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

Updated November 26, 2024: The post contains 42 new customer stories, which appear in italics at the beginning of each section of customer lists. The post will be updated regularly with new stories. One of the highlights of my career has always been connecting with customers and partners across industries to learn how they are using technology to drive their businesses forward. In the past 30 years, we’ve seen four major platform shifts, from client server to internet and the web to mobile and cloud to now — the next major platform shift to AI. As today’s platform shift to AI continues to gain momentum, Microsoft is working to understand just how organizations can drive lasting business value. We recently commissioned a study with IDC, The Business Opportunity of AI, to uncover new insights around business value and help guide organizations on their journey of AI transformation. The study found that for every $1 organizations invest in generative AI, they’re realizing an average of $3.70 in return — and uncovered insights about the future potential of AI to reshape business processes and drive change across industries. Today, more than 85% of the Fortune 500 are using Microsoft AI solutions to shape their future. In working with organizations large and small, across every industry and geography, we’ve seen that most transformation initiatives are designed to achieve one of four business outcomes: Enriching employee experiences: Using AI to streamline or automate repetitive, mundane tasks can allow your employees to dive into more complex, creative and ultimately more valuable work. Reinventing customer engagement: AI can create more personalized, tailored customer experiences, delighting your target audiences while lightening the load for employees. Reshaping business processes: Virtually any business process can be reimagined with AI, from marketing to supply chain operations to finance, and AI is even allowing organizations to go beyond process optimization and discover exciting new growth opportunities. Bending the curve on innovation: AI is revolutionizing innovation by speeding up creative processes and product development, reducing the time to market and allowing companies to differentiate in an often crowded field. In this blog, we’ve collected more than 200 of our favorite real-life examples of how organizations are embracing Microsoft’s proven AI capabilities to drive impact and shape today’s platform shift to AI. Today, we’ve added new stories of customers using our AI capabilities at the beginning of each section. We’ll regularly update this story with more. We hope you find an example or two that can inspire your own transformation journey. Enriching employee experiences Generative AI is truly transforming employee productivity and wellbeing. Our customers tell us that by automating repetitive, mundane tasks, employees are freed up to dive into more complex and creative work. This shift not only makes the work environment more stimulating but also boosts job satisfaction. It sparks innovation, provides actionable insights for better decision-making and supports personalized training and development opportunities, all contributing to a better work-life balance. Customers around the world have reported significant improvements in employee productivity with these AI solutions: New Stories: Accenture and Avanade launched a Copilot business transformation practice, supported by Microsoft, and co-invested in new capabilities, solutions and training to help organizations securely and responsibly reinvent their business functions with generative and agentic AI and Copilot technologies. Bank of Queensland Group is using Microsoft 365 Copilot, with 70% of users saving two-and-a-half to five hours per week. Canadian Tire Corporation moved its data from on-premises systems to Microsoft Azure and built digital assistants using Azure OpenAI Service, and now more than 3,000 corporate employees save 30 to 60 minutes a day using its ChatCTC digital assistant. Cathay leverages Microsoft 365 Copilot to streamline meetings and manage information more effectively, reducing time-consuming tasks and fostering creativity. Clifford Chance adopted Microsoft 365 Copilot to streamline tasks, automate processes and enhance collaboration. Lawyers use it to draft and manage emails and ensure compliance, allowing them to focus on complex legal work and improve productivity. DLA Piper chose Microsoft 365 Copilot to boost productivity for operational and administrative teams, saving up to 36 hours weekly on content generation and data analysis. Eaton adopted Microsoft 365 Copilot to automate the creation of 1,000 standard operating procedures to streamline customer service operations and improve data access across teams, cutting creation time from one hour to 10 minutes. Harvey uses Azure OpenAI to simplify routine tasks across hundreds of law firms and legal teams, with one corporate lawyer saying he saved 10 hours of work per week. KMS Lighthouse enhanced its knowledge management platform with Microsoft Teams and Dynamics 365 integration, enabling users to leverage KMS Lighthouse without having to switch applications. And with Azure OpenAI Service, companies can create relevant content more quickly within the KMS Lighthouse application. Localiza&Co, a leader in the mobility industry in Latin America, implemented Microsoft 365 Copilot to automate processes and improve efficiency, and reduced 8.3 working hours per employee per month. Medigold Health uses Azure OpenAI Service to significantly reduce the time that clinicians spend writing reports during their consultation and administrative time. PIMCO built ChatGWM with Azure AI Studio, a comprehensive platform that provides the ability to ask questions, receive responses and verify answers all in one place, so teams can spend more time engaging clients and having deeper conversations. SACE, an Italian finance and insurance firm, is using Microsoft 365 Copilot and Viva to boost productivity and unlock employee potential while enhancing overall well-being — and productivity improvement data from the first nine months of implementation shows a 23% increase. ————————————————————————————————————————– Access Holdings Plc adopted Microsoft 365 Copilot, integrating generative AI into daily tools and, as a result, writing code now takes two hours instead of eight, chatbots launch in 10 days instead of three months and presentations are prepared in 45 minutes instead of six hours. Adobe is connecting Adobe Experience Cloud workflows and insights with Microsoft 365 Copilot to deliver generative-AI powered capabilities that enable marketers to increase collaboration, efficiency and creativity. Amadeus empowers its teams to focus their time and skills on value-added tasks with Microsoft 365 Copilot, by summarizing email threads, chat or transcripts and summing up information from diverse sources. ANZ has invested in Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot and Copilot in Microsoft Edge to boost productivity and innovation across its workforce. Asahi Europe & International (AEI) has adopted Microsoft 365 Copilot, saving employees potentially 15% of time previously spent on administrative tasks. AXA developed AXA Secure GPT, a platform powered by Azure OpenAI Service that empowers employees to leverage the power of generative AI while targeting the highest level of data safety and responsible use of the tool. Axon Enterprise developed a new AI tool with Azure OpenAI Service called Draft One, resulting in an 82% decrease in time spent on reports, which freed up officers to engage more with their community. Aztec Group enhanced productivity and client experience by trialing Microsoft 365 Copilot with 300 staff, uncovering “unlimited” use cases and plans for a wider rollout. Bader Sultan & Bros. Co. W.L.L implemented Microsoft 365 Copilot to enhance employee productivity and speed up customer response times. Bancolombia is using GitHub Copilot to empower its technical team, achieving a 30% increase in code generation, boosting automated application changes to an average of 18,000 per year, with a rate of 42 productive daily deployments. BaptistCare Community Services is using Microsoft 365 Copilot to save employees time as they navigate workforce shortage challenges, allowing them to focus more on the people they care for. Barnsley Council was recognized as “Double Council of the Year in 2023” for its implementation of Microsoft 365 Copilot, which modernized operations and reduced administrative tasks, leading to improved job satisfaction and increased creativity. BlackRock purchased more than 24,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses spanning all employees, functions and locations, helping improve the Copilot experience, including codeveloping new features and functions. British Heart Foundation is testing Microsoft 365 Copilot and in its initial test, users estimate that Microsoft 365 Copilot could save them up to 30 minutes per day. Buckinghamshire Council deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot with staff reporting productivity improvements, quality enhancements and time savings, which are enabling the different teams to do more with less. Campari Group adopted Microsoft 365 Copilot to help employees integrate it into their workflow, resulting in time savings of about two hours a week from the support of routine activities such as email management, meeting preparation, content creation and skill acquisition. Capita is using GitHub Copilot for productivity improvements as well as improvements in developer satisfaction, recruitment and retention. CDW used Microsoft 365 Copilot to improve work quality for 88% of users, enabling 77% to complete tasks faster and increasing productivity for 85% of users. Chi Mei Medical Center is lightening workloads for doctors, nurses and pharmacists with a generative AI assistant built on Azure OpenAI Service. E.ON is focused on Germany’s energy transition, leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot to manage the complex grid in real-time, increasing productivity and efficiency for its workforce. Enerijisa Uretim has adopted Microsoft 365 Copilot to streamline meeting summaries, reformat documents and compile reports, enabling employees to concentrate on more strategic and fulfilling activities instead of spending six hours in meetings. EPAM is deploying Microsoft 365 Copilot to consolidate information and generate content and documents. Farm Credit Canada implemented Microsoft 365 Copilot, which resulted in time savings on routine tasks for 78% of users, with 30% saving 30 to 60 minutes per week and 35% saving over an hour per week, allowing employees to focus on more value-added tasks. Finastra used Microsoft 365 Copilot to automate tasks, enhance content creation, improve analytics and personalize customer interactions, with employees citing a 20% to 50% time savings. Four Agency Worldwide increased employee productivity using Microsoft 365 Copilot to generate ideas for creative work and support administrative-heavy processes, data analysis and report generation, allowing staff to focus on outreach and less time doing paperwork. Goodwill of Orange County developed an AI-powered app using Azure AI capabilities to help more people, including those with developmental, intellectual and physical disabilities, work in unfilled e-commerce positions. Honeywell employees are saving 92 minutes per week — that’s 74 hours a year! Disclaimer: Statistics are from an internal Honeywell survey of 5,000 employees where 611 employees responded. Insight employees using Copilot are seeing four hours of productivity gained per week from data summarization and content creation. Joos uses Microsoft 365 Copilot to grow its brand with worldwide collaboration by streamlining meetings, optimizing presentations and improving communications. Kantar is harnessing the power of Microsoft 365 Copilot by reducing costly, time-consuming IT processes and boosting productivity for employees. KPMG Australia is using Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Azure AI Search and Microsoft Copilot 365 to perform advanced text analysis of dozens of client source documents to identify full or partial compliance, or noncompliance, in a fraction of the time required for manual assessments. LGT is launching Microsoft Copilot LGT to improve efficiency, showing users save an average of an hour a week even in the pilot phase. Lotte Hotels & Resorts has been creating a new work culture that allows employees to work more efficiently and focus on the nature of the work by adopting Microsoft Power Platform for automation. MAIRE is leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot to automate routine tasks, saving over 800 working hours per month, freeing up engineers and professionals for strategic activities while supporting MAIRE’s green energy transition by reducing their carbon footprint. McDonald’s China chose Microsoft Azure AI, GitHub Copilot and Azure AI Search to transform its operations, resulting in a significant increase in AI adoption, consumption and retention from 2,000 to 30,000 employee transactions monthly. McKnight Foundation adopted Microsoft 365 Copilot for all staff, saving time, increasing productivity and freeing space to focus on strategic priorities. Morula Health is using Microsoft 365 Copilot to enhance productivity, streamline medical writing tasks and ensure data security, ultimately improving efficiency and client satisfaction. Motor Oil Group is achieving remarkable efficiency gains by integrating Microsoft 365 Copilot into its workflows, with staff spending minutes on tasks that used to take weeks. Nagel-Group uses Azure OpenAI Service to help employees quickly access information which saves time, creates efficiency and transparency, and leads to higher-quality answers overall. National Australia Bank is leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot for daily productivity and data analysis and insights and Microsoft Copilot for Security to quickly analyze millions of security event logs and allow engineers to focus on more important areas. NFL Players Association integrated Azure AI Services and Azure App Service into their video review process, reducing review time by up to 73%, significantly increasing efficiency and enhancing player safety through consistent rule enforcement. O2 Czech Republic boosts productivity and streamlines meetings with Microsoft 365 Copilot, revolutionizing how information is shared and making automation a part of daily work. Onepoint developed a secure conversational agent based on Azure OpenAI, which delivers productivity gains of between 10% and 15% across all business lines. Orange Group has over 40 use cases with Azure OpenAI Service and GitHub Copilot across business functions to support employees in their day-to-day tasks, enabling them to concentrate on higher value-added activities. Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust implemented Microsoft 365 Copilot to improve staff report productivity by saving one to two hours a week, or simple formatting tasks down to a matter of seconds, enabling more resources to deliver frontline services. PA Consulting transformed its sales operations with Microsoft 365 Copilot, so its people can invest more time on the activities that have the biggest impact for clients and maximize the strategic value they provide. Petrobras used Azure OpenAI Service to create ChatPetrobras, which is streamlining workflows, reducing manual tasks and summarizing reports for its 110,000 employees. Petrochemical Industries Company automates work processes to save time with Microsoft 365 Copilot from weeks to days, hours to seconds. PKSHA Technology is optimizing their time on critical work by increasing efficiency in meeting preparations, data analytics and ideation with the help of Microsoft 365 Copilot. Providence has collaborated with Nuance and Microsoft to accelerate development and adoption of generative AI-powered applications, helping improve care quality and access and reduce physician’s administrative workloads. RTI International adopted Microsoft 365 Copilot to gain productivity wherever possible, allowing staff to focus on their areas of expertise, delivering even better science-backed solutions for clients. Sandvik Coromant is using Microsoft Copilot for Sales to drive efficiency and accuracy, shaving at least one minute off each transaction, allowing sellers and account managers to focus their expertise on responding to customers’ needs with analysis, creativity and adaptability. Sasfin Bank built a solution on Microsoft Azure that centralized 20,000 documents to analyze contract clauses and provide real-time snapshots, moving guesswork into data-driven decision-making. Scottish Water implemented Microsoft 365 Copilot, reducing mundane tasks to a minimum and thus freeing up time for employees to work on the more meaningful tasks. Shriners Children’s developed an AI platform allowing clinicians to easily and securely navigate patient data in a singular location, enhancing patient care and improving the efficiency of their healthcare services. Siemens is leveraging Azure OpenAI Service to improve efficiency, cut downtime and address labor shortages. Softchoice employees are experiencing firsthand how Microsoft 365 Copilot can transform daily workflows, realizing productivity gains of 97% reduction in time spent summarizing technical meetings and up to 70% less time spent on content creation. Syensqo utilized Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service to develop a custom AI chatbot in three months, which improved their internal data management, decision-making and overall efficiency. Teladoc Health uses Microsoft 365 Copilot to revolutionize its telehealth operations, automating routine tasks, boosting efficiency and increasing productivity. Telstra developed two cutting-edge generative AI tools based on Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service: 90% of employees are using the One Sentence Summary tool, which resulted in 20% less follow-up customer contact, and 84% of customer service agents are using the Ask Telstra solution. Topsoe achieved 85% AI adoption among office employees in seven months, significantly enhancing productivity and business processes. Torfaen County Borough Council utilized Microsoft 365 Copilot to streamline back-office processes, resulting in significant time savings and enhanced productivity for both business and children’s services teams, with further rollouts planned. Trace3 leveraged Microsoft Copilot to streamline and enhance processes across the business and with clients, such as reducing the time it takes HR recruiting managers to respond to applicants within a couple of days instead of several weeks. Unilever is reinventing their marketing process with Copilot, saving time on briefing tasks, automatically pulling in relevant market data, content and insights to accelerate campaign launches. Uniper SE implemented Microsoft 365 Copilot to reduce time spent on manual and repetitive tasks and help workers focus on more pressing work, such as developing enhanced solutions to speed up the energy transition. Unum Group built a custom AI application to search 1.3 terabytes of data with 95% accuracy using Azure OpenAI Service. Virgin Atlantic adopted Microsoft 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot and is seeing real business benefits, including productivity improvements, enabling new ways of working. Visier built a generative AI assistant that leverages Azure AI and Azure OpenAI Services to deliver workforce analytics and actionable insights for more than 50,000 customers. Virtual Dental Care developed an AI application Smart Scan that leverages Microsoft Azure to reduce paperwork for mobile dental clinics in schools by 75% and frees dentists to devote more time to patient care. Zakladni Skola As Hlavkova adopted Microsoft 365 Copilot and saw a 60% improvement in handling administrative documents, decreased lesson preparation from hours to a few minutes, increased inclusivity and enhanced communication with students and parents. Reinventing customer engagement We’ve seen great examples of how generative AI can automate content creation, ensuring there’s fresh and engaging materials ready to go. It personalizes customer experiences by crunching the numbers, boosting conversion rates. It makes operations smoother, helping teams launch campaigns faster. Plus, it drives innovation, crafting experiences that delight customers while lightening the load for staff. Embracing generative AI is key for organizations wanting to reinvent customer engagements, stay ahead of the game and drive both innovation and efficiency. New Stories: Air India leveraged Azure OpenAI Service to develop a virtual assistant that has handled nearly 4 million customer queries with full automation, significantly enhancing customer experience and avoiding millions of dollars in customer support costs. Cradle Fund, dedicated to nurturing startups in Malaysia, introduced an AI-driven chatbot to boost user interaction and increase public engagement. User engagement quadrupled while resolution time was reduced from two days to a few clicks. Cradle also decreased customer service costs by 35%, increased international interactions by 40% and increased daily average visits 10-fold. Doctolib, a leading eHealth company in France, leverages Microsoft technology to develop an AI-powered medical assistant, integrating both Azure OpenAI Service and Mistral Large on Azure. Docusign used Azure AI to develop its Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) platform, which supports millions of workflows, reducing contract processing times and enhancing customer satisfaction with advanced AI-powered analytics. Holland America Line developed a virtual agent using Microsoft Copilot Studio that acts as a digital concierge on their website to support new and existing customers and travel advisors, which has achieved a strong resolution rate and is currently handling thousands of conversations per week. Jato Dynamics used Azure OpenAI Service to automate content generation, helping dealerships save approximately 32 hours each month. Kenya Red Cross worked with Pathways Technologies to develop a mental health chatbot in Azure AI. LALIGA is delivering a seamless fan experience and AI insights with Azure Arc, using AI in Azure for optimizing match scheduling and other key operations. Legrand used Azure OpenAI Service to reduce the time to generate product data by 60% and improve customer support interactions with fast, accurate information. Mars Science & Diagnostics used the Azure AI catalog to build generative AI apps to enhance accuracy and extract data insights quickly, helping pets with critical, undiagnosed conditions receive the care they require faster. NBA is using Azure OpenAI Service to speed up the time to market, helping fans connect with the league with personalized, localized insights to enhance the fan experience. Orbital Witness embraced the use of large language models (LLMs) in Azure OpenAI to build its innovative AI Agent application, Orbital Copilot, which can save legal teams 70 percent of the time it takes to conduct property diligence work. Parloa took a “voice-first” approach and created an enterprise-grade AI Agent Management platform to automate customer interactions across phone, chat and messaging apps. Zurich Insurance Group used Azure OpenAI Service to develop advanced AI applications that led to more accurate and efficient risk assessment evaluations, accelerating the underwriting process, reducing turnaround times and increasing customer satisfaction. ————————————————————————————————————————– Absa has adopted Microsoft Copilot to streamline various business processes, saving several hours on administrative tasks each day. Adobe leverages Microsoft Azure to streamline the customer experience, harnessing the power of the connected cloud services and creating a synergy that drives AI transformation across industries. Acentra Health developed Medscribe, a web application that uses Azure OpenAI Service to generate draft letters in a secure, HIPPA-compliant enclave that responds to customer appeals for healthcare services within 24 hours, reducing the time spent on each appeal letter by 50%. Alaska Airlines is using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Defender and GitHub to ensure its passengers have a seamless journey from ticket purchase to baggage pickup, and it has started leveraging Azure OpenAI Service to unlock more business value for its customer care and contact centers. Ally Financial is using Azure OpenAI Service to reduce manual tasks for its customer service associates, freeing up time for them to engage with customers. BMW Group optimizes the customer experience, connecting 13 million active users to their vehicles with the MyBMW app on Azure, which supports 450 million daily requests and 3.2TB of data processing. Boyner has tripled its e-commerce performance using Microsoft Azure, seeing a rise in customer satisfaction, engagement, conversion rate and revenue. Bradesco Bank integrated Microsoft Azure into its virtual assistant, BIA, resulting in reduced response time from days to hours, improving operational efficiency and client satisfaction. Capgemini Mexico integrated GitHub Copilot to support scalable AI implementations, which has led to improved customer experiences and increased efficiency. Capitec Bank uses Azure OpenAI Service and Microsoft 365 Copilot, enabling their AI-powered chatbot to assist customer service consultants in accessing product information more efficiently, saving significant time for employees each week. Cdiscount is leveraging GitHub Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service to enhance developer efficiency, optimize product sheet categorization and improve customer satisfaction. Cemex used Azure OpenAI Service to launch Technical Xpert, an AI tool used by sales agents to provide instant access to comprehensive product and customer solution information, significantly reducing search time by 80%. Chanel elevated their client experience and improved employee efficiency by leveraging Microsoft Fabric and Azure OpenAI Service for real-time translations and quality monitoring. City of Burlington created two AI-powered solutions: MyFiles system using Microsoft Power Platform for building permits and CoBy, a 24/7 customer support assistant using Microsoft Copilot Studio. City of Madrid created an AI virtual assistant with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, offering tourists accurate, real-time information and personalized responses in 95-plus languages. Cognizant is making performance management more effective and meaningful with Microsoft Azure Machine Learning to help clients across industries envision, build and run innovative digital enterprises. Coles Group has leveraged Microsoft Azure to enhance its digital presence and improve customer engagement, rolling out new applications to its stores six times faster without disrupting workloads. Commercial Bank of Dubai used Microsoft Azure to upgrade its application infrastructure, improving transaction security and speed so individual customers can now open an account and start banking in about two minutes. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority has significantly improved productivity and customer satisfaction by integrating multiple Microsoft AI solutions, reducing task completion time from days to hours and achieving a 98% customer happiness rate. Elcome uses Microsoft 365 Copilot to improve the customer experience, reducing response times from 24 hours to eight hours. elunic developed shopfloor.GPT based on Azure OpenAI, leading to increased productivity for customers and saving 15 minutes per request. Estée Lauder Companies is leveraging Azure OpenAI Service to create closer consumer connections and increase speed to market with local relevancy. First National Bank is using Microsoft Copilot for Sales to help bankers create professional, thoughtful emails in 13 native South African languages, to enhance customer interactions, streamline communications and reinforce its commitment to innovation and customer service. Flora Food Group migrated to Microsoft Fabric to offer more detailed and timely insights to its customers, enhancing service delivery and customer satisfaction. Groupama deployed a virtual assistant using Azure OpenAI Service that delivers reliable, verified and verifiable information, and boasts an 80% success rate. International University of Applied Sciences (IU) adopted Azure OpenAI Service to revolutionize learning with a personalized study assistant that can interact with each student just like a human would. Investec is using Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales to enhance the bank’s client relationships, estimating saving approximately 200 hours annually, ultimately boosting sales productivity and delivering a personalized, seamless customer experience. Linum is using Microsoft Azure to train their text-to-video models faster and more efficiently without losing performance or wasting resources. Lumen Technologies is redefining customer success and sales processes through the strategic use of Microsoft 365 Copilot, enhancing productivity, sales, and customer service in the global communications sector. McKinsey & Companyis creating an agent to reduce the client onboarding process by reducing lead time by 90% and administrative work by 30%. Meesho leveraged Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service and GitHub Copilot to enhance customer service and software development, resulting in a 25% increase in customer satisfaction scores and 40% more traffic on customer service queries. Milpark Education integrated Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Studio and in just four months, improved efficiency and accuracy of student support, decreasing the average resolution time by 50% and escalations by more than 30%. NC Fusion chose a comprehensive Microsoft solution to make marketing engagement activities easier and accurately target the best audience segments. Medgate, a telehealth subsidiary of Otto Group developed a medical Copilot powered by Azure OpenAI which summarizes consultations, supports triage and provides real-time translations. Pacific Gas & Electric built a chatbot using Microsoft Copilot Studio that saves $1.1 million annually on helpdesk support. Pockyt is using GitHub Copilot and anticipates a 500% increase in productivity in the medium to long term as they continue adapting AI and fine-tuning their software development life cycle. South Australia Department for Education launched an AI-powered educational chatbot to help safeguard students from harmful content while introducing responsible AI to the classrooms. Sync Labs is using Microsoft Azure to create AI-driven solutions that have led to a remarkable 30x increase in revenue and a 100x expansion of their customer base. Syndigo is using Azure to accelerate digital commerce for its customers by more than 40% and expand its customer base. Telkomsel created a virtual assistant with Azure OpenAI Service, resulting in a leap in customer self-service interactions from 19% to 45%, and call volume dropped from 8,000 calls to 1,000 calls a day. Torrens University chose to use Azure OpenAI to uplift its online learning experience, saving 20,000 hours and $2.4 million in time and resources. Trusting Social integrated Microsoft Azure services to launch AI-driven agents that are changing how banks function and transforming their customer’s banking experience. University of California, Berkeley used Azure OpenAI Service to deploy a custom AI chatbot that supports student learning and helps students with complex coursework. University of Sydney created a self-serve AI platform powered by Azure OpenAI Service, to enable faculty to build custom chatbots for enhancing student onboarding, feedback, career simulation and more. Van Lanschot Kempen is using Microsoft 365 Copilot to reduce the time needed for daily tasks, freeing up time to invest in that crucial personal connection. Virgin Money built an award-winning virtual assistant using Copilot Studio to help build customers’ confidence in their digital products and services. VOCALLS automates over 50 million interactions per year, resulting in a 78% reduction in average handling time aside from a 120% increase in answered calls. Vodafone Group is leveraging Microsoft’s AI solutions, including Azure AI Studio, OpenAI Service, Copilot and AI Search, to achieve a 70% resolution rate for customer inquiries through digital channels and reduce call times by at least one minute. Walmart is using Azure OpenAI Service to deliver a helpful and intuitive browsing experience for customers designed to serve up a curated list of the personalized items a shopper is looking for. Weights & Biases created a platform which runs on Microsoft Azure that allows developers to keep records, log successes and failures and automate manual tasks. World2Meet is providing better customer service and operations with a new virtual assistant powered by Microsoft Azure. Xavier College is modernizing its student information systems on Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Azure to unlock powerful insights, fostering innovation and data-driven decision making. Zavarovalnica Triglav implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Azure OpenAI Service to streamline its operations with automated responses and smart rerouting of customer enquiries. Reshaping business process Transforming operations is another way generative AI is encouraging innovation and improving efficiency across various business functions. In marketing, it can create personalized content to truly engage different audiences. For supply chain management, it can predict market trends so companies can optimize their inventory levels. Human resources departments can speed up the hiring process, while financial services can use it for fraud detection and risk assessments. With generative AI, companies are not just refining their current processes, they’re also discovering exciting new growth opportunities. New Stories: ABB Group integrated Azure OpenAI Service into their Genix Copilot platform enabling customers to achieve up to 30% savings in operations and maintenance, 20% improvement in energy and emission optimization and an 80% reduction in service calls. Dentsu implemented Microsoft Azure AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI Service to build a predictive analytics copilot that supports media insights, cutting analysis time by 80% and overall time to insight by 90%, reducing analysis costs. Dow implemented Microsoft 365 Copilot to empower teams with AI-driven insights and streamline essential workflows by automating tasks across departments, saving millions of dollars on shipping operations in the first year. Lenovo leveraged Dynamics 365 Customer Service to rapidly manage customer inquiries by streamlining repetitive tasks, boosted agent productivity by 15%, reduced handling time by 20% and reached record-high customer satisfaction. Operation Smile used Azure OpenAI Service, Fabric and Power Apps to eliminate manual data entry, resulting in reduced translation errors by about 90% and the time required for completing reports from four to five hours to just 15 to 20 minutes. StarKist Foods used Azure to effectively unite production and demand processes with finance, reducing the planning cycle from 16 hours to less than one. ————————————————————————————————————————– Accelleron used Microsoft Power Platform to support numerous business applications and simplify processes for service agents and employees, resulting in the onboard of new agents in 30 minutes, compared to two days for other solutions. Accenture developed an AI-powered financial advisor that leverages RISE with SAP on Microsoft Azure to enhance their infrastructure and integrate financial data. Atomicwork leverages Azure OpenAI to bring together three power capabilities: a conversational assistant, a modern service management system and a workflow automation platform. Blink Ops fully embraced generative AI to build the world’s first Security Automation Copilot with more than 8,000 automated workflows to help any Security/IT task through prompts. Chalhoub Group is using Microsoft Fabric to modernize its data analytics and streamline its data sources into one platform, increasing agility, enhancing analytics and accelerating processes. Cineplex is developing innovative automation solutions for finance, guest services, and other departments, saving the company over 30,000 hours a year in manual processing time. ClearBank moved its services to Microsoft Azure to gain scalability and efficiency, pushing out 183% more monthly system releases, gaining both scalability and efficiency. Danske Statsbaner increases productivity up to 30% with help from Microsoft AI solutions. Eastman implemented Microsoft Copilot for Security, realizing the benefits of accelerated upskilling, step-by-step guidance for response and faster threat remediation. Fast Shop migrated to Microsoft Azure, creating a self-service culture of access to data, eliminating delays, reducing costs and increasing leadership satisfaction with data while providing more agility in reporting. Florida Crystals adopted a value-added solution across Microsoft products including Microsoft 365 Copilot to reduce telecom expenses and automate industrial process controls. GHD is reinventing the RFP process in construction and engineering with Microsoft 365 Copilot. GovDash is a SaaS platform that leverages artificial intelligence to streamline the entire business development lifecycle for government contracting companies using Azure OpenAI. Grupo Bimbo is deploying Microsoft’s industrial AI technologies to modernize its manufacturing processes, optimizing production and reducing downtime, driving significant cost savings and empowering global innovation. Insight Canada implemented Microsoft 365 Copilot to streamline business operations, realizing a 93% productivity gains in functions including sales, finance and human resources. Intesa Sanpaolo Group enhanced its cybersecurity with AI-enabled Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Copilot for Security, resulting in faster threat detection, increased productivity and reduced storage costs. Kaya deployed a custom implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power BI to modernize its supply chain, leading to enhanced visibility, improved planning and streamlined inter-department operations. Lionbridge Technologies, LLC is using Microsoft Azure and Azure OpenAI Service to accelerate its delivery times and improve quality, reducing project turnaround times by up to 30%. LTIMindtree integrated Microsoft Copilot for Security, offering automated incident response, integrated threat intelligence and advanced threat analysis. Mania de Churrasco used Microsoft Azure, Power Platform and Microsoft 365 to achieve high efficiency, security and scalability in its operations, in addition to improving its data intelligence, which indirectly participated in a 20% increase in sales year on year. National Bank of Greece built an Azure-powered Document AI solution to transform its document processing, improving the bank’s accuracy to 90%. Nest Bank has revolutionized its operations by integrating Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service, resulting in doubled sales and increased daily transactions from 60,000 to 80,000, showcasing the transformative impact of generative AI in the financial sector. Network Rail modernized their data analytics solution with Microsoft Azure, helping engineers understand data 50% faster than before and improve efficiency, passenger experiences and safety — all while saving costs. Nsure developed an AI-powered agent that uses Copilot Studio and Power Automate to reduce manual processing time by 60% while also reducing associated costs by 50%. Oncoclínicas implemented Microsoft Azure to transform its entire data ecosystem with a web portal and mobile application that performs all image processing and storage. Pacifico Seguros has adopted Microsoft Copilot for Security to optimize its security operations and anticipate and neutralize threats more efficiently and effectively. Parexel adopted Azure Databricks and Microsoft Power BI, achieving an 85% reduction in data engineering tooling costs, a 30% increase in staff efficiency and a 70% reduction in time to market for data product delivery. Paysafe used Microsoft 365 Copilot to streamline meetings, information management, and document creation, addressing language barriers, eliminating time-consuming tasks, and boosting creativity along the way. Planted is integrating Azure OpenAI to manage everyday tasks more efficiently and facilitate the search for information for innovative process development. Presidio realized dramatic productivity gains saving 1,200 hours per month on average for the employees using Microsoft 365 Copilot and created 70 new business opportunities. Qatar Charity used Copilot Studio to increase its call center efficiency, reducing average handle time by 30%, increasing customer satisfaction by 25% and achieving a 40% reduction in IT maintenance costs. Saphyre uses Microsoft Azure and AI to provide an intelligent cloud-based solution that automates and streamlines financial trading workflows around client and counterparty life cycle management, reducing manual efforts by 75%. Swiss International Air Lines migrated and modernized with Microsoft Azure, achieving up to 30% cost savings, a remarkable boost in platform stability along with enhanced security visibility. ZEISS Group uses Microsoft Fabric to create a secure and trusted data supply chain that can be shared effortlessly across a range of business units. ZF Group builds manufacturing efficiency with over 25,000 apps and 37,000 unique active users on Power Platform. Bending the curve on innovation Generative AI is revolutionizing innovation by speeding up creative processes and product development. It’s helping companies come up with new ideas, design prototypes, and iterate quickly, cutting down the time it takes to get to market. In the automotive industry, it’s designing more efficient vehicles, while in pharmaceuticals, it’s crafting new drug molecules, slashing years off R&D times. In education, it transforms how students learn and achieve their goals. Here are more examples of how companies are embracing generative AI to shape the future of innovation. New Stories: BMW AG implemented Azure AI to develop a mobile data recorder copilot for faster data management, helping engineers reduce the lead time for insights from days to hours or sometimes minutes. EY worked with Microsoft to make Azure AI Foundry more inclusive for all, serving the 20% of the global workforce identifying as neurodivergent. Iconem leveraged AI-generated imagery to process and analyze a vast amount of photogrammetry data used to create the 3D digital twin of St. Peter’s Basilica, allowing visitors to explore every intricate detail from anywhere in the world. Ontada implemented Azure AI and Azure OpenAI Service to target nearly 100 critical oncology data elements across 39 cancer types and now accesses an estimated 70% of previously unanalyzed or unused information, accelerating its life science product development, speeding up time to market from months to just one week. Mia Labs implemented Azure OpenAI to produce and protect its