Microsoft

Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, shared the below communication on social media this morning. Click here to load media The post Microsoft unveils Majorana 1 appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. View the full article

Today Microsoft released Muse, a first-of-its-kind generative AI model that we are applying to gaming. But it’s so much more than that. What we’re sharing today is a huge step forward for gameplay ideation. And what’s even more exciting is what this breakthrough represents in our journey of building and using generative AI, and what industries, developers and creators of all interests will be enabled to do next. The impressive abilities we first witnessed with ChatGPT and GPT-4 to learn human language are now being matched by AI’s abilities to learn the mechanics of how things work, in effect developing a practical understanding of interactions in the world. As a computer scientist, this ability to understand and model a 3D world is something I and many other great researchers have pursued for over 10 years and, personally, I was not sure that it could be made possible with such speed and quality. In the case of Muse, just from observing human gameplay, this model develops a deep understanding of the environment, including its dynamics and how it evolves over time in response to actions. This unlocks the ability to rapidly iterate, remix and create in video games so developers can eventually create immersive environments and unleash their full creativity. Beyond gaming, I’m excited by the potential of this capability to enable AI assistants that understand and help visualize things, from reconfiguring the kitchen in your home to redesigning a retail space to building a digital twin of a factory floor to test and explore different scenarios. All these things are just now becoming possible with AI. From the perspective of computer science research, it’s pretty amazing, and the future applications of this are likely to be transformative for creators. — At Microsoft, we have a long history of collaboration between research and engineering. Today, as we release Muse, we are also announcing Azure AI Foundry Labs, where the AI community can explore the latest from Microsoft Research. Azure AI Foundry Labs will help accelerate the transition from research to solutions, bringing new ideas to the broader community to help shape the future of AI. Learn more. The post A new level unlocked appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. View the full article

Organizational leaders in every industry around the world are evaluating ways AI can unlock opportunities, drive pragmatic innovation and yield value across their business. At Microsoft, we are dedicated to helping our customers accelerate AI Transformation by empowering human ambition with Copilots and agents, developing differentiated AI solutions and building scalable cybersecurity foundations. At Microsoft Ignite we made over 100 announcements that bring the latest innovation directly to our customers and partners, and shared how Microsoft is the only technology leader to offer three distinct AI platforms for them to build AI solutions: Copilot is your UI for AI, with Copilot Studio enabling low-code creation of agents and extensibility to your data. Azure AI Foundry is the only AI app server for building real-world, world-class, AI-native applications. Microsoft Fabric is the AI data platform that provides one common way to reason over your data —no matter where it lives. All three of these platforms are open and work synchronously to enable the development of modern AI solutions; and each is surrounded by our world-class security offerings so leaders can move their AI-first strategies forward with confidence. As we look ahead to what we can achieve together, I remain inspired by the work we are doing today. Below are a handful of the many stories from the past quarter highlighting the differentiated AI solutions our customers and partners are driving to move business forward across industries and realize pragmatic value. Their success clearly illustrates that real results can be harnessed from AI today, and it is changing the way organizations do business. To power its industrial IoT and AI platform, ABB Group leveraged Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to create Genix Copilot: a generative AI-powered analytics suite aimed at solving some of the most complex industrial problems. The solution helps customers analyze key functions in their operations —such as asset and process performance, energy optimization and emission monitoring — with real-time operational insights. As a result, customers are seeing up to 35% savings in operations and maintenance, and up to 20% improvement in energy and emission optimization. ABB also saw an 80% decrease in service calls with the self-service capabilities of Genix Copilot. Serving government healthcare agencies across the US, Acentra Health turned to Microsoft to help introduce the latest AI capabilities that maximize talent and cut costs in a secure, HIPAA-compliant manner. Using Azure OpenAI Service, the company developed MedScribe — an AI-powered tool reducing the time specially trained nursing staff spend on appeal determination letters. This innovation saved 11,000 nursing hours and nearly $800,000, reducing time spent on each appeal determination letter by about 50%. MedScribe also significantly enhanced operational efficiency, enabling nurses to process 20 to 30 letters daily with a 99% approval rate. To ease challenges for small farmers, Romanian agribusiness group Agricover revolutionized access to credit by developing MyAgricover. Built with help from partner Avaelgo, the scalable digital platform utilizes Microsoft Azure, Azure API Management and Microsoft Fabric to automate the loan process and enable faster approvals and disbursements. This has empowered small farmers to grow their businesses and receive faster access to financing by reducing loan approval time by 90 percent — from 10 working days to a maximum of 24 hours. Building on its status as a world-class airline with a strong Indian identity, Air India sought ways to enhance customer support while managing costs. By developing AI.g, one of the industry’s first generative AI virtual assistants built on Azure OpenAI Service, the airline upgraded the customer experience. Today, 97% of customer queries are handled with full automation, resulting in millions of dollars of support costs saved and improved customer satisfaction — further positioning the airline for continued growth. BMW Group aimed to enhance data delivery efficiency and improve vehicle development and prototyping cycles by implementing a Mobile Data Recorder (MDR) solution with Azure App Service, Azure AI and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). The solution achieved 10 times more efficient data delivery, significantly improved data accessibility and elevated overall development quality. The MDR monitors and records more than 10,000 signals twice per second in every vehicle of BMW’s fleet of 3,500 development cars and transmits data within seconds to a centralized cloud back end. Using Azure AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI Service, BMW Group created an MDR copilot fueled by GPT-4o. Engineers can now chat with the interface using natural language, and the MDR copilot converts the conversations into KQL queries, simplifying access to technical insights. Moving from on-premises tools to a cloud-based system with faster data management also helps engineers troubleshoot in real time. The vehicle data covered by the system has doubled, and data delivery and analysis happen 10 times faster. Coles Group modernized its logistics and administrative applications using Microsoft Azure Stack HCI to scale its edge AI capabilities and improve efficiency and customer experience across its 1,800 stores. By expanding its Azure Stack HCI footprint from two stores to over 500, Coles achieved a six-fold increase in the pace of application deployment, significantly enhancing operational efficiency and enabling rapid innovation without disrupting workloads. The retailer is also using Azure Machine Learning to train and develop edge AI models, speeding up data annotation time for training models by 50%. Multinational advertising and media company Dentsu wanted to speed time to insights for its team of data scientists and media analysts to support its media planning and budget optimization. Using Microsoft Azure AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI Service, Dentsu developers built a predictive analytics copilot that uses conversational chat and draws on deep expertise in media forecasting, budgeting and optimization. This AI-driven tool has reduced time to media insights for employees and clients by 90% and cut analysis costs. To overcome the limitations of its current systems, scale operations and automate processes across millions of workflows, Docusign created the Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) platform on Azure. Using Azure AI, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Logic Apps and AKS, the platform transforms agreement data into actionable insights to enhance productivity and accelerate contract review cycles. IAM also ensures better collaboration and unification across business systems to provide secure solutions tailored to diverse customer needs. For example, its customer KPC Private funds reported a 70% reduction in time and resources dedicated to agreement processes. Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) transformed its manufacturing operations by leveraging a hybrid environment with Azure Arc, Azure Stack HCI and Azure Kubernetes Service. This digital manufacturing platform resulted in 86% cost savings for AI image and video analytics and a 13-fold improvement in AI response times. The seamless hybrid cloud architecture has enhanced EGA’s operational efficiency and agility, supporting its Industry 4.0 transformation strategy. EY collaborated with Microsoft to enhance the inclusivity of AI development using Azure AI Studio. By involving neurodivergent technologists from EY’s Neuro-Diverse Centers of Excellence, they improved the accessibility and productivity of AI tools, resulting in more inclusive AI solutions, fostering innovation and ensuring that AI tools unlock the potential of all users. With an estimated 20% of the global workforce identifying as neurodivergent, inclusive AI solutions are crucial for maximizing creativity and productivity. Neurodivergent EY technologists also collaborated with Microsoft developers to make Azure AI Foundry more inclusive and help all users work productively to create innovative AI solutions. Colombian household appliance manufacturer Haceb integrated AI to optimize processes, reduce costs and improve service quality. Using Microsoft Copilot Studio and Azure OpenAI Service, the company created a virtual technical support assistant, saving its 245 technicians 5 minutes per visit — a total of 5,000 minutes saved daily. This AI solution has enhanced efficiency and boosted customer satisfaction by allowing for faster issue resolution. Haceb’s AI adoption has also empowered employees, boosted productivity and positioned the company as a leader in AI innovation in Colombia. To better serve its global patients, Operation Smile — in collaboration with partner Squadra — leveraged Azure AI, Machine Learning and Microsoft Fabric to develop an AI-powered solution to predict surgical outcomes and optimize resource allocation. This innovation resulted in a 30% increase in surgical efficiency, a 90% reduction in translation errors and improved patient outcomes. Additionally, report generation is now up to 95% quicker, and repeated medical events have decreased by 15%, enabling Operation Smile to provide better care to more children worldwide. Ontada — a McKesson business dedicated to oncology data and evidence, clinical education and point-of-care technologies — needed a way to generate key insights across 150 million unstructured oncology documents. Using Microsoft Azure AI and Azure OpenAI Service, Ontada developed a data platform solution called ON.Genuity to provide AI-driven insights into the patient journey, enhance patient trial matching and identify care gaps. The company also implemented large language models to target nearly 100 critical oncology data elements across 39 cancer types, enabling the company to analyze an estimated 70% of previously inaccessible data, reduce processing time by 75% and accelerate product time-to-market from months to just one week. As the UK’s largest pet care company, Pets at Home sought a way to combat fraud across its retail operations — particularly as its online business continued to grow. Working closely with its fraud team, it adopted Copilot Studio to develop an AI agent that quickly identifies suspicious transactions. The agent autonomously gathers relevant information, performs analysis and shares it with a fraud agent to enable a manual, data-intensive investigative process while ensuring a human remains in the loop. With this low-code agent extending and seamlessly integrating into existing systems, the company’s fraud department can act more quickly; what used to take 20 to 30 minutes is now handled by the AI agent within seconds. The company is identifying fraud 10 times faster and is processing 20 times more cases a day. Now, the company can operate at scale with speed, efficiency and accuracy — with savings expected to be in the seven figures as it continues to build more agents. Revenue Grid, a technology company specializing in sales engagement and revenue optimization solutions, partnered with Cloud Services to modernize its data infrastructure and develop a unified data warehouse capable of handling unstructured, semi-structured and structured data. By migrating to Microsoft Fabric, Revenue Grid can now deliver data-powered revenue intelligence, driven by a unified platform, elastic scalability, enhanced analytics capabilities and streamlined operations. Revenue Grid has reduced infrastructure costs by 60% while enhancing its analytical capabilities to improve real-time data processing, empowering sales teams with accurate and diverse data. To better manage and integrate employee data across diverse regions and systems, UST built a comprehensive Employee Data platform on Microsoft Fabric. In under a year, UST migrated 20 years of employee data with all security measures to enhance data accessibility and employee productivity. The Meta Data Driven Integration (MDDI) framework in Fabric also helped the company cut data ingestion time by 50% so employees can focus more on analysis than preparation. As a result of this implementation, the company has seen an increase in collaboration and innovation from employees, helping put its values into action. The Microsoft Commercial Marketplace offers millions of customers worldwide a convenient place to find, try and buy software and services across 140 countries. As a Marketplace partner, WeTransact is helping independent software vendors (ISVs) list and transact their software solutions — and find opportunities for co-selling and extending their reach to enterprise customers through development of the WeTransact platform. Powered by Azure OpenAI Service, the platform is changing the way partnerships are being built by using AI pairing to facilitate a “plug and play” reseller network. More than 300 ISVs worldwide have joined the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace using the WeTransact platform, cutting their time to publish by 75%. The opportunity for AI to create value is no longer an ambition for the future — it is happening now, and organizational leaders across industries are investing in AI-first strategies to change the way they do business. We believe AI should empower human achievement and enrich the lives of employees; and we are uniquely differentiated to help you accelerate your AI Transformation responsibly and securely. Choosing the right technology provider comes down to trust, and I look forward to what we will achieve together as we partner with you on your AI journey. The post The value of AI: How Microsoft’s customers and partners are creating differentiated AI solutions to reinvent how they do business today appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. View the full article

We are thrilled to continue our strategic partnership with OpenAI and to partner on Stargate. Today’s announcement is complimentary to what our two companies have been working on together since 2019. The key elements of our partnership remain in place for the duration of our contract through 2030, with our access to OpenAI’s IP, our revenue sharing arrangements and our exclusivity on OpenAI’s APIs all continuing forward – specifically: Microsoft has rights to OpenAI IP (inclusive of model and infrastructure) for use within our products like Copilot. This means our customers have access to the best model for their needs. The OpenAI API is exclusive to Azure, runs on Azure and is also available through the Azure OpenAI Service. This agreement means customers benefit from having access to leading models on Microsoft platforms and direct from OpenAI. Microsoft and OpenAI have revenue sharing agreements that flow both ways, ensuring that both companies benefit from increased use of new and existing models. Microsoft remains a major investor in OpenAI, providing funding and capacity to support their advancements and, in turn, benefiting from their growth in valuation. In addition to this, OpenAI recently made a new, large Azure commitment that will continue to support all OpenAI products as well as training. This new agreement also includes changes to the exclusivity on new capacity, moving to a model where Microsoft has a right of first refusal (ROFR). To further support OpenAI, Microsoft has approved OpenAI’s ability to build additional capacity, primarily for research and training of models. We thank OpenAI for their continued partnership and look forward to what’s to come. The post Microsoft and OpenAI evolve partnership to drive the next phase of AI appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. View the full article

Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, shared the below communication with Microsoft employees this morning. As we begin the new year, it’s clear that we’re entering the next innings of this AI platform shift. 2025 will be about model-forward applications that reshape all application categories. More so than any previous platform shift, every layer of the application stack will be impacted. It’s akin to GUI, internet servers, and cloud-native databases all being introduced into the app stack simultaneously. Thirty years of change is being compressed into three years! We will build agentic applications with memory, entitlements, and action space that will inherit powerful model capabilities. And we will adapt these capabilities for enhanced performance and safety across roles, business processes, and industry domains. Further, how we build, deploy, and maintain code for these AI applications is also fundamentally changing and becoming agentic. This is leading to a new AI-first app stack — one with new UI/UX patterns, runtimes to build with agents, orchestrate multiple agents, and a reimagined management and observability layer. In this world, Azure must become the infrastructure for AI, while we build our AI platform and developer tools — spanning Azure AI Foundry, GitHub, and VS Code — on top of it. In other words, our AI platform and tools will come together to create agents, and these agents will come together to change every SaaS application category, and building custom applications will be driven by software (i.e. “service as software”). The good news is that we have been working at this for more than two years and have learned a lot in terms of the systems, app platform, and tools required for the AI era. To more rapidly and boldly advance our roadmap across each of these layers, we are creating a new engineering organization: CoreAI – Platform and Tools. This new division will bring together Dev Div, AI Platform, and some key teams from the Office of the CTO (AI Supercomputer, AI Agentic Runtimes, and Engineering Thrive), with the mission to build the end-to-end Copilot & AI stack for both our first-party and third-party customers to build and run AI apps and agents. This group will also build out GitHub Copilot, thus having a tight feedback loop between the leading AI-first product and the AI platform to motivate the stack and its roadmap. Jay Parikh will lead this group as EVP of CoreAI – Platform and Tools, with Eric Boyd, Jason Taylor, Julia Liuson, Tim Bozarth, and their respective teams reporting to Jay. Jay will work closely with Scott, Rajesh, Charlie, Mustafa, and Kevin to optimize our entire tech stack for both performance and efficiency. Additionally, Jay and team will lead our progress and work around developer productivity and Engineering Thrive across the company. As our cloud infrastructure business continues to grow and scale to become Microsoft’s largest business, Scott will continue to lead Cloud + AI to ensure we’re delivering the quality, security, and innovation that our customers and partners count on for their most mission-critical applications, databases, and AI workloads. Ultimately, we must remember that our internal organizational boundaries are meaningless to both our customers and to our competitors. When we talk about operating as One Microsoft, we are effectively talking about how we are continually increasing our customer focus, raising the bar on our innovation, and driving accountability, so we can truly live up to our mission. Our success in this next phase will be determined by having the best AI platform, tools, and infrastructure. We have a lot of work to do and a tremendous opportunity ahead, and together, I’m looking forward to building what comes next. Satya The post Introducing Core AI – Platform and Tools appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. View the full article

Your feedback matters – each week, we get thousands of feedback submissions that we triage, categorize and prioritize. We love the enthusiasm our customers and developers show daily for the Store and all its apps and games – and as product makers, we take that energy forward every day into our craft. Our ultimate goal is to build the best product for you. Today, we’re excited to recap some important quality updates to the Microsoft Store on Windows that we’ve rolled out over the last few months. Upping the ante on performance We have some meaningful improvements to share from our recent work on performance. Overall Store launch time has been reduced by 25%, and we've reduced the number of download hanging issues by 50%1. To make sure you see the latest improvements, ensure you have the latest Windows update. We are continually striving for improvements in this space because we know how influential it is to your Store experience. New download and install progress indicator – We’ve rebuilt the way we’re communicating download and install progress to you when you’re getting content from a Product Page. This is especially important when you’re downloading larger apps. You also can cancel an operation right from a Product Page if you’ve accidentally clicked download. Improved browse and Product Page experiences We’ve revamped a few places where we know customers go to find and acquire content. Apps and games categories – We’ve introduced new categorizations of apps and games to help you narrow down what you’re looking for. From the Gaming page, you can now navigate easily and quickly through different game categories such as strategy, role-playing, puzzle and simulation. For Apps, we are experimenting with different categories so Please keep an eye out for the experience and give us feedback! Immersive Product Pages – We’re introducing a new feature for Product Pages that adds an immersive experience to the top of the page. For apps and games that provide a trailer, you’ll be able to enjoy it as you navigate to their various pages. Meanwhile, products without trailers will use beautiful hero images provided by the developers. There’s also an option in the Store settings page to toggle video autoplay on or off. New Library, Updates and downloads pages We know this one’s a crowd favorite – we’ve introduced two new pages, Library, and Updates and downloads, to help you find and manage all your content. Redesigned Library page – We made two big changes here. First, we changed the default filters to show all the products you own, not just products that are installed (you can still toggle this filter if you wish). Second, we’ve added a search bar that will help you find the name or the publisher of products you’re looking for. New Updates and downloads page – We are also moving the list of updates and downloads from the top section of the Library to its own dedicated page. This new page displays your list of active downloads or pending updates, and it shows the list of recent installs or updates. Version notes will also be displayed for a pending update or active download. But wait…there’s more! There’s a long list of other improvements we’ve quietly rolled out, such as Win32 apps support for our Store Web Installer on web, design updates, search recommendations, and easier ways to update Win32 apps from the Downloads and Product pages (this last feature is accessible via Windows Insiders starting Dec. 4). Lastly, our catalog continues to grow – we recently welcomed ChatGPT, Fantastical, Battle.net, World of Warcraft, Arc and more! We also recently announced our 2024 Store Awards, and encourage you to check out the winning apps and games to find new AI experiences, gaming content, productivity tools and more! We hope these improvements spark a bit more joy as you’re using the Store on Windows. Please submit your product feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Microsoft Store. And we are always publishing new updates, so leverage the “What’s New” page to keep track of the latest. We have a lot more fun in store for you in 2025 – stay tuned! 1 Data based on internal testing and subject to factors such as device, location, Windows and Store app versions. View the full article View full article

Your feedback matters – each week, we get thousands of feedback submissions that we triage, categorize and prioritize. We love the enthusiasm our customers and developers show daily for the Store and all its apps and games – and as product makers, we take that energy forward every day into our craft. Our ultimate goal is to build the best product for you. Today, we’re excited to recap some important quality updates to the Microsoft Store on Windows that we’ve rolled out over the last few months. Upping the ante on performance We have some meaningful improvements to share from our recent work on performance. Overall Store launch time has been reduced by 25%, and we've reduced the number of download hanging issues by 50%1. To make sure you see the latest improvements, ensure you have the latest Windows update. We are continually striving for improvements in this space because we know how influential it is to your Store experience. New download and install progress indicator – We’ve rebuilt the way we’re communicating download and install progress to you when you’re getting content from a Product Page. This is especially important when you’re downloading larger apps. You also can cancel an operation right from a Product Page if you’ve accidentally clicked download. Improved browse and Product Page experiences We’ve revamped a few places where we know customers go to find and acquire content. Apps and games categories – We’ve introduced new categorizations of apps and games to help you narrow down what you’re looking for. From the Gaming page, you can now navigate easily and quickly through different game categories such as strategy, role-playing, puzzle and simulation. For Apps, we are experimenting with different categories so please keep an eye out for the experience and give us feedback! Immersive Product Pages – We’re introducing a new feature for Product Pages that adds an immersive experience to the top of the page. For apps and games that provide a trailer, you’ll be able to enjoy it as you navigate to their various pages. Meanwhile, products without trailers will use beautiful hero images provided by the developers. There’s also an option in the Store settings page to toggle video autoplay on or off. New Library, Updates and downloads pages We know this one’s a crowd favorite – we’ve introduced two new pages, Library, and Updates and downloads, to help you find and manage all your content. Redesigned Library page – We made two big changes here. First, we changed the default filters to show all the products you own, not just products that are installed (you can still toggle this filter if you wish). Second, we’ve added a search bar that will help you find the name or the publisher of products you’re looking for. New Updates and downloads page – We are also moving the list of updates and downloads from the top section of the Library to its own dedicated page. This new page displays your list of active downloads or pending updates, and it shows the list of recent installs or updates. Version notes will also be displayed for a pending update or active download. But wait…there’s more! There’s a long list of other improvements we’ve quietly rolled out, such as Win32 apps support for our Store Web Installer on web, design updates, search recommendations, and easier ways to update Win32 apps from the Downloads and Product pages (this last feature is accessible via Windows Insiders starting Dec. 4). Lastly, our catalog continues to grow – we recently welcomed ChatGPT, Fantastical, Battle.net, World of Warcraft, Arc and more! We also recently announced our 2024 Store Awards, and encourage you to check out the winning apps and games to find new AI experiences, gaming content, productivity tools and more! We hope these improvements spark a bit more joy as you’re using the Store on Windows. Please submit your product feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Microsoft Store. And we are always publishing new updates, so leverage the “What’s New” page to keep track of the latest. We have a lot more fun in store for you in 2025 – stay tuned! 1 Data based on internal testing and subject to factors such as device, location, Windows and Store app versions.View the full article

