinerary and handle currency conversions, showcasing seamless interoperability without the need for custom orchestration code.

Resources 

• Semantic Kernel A2A sample
• Azure AI Foundry
• Azure AI Agent Service docs
• Copilot Studio
• Responsible AI guidance

The post Empowering multi-agent apps with the open Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.