conversational AI virtual assistant Mia that provides fast support from investors, along with the sophisticated security posture and threat protection capabilities for AI workloads. New Sun Road implemented AI into a local controller for energy systems to balance the supply, storage and use requirements. This optimized loads to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy for local clean power for communities. SustainCERT deployed GenAI and machine learning for automated data verification, extraction from documents and to accelerate auditing processes to enable verifying the impacts and credibility of carbon credits. Toyota is deploying AI agents to harness the collective wisdom of engineers and innovate faster in a system named “O-Beya,” or “big room” in Japanese. The “O-Beya” system currently has nine AI agents — from a Vibration Agent to a Fuel Consumption Agent. Utilidata built the first distributive AI and accelerated computing platform for the electric grid allowing flexible transformation and dynamic infrastructure to increase electrification and decarbonization. ————————————————————————————————————————– Air India has incorporated Microsoft 365 Copilot into multiple departments, unlocking a new realm of operational insights that not only provide critical data on flight punctuality and operational hurdles but also empower proactive, collaborative decision making. Agnostic Intelligencedeployed Azure OpenAI Service to eliminate time-consuming tasks, saving users up to 80% of their time and enabling IT managers to focus on innovation and quality assurance. Albert Heijn is using Azure OpenAI for everything from customer personalization to demand forecast and food waste projects, making it easier for its customers to change their lifestyle. Amgen is using Microsoft 365 Copilot to boost productivity and has the potential to speed up drug development and support advancements in their business processes. APEC leverages Microsoft Azure and deep neural network algorithms to develop an app that enables healthcare providers to capture retinal images, increasing the accuracy to identify Retinopathy of Prematurity (RoP) to 90%. ASOS is using Azure AI Studio to help customers discover new looks with genuine shopping insights, personalized conversations, naturalism and even humor to enliven the shopping journey. Auburn University is incorporating Microsoft Copilot to promote AI literacy, accessibility, and collaboration, with the aim to expand educational and economic opportunities for its entire academic community with AI-centric tools. B3 launched an AI assistant using Azure OpenAI Service that aids 10,000 users a day to answer Brazilians’ questions about how to start investing. Basecamp Research aims to build the world’s largest database of national biodiversity and apply AI and machine learning to advance bioscience. Bayer is using Microsoft Copilot to contribute to feeding a growing global population and helping people lead healthier, disease-free lives. Brembo leveraged Azure OpenAI to develop ALCHEMIX, a solution to generate innovative compounds for its brake pads, drastically reducing the development time of new compounds from days to mere minutes. Canary Speech can now train new vocal models in as little as two months and handle millions of transactions per month with Microsoft Azure. CapitaLand simplified internal processes, increasing efficiency to more than 10,000 worker days saved per year and deployed Azure OpenAI Service to build the first AI hospitality chatbot for its lodging business. Cassidy is using Azure OpenAI Service to enhance efficiency across various industries, supporting over 10,000 companies. Coca-Cola is implementing Azure OpenAI Service to develop innovative generative AI use cases across various business functions, including testing how Microsoft 365 Copilot could help improve workplace productivity. Denso is developing “human-like” robots using Azure OpenAI Service as the brain to help robots and humans work together through dialogue. eFishery is using Azure OpenAI for farmers to get the data and insights on fish and shrimp farming, including more precise feeding and water quality monitoring. EY developed an application that automatically matches and clears incoming payments in SAP, resulting in an increase from 30% to 80% in automatically cleared payments and 95% matched payments, with estimated annual time savings of 230,000 hours globally. FIDO is using Azure OpenAI Service to develop an AI tool that uses sound to pinpoint leaky pipes, saving precious drinking water. Georgia Tech is using Azure OpenAI Service to enhance the electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, achieving rapid data classification and predictive modeling, highlighting the reliability of networked chargers over non-networked ones. GigXR developed a solution to create the intelligence for specific AI patients using Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and other Azure services. GoTo Group is significantly enhancing productivity and code quality across its engineering teams by adopting GitHub Copilot, saving over seven hours per week and achieving a 30% code acceptance rate. GovTech used Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to create LaunchPad, sparking more than 400 ideas and 20 prototypes, laying the foundation for the government to harness the power of generative AI. H&R Block is using Azure AI Studio and Azure OpenAI Service to build a new solution that provides real-time, reliable tax filing assistance. Haut.AI provides skin care companies and retailers with customizable, AI-based skin diagnostic tools developed with the help of Microsoft AI. Helfie is building a solution that caters to healthcare providers who can arm their patients with an application to more quickly and accurately access the care they need. Hitachi will implement Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot to create innovative solutions for the energy, mobility and other industries. Icertis is providing AI-based tools that will recognize contract language and then build algorithms to automatically choose the right approach based on the content of the contract. ITOCHU is using Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Studio to evolve its data analytics dashboard into a service that provides immediate recommendations by automatically creating evidence-based product proposals. IU International University of Applied Sciences (IU) is using the power of Azure OpenAI Service to develop Syntea, an AI avatar integrated into Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot, making learning more personalized, autonomous and flexible. Khan Academy has partnered with Microsoft to bring time-saving and lesson-enhancing AI tools to millions of educators. Lufthansa Group developed an animated 3D avatar called Digital Hangar to help guide passengers from initial travel inspiration to flight booking through an exchange with an avatar in natural language. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is using Azure OpenAI Service to help accelerate digital innovation in power plants. Molslinjen has created an AI analytics toolbox that has reduced fuel emissions, improved customer satisfaction and brought in millions of additional revenue. Novo Nordisk recently published initial results with predictive AI models for advanced risk detection in cardiovascular diseases, including an algorithm that can predict patients’ cardiovascular risk better than the best clinical standards. Paige.AI​ is using AI and Microsoft Azure to accelerate cancer diagnoses with data from millions of images. Pets at Home created an agent to help its retail fraud detection team investigate suspicious transactions. Plan Heal is using Microsoft AI to create solutions that enable patients to monitor and report health metrics so care providers can better serve them. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is testing a new battery material that was found in a matter of weeks, not years, as part of a collaboration with Microsoft. Rijksmuseum is harnessing the power of Copilot to make art accessible at scale by joining forces with Microsoft to improve and expand the art experience for blind and low-vision community members. Royal National Institute of Blind People is using Azure AI Services to develop an AI-based solution that quickly and accurately converts letters to braille, audio, and large print formats. Schneider Electric provides productivity-enhancing and energy efficiency solutions and is using a whole suite of AI tools to hasten its own innovation and that of its customers. SPAR ICS created an award-winning, AI-enabled demand forecasting system achieving 90% inventory prediction accuracy. Suzuki Motor Corporation is adopting Azure OpenAI Service for data security, driving company-wide use with five multipurpose apps. Tecnológico de Monterrey created a generative AI-powered ecosystem built on Azure OpenAI Service with the goal to personalize education based on the students’ needs, improve the learning process, boost teachers’ creativity and save time on tedious tasks. TomTom is using Azure OpenAI Service, Azure Cosmos DB, and Azure Kubernetes Service to revolutionize the driver experience. Unilever is partnering with Microsoft to identify new digital capabilities to drive product innovation forward, from unlocking the secrets of our skin’s microbiome to reducing the carbon footprint of a multibillion-dollar business. Unity used Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to build Muse Chat, an AI assistant that can guide creators through common questions and help troubleshoot issues to make game development easier. University of South Florida is using Microsoft 365 Copilot to alleviate the burden of repetitive, time-consuming tasks so faculty and staff can spend this time creatively solving problems, conducting critical research, establishing stronger relationships with peers and students and using their expertise to forge new, innovative paths. Visma has developed new code with GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Azure DevOps and Microsoft Visual Studio as much as 50 percent faster, contributing to increased customer retention, faster time to market and increased revenue. Wallenius Wilhelmsen is implementing Microsoft 365 Copilot and using Microsoft Viva to drive sustainable adoption, streamlining processes, empowering better decision making and cultivating a culture of innovation and inclusion. Wipro is committed to delivering value to customers faster and improving the outcomes across the business by investing $1 billion in AI and training 200,000 employees on generative AI principles with Microsoft Copilot. Read more: Get the study: Business Opportunity of AI | Microsoft Explore Microsoft AI solutions: Artificial Intelligence Solutions | Microsoft AI Assess your AI readiness: AI Readiness Wizard – Microsoft Adoption Build a strategic plan for AI: AI Strategy Roadmap | Microsoft AI IDC InfoBrief: sponsored by Microsoft, 2024 Business Opportunity of AI, IDC# US52699124, November 2024 The post How real-world businesses are transforming with AI – with 40+ new stories appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. View the full article

Updated Dec. 9, 2024: The number of individuals Microsoft helped train and certify over the past year has been updated to 23 million and includes initiatives across Microsoft. In 2024, generative AI emerged as a key driver for business outcomes across every industry. Already this new generation of AI is having an incredible impact on our world — yet companies and industries are just scratching the surface of what’s possible as they continue to develop new use cases across every role and function. To help guide organizations on their AI transformation journey, Microsoft recently commissioned a new study through IDC, The Business Opportunity of AI. IDC’s findings show that when organizations truly commit to and invest in AI, the return on investment (ROI) potential grows significantly. According to IDC, the study’s findings reflect a tipping point as AI gains momentum across industries. As companies worldwide go deeper with AI, Microsoft customers continue to deploy innovative new solutions and discover how tools like Copilot can transform their day-to-day work. In telecommunications, Lumen Technologies estimates Copilot is saving sellers an average of four hours a week, equating to $50 million annually. In healthcare, Chi Mei Medical Center doctors now spend 15 minutes instead of an hour writing medical reports, and nurses can document patient information in under five minutes. Pharmacists are now able to double the number of patients they see per day. In retail, AI models help Coles predict the flow of 20,000 stock-keeping units to 850 stores with remarkable accuracy, generating 1.6 billion predictions daily. IDC’s 2024 top 5 trends for AI IDC’s findings align with what Microsoft is seeing as we work with companies across industries to deploy AI. We’ve highlighted more than 200 of our top AI customer stories to show a sampling of how AI is already driving impact today. Below is a look at the top trends we’re seeing in IDC’s study and the impact of those trends on organizations working with AI today. #1 Enhanced productivity has become table stakes. Employee productivity is the No. 1 business outcome that companies are trying to achieve with AI. The study shows that 92% of AI users surveyed are using AI for productivity, and 43% say productivity use cases have provided the greatest ROI. While productivity is a top goal, generative AI use cases that are close behind include customer engagement, topline growth, cost management and product or service innovation — and nearly half of the companies surveyed expect AI to have a high degree of impact across all those areas over the next 24 months. Customer snapshot: At the global marketing and advertising agency dentsu, employees are already saving 15 to 30 minutes a day using Copilot for tasks such as summarizing chats, generating presentations and building executive summaries. “Copilot has transformed the way we deliver creative concepts to our clients, enabling real-time collaboration. Agility, security and uniqueness are crucial, but our goal is to lead this transformation company-wide, from top to bottom.” — Takuya Kodama, Business Strategy Manager at dentsu #2 Companies are gravitating to more advanced AI solutions. In the next 24 months, more companies expect to build custom AI solutions tailored directly to industry needs and business