Your feedback matters – each week, we get thousands of feedback submissions that we triage, categorize and prioritize. We love the enthusiasm our customers and developers show daily for the Store and all its apps and games – and as product makers, we take that energy forward every day into our craft. Our ultimate goal is to build the best product for you. Today, we’re excited to recap some important quality updates to the Microsoft Store on Windows that we’ve rolled out over the last few months. Upping the ante on performance We have some meaningful improvements to share from our recent work on performance. Overall Store launch time has been reduced by 25%, and we've reduced the number of download hanging issues by 50%1. To make sure you see the latest improvements, ensure you have the latest Windows update. We are continually striving for improvements in this space because we know how influential it is to your Store experience. New download and install progress indicator – We’ve rebuilt the way we’re communicating download and install progress to you when you’re getting content from a Product Page. This is especially important when you’re downloading larger apps. You also can cancel an operation right from a Product Page if you’ve accidentally clicked download. Improved browse and Product Page experiences We’ve revamped a few places where we know customers go to find and acquire content. Apps and games categories – We’ve introduced new categorizations of apps and games to help you narrow down what you’re looking for. From the Gaming page, you can now navigate easily and quickly through different game categories such as strategy, role-playing, puzzle and simulation. For Apps, we are experimenting with different categories so please keep an eye out for the experience and give us feedback! Immersive Product Pages – We’re introducing a new feature for Product Pages that adds an immersive experience to the top of the page. For apps and games that provide a trailer, you’ll be able to enjoy it as you navigate to their various pages. Meanwhile, products without trailers will use beautiful hero images provided by the developers. There’s also an option in the Store settings page to toggle video autoplay on or off. New Library, Updates and downloads pages We know this one’s a crowd favorite – we’ve introduced two new pages, Library, and Updates and downloads, to help you find and manage all your content. Redesigned Library page – We made two big changes here. First, we changed the default filters to show all the products you own, not just products that are installed (you can still toggle this filter if you wish). Second, we’ve added a search bar that will help you find the name or the publisher of products you’re looking for. New Updates and downloads page – We are also moving the list of updates and downloads from the top section of the Library to its own dedicated page. This new page displays your list of active downloads or pending updates, and it shows the list of recent installs or updates. Version notes will also be displayed for a pending update or active download. But wait…there’s more! There’s a long list of other improvements we’ve quietly rolled out, such as Win32 apps support for our Store Web Installer on web, design updates, search recommendations, and easier ways to update Win32 apps from the Downloads and Product pages (this last feature is accessible via Windows Insiders starting Dec. 4). Lastly, our catalog continues to grow – we recently welcomed ChatGPT, Fantastical, Battle.net, World of Warcraft, Arc and more! We also recently announced our 2024 Store Awards, and encourage you to check out the winning apps and games to find new AI experiences, gaming content, productivity tools and more! We hope these improvements spark a bit more joy as you’re using the Store on Windows. Please submit your product feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Microsoft Store. And we are always publishing new updates, so leverage the “What’s New” page to keep track of the latest. We have a lot more fun in store for you in 2025 – stay tuned! 1 Data based on internal testing and subject to factors such as device, location, Windows and Store app versions.View the full article

Two things can be true at the same time. In the case of AI, it is absolutely true that the industry is moving incredibly fast and evolving quickly. It’s also true that hundreds of thousands of customers are using Microsoft AI technology today and, by making early bets on the platform, are seeing big benefits now and future-proofing their ability to benefit from the next big wave of AI improvements. Microsoft Ignite is our annual event that spotlights the updates and creations that enable customers, partners and developers to unleash the full potential of Microsoft’s technology and change the way we approach work. This year, we are announcing about 80 new products and features, including new capabilities in Microsoft 365 Copilot, additions to the Copilot + AI stack and new Copilot+ devices offerings. Underpinning each of these innovations is our commitment to security. Since launching our Secure Future Initiative (SFI) one year ago, we have made security the No. 1 job of every employee at Microsoft, dedicated 34,000 engineers to this focus and, at Ignite, we will announce innovations that are rooted in our SFI principles: secure by design, secure by default and secure operations. More than 200,000 people have registered to join us for this year’s Ignite, with more than 14,000 attendees at our in-person events in Chicago. Attendees can choose from more than 800 sessions, demos and expert-led labs from Microsoft and our partners. Most of the Ignite content will be available on demand for those who can’t attend the live event. Copilot momentum Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant for work, and we have seen the momentum grow as more organizations are moving to Copilot and deploying it to great success. All up, nearly 70% of the Fortune 500 now use Microsoft 365 Copilot. That echoes an industry trend: A recent IDC study showed that generative AI is on the rise, with 75% adoption among companies surveyed in 2024. In addition, for every $1 invested, companies are realizing a return of $3.70, and leaders are saying they are realizing as much as a $10 return, according to the study. The investments that Microsoft has made in Copilot are paying dividends for our customers. We recently highlighted some of the more than 200 customer stories of accelerated AI Transformation, with Copilot helping many of them spark innovation and transform their organization for the better. Several examples include: Intelligent power management company Eaton leveraged Microsoft 365 Copilot to help streamline and automate operations, improve data access, centralize knowledge and empower teams to focus on higher-value tasks. One immediate challenge addressed through Copilot focused on the manual, time-consuming documentation process in Eaton’s Finance operations. Copilot helped Eaton document over 9,000 standard operating procedures (SOPs), resulting in an 83% time savings for each SOP. Consulting firm McKinsey & Company is creating an agent to speed up the client onboarding process. The pilot showed lead time could be reduced by 90% and administrative work reduced by 30%. The agent automates complex processes, such as identifying the right expert capabilities and staffing teams and acts as a single place where colleagues can ask questions and request follow-ups. By streamlining tasks and reducing manual inputs, this agent could potentially save consultants many hours, allowing them to spend more time with clients. Boosting productivity with Microsoft 365 Copilot Microsoft is continuing to supercharge productivity with new capabilities in Microsoft 365 Copilot designed to help simplify the workday. Copilot Actions, now in private preview, enable anyone to automate everyday tasks with simple, fill-in-the-blank prompts, whether it’s getting a daily summary of meeting actions in Microsoft Teams, compiling weekly reports or getting an email upon return from vacation that summarizes missed meetings, chats and emails. Anyone can easily set up Actions right in their Microsoft 365 app, allowing users to focus on more impactful work, save time and boost productivity. New agents in Microsoft 365 are designed to help scale individual impact and transform business process. At Ignite we will introduce: Agents in SharePoint: These natural