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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Grupo Bimbo embraces AI with “Copilot for All” strategy

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

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

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

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

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

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Capgemini accelerates Mexico’s AI transformation

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

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

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

APEC uses AI to advance Retinopathy of Prematurity diagnostics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AI for everyone in Mexico

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

Find the resources to support your AI journey

• Explore Microsoft’s AI solutions

• Download the AI readiness worksheet

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

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

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

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

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

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

Adapting to the customer service surge with the power of AI 

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

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

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

Reimagining the customer experience with the power of AI

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Transforming the employee experience with generative AI 

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

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

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

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

1. Supporting new hires with better onboarding

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

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

2. Helping employees find the right information faster

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

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

3. Automating burdensome tasks

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

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

4. Transforming support with self-service

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

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

Harnessing the business impact of Copilot  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today, we’re announcing Generative Chemistry and Accelerated DFT, which will expand the ways researchers can harness the full power of this platform. These breakthrough capabilities will empower scientists to compress the next 250 years of chemistry into the next 25.

With Generative Chemistry, we want to broaden the horizons of scientific exploration. Researchers can generate and explore novel molecules suited for specific industry applications using the latest AI models trained on hundreds of millions of compounds, and then evaluate the steps suggested by the workflow for synthesizing the most promising candidates in a lab more efficiently — all in a matter of days rather than years.

With Accelerated DFT, researchers can expedite and scale their chemical discovery pipelines by simulating the quantum-mechanical properties of molecules at an unprecedented speed — an order of magnitude faster compared to other Density Functional Theory (DFT) codes.

This brings us closer to a new paradigm for scientific discovery, where advanced AI and digital tools are more accessible than ever to scientists, students, and labs across industries. Below is our vision for how researchers will be able to leverage these breakthrough capabilities to design new molecules and enable the transformation of entire sectors from consumer goods and medicine, to manufacturing and energy, in turn addressing some of our most pressing societal challenges.

We’re working towards this vision today. As part of the private preview of Azure Quantum Elements, scientists and developers have the opportunity to explore Accelerated DFT today, with the potential to access Generative Chemistry in the coming weeks.

We’re already putting our vision into practice by collaborating with Unilever, a global leader in consumer goods, which serves over 3.4 billion people every single day. Unilever is harnessing the power of Microsoft supercomputing and AI services to support their digital R&D transformation and product innovation.

Integrating AI into every stage of the scientific method

From global ambitions like reversing climate change and pioneering renewable energy sources to personal ones like living more sustainably and using healthier and safer products, we all want to do our part to create a better world. Time is of the essence for many of these goals, with more than 8 million scientists¹ around the globe working to pioneer innovative solutions and unlock progress. At Microsoft, we aim to empower them with state-of-the-art digital tools to harness the full collective ingenuity of every researcher and lab around the world.

Just as generative AI has unleashed new waves of creativity and improved productivity with collaborative tools like Copilot, we are now bringing AI and natural language processing capabilities to science. Our goal is to integrate AI reasoning into every stage of the scientific method: this requires the power of next-generation AI models to speed up the scientific process from hypothesis to results. It starts with knowledge research and hypothesis generation, connecting the dots by generating millions of potential molecular candidate solutions, then narrowing down candidates with digital experiments and analyzing the outcomes — all in a matter of days. We demonstrated how this approach can land real-world results in our collaboration with PNNL, where we screened over 32 million candidates to discover and synthesize a new material that holds the potential for better batteries — a tangible example of the possibilities in this new era of scientific discovery.

When powered by natural language tools, this new paradigm will help create an autonomous reasoning loop with AI at every stage as a scientific assistant. It will redefine how we approach innovation by democratizing these capabilities for breakthrough discoveries.

Announcing new capabilities in Azure Quantum Elements

Generative Chemistry will unleash a new wave of creativity for scientists tasked with discovering and designing new molecules. This will enable breakthrough growth across many industries, whether helping an oil and gas company discover a stronger fuel additive for enhancing the longevity of engine life, or an adhesive firm creating a new chemical for strengthening adhesion while removing unwanted residue.

We could compare this discovery process to searching for a small box in a large, crowded and dark warehouse with one small flashlight. We can only focus the light on a small area at a time while the rest of the warehouse remains completely dark and unknown. Generative AI gives us a much smarter light that can point in new directions, providing visibility where we may not have considered – or have been able – to look before.

Researchers can ask Generative Chemistry for molecules with desired characteristics, such as the ability to degrade rapidly or be recycled more easily. They can also provide information about their targeted application and let the system help determine relevant molecular properties. After a few more steps, they receive a set of candidates — matching those parameters — for further study.

However, simply generating candidates is not sufficient for transforming the discovery process with AI. The essential criteria for computational tools in chemistry are that they help scientists discover molecules that are novel, synthesizable and useful in the real world. This is why I’m excited to see our approach to Generative Chemistry come to life, suggesting molecules that have not been seen before, with useful properties tuned for a specific application, and whose synthesis is feasible in a reasonable number of steps.

For this reason, Generative Chemistry will offer researchers potential steps to consider as they develop their “recipe” for synthesizing these molecular candidates in a laboratory. Support for this critical component has been developed from the capabilities of our AutoRXN software, exploring chemical reactions in reverse order, which can help to evaluate synthesis pathways for creating a target molecule.

This capability is truly groundbreaking for scientific discovery. Businesses and research groups can look for efficient, cost-effective and innovative methods to develop new molecules in a matter of days, compressing the iterative process of extensive database searches and trial-and-error laboratory experiments. This end-to-end workflow will provide scientists with entirely new compounds that could lead to the next breakthrough in manufacturing, medicine and more.

We’re also announcing Accelerated DFT to offer a simplified and more powerful quantum chemistry solution for scientists. For the past few decades, DFT has been an extremely popular method used across a variety of molecular simulations, helping researchers to simulate and study the electronic structure of atoms, molecules and nanoparticles, as well as surfaces and interfaces.

We can liken molecular systems to traffic systems, where cars moving in various directions at different speeds represent electrons. From a traffic helicopter, we can observe the overall flow of traffic even if we don’t know each car’s speed and destination. DFT provides this “helicopter view’” of molecular systems, simplifying the complex task of tracking individual electrons by instead mapping out the “density” of them at a higher altitude.

Such DFT simulations can be complex to optimize and run, and often require supercomputer-scale resources. This is why our managed DFT service, based on innovation developed by Microsoft Research, enables researchers to perform substantially faster calculations than other DFT codes and offers a 20-fold average increase in speed compared to PySCF, a widely used open-source DFT code.

Accelerated DFT is already used by many organizations such as AspenTech, DTU Energy University of Denmark and Unilever. It seamlessly integrates into broader chemistry and materials science workflows, and paves the way for expediting innovations in therapeutics, environmental sustainability and beyond.