processes, including custom copilots and AI agents. This shows a growing maturity in AI fluency as companies realize the value of out-of-the-box use cases and expand to more advanced scenarios. Customer snapshot: Siemens has developed the Siemens Industrial Copilot, which has eased the challenges caused by increasing complexity and labor shortages for dozens of customers in different industries. “In full appreciation of GenAI’s transformational potential, it’s important to remember that production does not have an ‘undo’ button. It takes diligence and effort to mature AI to industrial-grade quality. The Siemens Industrial Copilot for Engineering significantly eases our customers’ workload and addresses the pressing challenges of skill shortages and increasing complexity in industrial automation. This AI-powered solution is a game-changer for our industry with over 50 customers already using it to boost efficiency and tackle labor shortages.” — Boris Scharinger, AI Strategist at Siemens Digital Industries #3 Generative AI adoption and value is growing across industries. Even though it is relatively new to the market, generative AI adoption is rapidly expanding — 75% of respondents report current usage up from 55% in 2023. The ROI of generative AI is highest in Financial Services, followed by Media & Telco, Mobility, Retail & Consumer Packaged Goods, Energy, Manufacturing, Healthcare and Education. Overall, generative AI is generating higher ROI across industries. Customer snapshot: Providence has leveraged AI to extend and enhance patient care, streamline processes and workflows and improve the effectiveness of caregivers. “Whether we’re partnering with organizations on the leading edge of this technology — like Microsoft — and building bespoke solutions through Azure OpenAI Service, advancing clinical research to help cancer patients receive personalized and precise treatments faster, or ‘hitting the easy button’ and adopting established technologies like Microsoft 365 Copilot or DAX Copilot, we have successfully stayed on the forefront of this tech revolution. For example, physicians who use DAX Copilot save an average of 5.33 minutes per visit, and 80% of physicians have reported lower cognitive burden after using DAX Copilot.” — Sarah Vaezy, EVP, Chief Strategy and Digital Officer at Providence #4 AI leaders are seeing greater returns and accelerated innovation. While companies using generative AI are averaging $3.7x ROI, the top leaders using generative AI are realizing significantly higher returns, with an average ROI of $10.3. In addition to the enhanced business value, leaders are also on an accelerated path to build and implement new solutions — 29% of leaders implement AI in less than 3 months versus 6% of companies in the laggard category. Customer snapshot: Södra is an international forest industry group that processes forest products from 52,000 owners into renewable, climate-smart products for international market. Every day Södra collects and interprets climate impact data to make thousands of decisions for every part of the value chain. “With innovative AI technology from Microsoft, our business experts and data scientists have been able to help make us more sustainable while also improving revenue significantly.” — Cristian Brolin, Chief Digital Officer at Södra #5 Looking ahead: Skilling remains a top challenge. Thirty percent of respondents indicated a lack of specialized AI skills in-house, and 26 percent say they lack employees with the skills needed to learn and work with AI. This dovetails with findings from the Microsoft and LinkedIn 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report, which found that 55 percent of business leaders are concerned about having enough skilled talent to fill roles. That is why over the past year we have helped train and certify over 23 million people in more than 200 countries in digital skills. And we are committed to working in partnership with governments, educational institutions, industry and civil society to help millions more learn to use AI. Customer snapshot: The University of South Florida (USF) is partnering with Microsoft to streamline processes and enhance innovation for all aspects of university operations with AI. “We’re giving students a leg up to do amazing things with AI as part of tomorrow’s workforce. Our focus on generative AI not only drives operational efficiency but also empowers our community to unlock new levels of creativity and impact, further positioning USF as a leader in AI adoption, which includes being among the first universities in the nation to form a college dedicated to AI, cybersecurity and computing.” — Sidney Fernandes, CIO & VP of Digital Experiences at University of South Florida AI’s growing economic impact While companies today are largely implementing out-of-the-box generative AI solutions and seeing significant ROI, more than half of those surveyed expect to build custom industry and line-of-business applications in the next 24 months — demonstrating that today’s ROI is quickly becoming tomorrow’s competitive edge. “We are at an inflection point of autonomous agent development and are beginning an evolution from using just off-the-shelf assistants and copilots that support knowledge discovery and content generation to custom AI agents to execute complex, multistep workflows across a digital world,” says Ritu Jyoti, GVP/GM, AI and Data Research at IDC. “With responsible technology usage and workplace transformation, IDC predicts that business spending to adopt AI will have a cumulative global economic impact of $19.9 trillion through 2030 and drive 3.5% of global GDP in 2030.” Key findings from IDC’s The Business Opportunity of AI study include: Generative AI usage jumped from 55% in 2023 to 75% in 2024. For every $1 a company invests in generative AI, the ROI is $3.7x. The top leaders using generative AI are realizing an ROI of $10.3. On average, AI deployments are taking less than 8 months and organizations are realizing value within 13 months. Within 24 months, most organizations plan to expand beyond pre-built AI solutions to advanced AI workloads that are customized or custom-built. The ROI of generative AI is highest in Financial Services, followed by Media & Telco, Mobility, Retail & Consumer Packaged Goods, Energy, Manufacturing, Healthcare and Education. 43% say productivity use cases have provided the greatest ROI. The primary way that organizations are monetizing AI today is through productivity use cases. In the next 24 months, a greater focus will be placed on functional and industry use cases. The top barrier when implementing AI is the lack of both technical and day-to-day AI skills. Learn how to fuel your AI journey IDC’s study, which included more than 4,000 business leaders and AI decision-makers around the world, also identifies the top barriers organizations face when implementing AI. As businesses integrate new solutions, they navigate important considerations such as data privacy, responsible use and the need for investment in both technology and skills. No matter where you are in your cloud and AI transformation journey, Microsoft can help. To learn more about how customers across industries are shaping their AI transformation with Microsoft, please visit Microsoft’s AI in Action page. For more on how to get started in your AI transformation journey, visit Microsoft AI. IDC InfoBrief: sponsored by Microsoft, 2024 Business Opportunity of AI, IDC# US52699124, November 2024 The post IDC’s 2024 AI opportunity study: Top five AI trends to watch appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. View the full article

Client apps are often the first interaction users have with your services, whether those are cloud native intelligent apps, web-hosted backends or business data. They set the tone for user experience and can offer personalized interactions right from the start. With over 1.5 billion Windows devices worldwide, you have an opportunity to build beautiful, responsive and engaging user experiences that target these devices. Regardless of whether you are a web developer or a native app developer, you likely want to reach the most client devices possible with great user experiences in the most efficient way possible. Developing great client apps helps you connect with users, scale your services and keep users coming back. To help you achieve these goals, Microsoft invests in a wide variety of client application frameworks and technologies for developers to build custom client experiences. Microsoft is actively investing across all these areas for client development, which includes multiple technologies for building Windows native, Cross-platform, Hybrid and Web client apps. This post outlines the native client application frameworks for Windows that we are investing in and features some of the incredible work we’ve been doing in those areas. WinUI WinUI, along with the two WinUI-based cross platform frameworks React Native for Desktop and .NET MAUI, are the three technologies we recommend for developing new applications that truly align with the Windows native experience. WinUI enables developers to create fast and polished apps with the same rich set of modern UI controls and styles that powers key experiences in Windows. Its powerful toolkit has been refined in the most recent Windows App SDK 1.6 release, offering developers new performance improvements and control updates. In WinAppSDK 1.6, WinUI adds Native Ahead-of-Time compilation support, one of the major new features in .NET development that results in apps with significantly reduced startup times and memory footprints. [caption id="attachment_57148" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Side-by-side comparison of Contoso Camera app launching with and without Native AOT[/caption] In addition, the TabView control now features a new tab tear-out mode that lets users drag tabs out of a WinUI app just like they do in Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, creating a new window and enabling snapping or maximizing in one smooth motion as they drag. The PipsPager control also received a new wrapping mode, and RatingControl is now more customizable through theme resources. [caption id="attachment_57149" align="aligncenter" width="504"] A mouse cursor tearing out a tab from a multi-tabbed window and forming a new window from the tab[/caption] To learn more about Windows App SDK 1.6, including WinUI and other features, check out our blog post. You can also try the always up-to-date WinUI Gallery app that showcases all the controls and styles available to make a WinUI 3 app with the Windows App SDK (source code available on GitHub at https://github.com/microsoft/WinUI-Gallery). [caption id="attachment_57153" align="aligncenter" width="1008"] The WinUI 3 Gallery app showcased in dark mode[/caption] As a sneak peek for what’s coming to WinUI in the upcoming Windows App SDK 1.7-experimental1 release, developers can look forward to the reintroduction of the highly anticipated TitleBar control with a fresh set of community-driven feedback improvements, as well as windowing enhancements and convenience APIs for controlling window size, remembering position and more. React Native for Desktop React Native lets you use your React and JavaScript skills and tools to create native applications that target iOS, Android, Windows (via WinAppSDK and WinUI), macOS, TVs and more. Over the last several years, Meta has been working towards enabling the “new architecture” which includes new capabilities such as synchronous layout and effects, the concurrent renderer and better JS to native interfacing. At Microsoft, we’ve partnered with Meta to bring the new architecture to Windows and macOS. In React Native for Desktop version 0.76 (Fall 2024), new apps can optionally opt into the new architecture preview when creating new apps from the CLI. On Windows, the new architecture unlocks new capabilities like deep integration with the Windows App SDK (including the Scene Graph and Windows Copilot Library), as well as support for Win32-based applications. v0.76 also provides a template for library authors to write modules that simultaneously target both the old and new architectures. Although the new architecture is still in preview, several of our key apps are validating the updated React Native for Desktop platform and are beginning to flight experiences on top of the new architecture. If you’re interested in seeing the capabilities of React Native for Desktop, you can download the React Native Gallery from the Microsoft Store. [caption id="attachment_57154" align="aligncenter" width="975"] The React Native Gallery app includes samples of React Native components and modules that you can use in React Native for Windows apps.[/caption] If you’re curious about how you can use your React and JavaScript skills to build native apps for desktop, you can learn more at https://aka.ms/reactnative. Finally, if you want to try out the preview version of the new architecture, please visit https://aka.ms/rnw-new-arch. .NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI) .NET MAUI continues to push the boundaries of cross-platform development for .NET developers, offering a unified framework for building native applications. With a single C# codebase and .NET project system you can build apps that run on Windows (via WinUI3), Mac (via MacCatalyst), iOS and Android. The latest release for .NET 9 contains many quality improvements as well as new features and enhancements. New features that may be of interest to Windows developers are the addition of the TitleBar control, enhancements to Multi-window to bring a window to the forefront with ActivateWindow, and supporting Unpackaged Windows apps by default to help developers with quicker debug and deploy times. There are many other features that benefit all device platforms like the addition of the HybridWebView control that enables hosting arbitrary HTML/JS/CSS content in a web view and communicate between the JavaScript code in the web view and the C# code in the .NET MAUI app. There are also many other control enhancements, new solution templates to help you also target the web, Visual Studio and VS Code tooling updates, inner-loop performance increases and a whole lot more in .NET 9. In addition to the .NET MAUI built-in controls, the team is collaborating with Syncfusion who released the Syncfusion Toolkit for .NET MAUI containing 14 of their popular .NET MAUI controls as free and open source. They also announced their dedication to the .NET MAUI project. Syncfusion is investing their expertise as control builders into .NET MAUI by openly contributing on issues and submitting PRs in the dotnet/maui repository on GitHub to increase the velocity of .NET MAUI development. The .NET MAUI team is very excited to showcase all of the amazing work they have done with the community (including a few surprises) at .NET Conf on Nov. 12-14. Be sure to tune in! [caption id="attachment_57155" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] The new project template for .NET MAUI showcases best practices and new open-source controls from Syncfusion to create a full-featured ToDo app that runs on desktop and mobile devices.