language AI assistants are grounded on relevant SharePoint sites, files and folders to make it easy to find answers from that content, and to make quicker decisions as a result. Now generally available, every SharePoint site will include an agent tailored to its content. Users can also create customized agents scoped to select SharePoint files, folders or sites with as little as one click. Interpreter: This agent in Teams helps users overcome language barriers by enabling real-time, speech-to-speech interpretation in meetings. Available in public preview in early 2025, meeting participants will also have the option to have the agent simulate their personal voice. The Employee Self-Service Agent: An agent available in private preview in Business Chat expedites answers for the most common policy-related questions and simplifies action-taking on key HR and IT-related tasks — like helping employees understand their benefits or request a new laptop. It can be customized in Copilot Studio to meet an organization’s unique needs. Other agents in public preview take real-time meeting notes in Teams and automate project management from start to finish in Planner. Copilot + AI Stack The Copilot stack empowers users to build more ambitious products by leveraging advanced technology at each layer of the stack. To create a unified experience where customers can design, customize and manage AI applications and agents, we are introducing Azure AI Foundry, which gives customers access to all existing Azure AI services and tooling, plus new capabilities like: Azure AI Foundry SDK, now available in preview, provides a unified toolchain for designing, customizing and managing AI apps and agents with enterprise-grade control and customization. With tools that help organizations responsibly scale their applications, Foundry also provides 25 prebuilt app templates and a simplified coding experience they can access from familiar tools like GitHub, Visual Studio and Copilot Studio. Azure AI Foundry portal (formerly Azure AI Studio), now available in preview, is a comprehensive visual user interface to help developers discover AI models, services and tools. With a new management center experience that brings essential subscription information into a single dashboard, the portal also helps IT admins, operations and compliance teams manage AI applications at scale. Azure AI Agent Service, coming soon to preview, will enable professional developers to orchestrate, deploy and scale enterprise-ready agents to automate business processes. We also continue to back up our Trustworthy AI commitments with new tools. Today we’re announcing AI reports and risk and safety evaluations for images to help organizations ensure AI applications are safe and compliant. AI reports will help organizations improve observability, collaboration and governance for AI apps and fine-tuned models, while evaluations for image content will help customers assess the frequency and severity of harmful content in their app’s AI-generated outputs. Copilot+ devices As organizations move more workloads to the cloud to enhance security and flexibility, Microsoft is expanding its Cloud PC solution by introducing the first in a new class of devices purpose-built to connect securely to Windows 365 in seconds. Windows 365 Link is the simple, secure, purpose-built device for Windows 365. It is in preview now and will become generally available for purchase starting in April 2025 in select markets with an MSRP of $349, allowing users to work securely in a familiar Windows desktop in the Microsoft Cloud with responsive, high-fidelity experiences. Windows 365 Link is secure by design. The device has no local data, no local apps and admin-less users so corporate data stays protected within the Microsoft Cloud. Other new capabilities for Copilot+ PCs for commercial customers include harnessing the power of inbuilt native processing units (NPUs) to deliver local AI. With improved Windows Search, and the new Recall experience (preview), finding what you need on your PC is easier than ever by just describing what you are looking for. These features are releasing first to our Windows Insider community on Copilot+ PCs before rolling out more broadly to our customers. BlackRock momentum Four years ago, BlackRock, one of the world’s pre-eminent asset management firms, formed a strategic alliance with Microsoft to move its Aladdin platform to Microsoft Azure. With this foundation on Azure, BlackRock rolled out generative AI tools for global clients with Aladdin Copilot. Through generative AI, Aladdin Copilot serves to strengthen the connective tissue across the platform, leveraging Microsoft technology to help users receive answers instantly to unlock new efficiencies and discover important business insights even faster. Aladdin Copilot makes BlackRock’s Aladdin platform even more intelligent and responsive. That results in enhanced productivity, enables scale and keeps users more informed. BlackRock’s move to Azure and launch of Aladdin Copilot are just two of the many ongoing milestones in a long-term partnership that also includes an enterprise-wide deal for 24,000 seats of Microsoft 365 Copilot. Today, about 60% of BlackRock’s Copilot user population is leveraging Copilot on a weekly basis. Additionally, BlackRock also recently made the choice to move its on-prem CRM solution to the cloud with Dynamics 365, citing its native integration with Teams and Outlook as one of its primary decision-making factors. Strength in security We know that the threat landscape is rapidly evolving, and it’s imperative that we stay ahead of bad actors. At Microsoft we believe that security is a team sport, and we are stronger when we partner as a security community to share information, collaborate and stop bad actors. In that spirit, and as part of our Secure Future Initiative (SFI), at Ignite we are announcing the largest public security research event in history: the Zero Day Quest. This event, which focuses on AI and cloud security, will offer the largest award pool in the industry at $4 million, in addition to our existing $16 million annual bounty program. This competition aims to attract the world’s best security minds to tackle high-impact scenarios critical to our customers’ security, with award multipliers, starting today. As the threat landscape has changed, we have seen rapid evolution in the way attackers exploit weaknesses within systems — particularly by navigating graph relationships between identities, files and devices to uncover attack paths. Attackers thinking in graphs cause wider damage from the first point of intrusion. Traditional security products, with limited visibility into these graph relationships, are often better suited to protect specific devices or mediums — like laptops or inboxes — rather than the full scope of potential attack surface. Today’s Microsoft Security Exposure Management launch is a pivotal step in transforming cybersecurity with savvy data and AI-based strategies. The power of incorporating Microsoft graph data, in context with data from customers’ other third-party security tools, creates a powerful single pane of glass to visualize attack paths before threat actors do. With computing power and cloud-scale performance to distill powerful real-time mapping of assets and evolving risks, Exposure Management assists security teams in preventing intrusions and provides IT, operations and risk leaders with real-time data to support cyber risk decision-making. This is only a small section of the many exciting features and updates we will be announcing at Ignite. As a reminder, you can view keynote sessions from Microsoft executives including Satya Nadella, Rajesh Jha, Scott Guthrie, Charlie Bell and Vasu Jakkal, live or on-demand. Plus, you can get more on all these announcements by exploring the Book of News, the official compendium of all today’s news. The post Ignite 2024: Why nearly 70% of the Fortune 500 now use Microsoft 365 Copilot appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. View the full article

As fans of books, especially in their physical format, it is our great pleasure to launch 8080 Books, an imprint of Microsoft. Our first title, No Prize for Pessimism, is authored by Sam Schillace, deputy chief technology officer at Microsoft, and is available today. Our second title, Platform Mindset, by Marcus Fontoura, will be available later this year. Computing has become an essential ingredient to almost every endeavor on our planet, and, as students of both Microsoft and technology, our goal with 8080 Books is to publish original research, ideas and insights at the intersection of science, technology and business, and, in doing so, to help advance discourse on this important landscape. The name of our imprint takes its inspiration from the 8080 microprocessor — a foundation for the company’s earliest software breakthroughs. Not coincidentally, 8080 is also the last four digits of Microsoft’s corporate headquarters phone number.  With a combined tenure of, well, let’s just say a long time, we’re both acutely aware of the rich well of talent at Microsoft from which we can draw upon and publish under the 8080 Books imprint over time. However, our intention is that we will seek to use this not just as a platform for Microsoft authors but also to showcase minds and ideas from outside of the company. While we are not currently accepting unsolicited manuscripts, our website does provide more details about our plans, such as evaluating out of print titles that we feel remain relevant to today’s leaders, and why we feel the time is right to launch this imprint. We hope you enjoy our launch title, which is available here, and we look forward to hearing your feedback, questions and ideas as we embark on this new adventure. For anyone in the Puget Sound area, we invite you to Schillace’s first reading and signing at Brick & Mortar Books, on Wednesday, Dec. 11 in Redmond, Washington. Check here for details. Space is limited. The post 8080 Books, an imprint of Microsoft, launches, offering thought leadership titles spanning technology, business and society appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. View the full article