You can learn more about this announcement in the technical blog, Introducing two powerful new capabilities in Azure Quantum Elements: Generative Chemistry and Accelerated DFT.

Pioneering a new scientific discovery paradigm with Unilever

Unilever stands at the forefront of the consumer goods industry, with a strong portfolio of household brands that are used by 3.4 billion people every day, including Dove, TRESemmé, Omo, Degree, Hellmann’s and Ben & Jerry’s. Whether cleaning, beauty or care products, each requires the latest scientific breakthroughs to ensure the best possible consumer experience and enhance daily life.

Over the past two and a half years, Unilever has worked with Microsoft to identify new digital capabilities to drive product innovation forward. Unilever is bringing its digital vision to life through the transformational DataLab — its digital counterpart to the company’s physical laboratories — with the help of Microsoft Azure. From unlocking the secrets of our skin’s microbiome to reducing the carbon footprint of a multi-billion-dollar business, Unilever is redefining what it means to be a consumer goods company in the modern world with leading science.

With Copilot and the advanced simulation capabilities of Azure Quantum Elements, Unilever can query scientific information using natural language, performing thousands of computational simulations in the time it would take to run tens of laboratory experiments. Unilever scientists can use the data gathered from these simulations to fine-tune models that screen tens of thousands of materials at substantial speed or enable the exploration of intricate chemical reactions.

For example, R&D teams can expand their search space for novel molecules that restore natural bonds in hair fibers across more hair types, in turn redefining the standards of personalized hair care for brands like Dove and TRESemmé. Furthermore, by placing scaled simulations at the forefront of the discovery funnel, Unilever will be further empowered to expedite the delivery of solutions within their key sustainability focus areas.

“Digital tools are unlocking an unprecedented age of scientific discovery. Using advanced computing power and AI, we are able to compress decades of lab work into days, accessing a level of insight we could not previously have imagined. This technological leap, coupled with our vast repository of proprietary data and a century of expertise in personal and household care, means our scientists are able to lead the industry in developing the next generation of consumer goods.”
— Alberto Prado, Global Head of R&D Digital and Partnerships at Unilever

Expanding quantum capabilities in Azure Quantum Elements

We stand on the cusp of unprecedented innovation, and at Microsoft, we continue to pioneer state-of-the-art solutions to usher in a new era of scientific discovery. We remain focused on achieving scaled quantum computing and more breakthroughs on our path to engineering our topological qubits with inherent hardware-level stability.

Earlier this year, we demonstrated with Quantinuum the most reliable logical qubits on record, further advancing the state-of-the-art for quantum computing. And recently, we simulated a chemical catalyst combining classical supercomputers, AI and logical qubits created with Microsoft’s qubit-virtualization system and Quantinuum’s H1 hardware. This combination holds the key to unlocking scientific breakthroughs enabled by a new generation of hybrid-computing applications.

In the coming months, we will bring advanced logical qubit capabilities using our software and Quantinuum’s hardware in private preview in Azure Quantum Elements. As logical qubit capabilities scale to deliver increasingly reliable results, we will unlock simulation accuracy, moving us from scientific advantage to commercial advantage, and ultimately to solving some of the world’s most pressing problems.

Accelerating scientific discovery, together

We’re committed to advancing these technologies responsibly, always focusing on innovation, empowerment and trust. That’s why we are committed to responsible computing practices and the Microsoft AI principles, to help ensure that safety measures adequately account for the increasing power of AI and quantum.

For more information about today’s announcements:

• Sign up to learn more about Accelerated DFT and Generative Chemistry, as part of the private preview of Azure Quantum Elements.
• Read the technical blog, Introducing two powerful new capabilities in Azure Quantum Elements: Generative Chemistry and Accelerated DFT.
• Register for our upcoming ACS Webinar
• Check out the upcoming Future of Cloud webinar series about our vision to accelerate scientific discovery for business innovation.

Top image: Leaders from Unilever and Microsoft discuss the Azure Quantum Elements program.

Sources

1. “Statistics and resources | 2021 Science Report.” This translates into 8.854 million full-time equivalent (FTE) researchers by 2018”.

The post Empowering every scientist with AI-augmented scientific discovery appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

When our teams face new challenges and are encouraged to try new things, they’re more likely to find new and creative solutions. It all depends on workplace culture. Over the years, we’ve helped thousands of organizations adopt new technology, and time after time we discover the same truth: culture is the engine of innovation.

So, what happens when an industry built on tradition and precedent finds itself at the crossroads of new challenges and established ways of working?

Recent surveys show 62% of legal professionals now report spending up to seven hours a week tracking and analyzing regulatory developments, and the overwhelming majority (73%) anticipate this surge in regulatory activity to continue.¹ 

Like many companies, Microsoft is exploring how AI can help our legal teams more efficiently handle these new workloads at scale and deliver impact. 

To recap our journey so far, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Vice President, Hossein Nowbar and Corporate Vice President Jared Spataro recently discussed how our Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs (CELA) organization is integrating AI into their workloads to stay ahead of the curve. They emphasized the importance of strategy, data, and culture. By reimagining the way the team works, they are harnessing the power of AI to bring significant enhancements to the legal field, including better services, smoother operations, and more time for essential tasks.

Wherever you are on your AI journey, we’re excited to partner with you—whether you’re just dipping your toes into AI exploration or looking to build on your current achievements. If you’re facing the same regulatory challenges as many of our customers and are curious how AI can help, I encourage you to watch this interview.

Strategy in the era of AI

Guided by data and collective contributions, CELA defined a strategy and launched a departmental initiative to harness the power of AI focusing on three key areas of broad impact: enhance advisory services, streamline transactional processes, and strengthen compliance and risk management. A multifunctional team led by Hossein and his co-executive sponsor, Chief Data Scientist, Juan Lavista Ferres, was assembled to execute on a strategy focused on experimentation, technical development, cultural change initiatives, adoption, and beyond. 

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Better data means better AI

When asked about the biggest learnings from his AI journey, Hossein emphasized the importance of data and sharing it more broadly across the organization. To harness its full potential, AI needs access to vast amounts of high-quality data. However, gathering this data can be challenging, especially if it’s siloed across the organization with disparate storage structures and governance models. Navigating a legal technology ecosystem with various domain-specific applications requires consolidation and aggregation of data from those systems. 

To address this challenge, the team built a data factory. CELA’s data factory is the foundation for their AI infrastructure to centrally and securely manage their diverse data sets and ultimately power AI solutions. AI and Microsoft Copilot, coupled with data infrastructure investments, are helping CELA to effectively transform vast amounts of data into valuable insights to accelerate AI transformation while also managing data privacy, security, and governance. 

It’s not just about tech—it’s about people

The success of an AI initiative depends not just on the technology but also on how people within the company adopt and use it.