[/caption] WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) Modern Apps As part of the ongoing modernization of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), applications built on WPF and running on Windows 10 or later can now take advantage of cutting-edge design elements and behaviors. Key enhancements include: Support for light and dark themes Rounded corners for controls Compliance with Windows 11 design guidelines Accent color support for controls The introduction of the new Fluent theme delivers a fresh, modern Windows 11 aesthetic to WPF applications. With integrated Light/Dark mode and system accent color support, this update is set to enhance user engagement by giving WPF applications a contemporary, polished appearance. First showcased at Build 2024, the Fluent theme is now generally available as part of the official .NET 9 release for Windows 10, Windows 11 and also Windows Server 2019. WPF Gallery App is a sample tool that demonstrates WPF controls and styles to a WPF application in .NET 9 and onwards. The source code for this app is available on GitHub: https://github.com/microsoft/WPF-Samples. [caption id="attachment_57170" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] WPF Gallery app showcased in Light mode[/caption] [caption id="attachment_57171" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] WPF Gallery app showcased in Dark mode[/caption] Hyphen based ligature support in WPF Based on valuable feedback from the WPF community (Issue#109), we’ve addressed a longstanding issue with hyphen-based ligatures not working in WPF. This improvement is aimed at enhancing the developer experience by ensuring better text rendering and more polished typography in WPF applications. WinForms (Windows Forms) Windows Forms has long been a favorite technology for lightweight desktop applications built on Win32 APIs, particularly within the enterprise Line of Business space. Beloved for the ease of use, now the latest updates to WinForms allow developers to start leveraging modern technology in their existing applications. Over the course of .NET 9, WinForms has modernized thousands of lines of code to leverage modern C# capabilities. In response to operating system enhancements WinForms has added multi-select support for the FolderBrowserDialog, click-through capabilities to the ToolStrip control, and more than 100 new and updated System.Drawing APIs to leverage more GDI+ capabilities than before. In response to overwhelming demand, WinForms also added a Dark Mode detection feature (in experimental mode)! For the first time, with .NET 9, developers are able to quickly and easily leverage the async capabilities of Windows and .NET. In this release, WinForms has introduced Control.InvokeAsync. This new API allows WinForms applications to more easily leverage Web APIs, Semantic Kernel, AI and more! These enhancements ensure that WinForms remains a powerful and versatile tool for modern desktop application development, bridging the gap between legacy systems and the cutting-edge technology of today. What’s next? Tune in at .NET Conf (Nov. 12-14) and then at Ignite (Nov. 19-22) to learn more about these technologies via the following sessions. You can check the full agenda for .NET Conf and for Ignite. For more guidance and documentation about how to develop apps for Windows using those technologies, head to https://aka.ms/windev. Sessions at .NET Conf Session title Date What's New in .NET MAUI in .NET 9 Nov 12, 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM PST Build hybrid apps with .NET MAUI Nov 12, 3:15 PM - 3:45 PM PST .NET MAUI Performance Optimizations with NativeAOT and Trimming Nov 13, 2:30 PM - 3:00 PM PST What's new in WinUI and Windows App SDK 1.6 Nov 13, 3:00 PM - 3:30 PM PST Modern WinForms Development with .NET 9 Nov 13, 4:00 PM - 4:30 PM PST Empowering WPF Developers: A Journey Through .NET 9 and the Road Ahead Nov 14, 4:00 AM - 4:30 AM PST Cross-Platform Magic: Transforming WPF Apps with Avalonia XPF Nov 14, 4:30 AM - 5:00 AM PST Community Toolkit Roundup Nov 14, 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM PST Announcing Uno Platform Studio and Hot Design Our friends at Uno Platform* had a special announcement for .NET Conf! If you’d like to be among the first to receive the beta invite, join their waitlist. Nov 14, 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM PST "Intelligenize" your WinForms Apps for an amazing new customer experience! Nov 15, 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM PST Boosting WPF Performance - Upcoming Improvements Nov 15, 1:30 PM - 2:00 PM PST Create great MIDI 2.0 apps using Windows MIDI Services and C# Nov 15, 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM PST Infuse AI in your Windows apps with .NET Nov 15, 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM PST MVVM Building Blocks for WinUI and WPF Development Nov 15, 4:00 PM - 4:30 PM PST Session at Ignite Session title Date Modernize your apps by learning how Office leverages Windows App SDK Nov 21, 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM PST *For those new to Uno Platform – it enables the creation of pixel-perfect, single-source C# and XAML apps that run natively on Windows, iOS, Android, macOS, Linux and the web via WebAssembly. Uno Platform offers Figma integration for design-to-development handoff, along with a set of extensions to bootstrap your projects. It’s free, open-source (Apache 2.0) and available on GitHub. Editor’s note – Nov. 21, 2024 – The list of .NET Conf sessions has been updated with links to the recordings of those sessions. Editor’s note – Nov. 12, 2024 – The images showing the WPF Gallery app showcased in Light and Dark mode were updated.View the full article

Client apps are often the first interaction users have with your services, whether those are cloud native intelligent apps, web-hosted backends or business data. They set the tone for user experience and can offer personalized interactions right from the start. With over 1.5 billion Windows devices worldwide, you have an opportunity to build beautiful, responsive and engaging user experiences that target these devices. Regardless of whether you are a web developer or a native app developer, you likely want to reach the most client devices possible with great user experiences in the most efficient way possible. Developing great client apps helps you connect with users, scale your services and keep users coming back. To help you achieve these goals, Microsoft invests in a wide variety of client application frameworks and technologies for developers to build custom client experiences. Microsoft is actively investing across all these areas for client development, which includes multiple technologies for building Windows native, Cross-platform, Hybrid and Web client apps. This post outlines the native client application frameworks for Windows that we are investing in and features some of the incredible work we’ve been doing in those areas. WinUI WinUI, along with the two WinUI-based cross platform frameworks React Native for Desktop and .NET MAUI, are the three technologies we recommend for developing new applications that truly align with the Windows native experience. WinUI enables developers to create fast and polished apps with the same rich set of modern UI controls and styles that powers key experiences in Windows. Its powerful toolkit has been refined in the most recent Windows App SDK 1.6 release, offering developers new performance improvements and control updates. In WinAppSDK 1.6, WinUI adds Native Ahead-of-Time compilation support, one of the major new features in .NET development that results in apps with significantly reduced startup times and memory footprints. [caption id="attachment_57148" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Side-by-side comparison of Contoso Camera app launching with and without Native AOT[/caption] In addition, the TabView control now features a new tab tear-out mode that lets users drag tabs out of a WinUI app just like they do in Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, creating a new window and enabling snapping or maximizing in one smooth motion as they drag. The PipsPager control also received a new wrapping mode, and RatingControl is now more customizable through theme resources. [caption id="attachment_57149" align="aligncenter" width="504"] A mouse cursor tearing out a tab from a multi-tabbed window and forming a new window from the tab[/caption] To learn more about Windows App SDK 1.6, including WinUI and other features, check out our blog post. You can also try the always up-to-date WinUI Gallery app that showcases all the controls and styles available to make a WinUI 3 app with the Windows App SDK (source code available on GitHub at https://github.com/microsoft/WinUI-Gallery). [caption id="attachment_57153" align="aligncenter" width="1008"] The WinUI 3 Gallery app showcased in dark mode[/caption] As a sneak peek for what’s coming to WinUI in the upcoming Windows App SDK 1.7-experimental1 release, developers can look forward to the reintroduction of the highly anticipated TitleBar control with a fresh set of community-driven feedback improvements, as well as windowing enhancements and convenience APIs for controlling window size, remembering position and more. React Native for Desktop React Native lets you use your React and JavaScript skills and tools to create native applications that target iOS, Android, Windows (via WinAppSDK and WinUI), macOS, TVs and more. Over the last several years, Meta has been working towards enabling the “new architecture” which includes new capabilities such as synchronous layout and effects, the concurrent renderer and better JS to native interfacing. At Microsoft, we’ve partnered with Meta to bring the new architecture to Windows and macOS. In React Native for Desktop version 0.76 (Fall 2024), new apps can optionally opt into the new architecture preview when creating new apps from the CLI. On Windows, the new architecture unlocks new capabilities like deep integration with the Windows App SDK (including the Scene Graph and Windows Copilot Library), as well as support for Win32-based applications. v0.76 also provides a template for library authors to write modules that simultaneously target both the old and new architectures. Although the new architecture is still in preview, several of our key apps are validating the updated React Native for Desktop platform and are beginning to flight experiences on top of the new architecture. If you’re interested in seeing the capabilities of React Native for Desktop, you can download the React Native Gallery from the Microsoft Store. [caption id="attachment_57154" align="aligncenter" width="975"] The React Native Gallery app includes samples of React Native components and modules that you can use in React Native for Windows apps.[/caption] If you’re curious about how you can use your React and JavaScript skills to build native apps for desktop, you can learn more at https://aka.ms/reactnative. Finally, if you want to try out the preview version of the new architecture, please visit https://aka.ms/rnw-new-arch. .NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI) .NET MAUI continues to push the boundaries of cross-platform development for .NET developers, offering a unified framework for building native applications. With a single C# codebase and .NET project system you can build apps that run on Windows (via WinUI3), Mac (via MacCatalyst), iOS and Android. The latest release for .NET 9 contains many quality improvements as well as new features and enhancements. New features that may be of interest to Windows developers are the addition of the TitleBar control, enhancements to Multi-window to bring a window to the forefront with ActivateWindow, and supporting Unpackaged Windows apps by default to help developers with quicker debug and deploy times. There are many other features that benefit all device platforms like the addition of the HybridWebView control that enables hosting arbitrary HTML/JS/CSS content in a web view and communicate between the JavaScript code in the web view and the C# code in the .NET MAUI app. There are also many other control enhancements, new solution templates to help you also target the web, Visual Studio and VS Code tooling updates, inner-loop performance increases and a whole lot more in .NET 9. In addition to the .NET MAUI built-in controls, the team is collaborating with Syncfusion who released the Syncfusion Toolkit for .NET MAUI containing 14 of their popular .NET MAUI controls as free and open source. They also announced their dedication to the .NET MAUI project. Syncfusion is investing their expertise as control builders into .NET MAUI by openly contributing on issues and submitting PRs in the dotnet/maui repository on GitHub to increase the velocity of .NET MAUI development. The .NET MAUI team is very excited to showcase all of the amazing work they have done with the community (including a few surprises) at .NET Conf on Nov. 12-14. Be sure to tune in! [caption id="attachment_57155" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] The new project template for .NET MAUI showcases best practices and new open-source controls from Syncfusion to create a full-featured ToDo app that runs on desktop and mobile devices.