Every day, NASA’s satellites orbit Earth, capturing a wealth of information that helps us understand our planet. From monitoring wildfires to tracking climate change, this vast trove of Earth Science data has the potential to drive scientific discoveries, inform policy decisions and support industries like agriculture, urban planning and disaster response. But navigating the over 100 petabytes of collected data can be challenging, which is why NASA has collaborated with Microsoft to explore the use of a custom copilot using Azure OpenAI Service to develop NASA’s Earth Copilot, which could transform how people interact with Earth’s data. Geospatial data is complex, and often requires some level of technical expertise to navigate it. As a result, this data tends to be accessible only to a limited number of researchers and scientists. As NASA collects more data from new satellites, these complexities only grow and may further limit the potential pool of people able to draw insights and develop applications that could benefit society. Recognizing this challenge, NASA embarked on a mission to make its data more accessible and user-friendly. Through NASA’s Office of the Chief Science Data Officer, the agency seeks to democratize data access, breaking down technical barriers to empower a diverse range of audiences, from scientists and educators to policymakers and the general public. YouTube Video Click here to load media The challenge: Navigating the complexity of data NASA’s Earth Science Data Systems Program is responsible for collecting an incredible variety of data from spaceborne sensors and instruments. This data spans everything from atmospheric conditions to land cover changes, ocean temperatures and more. However, the sheer scale and complexity of this information can be overwhelming. For many, finding and extracting insights requires navigating technical interfaces, understanding data formats and mastering the intricacies of geospatial analysis — specialized skills that very few non-technical users possess. AI could streamline this process, reducing time to gain insights from Earth’s data to a matter of seconds. This issue isn’t just a matter of convenience; it has real-world implications. For example, scientists who need to analyze historical data on hurricanes to improve predictive models, or policymakers who want to study deforestation patterns to implement environmental regulations, may find themselves unable to easily access the data they need. This inaccessibility affects a broad array of sectors, including agriculture, urban planning and disaster response, where timely insights from spaceborne data could make a significant difference. Moreover, as new satellites with new instruments continue to launch and collect more data, NASA is constantly faced with the challenge of building new tools to manage and make sense of this growing repository. The agency explored emerging technologies that could not only streamline data discovery but also broaden accessibility, enabling more people to engage with the data and uncover new insights. The solution: AI-powered data access through Microsoft Azure To address these challenges, NASA IMPACT worked with Microsoft to develop an AI-driven customer copilot, called Earth Copilot, which could simplify data access and encourage a wider range of users to interact with its Earth Science data. Together, they built the proof of concept AI model that leverages Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform and advanced AI capabilities to transform how users can search, discover and analyze NASA’s geospatial data. The key to NASA’s Earth Copilot lies in the integration of cloud-based technologies like Azure OpenAI Service, which provides access to powerful AI models and natural language processing capabilities that enable developers to integrate intelligent, conversational AI into their applications. This approach allows NASA to integrate AI into its existing data analysis platform — VEDA. These technologies together make it easier for users to search, discover and analyze Earth Science data By combining these technologies, Earth Copilot enables users to interact with NASA’s data repository through plain language queries. Instead, they can simply ask questions such as “What was the impact of Hurricane Ian in Sanibel Island?” or “How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect air quality in the US?” AI will then retrieve relevant datasets, making the process seamless and intuitive. NASA’s EARTHDATA VEDA Dashboard. “Azure’s robust suite of services, including machine learning, data analytics and scalable cloud infrastructure, powers this AI prototype,” said Juan Carlos López, former NASA engineer and current Azure Specialist at Microsoft. “We’ve designed the system to handle complex queries and large datasets efficiently, ensuring that users can quickly find the information they need without getting bogged down by technical complexities. Our goal was to create a seamless, scalable solution that could evolve as NASA’s data, tools and applications grow.” Democratizing data for open science The collaboration between NASA IMPACT and Microsoft has resulted in a solution that democratizes access to spaceborne data, enabling a broader range of users to engage with NASA’s science data. This has significant benefits for the scientific community, as researchers can now spend less time on data retrieval and more on analysis and discovery. For example, climate scientists can quickly access historical data to study trends, while agricultural experts can gain insights into soil moisture levels to improve crop management. Educators and teachers can use real-world examples to engage students in Earth Science, fostering curiosity and encouraging the next generation of scientists and engineers. Policymakers can leverage the data to make informed decisions on critical issues like climate change, urban development and disaster preparedness, ensuring they have the most accurate information at their fingertips. “The vision behind this collaboration was to leverage AI and cloud technologies to bring Earth’s insights to communities that have been underserved, where access to data can lead to tangible improvements,” said Minh Nguyen, Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft. “By enabling users to interact with the data through simple, plain language queries, we’re helping to democratize access to spaceborne information.” The development of this AI prototype aligns with NASA’s Open Science initiative, which aims to make scientific research more transparent, inclusive and collaborative. By removing barriers to data discovery, NASA and Microsoft are setting the stage for a new era of discovery, where insights are not confined to a select few but can be explored and expanded by anyone curious about the world. Looking ahead: Bridging the gap between data and insights At the moment, the NASA Earth Copilot is available to NASA scientists and researchers to explore and test its capabilities. Any responsible deployment of AI technologies requires rigorous assessments to ensure the data and outputs cannot be misused. After a period of internal evaluations and testing, the NASA IMPACT team will explore the integration of this capability into the VEDA platform. This collaboration exemplifies how technology can empower people, drive innovation and create positive change. Solutions like this will be essential in ensuring the benefits of data are shared widely, enabling more people to engage with, analyze and act upon information that shapes our world. The post From questions to discoveries: NASA’s new Earth Copilot brings Microsoft AI capabilities to democratize access to complex data appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. View the full article

Across every industry, AI is creating a fundamental shift in what’s possible, enabling new use cases and driving business outcomes. While organizations around the world recognize the value and potential of AI, for AI to be truly effective it must be tailored to specific industry needs. Today, we’re announcing adapted AI models, expanding our industry capabilities and enabling organizations to address their unique needs more accurately and effectively. In collaboration with industry partner experts like Bayer, Cerence, Rockwell Automation, Saifr, Siemens Digital Industries Software, Sight Machine and more, we’re making these fine-tuned models, pre-trained using industry-specific data, available to address customers’ top use cases. Underpinning these adapted AI models is the Microsoft Cloud, our platform for industry innovation. By integrating the Microsoft Cloud with our industry-specific capabilities and a robust ecosystem of partners, we provide a secure approach to advancing innovation across industries. This collaboration allows us to create extensive scenarios for customers globally, with embedded AI capabilities — from industry data solutions in Microsoft Fabric to AI agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio to AI models in Azure AI Studio — that enable industries to realize their full potential. Introducing adapted AI models for industry We’re pleased to introduce these new partner-enabled models from leading organizations that are leveraging the power of Microsoft’s Phi family of small language models (SLMs). These models will be