When AI and Copilot was brought to our legal teams, some team members were uncertain about how this new technology would affect the way they worked.

One of the first tasks was to help teams understand the tangible benefits of AI and Copilot through proactive experimentation and invite them to imagine what they could use it to do. CELA embarked on a range of experiments to inform opportunity analysis and bring about measurable improvements in efficiency, quality, and scale. 

As the customer zero for all our products, we understand how it’s one thing for people to learn how to use a new tool, but it’s another to get them genuinely excited enough to truly adopt it. 

As Hossein explains in the interview, to navigate this cultural shift, the team implemented a multifaceted approach to model, recognize, and incentivize innovation and experimentation.

To support this, the team established a communication and change management plan. A community of AI catalysts representing all practice groups was formed to help drive AI transformation. They also introduced recognition opportunities to celebrate team members who contributed innovative ideas.

You have to celebrate people who are adopting AI and showcase their efforts.

Hossein Nowbar, Corporate Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, Microsoft

By encouraging teams to join in the innovation and showing them real examples of what AI can do, it helped ease uncertainties and fostered a culture that embraces AI integration in their work. 

Upskilling empowers employees to adapt to AI transformation

Closing the gap in skills and knowledge is crucial for making the most of advanced AI tools. When companies invest in solid training programs and online resources, they’re not just teaching their employees how to use new tools—they’re showing they care about their team’s growth and future.

In our own journey, CELA established training programs to help teams adapt to new tools. For example, with support from Microsoft, the CELA Academy hosted the CELA Copilot skilling series, resulting in a 50% increase in employees using Copilot experiences in Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365. 

Whether you’re getting started with Copilot or building custom AI solutions, implementing effective training isn’t something you have to do alone, either. The Microsoft AI learning hub helps organizations prepare for AI transformation with the Microsoft Cloud and offers tools for building AI-powered apps, generative AI solutions, bots, and other AI models. 

You can also discover more insights from our AI journey, along with advice from experts in the field in Building a Foundation for AI Success: A Leader’s Guide. This guide can help your organization start using AI, inspiring your team to innovate and get excited.

AI tools like Copilot will help you save time on legal tasks

Using AI tools like Microsoft Copilot for certain legal tasks not only speeds things up but also enhances work product quality, increases agility to support business velocity, and facilitates decision making. Employees get more time to focus on the work that matters. The team is leveraging Copilot and AI to deliver broad impact across CELA by prioritizing use cases, such as:

• Create efficiencies for regulatory work: Quickly summarize regulations, streamline analysis, gather research to stay up to date on industry news and legal developments, draft guidance, and provide actionable insights, empowering legal professionals to stay ahead of the curve. 
• Strengthen compliance and risk management: Analyze large data sets, help proactively spot possible compliance issues, respond to requests for information, and enable agile and efficient action. 
• Improve client Interactions: Redirect high volume low-risk inquiries to client self-service capabilities to deliver faster responses. 
• Enhance advisory services: Quickly find relevant information across sources, including outside counsel work product, to facilitate rapid decision making, and draft communications tailored for different audiences verifying key advisory points are clear and relevant. 
• Simplify transactions: Condense intricate agreements, pinpoint essential clauses, flag potential risks, compare contracts, compile insights, draft clauses, and research legal structures for increased velocity and better decision-making. 
• Support pro bono: Impact the world around us by creating efficiencies to enable pro bono volunteers to help more clients in need in less time by using AI to empower volunteers with information they need and automate tasks such as form completion.

Join Microsoft on our AI journey

AI transformation continues at a fast pace. Every day, we are leveraging Copilot and AI, discovering the benefits and new use case scenarios. 

Making legal departments more efficient with AI

Learn from our journey

In the end, the right culture is key. By fostering a culture that values new ways of working, companies can set the stage for a successful AI transformation. Forward-thinking leaders, like Hossein Nowbar, play a pivotal role in this success by actively supporting AI initiatives, boosting their teams’ and partners’ confidence, and modeling the change mindset needed to unlock AI’s true transformative value. 

Adoption of AI is not a luxury for legal departments; it’s a necessity. It can never replace human judgment, but it can help us do our work better and faster.

Hossein Nowbar, Corporate Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, Microsoft

This interview is the first part in our All in on AI series that explores how Microsoft is adopting AI across our business. Next, Mala Anand, CVP, Customer Experience and Success at Microsoft, sits down with Colette Stallbaumer to see how AI is helping customer service teams by using AI solutions like Microsoft Copilot to ensure our customer service employees are empowered to focus on the most meaningful parts of their jobs.

¹Cost of compliance 2023 report examines the top three operational insights, Thomson Reuters.

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

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

Building with partners

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

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

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

TomTom

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

Key features include:

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

Modern Requirements

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

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

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

Dynatrace

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

Key features include:

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

Intellect Design

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

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

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Datamatics

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

Key functionalities include:

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

MiHCM

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

Key features include:

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

Next steps to adopt AI and deploy copilots

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

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

AI is reshaping our world as the fastest adopted technology in history—a global phenomenon with profound local implications. As we witnessed during the Microsoft AI Tour event in São Paulo, Brazil is quickly emerging as a world-class AI innovation hub, a testament to the country’s collective ambition and optimism in the power of AI to deliver economic results, foster inclusive development, and ultimately benefit markets, organizations, communities, and individuals. In fact, “By massively adopting AI, Brazil can experience productivity gains that will add a few percentage points to its GDP in the near future,” said Tânia Cosentino, General Manager of Microsoft Brazil.

AI technology harbors significant potential for our customers and partners, echoing the transformative impact envisioned by Microsoft founder Bill Gates when he first sought to place a personal computer in every home worldwide. I am proud and excited to continue this vision of driving digital transformation across the globe alongside Microsoft. At the same time, it is crucial to embrace of this innovation through responsible usage.

As Brazil takes the lead during its G20 presidency in 2024, it faces a significant opportunity to spearhead discussions on establishing global AI governance guidelines. This will help maximize AI’s benefits while addressing matters related to privacy, security, and employment, thus supporting equitable and inclusive growth. The report, AI in Brazil: Exploring Opportunities, examines this junction and illustrates Microsoft’s dedication to making AI technology beneficial and sustainable, considering economic, social, and environmental factors. Together with our customers and partners, we are not merely observers but active participants in a technological revolution that fosters global unity, economic mobility, and local transformation.

The creativity and ingenuity of Brazilian organizations in leveraging cutting-edge AI technology for tangible, real-world impact are incredibly inspiring. As showcased by the companies and public entities featured here, AI presents unlimited opportunities across all sectors. These are inspiring examples of how we can reimagine what we can achieve with AI.