[/caption] WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) Modern Apps As part of the ongoing modernization of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), applications built on WPF and running on Windows 10 or later can now take advantage of cutting-edge design elements and behaviors. Key enhancements include: Support for light and dark themes Rounded corners for controls Compliance with Windows 11 design guidelines Accent color support for controls The introduction of the new Fluent theme delivers a fresh, modern Windows 11 aesthetic to WPF applications. With integrated Light/Dark mode and system accent color support, this update is set to enhance user engagement by giving WPF applications a contemporary, polished appearance. First showcased at Build 2024, the Fluent theme is now generally available as part of the official .NET 9 release for Windows 10, Windows 11 and also Windows Server 2019. WPF Gallery App is a sample tool that demonstrates WPF controls and styles to a WPF application in .NET 9 and onwards. The source code for this app is available on GitHub: https://github.com/microsoft/WPF-Samples. [caption id="attachment_57170" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] WPF Gallery app showcased in Light mode[/caption] [caption id="attachment_57171" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] WPF Gallery app showcased in Dark mode[/caption] Hyphen based ligature support in WPF Based on valuable feedback from the WPF community (Issue#109), we’ve addressed a longstanding issue with hyphen-based ligatures not working in WPF. This improvement is aimed at enhancing the developer experience by ensuring better text rendering and more polished typography in WPF applications. WinForms (Windows Forms) Windows Forms has long been a favorite technology for lightweight desktop applications built on Win32 APIs, particularly within the enterprise Line of Business space. Beloved for the ease of use, now the latest updates to WinForms allow developers to start leveraging modern technology in their existing applications. Over the course of .NET 9, WinForms has modernized thousands of lines of code to leverage modern C# capabilities. In response to operating system enhancements WinForms has added multi-select support for the FolderBrowserDialog, click-through capabilities to the ToolStrip control, and more than 100 new and updated System.Drawing APIs to leverage more GDI+ capabilities than before. In response to overwhelming demand, WinForms also added a Dark Mode detection feature (in experimental mode)! For the first time, with .NET 9, developers are able to quickly and easily leverage the async capabilities of Windows and .NET. In this release, WinForms has introduced Control.InvokeAsync. This new API allows WinForms applications to more easily leverage Web APIs, Semantic Kernel, AI and more! These enhancements ensure that WinForms remains a powerful and versatile tool for modern desktop application development, bridging the gap between legacy systems and the cutting-edge technology of today. What’s next? Tune in at .NET Conf (Nov. 12-14) and then at Ignite (Nov. 19-22) to learn more about these technologies via the following sessions. You can check the full agenda for .NET Conf and for Ignite. For more guidance and documentation about how to develop apps for Windows using those technologies, head to https://aka.ms/windev. Sessions at .NET Conf Session title Date What's New in .NET MAUI in .NET 9 Nov 12, 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM PST Build hybrid apps with .NET MAUI Nov 12, 3:15 PM - 3:45 PM PST .NET MAUI Performance Optimizations with NativeAOT and Trimming Nov 13, 2:30 PM - 3:00 PM PST What's new in WinUI and Windows App SDK 1.6 Nov 13, 3:00 PM - 3:30 PM PST Modern WinForms Development with .NET 9 Nov 13, 4:00 PM - 4:30 PM PST Empowering WPF Developers: A Journey Through .NET 9 and the Road Ahead Nov 14, 4:00 AM - 4:30 AM PST Cross-Platform Magic: Transforming WPF Apps with Avalonia XPF Nov 14, 4:30 AM - 5:00 AM PST Community Toolkit Roundup Nov 14, 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM PST Announcing Uno Platform Studio and Hot Design Our friends at Uno Platform* had a special announcement for .NET Conf! If you’d like to be among the first to receive the beta invite, join their waitlist. Nov 14, 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM PST "Intelligenize" your WinForms Apps for an amazing new customer experience! Nov 15, 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM PST Boosting WPF Performance - Upcoming Improvements Nov 15, 1:30 PM - 2:00 PM PST Create great MIDI 2.0 apps using Windows MIDI Services and C# Nov 15, 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM PST Infuse AI in your Windows apps with .NET Nov 15, 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM PST MVVM Building Blocks for WinUI and WPF Development Nov 15, 4:00 PM - 4:30 PM PST Session at Ignite Session title Date Modernize your apps by learning how Office leverages Windows App SDK Nov 21, 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM PST *For those new to Uno Platform – it enables the creation of pixel-perfect, single-source C# and XAML apps that run natively on Windows, iOS, Android, macOS, Linux and the web via WebAssembly. Uno Platform offers Figma integration for design-to-development handoff, along with a set of extensions to bootstrap your projects. It’s free, open-source (Apache 2.0) and available on GitHub. Editor’s note – Nov. 21, 2024 – The list of .NET Conf sessions has been updated with links to the recordings of those sessions. Editor’s note – Nov. 12, 2024 – The images showing the WPF Gallery app showcased in Light and Dark mode were updated.View the full article

The post PowerToys Advanced Paste appeared first on Windows Developer Blog. View the full article

The post PowerToys Advanced Paste appeared first on Windows Developer Blog. View the full article

Windows is an open platform that enables all categories of applications to thrive. From individual developers to distributed projects, open-source initiatives and large companies, the vibrant developer community is building innovative, engaging and practical apps for Windows users around the world. And the best place for users to discover that content is through the Microsoft Store on Windows. You can find more information on our commitment to developers, and how to onboard into the Microsoft Store. We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2024 Microsoft Store Awards! This year, we invited nominations from our developer community and selected winners across 14 categories. It is absolutely energizing for us to see our community flourishing, and that is reflected in overwhelming number of nominations we received. Please join us in congratulating the following winners... AI category Winner : dJay Pro Algoriddim by Algoriddim djay Pro offers flawless beat matching and an intuitive interface, ensuring a seamless experience for users. Its wide range of features and compatibility with various streaming services make it a versatile tool for any DJ. One of the standout features of djay Pro is its NeuralMix technology, which leverages the extra processing power of the Snapdragon X Elite NPU. This allows the AI model to be twice as large and more complex than those used on other platforms, resulting in better sound quality and cleaner music stem separation. Performance benchmarks have shown that djay Pro performs significantly faster on an NPU compared to traditional CPUs. Lifestyle category Winner: Diarium Journal & Diary by T. Partl Diarium Journal & Diary offers an easy-to-use and visually stunning interface, making it highly recommended for anyone looking to keep a digital journal. Users have praised its flexibility and the wide range of features it provides, including customizable templates, password protection and media integration. Lastly, users love Diarium’s cross-platform functionality and seamless cloud sync, making it the journal that follows you everywhere! Personal Finance category Winner: TradingView by TradingView, Inc. TradingView combines powerful charting tools, real-time data and a user-friendly interface, making it easy for both beginners and experienced investors to track their portfolios, analyze markets and make informed trading decisions. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools, customizable watchlists and social networking for users interested in learning from others. Users have praised TradingView for its reliability, accuracy and extensive range of indicators and drawing tools, which allow them to tailor their experience to their specific needs. Business category Winner: Gamma by Gamma Gamma stands out for its ability to offer users AI-powered content creation, a user-friendly interface and versatile formats. Its intuitive design, real-time collaboration features and interactive elements make it a favorite among businesses. By automating design and formatting tasks, Gamma saves valuable time, allowing users to focus on what truly matters. Education category Winner: Typing Land by higopage Typing Land has redefined learning through its engaging approach to mastering typing skills. With interactive lessons, fun exercises and a user-friendly interface, it’s perfect for learners of all ages. The app stands out for its innovative curriculum, making typing practice enjoyable and learning effectiveness. Productivity category Winner: Todoist: To-Do List & Planner by Doist Inc. Todoist offers a beautiful user experience for managing workflows, with plentiful and versatile templates. Users love its ease of use, high performance and cross-platform compatibility, making it the best to-do list app. It's the perfect planner for school or work, loved for its functionality and sleek design. Music category Winner: Apple Music by Apple Inc. Apple Music has received user accolades for great performance, pricing, sound quality and tailored music recommendations. It has helped users on Windows stream their favorite songs and discover new ones. Users love the app for its user-friendly interface and lossless audio quality, making it a favorite for streaming music. Health & Fitness category Winner: F.lux by F.lux Software LLC F.lux offers unparalleled flexibility and smooth transitioning between blue light filter states, ensuring a comfortable and healthy viewing experience. Users have praised its well-built UI and the extensive range of customizable features, making it highly recommended for anyone looking to improve their digital well-being. F.lux provides beautiful visualizations that keep users engaged and informed about the impact on their health. Medical category Winner: Complete Anatomy 2024 by 3D4Medical Complete Anatomy 2024 has garnered appreciation from our users for its detailed and precise references, convenient user interface and easy-to-understand tools. It has proven to be an invaluable resource for studying anatomy and is particularly valuable for medical professionals when explaining structural skeletal imbalances to patients. Medical students find it of great value, and it stands out as a cost-effective alternative for learning. Developer Tools category Winner: oh-my posh by jandedobbeleer Whether someone is a tech enthusiast or a developer, Oh My Posh serves as a versatile prompt theme engine for Windows Terminal and other shells. It merges style with functionality, boosting productivity by offering clear directory information at a glance while maintaining a visually appealing interface. With an extensive array of themes and customization options, it ensures users feel comfortable and efficient in their terminal environment. Social category Winner: Pinterest by Pinterest Inc. Pinterest has become an essential tool for users seeking inspiration and ideas for various aspects of their lives. Its user-friendly interface, vast array of pins, and the ability to create and share boards make it a go-to platform for discovering new ideas, planning projects and finding inspiration for everything from home decor to fashion. Creativity category Winner: Adobe Express by Adobe Adobe Express is a design tool that's offers users many free templates and logo designs –suitable for the novice or expert creator! The app is praised for being intuitive, easy to use and plentiful with its offerings. Lastly, users can generate extraordinary effects and images powered by Adobe Firefly. Game category Winner: Asphalt Legends Unite by Gameloft Asphalt Legends Unite sets a benchmark with its high-quality graphics and engaging gameplay. Asphalt Legends Unite offers stunning graphics and a thrilling racing experience with a variety of cars and tracks, making it a favorite among gamers. Asphalt Legends Unite also showcases a cross-device experience, utilizing Xbox services for identity and continuity. Rising Star category – new to Microsoft Store Winner: Endel Music : Focus, Sleep, Relax by Endel Sound Endel stands out for its personalized, real-time soundscapes that enhance focus, relaxation and sleep. Leveraging scientific principles and AI technology, it crafts sound environments tailored to individual preferences. Compatible with various devices, Endel utilizes data such as weather, time of day and heart rate to generate customized soundscapes for specific tasks. Additionally, collaborations with renowned artists bring unique and diverse sound experiences to users. Congratulations to all the winners! All winners will be designated in the Microsoft Store on Windows via a Store Award Winner badge. The above list is subject to final confirmation by the winners. Editor's note – Dec. 3, 2024 – The spelling of the developer of Diarium Journal & Diary was corrected.View the full article