available through the Azure AI model catalog, where customers can access a wide range of AI models to build custom AI solutions in Azure AI Studio, or directly from our partners. The models available in the Azure AI model catalog can also be used to configure agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio, a platform that allows customers to create, customize and deploy AI-powered agents, which can be applied to an industry’s top use cases to address its most pressing needs. Bayer, a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of healthcare and agriculture, will make E.L.Y. Crop Protection available in the Azure AI model catalog. A specialized SLM, it is designed to enhance crop protection sustainable use, application, compliance and knowledge within the agriculture sector. Built on Bayer’s agricultural intelligence, and trained on thousands of real-world questions on Bayer crop protection labels, the model provides ag entities, their partners and developers a valuable tool to tailor solutions for specific food and agricultural needs. The model stands out due to its commitment to responsible AI standards, scalability to farm operations of all types and sizes and customization capabilities that allow organizations to adapt the model to regional and crop-specific requirements. Cerence, which creates intuitive, seamless and AI-powered user experiences for the world’s leading automakers, is enhancing its in-vehicle digital assistant technology with fine-tuned SLMs within the vehicle’s hardware. CaLLM Edge, an automotive-specific, embedded SLM, will be available in the Azure AI model catalog. It can be used for in-car controls, such as adjusting air conditioning systems, and scenarios that involve limited or no cloud connectivity, enabling drivers to access the rich, responsive experiences they’ve come to expect from cloud-based large language models (LLMs), no matter where they are. Rockwell Automation, a global leader in industrial automation and digital transformation, will provide industrial AI expertise via the Azure AI model catalog. The FT Optix Food & Beverage model brings the benefits of industry-specific capabilities to frontline workers in manufacturing, supporting asset troubleshooting in the food and beverage domain. The model provides timely recommendations, explanations and knowledge about specific manufacturing processes, machines and inputs to factory floor workers and engineers. Saifr, a RegTech within Fidelity Investments’ innovation incubator, Fidelity Labs, will introduce four new models in the Azure AI model catalog, empowering financial institutions to better manage regulatory compliance of broker-dealer communications and investment adviser advertising. The models can highlight potential regulatory compliance risks in text (Retail Marketing Compliance model) and images (Image Detection model); explain why something was flagged (Risk Interpretation model); and suggest alternative language that might be more compliant (Language Suggestion model). Together, these models can enhance regulatory compliance by acting as an extra set of review eyes and boost efficiency by speeding up review turnarounds and time to market. Siemens Digital Industries Software, which helps organizations of all sizes digitally transform using software, hardware and services from the Siemens Xcelerator business platform, is introducing a new copilot for NX X software, which leverages an adapted AI model that enables users to ask natural language questions, access detailed technical insights and streamline complex design tasks for faster and smarter product development. The copilot will provide CAD designers with AI-driven recommendations and best practices to optimize the design process within the NX X experience, helping engineers implement best practices faster to ensure expected quality from design to production. The NX X copilot will be available in the Azure Marketplace and other channels. Sight Machine, a leader in data-driven manufacturing and industrial AI, will release Factory Namespace Manager to the Azure AI model catalog. The model analyzes existing factory data, learns the patterns and rules behind the naming conventions and then automatically translates these data field names into standardized corporate formats. This translation makes the universe of plant data in the manufacturing enterprise AI-ready, enabling manufacturers to optimize production and energy use in plants, balance production with supply chain logistics and demand and integrate factory data with enterprise data systems for end-to-end optimization. The bottling company Swire Coca-Cola USA plans to use Factory Namespace Manager to efficiently map its extensive PLC and plant floor data into its corporate data namespace. We also encourage innovation in the open-source ecosystem and are offering five open-source Hugging Face models that are fine-tuned for summarization and sentiment analysis of financial data. Partner-enabled adapted AI models for industry will be available through the Azure AI model catalog or directly from partners. Additionally, last month we announced new healthcare AI models in Azure AI Studio. These state-of-the-art multimodal medical imaging foundation models, created in partnership with organizations like Providence and Paige.ai, empower healthcare organizations to integrate and analyze a variety of data types, leveraging intelligence in modalities other than text in specialties like ophthalmology, pathology, radiology and cardiology. Accelerating transformation with industry agents Microsoft also offers AI agents that are purpose-built for industry scenarios. Available in Copilot Studio, these agents can be configured to support organizations’ industry-specific needs. For example, retailers can use the Store Operations Agent to support retail store associates and the Personalized Shopping Agent to enhance customers’ shopping experiences. Manufacturers can use the Factory Operations Agent to enhance production efficiency and reduce downtime by enabling engineers and frontline workers to quickly identify and troubleshoot issues. All this AI innovation wouldn’t be possible without a solid data estate, because AI is only as good as the data it’s built upon. By ensuring data is accurate, accessible and well integrated, organizations can unlock deeper insights and drive more effective decision-making with AI. Microsoft Fabric, a data platform built for the era of AI, helps unify disparate data sources and prepares data for advanced analytics and AI modeling. It offers industry data solutions that address each organization’s unique needs and allows them to discover, deploy and do more with AI. At the forefront of addressing industry needs securely At the core of our AI strategy is a commitment to trustworthy AI. This commitment encompasses safety, security and privacy, ensuring that AI solutions are built with the highest standards of integrity and responsibility. Trustworthy AI is foundational to everything we do, from how we work with customers to the capabilities we build into our products. At Microsoft, we combine industry AI experience, insights and capabilities with a deep understanding of customer challenges and objectives. Along with a trusted ecosystem of experienced partners, we unlock the full potential of AI for each industry and business. Our goal is not just to offer or implement AI tools but to help customers succeed by embedding AI into the very core of what each industry does. AI transformation is here, and Microsoft is at the forefront of this revolution. As we continue to navigate this new era of innovation, it’s clear that AI will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of business across all industries and that Microsoft will continue to lead the way. To learn more about how customers in a variety of industries are transforming with AI, visit How real-world businesses are transforming with AI. The post Microsoft introduces new adapted AI models for industry appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. View the full article

October was an exciting month of amazing showcases and announcements for applications leveraging the power of the NPU on the new Copilot+ PCs to deploy their AI innovations on Windows. Windows’ diverse hardware ecosystem empowers developers with a range of options at their fingertips to develop and deploy AI. From client to web apps, DirectML, foundational to Windows Copilot Runtime, aims to uniquely simplify how developers can scale their AI innovations across Windows. Through a single, cross-hardware DirectX API, DirectML works across different hardware architectures, local device accelerators and machine learning frameworks, supporting an open platform for AI on Windows. Let’s see some of the amazing AI innovations leveraging DirectML on Copilot+ PC NPUs. Adobe® Premiere® Pro is the first Adobe app to leverage NPU on Copilot+ PCs, powered by Intel® Core™ Ultra and DirectML Adobe is at the forefront of machine learning (ML) for creatives by providing a variety of hardware-accelerated features throughout their product suite. Now, Adobe Premiere Pro has enabled the machine learning efficiency of the latest Intel Core Ultra processors, opening up even more platform possibilities for Adobe customers. Through collaboration with Intel and Microsoft, Adobe enabled Audio Category Tagger to optionally utilize Intel’s latest generation NPU using DirectML as a beta capability in Premiere Pro. This feature automatically tags audio, classifying clips as sound effects, music, dialog or ambience, which makes it easy for creatives to just get started editing their audio files right away. Each clip is marked with an Essential Sound Badge, and clicking on that badge opens the Essential Sound Panel to give access to parameters