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Petrobras enhances productivity and decision-making with ChatPetrobras AI tool

Petrobras, a leading company in the global energy sector, has formed a partnership with Microsoft to create ChatPetrobras, an internal tool powered by AI. Utilizing the GPT model and AI technologies from Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, ChatPetrobras aims to facilitate faster decision-making, provide valuable business insights, and improve internal workflow efficiency for more than 100,000 Petrobras workers, while ensuring compliance with strict information security standards, data protection laws, and Brazilian government regulations.

Azure OpenAI Service powers ChatPetrobras with capabilities in natural language understanding and generation, translation, and code generation. This tool is set to benefit a wide range of business and administrative tasks, including Exploration and Production (E&P), Reservoirs and Wells, Commercialization, Information and Communication Technology, Engineering, Legal, and Human Resources. Its versatility demonstrates the potential of generative AI to revolutionize both technical and corporate segments of the company. In addition, ChatPetrobras incorporates advanced security and protection layers native to Azure OpenAI Service, ensuring all data remains under the company’s internal domain.

In keeping with the company’s commitment to pursuing innovative solutions to industry challenges, “ChatPetrobras represents our latest effort to harness artificial intelligence to enhance the productivity, quality, and efficiency of our processes,” said Carlos Augusto Barreto, Executive Manager of Information and Communications Technology at Petrobras.

ChatPetrobras is not just a standalone tool but part of a broader strategy to incorporate AI usage within the company, empowering every employee to leverage data science capabilities. Petrobras envisions a future where all employees can easily access advanced tools and technical skills, driving value creation through AI.

SEDUC-SP aims to enhance efficacy of education with AI copilot

The Government of the State of São Paulo has partnered with Microsoft to integrate AI Copilot into daily classroom activities, in a move that aims to benefit teachers and over 3 million students across São Paulo by streamlining tasks such as assignment corrections, test scoring, and providing student guidance.

The integration of Azure OpenAI Service is designed to serve as a comprehensive record center, offering a range of functionalities from analyzing student texts to suggesting potential grades for assignments. For instance, a student can write a text on a computer, and upon completion, the app provides suggestions for improvement and identifies errors. This immediate feedback mechanism is followed by personalized guidance from the teacher, ensuring a holistic learning experience. According to Secretary of Education of São Paulo, Renato Feder, this approach not only streamlines the educational process but also enriches learning outcomes.

The partnership between the Government of São Paulo and Microsoft, through the deployment of Generative AI, marks a significant step forward in leveraging technology to support education. By automating routine tasks and providing immediate, actionable feedback, this initiative promises to enhance the efficiency of teaching and the quality of learning for millions of students in Brazil.

Comgás: Fueling efficiencies with AI-driven data management

Comgás, the largest natural gas distributor in Brazil, is leveraging AI to enhance data utilization, aiming to improve decision-making and customer service. In partnership with Microsoft, the company embarked on a significant digital transformation journey that sought to not only migrate to the cloud but to also create a sophisticated data environment that could leverage AI for better customer understanding and service.

“We realized the possibility of extracting data more efficiently with the use of AI,” said Thiago Rolemberg, Head of Data and AI at Comgás, “and, thus, better understand our customers for more assertive decision-making.”

AI algorithms, alongside standardized data presentation facilitated by Power BI, have streamlined data extraction processes from a duration of 8 to 15 days to real-time in certain areas. As a result, greater operational efficiency enabled Comgás to better understand and meet customer needs, resulting in a more personalized and efficient service.

Since the implementation, Comgás has processed over 55 TB of information, with the platform encompassing 60% of the company’s representative data. A third of the company’s employees have already utilized the environment, with expectations to increase to 55% by the end of the year. This strategic use of AI has not only facilitated a more dynamic use of data but also positioned Comgás at the forefront of the industry in terms of innovation and customer satisfaction.

Atento streamlines customer communications with customer service copilot

One of the world’s leading Customer Relationship Management and Business Process Outsourcing providers, Atento, has unveiled a new AI-driven solution designed to improve customer service and enhance the company’s service agent productivity. Developed with Azure OpenAI Service, the tool automates the distribution of processes and ensures swift, appropriate responses during negotiations. It oversees system formalization steps and update statuses, integrating smoothly with the communication channels preferred by customers. “The new solution enhances the consumer-brand experience and aligns with the demand for increasingly efficient and personalized service. During a pilot program, we observed a more than 20% increase in customer satisfaction within the first few weeks,” stated Eduardo Aguirre, Chief Information Officer of Atento.

In addition, Power Automate facilitated the integration of legacy systems, reducing manual labor and improving response times. This integration led to a 30% boost in team productivity and nearly a 20% decrease in operational errors.

A key focus during the solution’s development was ensuring data security, privacy, and compliance. Leveraging Azure OpenAI Service, Atento was able to anonymize information and maintain data within its own environment, adhering to strict confidentiality standards.

“The project’s success began with a detailed analysis of the customer and employee relationship cycle,” Aguirre added, highlighting the vital role of Atento’s team of experienced consultants in this endeavor.

Brasilprev unlocks new business with a GPT tool for consultants

Brasilprev’s deployment of its AI tool, Brasilprev GPT, marks a transformative leap in using data to empower over 20,000 consultants and relationship managers. This not only facilitates new business but also enables the delivery of more personalized services to end customers. The private pension firm’s collaboration with Microsoft builds upon data-focused digital transformation, leveraging Azure OpenAI Service and ChatGPT within their data hub to streamline interactions and make platform data more accessible and user-friendly.

This integration, a first in Brazil, features the creation of an API that not only stores queries for further analysis but also enhances the user experience by tailoring responses to user profiles, utilizing Azure’s API Management and Azure Cosmos DB. This integration illustrates how the powerful collaboration between human expertise and technological innovation can boost the company’s performance, contributing to a remarkable 28% conversion rate and surpassing $9.86 billion in business.

“Users have embraced the opportunity to explore, understand, and apply generative AI to access information and boost their productivity. This engagement has a profoundly positive effect on the end customer, who enjoys a more personalized and comprehensive response to their needs,” notes Bruno Venceslau, Superintendent of Data and Digital Business at Brasilprev, “that’s what AI has made possible.”

This innovation has not only driven exceptional business outcomes but also reinforced Brasilprev’s commitment to data governance and the strategic application of AI, setting a new standard for the integration of technology in enhancing business and technical operations.

B3 democratizes access to capital market through AI-powered financial education

B3, the Brazilian stock exchange, has launched the first AI tool dedicated to supporting the public in conscious investment. The free tool, developed by B3 in partnership with Microsoft, is part of B3’s purpose to democratize access to the capital market through financial education.