needed for that sound category. [caption id="attachment_57164" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Audio Category Tagger labeling A. Music B. SFX C. Dialogue D. Ambience[/caption] We are excited to partner with an AI innovator like Adobe to deliver on the promise of DirectML. Adobe’s extensive portfolio of applications and AI-driven scenarios offers a unique proving ground for DirectML and we’ll continue our partnership across GPU- and NPU-accelerated applications. Capture One to bring NPU-enhanced Match Look and AI Crop features to Copilot+ PCs Capture One is an imaging software commercial studio photographers use in the fashion and e-commerce industries. It helps professionals quickly edit many images while maintaining complete control over the creative expression and artistry behind every shot. At Snapdragon Summit, Capture One showcased two advanced AI-powered features on Copilot+ PCs powered by the Qualcomm NPU. [caption id="attachment_57165" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] The Match Look feature being applied to an image in Capture One[/caption] Match Look is a brand new tool that lets you instantly match the style or edits of a reference image — whether from a previous project, a film still or a mood board. It uses AI selection to dynamically adjust multiple editing sliders, giving you a strong starting point for editing and color grading. [caption id="attachment_57167" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] The AI Crop feature in use in Capture One[/caption] AI Crop allows you to make instant and consistent crops. Avoid errors and reduce manual effort. Set a crop reference on a single photo and automatically create consistent crops for all other images, even while shooting. Capture One continues to utilize AI innovation in a way that maintains the creative artistry their photographers required and DirectML is excited to partner with them to bring their vision to life. Affinity Photo 2 accelerates Object and Subject Selection capabilities with NPU Affinity Photo 2 is a popular image-editing app that is used by millions of digital creators worldwide. Human creativity is the heart of Affinity products, so it’s no surprise that the first AI enhanced tools they announced are focused on optimizing artist workflows — eliminating tedious tasks and friction between creator and canvas. Affinity Photo 2 will scale these features to their creator base by using DirectML on Copilot+ PCs. Like stated during the Snapdragon Summit, they have already achieved the optimized workflow of these AI experiences with DirectML, powered by the Qualcomm® Hexagon NPU in the Snapdragon® X Elite Compute Platform. Object Selection is a newly announced feature that eliminates the grunt work of manually creating layer masks, by using ML to quickly isolate and segment objects within an image. Automating this process gives artists a shortcut to the ‘real’ creative work — applying visual adjustments and effects to targeted areas within an image. Using the Qualcomm® Hexagon NPU in the Snapdragon® X Elite Compute Platform, Object Selection tasks will increase overall efficiency and productivity for creators. [caption id="attachment_57168" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Object Selection being applied within Affinity Photo 2[/caption] Affinity is at the forefront of identifying ML innovations that deliver to their promise of incredible speed, power and precision image editing software and DirectML looks forward to scaling this promise across Windows’ diverse hardware ecosystem. What’s next? The DirectML team is always excited to see the creative and amazing ways developers are innovating with AI to enhance the experience for their customers across Windows. Stay tuned for more DirectML features coming soon, as we continue to invest in features to support an open platform for AI on Windows! To learn more about DirectML and to get started today, visit aka.ms/directml or check us out at various sessions at Microsoft Ignite.View the full article

October was an exciting month of amazing showcases and announcements for applications leveraging the power of the NPU on the new Copilot+ PCs to deploy their AI innovations on Windows. Windows’ diverse hardware ecosystem empowers developers with a range of options at their fingertips to develop and deploy AI. From client to web apps, DirectML, foundational to Windows Copilot Runtime, aims to uniquely simplify how developers can scale their AI innovations across Windows. Through a single, cross-hardware DirectX API, DirectML works across different hardware architectures, local device accelerators and machine learning frameworks, supporting an open platform for AI on Windows. Let’s see some of the amazing AI innovations leveraging DirectML on Copilot+ PC NPUs. Adobe® Premiere® Pro is the first Adobe app to leverage NPU on Copilot+ PCs, powered by Intel® Core™ Ultra and DirectML Adobe is at the forefront of machine learning (ML) for creatives by providing a variety of hardware-accelerated features throughout their product suite. Now, Adobe Premiere Pro has enabled the machine learning efficiency of the latest Intel Core Ultra processors, opening up even more platform possibilities for Adobe customers. Through collaboration with Intel and Microsoft, Adobe enabled Audio Category Tagger to optionally utilize Intel’s latest generation NPU using DirectML as a beta capability in Premiere Pro. This feature automatically tags audio, classifying clips as sound effects, music, dialog or ambience, which makes it easy for creatives to just get started editing their audio files right away. Each clip is marked with an Essential Sound Badge, and clicking on that badge opens the Essential Sound Panel to give access to parameters needed for that sound category. [caption id="attachment_57164" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Audio Category Tagger labeling A. Music B. SFX C. Dialogue D. Ambience[/caption] We are excited to partner with an AI innovator like Adobe to deliver on the promise of DirectML. Adobe’s extensive portfolio of applications and AI-driven scenarios offers a unique proving ground for DirectML and we’ll continue our partnership across GPU- and NPU-accelerated applications. Capture One to bring NPU-enhanced Match Look and AI Crop features to Copilot+ PCs Capture One is an imaging software commercial studio photographers use in the fashion and e-commerce industries. It helps professionals quickly edit many images while maintaining complete control over the creative expression and artistry behind every shot. At Snapdragon Summit, Capture One showcased two advanced AI-powered features on Copilot+ PCs powered by the Qualcomm NPU. [caption id="attachment_57165" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] The Match Look feature being applied to an image in Capture One[/caption] Match Look is a brand new tool that lets you instantly match the style or edits of a reference image — whether from a previous project, a film still or a mood board. It uses AI selection to dynamically adjust multiple editing sliders, giving you a strong starting point for editing and color grading. [caption id="attachment_57167" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] The AI Crop feature in use in Capture One[/caption] AI Crop allows you to make instant and consistent crops. Avoid errors and reduce manual effort. Set a crop reference on a single photo and automatically create consistent crops for all other images, even while shooting. Capture One continues to utilize AI innovation in a way that maintains the creative artistry their photographers required and DirectML is excited to partner with them to bring their vision to life. Affinity Photo 2 accelerates Object and Subject Selection capabilities with NPU Affinity Photo 2 is a popular image-editing app that is used by millions of digital creators worldwide. Human creativity is the heart of Affinity products, so it’s no surprise that the first AI enhanced tools they announced are focused on optimizing artist workflows — eliminating tedious tasks and friction between creator and canvas. Affinity Photo 2 will scale these features to their creator base by using DirectML on Copilot+ PCs. Like stated during the Snapdragon Summit, they have already achieved the optimized workflow of these AI experiences with DirectML, powered by the Qualcomm® Hexagon NPU in the Snapdragon® X Elite Compute Platform. Object Selection is a newly announced feature that eliminates the grunt work of manually creating layer masks, by using ML to quickly isolate and segment objects within an image. Automating this process gives artists a shortcut to the ‘real’ creative work — applying visual adjustments and effects to targeted areas within an image. Using the Qualcomm® Hexagon NPU in the Snapdragon® X Elite Compute Platform, Object Selection tasks will increase overall efficiency and productivity for creators. [caption id="attachment_57168" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Object Selection being applied within Affinity Photo 2[/caption] Affinity is at the forefront of identifying ML innovations that deliver to their promise of incredible speed, power and precision image editing software and DirectML looks forward to scaling this promise across Windows’ diverse hardware ecosystem. What’s next? The DirectML team is always excited to see the creative and amazing ways developers are innovating with AI to enhance the experience for their customers across Windows. Stay tuned for more DirectML features coming soon, as we continue to invest in features to support an open platform for AI on Windows! To learn more about DirectML and to get started today, visit aka.ms/directml or check us out at various sessions at Microsoft Ignite.View the full article