“The financial market is constantly evolving, and so is the way we communicate with investors. Our mission is to simplify the world of investments and show that B3 is for everyone. The financial education chat joins other initiatives as an open and uninhibited dialogue channel. We want individuals to clear their doubts in a light and interactive way, demystifying the idea that investing is complicated,” explains Felipe Paiva, director of Customer Relations at B3.

Based on information from a database curated by experts from the Brazilian stock exchange, the platform’s questions and responses have undergone significant testing. The tool is constantly evolving as the database continues to expand, resulting in more refined answers for investors.

In addition to verifying information, another advantage of this search format is that it minimizes ‘shyness’ when asking questions, which can often inhibit novice investors from asking basic questions. “The answers generated by the chat can serve as a starting point to better understand the concepts of the financial market and encourage investors to deepen their knowledge in other channels”, reinforces Paiva.

“Artificial intelligence can be a great ally in the search for quality information, analyzing huge volumes of data quickly and objectively. This simple and summarized answer format serves as a gateway for those interested in the world of investments, adapting in a light and interactive way to the needs of the user,” says Rodrigo Nardoni, Vice President of Technology at B3.

AI for everyone in Brazil

Brazil has shifted into high gear in terms of AI innovation, propelling not only Latin America but also having an impact on international markets. Microsoft is committed to empowering key Brazilian organizations like Petrobras, SECUC-SP, Comgás, Atento, Brasilprev, and B3, supporting their ongoing digital transformation journeys and unlocking potential across various sectors. This level of engagement is positioning Brazil as a potential leader on AI innovation, capable of setting benchmarks for the region and beyond by influencing global AI strategies and practices.

We work at the forefront of AI evolution, ensuring our advancements align with the needs of customers, partners, and society. Our commitment is to harness AI’s potential to empower every individual, including upskilling employees, guiding students, and supporting vulnerable communities. This approach ensures that technology serves as a catalyst for equitable and inclusive progress worldwide.

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

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Since then, the threat landscape has continued to rapidly evolve, and we have learned a lot. The recent findings by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) regarding the Storm-0558 cyberattack from last July, and the Midnight Blizzard attack we reported in January, underscore the severity of the threats facing our company and our customers.

Microsoft plays a central role in the world’s digital ecosystem, and this comes with a critical responsibility to earn and maintain trust. We must and will do more.

We are making security our top priority at Microsoft, above all else—over all other features. We’re expanding the scope of SFI, integrating the recent recommendations from the CSRB as well as our learnings from Midnight Blizzard to ensure that our cybersecurity approach remains robust and adaptive to the evolving threat landscape.

We will mobilize the expanded SFI pillars and goals across Microsoft and this will be a dimension in our hiring decisions. In addition, we will instill accountability by basing part of the compensation of the company’s Senior Leadership Team on our progress in meeting our security plans and milestones.

Below are details to demonstrate the seriousness of our work and commitment.

Diagram illustrating the six pillars of the Microsoft Secure Future Initiative.
Expansion of SFI approach and scope
We have evolved our security approach, and going forward our work will be guided by the following three security principles:

Secure by design: Security comes first when designing any product or service.
Secure by default: Security protections are enabled and enforced by default, require no extra effort, and are not optional.
Secure operations: Security controls and monitoring will continuously be improved to meet current and future threats.
We are further expanding our goals and actions aligned to six prioritized security pillars and providing visibility into the details of our execution:

1. Protect identities and secrets
   Reduce the risk of unauthorized access by implementing and enforcing best-in-class standards across all identity and secrets infrastructure, and user and application authentication and authorization. As part of this, we are taking the following actions:

Protect identity infrastructure signing and platform keys with rapid and automatic rotation with hardware storage and protection (for example, hardware security module (HSM) and confidential compute).
Strengthen identity standards and drive their adoption through use of standard SDKs across 100% of applications.
Ensure 100% of user accounts are protected with securely managed, phishing-resistant multifactor authentication.
Ensure 100% of applications are protected with system-managed credentials (for example, Managed Identity and Managed Certificates).
Ensure 100% of identity tokens are protected with stateful and durable validation.
Adopt more fine-grained partitioning of identity signing keys and platform keys.
Ensure identity and public key infrastructure (PKI) systems are ready for a post-quantum cryptography world.

2. Protect tenants and isolate production systems
   Protect all Microsoft tenants and production environments using consistent, best-in-class security practices and strict isolation to minimize breadth of impact. As part of this, we are taking the following actions:

Maintain the security posture and commercial relationships of tenants by removing all unused, aged, or legacy systems.
Protect 100% of Microsoft, acquired, and employee-created tenants, commerce accounts, and tenant resources to the security best practice baselines.
Manage 100% of Microsoft Entra ID applications to a high, consistent security bar.
Eliminate 100% of identity lateral movement pivots between tenants, environments, and clouds.
100% of applications and users have continuous least-privilege access enforcement.
Ensure only secure, managed, healthy devices will be granted access to Microsoft tenants.

3. Protect networks
   Protect Microsoft production networks and implement network isolation of Microsoft and customer resources. As part of this, we are taking the following actions:

Secure 100% of Microsoft production networks and systems connected to the networks by improving isolation, monitoring, inventory, and secure operations.
Apply network isolation and microsegmentation to 100% of the Microsoft production environments, creating additional layers of defense against attackers.
Enable customers to easily secure their networks and network isolate resources in the cloud.

4. Protect engineering systems
   Protect software assets and continuously improve code security through governance of the software supply chain and engineering systems infrastructure. As part of this, we are taking the following actions:

Build and maintain inventory for 100% of the software assets used to deploy and operate Microsoft products and services.
100% of access to source code and engineering systems infrastructure is secured through Zero Trust and least-privilege access policies.
100% of source code that deploys to Microsoft production environments is protected through security best practices.
Secure development, build, test, and release environments with 100% standardized, governed pipelines and infrastructure isolation.
Secure the software supply chain to protect Microsoft production environments.

5. Monitor and detect threats
   Comprehensive coverage and automatic detection of threats to Microsoft production infrastructure and services. As part of this, we are taking the following actions:

Maintain a current inventory across 100% of Microsoft production infrastructure and services.
Retain 100% of security logs for at least two years and make six months of appropriate logs available to customers.
100% of security logs are accessible from a central data lake to enable efficient and effective security investigation and threat hunting.
Automatically detect and respond rapidly to anomalous access, behaviors, and configurations across 100% of Microsoft production infrastructure and services.

6. Accelerate response and remediation
   Prevent exploitation of vulnerabilities discovered by external and internal entities, through comprehensive and timely remediation. As part of this, we are taking the following actions:

Reduce the Time to Mitigate for high-severity cloud security vulnerabilities with accelerated response.
Increase transparency of mitigated cloud vulnerabilities through the adoption and release of Common Weakness Enumeration™ (CWE™), and Common Platform Enumeration™ (CPE™) industry standards for released high severity Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) affecting the cloud.
Improve the accuracy, effectiveness, transparency, and velocity of public messaging and customer engagement.
These goals directly align to our learnings from the Midnight Blizzard incident as well as all four CSRB recommendations to Microsoft and all 12 recommendations to cloud service providers (CSPs), across the areas of security culture, cybersecurity best practices, auditing logging norms, digital identity standards and guidance, and transparency.

We are delivering on these goals through a new level of coordination with a new operating model that aligns leaders and teams to the six SFI pillars, in order to drive security holistically and break down traditional silos. The pillar leaders are working across engineering Executive Vice Presidents (EVPs) to drive integrated, cross-company engineering execution, doing this work in waves. These engineering waves involve teams across Microsoft Azure, Windows, Microsoft 365, and Security, with additional product teams integrating into the process weekly.

While there is much more to do, we’ve made progress in executing against SFI priorities. For example, we’ve implemented automatic enforcement of multifactor authentication by default across more than one million Microsoft Entra ID tenants within Microsoft, including tenants for development, testing, demos, and production. We have eliminated or reduced application targets by removing 730,000 apps to date across production and corporate tenants that were out-of-lifecycle or not meeting current SFI standards. We have expanded our logging to give customers deeper visibility. And we recently announced a significant shift on our response process: We are now publishing root cause data for Microsoft CVEs using the CWE™ industry standard.

Adhering to standards with paved paths systems
Paved paths are best practices from our learned experiences, drawing upon lessons such as how to optimize productivity of our software development and operations, how to achieve compliance (such as Software Bill of Materials, Sarbanes-Oxley Act, General Data Protection Regulation, and others), and how to eliminate entire categories of vulnerabilities and mitigate related risks. A paved path becomes a standard when adoption significantly improves the developer or operations experience or security, quality, or compliance.

With SFI, we are explicitly defining standards for each of the six security pillars, and adherence to these standards will be measured as objectives and key results (OKRs).

Driving continuous improvement
The Secure Future Initiative empowers all of Microsoft to implement the needed changes to deliver security first. Our company culture is based on a growth mindset that fosters an ethos of continuous improvement. We continually seek feedback and new perspectives to tune our approach and progress. We will take our learnings from security incidents, feed them back into our security standards, and operationalize these learnings as paved paths that can enable secure design and operations at scale.

Instituting new governance
We are also taking major steps to elevate security governance, including several organizational changes and additional oversight, controls, and reporting.

Microsoft is implementing a new security governance framework spearheaded by the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). This framework introduces a partnership between engineering teams and newly formed Deputy CISOs, collectively responsible for overseeing SFI, managing risks, and reporting progress directly to the Senior Leadership Team. Progress will be reviewed weekly with this executive forum and quarterly with our Board of Directors.

Finally, given the importance of threat intelligence, we are bringing the full breadth of nation-state actor and threat hunting capabilities into the CISO organization.

Instilling a security-first culture
Culture can only be reinforced through our daily behaviors. Security is a team sport and is best realized when organizational boundaries are overcome. The engineering EVPs, in close coordination with SFI pillar leaders, are holding broadscale weekly and monthly operational meetings that include all levels of management and senior individual contributors. These meetings work on detailed execution and continuous improvement of security in context with what we collectively deliver to customers. Through this process of bottom-to-top and end-to-end problem solving, security thinking is ingrained in our daily behaviors.

Ultimately, Microsoft runs on trust and this trust must be earned and maintained. As a global provider of software, infrastructure, and cloud services, we feel a deep responsibility to do our part to keep the world safe and secure. Our promise is to continually improve and adapt to the evolving needs of cybersecurity. This is job number one for us.

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The Cloud Cultures series is an exploration of the intersection between cloud innovation and culture across the globe.

Once known for its dominance in the coal, steel, and manufacturing industries, the American Rust Belt is entering a new era of innovation. Thousands of startups, a focus on homegrown talent, and a rich culture of resilience are sparking an unmistakable resurgence in the region. 

Excited to explore this industrious spirit and a cloud culture closer to home, I ventured to the Northeastern and Midwestern states—the famed Rust Belt—to learn how entrepreneurial adaptability is energizing both people and businesses in the area. 

Rediscovering an entrepreneurial spirit through cloud innovation

My journey began on a winter day in Cincinnati, where the Ohio River borders Kentucky—a scene set with icy winds swirling over city streets and expansive farms. But it’s clear that the weather doesn’t deter progress here. I ducked into a cozy coffee shop to escape the cold and meet with my cohost, Devon Allen, a Microsoft colleague, and product marketing manager for Azure.

Devon is a unique cohost for this episode because of her ties to the region: she has deep roots in Appalachia and went to school in Ohio. Over coffee, she shared examples of how people in this area of the country are embracing adaptability and leaning into educating the next generation of talent, and in the process, are more resilient than ever before. Caffeinated and eager to explore, we parted ways to conduct our first interviews with local leaders.

Synthetaic represents a wave of new startups 

Devon started off with a visit to Lambeau Field, the home of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers and a symbol of the area’s vibrant character. There, she met with Corey Jaskolski, CEO of Synthetaic, a startup with a remarkable mission. Beginning as a project within TitletownTech—an incubator for tech startups formed in partnership between the Green Bay Packers and Microsoft—Synthetaic’s mission is to help organizations exponentially accelerate speed-to-insight and leverage AI for good.

Corey Jaskolski is not just Synthetaic’s CEO; he’s a National Geographic Fellow, explorer, engineer, and MIT graduate. Through his global expeditions, Jaskolski recognized the potential of technology to enhance exploration and conservation efforts in some of the world’s most beautiful and unforgiving environments.

Synthetaic’s RAIC (Rapid Automatic Image Categorization) solution automates the analysis of large, unstructured datasets so organizations can train and deploy AI models radically faster than other approaches. While other image processing tools require deep and time-intensive calibration, RAIC can immediately detect and classify anything from a single source image, exponentially accelerating speed-to-value and reducing the risk of human error.

Synthetaic is just one of more than 18,000 startups re-energizing the region—a truly staggering number. I was heartened to see how an area famous for its industrial history is recapturing the entrepreneurial spirit with cloud innovation at the forefront.

University of Cincinnati nurtures innovators and talent 

While Devon learned how AI can positively impact the world, I visited the University of Cincinnati’s 1819 Innovation Hub, a beacon of inspiration on campus that has helped UC contribute $10.6B in local economic impact. Experiencing this one-stop shop for technological advancement, ideas, and problem-solving, it was clear why the Rust Belt is flooded with incredible talent and forward-thinking innovators. In the modern, beautiful building that houses the Innovation Hub, I saw firsthand the spirit of innovation that has taken root in these states. 

During my visit, I was fortunate to attend a class at the Innovation Hub. After an inspiring question and answer session with a group of students, I spoke with Assistant Vice President Kate Harmon, leader of the Center for Entrepreneurship, Associate Professor Aaron Bradley who teaches design thinking and leads the innovation scholars program, and a current student, Jay Kothari, to learn more about the work happening at UC to bridge technology and AI across all industries. Entrepreneurial adaptability is a focal point of this urban public university, providing students with a plethora of classes, resources, and learning opportunities to help them succeed. It’s even in the school motto: “NEXT Lives Here.” In fact, a recent study shows that founders of a U.S. startup who studied or worked at UC are 3.3 times more likely to achieve unicorn founder status—the highest odds ratio in the nation. Our discussion illuminated how advances in cloud technologies will continue to impact education going forward, and how the students are empowered to innovate with technology to improve their own communities.

The future of innovation in the American Rust Belt 

To conclude our journey, we indulged in one of Devon’s favorite local eats at the 1940s diner, Camp Washington Chili. In Cincinnati, I learned there is more than one way to enjoy this comfort food—there are five. Served over spaghetti and topped with warmed red kidney beans, diced raw onions, and shredded cheddar cheese, a bowl of five-way chili was a unique and delicious way to end the trip.

As we dug in, we chatted about our interviews and reflected on the grit and dedication embodied by everyone we spoke with. Devon shared how Jaskolski, another local, saw an abundance of talent with these same traits and understood the advantages of starting a company in the Midwest. For example, his commute to Synthetaic is only four minutes—allowing him to spend more time with his family and embrace creativity in his downtime. This was an important consideration for himself and his employees. I also told Devon about the captivating conversations I had with the University of Cincinnati’s 1819 Innovation Hub students. Their drive and forward-thinking ideas will continue to shape this region into a tech hub of the Midwest, or a “Silicon Heartland,” as Kate Harmon put it. 

I was struck by the energy that’s paving the way for a bright future in the Rust Belt. There is change happening here—undoubtedly influenced by the acceleration of digital transformation we see on a global level. But it’s the heart and soul of the people, their ambition to adapt and grow, and their industrious heritage, that makes the resurgence possible.

I’m excited to watch this area continue to nurture their deep talent pool and innovate with technology to create positive impact—but for now, there are more cloud cultures to explore. See you on my next adventure, this time much further East! See you in Japan.

Learn more

• Watch more Cloud Cultures episodes 

The post Cloud Cultures, Part 8: Recapturing the entrepreneurial spirit in the American Rust Belt appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

The Cloud Cultures series is an exploration of the intersection between cloud innovation and culture across the globe.

‘Mottainai,’ an idea deeply rooted in Japanese culture, is a call to respect resources and avoid waste. It goes beyond mere frugality; it’s an inherent recognition of the value of each item. I saw this ideology reflected everywhere during my trip to Japan for this episode of Cloud Cultures—in the transportation system, in my interactions with shop owners, even in the movements of a master sushi chef (or itamae) that I watched over the bar at an Omakase restaurant.

The same approach is applied to Japan’s technological innovations. While innovation is often associated with monumental breakthroughs or flashy advancements, I found that in Japan, innovation thrives in the simplest forms. It’s a philosophy woven into the Japanese way of life—a reverence for simplicity, mindfulness, and the intrinsic value of everything around us. Using the principles of precision and mindfulness, we can bridge the gaps between technology, design, and craftmanship.

Japan invents with intention

I started my latest Cloud Culture adventure in the Shinagawa district of Tokyo, wandering through narrow streets and sampling local specialties before meeting with Takeshi Numoto, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Microsoft. He’s a Japanese native and expert in ordering delicious meals—needless to say, I was thrilled to cohost this episode with Takeshi. We walked to an Omakase restaurant where we discussed the formalities of Japanese business culture. After sharing some baked oysters prepared with a culinary torch, I went to learn about one of Japan’s most renowned innovations: the railway system.

West Japan Railway Company prioritizes safety and innovation

For the 20 billion passengers riding trains in Japan each year, confidence in the precision and quality of the railway system is key. With over thirty-five years of operation and an impeccable safety record with five million daily users, West Japan Railway Company (JR-West) embodies responsibility, prioritizing safety while envisioning the future of train technology. On Takeshi’s advice, I met with a member of the local Microsoft team, Toshie Ninomiya, Managing Executive Officer of Microsoft Japan. Together, we had the opportunity to sit down with Okuda Hideo, Director and Executive Officer of Digital Solution Headquarters of JR-West, and his team.

During the pandemic, JR-West experienced an 89% decline in passengers. This created a sense of urgency—and ultimately, demanded a mindset shift. They pivoted their business strategy from filling as many seats as possible to curating a unique, personal experience for their riders. With their customers in mind, JR-West implemented cloud and AI solutions to become a more data-driven company. Now, they store customer transport and purchase data on the cloud, which can be analyzed to unlock insights that enable better customer experiences.

After our visit with JR-West, it became clear to me why Japan’s railway system is recognized worldwide. Through meticulous attention to detail and data-driven insights, JR-West ensures that their services exceed customer expectations while maintaining impeccable standards of efficiency and safety.

Sony Group uses cloud technology to embrace AI

While Toshie and I learned how JR-West uses AI to benefit their customers, Takeshi visited Sony headquarters to meet up with an old friend, Tsuyoshi Kodera, Executive Vice President, CDO and CIO of Sony Corporation.

In 1946, with only 190,000 yen and a team of 20 employees, Masaru Ibuka founded Sony with a vision of “establishing an ideal factory that stresses a spirit of freedom and open mindedness that will, through technology, contribute to Japanese culture.” Reflecting Sony’s unwavering commitment to pushing boundaries and achieving the unprecedented, the company has consistently introduced groundbreaking products, often claiming the titles of ‘Japan’s first’ and ‘world’s first.’

Throughout our journey, we were reminded of the importance of collaboration and balance. Beyond their partnership with Microsoft, Sony has expanded their AI strategies in exceptional ways. For example, they’ve implemented new autofocus capabilities in their cameras, implemented AI throughout their factory manufacturing lines, and even incorporated it in their famous Gran Turismo series on PlayStation. Sony is looking toward the future of AI and cloud capabilities to create deeper experiences, build lifelong customers, and help democratize innovative technologies.

NISSIN FOODS Group modernizes with AI to improve efficiency and productivity

For our final stop, Toshie and I visited the CUPNOODLES MUSEUM in Yokohama to meet with NISSIN FOODS Group’s Chief Information Officer, Toshihiro Narita, and discuss how the company is fusing together cloud computing and shaping future food trends.

Since launching the world’s first instant noodles, NISSIN FOODS Group’s vision has remained consistent: contribute to society and the earth by gratifying people everywhere with pleasures and delights food can provide. And despite not being a traditional tech company, NISSIN FOODS Group is embracing digital transformation wholeheartedly.

As part of its program to support sustainable growth, NISSIN FOODS Group aims to improve labor productivity through efficiency. To this end, they’ve implemented various initiatives to improve in-office productivity. This includes migrating to the cloud using Microsoft 365 to adopt a remote work-enabled environment and improve cybersecurity hygiene to continuously maintain the health of the company’s IT estate. Cloud and AI technologies are helping NISSIN FOODS Group’s employees be more productive, giving them more time back to focus on creative work, and in turn, create new food cultures.

After enjoying our custom CUPNOODLES from the My CUPNOODLES Factory, Toshie and I had a chance to reflect on the unique approach NISSIN FOODS Group is taking. They are showcasing how every company can encourage innovation by modernizing with cloud technology, while staying true to their roots. From CUPNOODLES to cutting-edge food tech, innovation knows no bounds in Japan, offering a flavorful glimpse into the future of both technology and gastronomy.

Building a future that embraces tradition

From digital invention to food accessibility and revolutionizing transportation, Japan continues to evolve with a focus on precision and mindfulness. I see a culture that blends tradition and innovation, forging a future that honors heritage while embracing progress. Inspired by the incredible sights and smells of my journey—not to mention the insightful leaders I’ve met along the way—I carry with me a renewed perspective on how we can build a digital world rooted in intentionality and craftsmanship.

Learn more

• Watch more Cloud Cultures episodes
• Find the Azure geography that meets your needs
• Learn more about Microsoft customers in Japan
• Discover about how Microsoft is investing in AI in Japan

The post Cloud Cultures, Part 7: Creating balance in a digital world through precision and mindfulness in Japan appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

But finding and connecting with the right partners can be challenging, and in a new frontier like AI, it can be especially daunting—so many AI startups have entered the market in recent years that it’s hard to keep count. By many estimates, there are now more than 10,000. How is an enterprise supposed to find its match in such a crowded and confusing space?

In the multi-layered landscape of AI, large tech firms bridge the gap between startups and enterprises. Microsoft provides the infrastructure and generative AI models that require major investment. Startups specialize in domain-specific, industry-focused applications and tooling. When we work together, it’s a winning combination that results in the kind of enterprise-ready AI that enterprises need.

As a Partner at Microsoft for Startups, I lead a global team in the Pegasus Program. I always say it’s the best job in the world because we get to help startups make the most of not just the Microsoft stack and models, but also our knowledge, experience, and relationships. The program’s Customer Community is where we “match make” for enterprises and startups to foster exciting new partnerships and co-innovations.

Microsoft for Startups

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The following are key areas where I see Microsoft really adding value to bridge the gap between enterprises and startups for delivery of enterprise-ready AI.

AI startups move fast—Microsoft helps them move even faster

Startups are nimble by nature, and AI is taking it to a whole new level. With the emergence of AI, we have seen an explosion in new use cases and tooling needs—from data hygiene platforms to vector databases. For example, Synthesized, a startup that specializes in approximating datasets with synthetic data, says AI helps their small teams create synthetic data for testing and training faster and better so they can “punch above their weight,” delivering like a much larger team. Enterprises can adopt AI quicker because their highly accurate synthetic data is used to build AI use cases without privacy concerns.

Plus, Microsoft helps all startups in the Pegasus Program to develop and test their solutions quickly by giving them access to AI models and a high-performance GPU cluster in the Microsoft Cloud. Having access to this kind of infrastructure and foundational support gives startups the extra muscle to move even faster from ideation to production. And, when a startup has an app or service on Microsoft Azure that is in production and ready to go to market, it can be vetted for inclusion to drive more leads and speed their sales cycle.  

Specialization is differentiation—Microsoft helps startups focus and refine

Startups differentiate by specializing in doing one thing and doing it better than anybody else—and they need to resist the temptation to go broad to meet the needs of every potential customer. Microsoft helps startups focus on their core competencies by providing them with domain-specific guidance, mentorship, and co-innovation opportunities.

Pangaea Data’s novel AI driven product, for example, discovers more untreated (undiagnosed, misdiagnosed, at risk, uncontrolled, and miscoded) patients based on their records and clinical guidelines, thereby mimicking a clinician’s manual process. Microsoft helped Pangaea Data connect and build trust users with their solution, which has helped the United Kingdom’s National Health Service and two global pharmaceutical companies discover 6 times more undiagnosed and miscoded cachectic cancer patients.

Holistic AI created a governance platform for complete management of AI systems, including discovery and inventory, risk mapping, risk mitigation, monitoring, and compliance readiness. Their diverse team brings together global expertise across various domains, including data science, machine learning, law, and policy. Through the Pegasus Program, they are continually working with enterprises to explore new use cases that will enable them to grow while staying focused on their core competencies in governance, risk management, and compliance.

Enterprise solutions require enterprise readiness—Microsoft knows how to get there

Enterprises have complex technology environments that can’t just be “ripped and replaced” to make way for AI, so startups need to offer solutions that integrate seamlessly. We were our own “customer zero” when we created Microsoft Copilot for our own business applications, and startups in our Pegasus Program are now learning from our experience.

Weights & Biases, an AI developer platform, not only aims to create solutions that seamlessly integrate for their enterprise customers but also take the same approach to integrating AI themselves. They observed that “most customers look at AI as something that improves what they’re already doing, augmenting their core offerings rather than creating end-to-end machine learning products. This is how we approach our use of AI as well. With technologies as transformative as AI, the instinct is to think big. Plenty of companies have. But rather than approach AI as a way to change our entire business, we look first at investments that can help our team be more productive.”

And of course, trust is something that can be difficult for startups to establish on their own. Microsoft stakes its reputation on trust, so customers know that the startups in our Pegasus Program are companies they can trust as well. Global manufacturer Mars shared that Microsoft was a “gateway to the startup ecosystem where every collaboration becomes a map to success.”

Find startups with the right enterprise-ready AI for your business

The winning combination of AI startups and major tech firms can create a virtuous cycle of co-innovation and co-creation, where both parties learn from each other, complement each other, and enhance each other. Together, they can deliver enterprise-ready AI solutions that are faster, smarter, and more trustworthy.

If you think your enterprise could benefit from working with us and the AI startups we support, join the Pegasus Customer Community today. You’ll receive access to exclusive programs and resources, including pre-vetted, enterprise-ready AI startup solutions, and Microsoft will help you find your match. Visit Microsoft AI for news, announcements, customer stories, and more.

Tom Davis is a Partner at Microsoft for Startups where he focuses on bringing business value to strategic startups in vertical industry segments and emerging AI use cases. You can read more blogs by Tom on the Microsoft for Startups blog.  

The post How Microsoft helps startups deliver enterprise-ready AI appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.