Windows is an open platform that enables all categories of applications to thrive. From individual developers to distributed projects, open-source initiatives and large companies, the vibrant developer community is building innovative, engaging and practical apps for Windows users around the world. And the best place for users to discover that content is through the Microsoft Store on Windows. You can find more information on our commitment to developers, and how to onboard into the Microsoft Store. We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2024 Microsoft Store Awards! This year, we invited nominations from our developer community and selected winners across 14 categories. It is absolutely energizing for us to see our community flourishing, and that is reflected in overwhelming number of nominations we received. Please join us in congratulating the following winners... AI category Winner : dJay Pro Algoriddim by Algoriddim djay Pro offers flawless beat matching and an intuitive interface, ensuring a seamless experience for users. Its wide range of features and compatibility with various streaming services make it a versatile tool for any DJ. One of the standout features of djay Pro is its NeuralMix technology, which leverages the extra processing power of the Snapdragon X Elite NPU. This allows the AI model to be twice as large and more complex than those used on other platforms, resulting in better sound quality and cleaner music stem separation. Performance benchmarks have shown that djay Pro performs significantly faster on an NPU compared to traditional CPUs. Lifestyle category Winner: Diarium Journal & Diary by T. Partl Diarium Journal & Diary offers an easy-to-use and visually stunning interface, making it highly recommended for anyone looking to keep a digital journal. Users have praised its flexibility and the wide range of features it provides, including customizable templates, password protection and media integration. Lastly, users love Diarium’s cross-platform functionality and seamless cloud sync, making it the journal that follows you everywhere! Personal Finance category Winner: TradingView by TradingView, Inc. TradingView combines powerful charting tools, real-time data and a user-friendly interface, making it easy for both beginners and experienced investors to track their portfolios, analyze markets and make informed trading decisions. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools, customizable watchlists and social networking for users interested in learning from others. Users have praised TradingView for its reliability, accuracy and extensive range of indicators and drawing tools, which allow them to tailor their experience to their specific needs. Business category Winner: Gamma by Gamma Gamma stands out for its ability to offer users AI-powered content creation, a user-friendly interface and versatile formats. Its intuitive design, real-time collaboration features and interactive elements make it a favorite among businesses. By automating design and formatting tasks, Gamma saves valuable time, allowing users to focus on what truly matters. Education category Winner: Typing Land by higopage Typing Land has redefined learning through its engaging approach to mastering typing skills. With interactive lessons, fun exercises and a user-friendly interface, it’s perfect for learners of all ages. The app stands out for its innovative curriculum, making typing practice enjoyable and learning effectiveness. Productivity category Winner: Todoist: To-Do List & Planner by Doist Inc. Todoist offers a beautiful user experience for managing workflows, with plentiful and versatile templates. Users love its ease of use, high performance and cross-platform compatibility, making it the best to-do list app. It's the perfect planner for school or work, loved for its functionality and sleek design. Music category Winner: Apple Music by Apple Inc. Apple Music has received user accolades for great performance, pricing, sound quality and tailored music recommendations. It has helped users on Windows stream their favorite songs and discover new ones. Users love the app for its user-friendly interface and lossless audio quality, making it a favorite for streaming music. Health & Fitness category Winner: F.lux by F.lux Software LLC F.lux offers unparalleled flexibility and smooth transitioning between blue light filter states, ensuring a comfortable and healthy viewing experience. Users have praised its well-built UI and the extensive range of customizable features, making it highly recommended for anyone looking to improve their digital well-being. F.lux provides beautiful visualizations that keep users engaged and informed about the impact on their health. Medical category Winner: Complete Anatomy 2024 by 3D4Medical Complete Anatomy 2024 has garnered appreciation from our users for its detailed and precise references, convenient user interface and easy-to-understand tools. It has proven to be an invaluable resource for studying anatomy and is particularly valuable for medical professionals when explaining structural skeletal imbalances to patients. Medical students find it of great value, and it stands out as a cost-effective alternative for learning. Developer Tools category Winner: oh-my posh by jandedobbeleer Whether someone is a tech enthusiast or a developer, Oh My Posh serves as a versatile prompt theme engine for Windows Terminal and other shells. It merges style with functionality, boosting productivity by offering clear directory information at a glance while maintaining a visually appealing interface. With an extensive array of themes and customization options, it ensures users feel comfortable and efficient in their terminal environment. Social category Winner: Pinterest by Pinterest Inc. Pinterest has become an essential tool for users seeking inspiration and ideas for various aspects of their lives. Its user-friendly interface, vast array of pins, and the ability to create and share boards make it a go-to platform for discovering new ideas, planning projects and finding inspiration for everything from home decor to fashion. Creativity category Winner: Adobe Express by Adobe Adobe Express is a design tool that's offers users many free templates and logo designs –suitable for the novice or expert creator! The app is praised for being intuitive, easy to use and plentiful with its offerings. Lastly, users can generate extraordinary effects and images powered by Adobe Firefly. Game category Winner: Asphalt Legends Unite by Gameloft Asphalt Legends Unite sets a benchmark with its high-quality graphics and engaging gameplay. Asphalt Legends Unite offers stunning graphics and a thrilling racing experience with a variety of cars and tracks, making it a favorite among gamers. Asphalt Legends Unite also showcases a cross-device experience, utilizing Xbox services for identity and continuity. Rising Star category – new to Microsoft Store Winner: Endel Music : Focus, Sleep, Relax by Endel Sound Endel stands out for its personalized, real-time soundscapes that enhance focus, relaxation and sleep. Leveraging scientific principles and AI technology, it crafts sound environments tailored to individual preferences. Compatible with various devices, Endel utilizes data such as weather, time of day and heart rate to generate customized soundscapes for specific tasks. Additionally, collaborations with renowned artists bring unique and diverse sound experiences to users. Congratulations to all the winners! All winners will be designated in the Microsoft Store on Windows via a Store Award Winner badge. The above list is subject to final confirmation by the winners. Editor's note – Dec. 3, 2024 – The spelling of the developer of Diarium Journal & Diary was corrected.View the full article

Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, shared the below communication with Microsoft employees this morning. When I look to the next phase of Microsoft, both in terms of our scale and our massive opportunity ahead, it’s clear that we need to continue adding exceptional talent at every level of the organization to increase our depth and capability across our business priorities – spanning security, quality, and AI innovation. Jay Parikh With that context, I’m excited to share that Jay Parikh is joining Microsoft as a member of the senior leadership team (SLT), reporting to me. Jay was the global head of engineering at Facebook (now Meta) and most recently was CEO of Lacework. He has an impressive track record, with a unique combination of experiences building and scaling technical teams that serve both commercial customers and consumers. His deep connections across the start-up and VC ecosystems, coupled with his leadership roles at Akamai and Ning, will bring valuable perspective to Microsoft. Over the years I’ve known Jay, I’ve admired him as a technology leader and respected engineer with a deep commitment to driving innovation and striving for operational excellence. His focus extends beyond technology, with his passion for and dedication to developing people, fostering a strong culture, and building world-class talent, all in service of delivering faster value to customers and driving business growth. In fact, there are very few leaders in our industry with Jay’s experience in leading teams through the rapid growth and scale required to support today’s largest internet businesses. As he onboards, Jay will immerse himself in learning about our company priorities and our culture and will spend time connecting with our senior leaders and meeting with customers, partners, and employees around the world. We will share more on his role and focus in the next few months. Please join me in welcoming Jay to Microsoft. Satya The post Microsoft names Jay Parikh as a member of the senior leadership team appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. View the full article

The pace of AI innovation today continues to be extraordinary, and at Microsoft we are focused on helping organizations embrace it. By providing our customers with the most advanced AI technology across every product we build — combined with our unparalleled partner ecosystem and co-innovation approach — we are helping them make real progress in ways that matter. I am proud to share over 100 customer stories from this quarter alone showing how we are helping customers accelerate AI Transformation — no matter where they are on their journey. Recently during the Microsoft AI Tour, I spoke with customers who shared ways they are adopting Copilots to empower human achievement, democratize intelligence and realize significant business value. I also discussed the concept of an AI-first business process and the differentiation you can drive when bringing together the power of Copilots and human ambition with the autonomous capabilities of an agent. I was inspired by the outcomes our customers have achieved through pragmatic innovation and the progress they are making to evolve the future of industry. I am pleased to share ten stories from the past quarter that illustrate how Copilots have yielded results for our customers, while highlighting AI Transformation experiences in their own words. Accenture and Avanade have a long history of helping customers implement cutting-edge solutions, with internal testing a key factor in their ability to deliver customizable Microsoft solutions with deep expertise. Putting Microsoft 365 Copilot into the hands of employees helped them realize ways to increase productivity, with 52% of employees seeing a positive impact on the quality of their work, 31% reporting less cognitive fatigue and 84% finding Copilot’s suggestions fair, respectful and non-biased. Accenture also piloted GitHub Copilot to help build better solutions faster with developers spending less time debugging, resulting in 95% of developers reporting they enjoyed coding more. “Using our extensive Microsoft technology expertise and practical learnings from our own experience implementing Microsoft 365 Copilot, our solutions empower clients to fully tap into Microsoft AI capabilities.” Veit Siegenheim, Global Future of Work Lead at Avanade Nigerian multinational financial services group Access Holdings Plc. serves more than 56 million customers across 18 countries. As the business grew and transitioned from a small bank to a major holding company, it adopted Microsoft 365 Copilot to address challenges in data management, meeting productivity and software development. With the integration of Copilot into daily tools, the company significantly enhanced efficiency and engagement across the business. Writing code now takes two hours instead of eight, chatbots can be launched in 10 days instead of three months and presentations can be prepared in 45 minutes instead of six hours. Copilot has also driven a 25% increase in staff engagement during meetings. “To inspire everyone in the organization to take advantage of AI, we knew we had to integrate AI into the tools people use every day. Microsoft 365 Copilot made the most sense and was a natural fit for us.” Lanre Bamisebi, Executive Director IT and Digitalization at Access Holdings, Plc. To improve resident services and reinvent customer engagement, the City of Burlington, Ontario, embraced AI and low-code tools to develop new online services that transform and automate internal processes. In just eight weeks, the city utilized Copilot Studio to develop and launch a custom copilot designed to help residents quickly find answers to frequently asked questions. The city also developed a portal that streamlines building permit reviews and enables customers to track the status of their own applications. As a result, the average time it takes to process a permit approval decreased from 15 weeks to 5-7 weeks, allowing more time for city employees to evaluate complex submissions. “Our staff and citizens do not have to worry about mundane tasks as much anymore. Now they’re able to have rich, collaborative conversations about how to creatively solve problems, making for a much more fulfilling and rewarding work and customer experience.” Chad MacDonald, Executive Director and Chief Information Officer at the City of Burlington Finastra empowers financial institutions with leading software for lending, payments, treasury, capital markets and universal banking. To transform its marketing processes, the company used Microsoft 365 Copilot to automate tasks, enhance content creation, improve analytics and personalize customer interactions. Since integrating Copilot, the team reduced time-to-market for campaigns from three months to less than one. Copilot also significantly reduced the time marketers spend generating and gathering insights from each campaign, with employees citing a 20%-50% time savings across tasks like full-funnel analysis, supply management analysis and budget management. “Copilot makes you more effective because you get better insights, and it makes you more efficient because you can produce results faster. It also makes work more meaningful and fun because your team can focus on what matters — strategy, creativity and everything that sets you apart from the competition.” Joerg Klueckmann, Head of Corporate Marketing and Communications at Finastra GoTo Group provides technology infrastructure and solutions across Indonesia. It is bending the curve on innovation by significantly enhancing productivity and code quality across its engineering teams by adopting GitHub Copilot. With real-time code suggestions, chat assistance and the ability to break down complex coding concepts, the company has saved over seven hours per week and achieved a 30% code acceptance rate within the first month. With 1,000 engineers already using GitHub Copilot, the tool allows them to innovate faster, reduce errors and focus more time on complex tasks to deliver greater value to their users. “GitHub Copilot has significantly reduced syntax errors and provided helpful autocomplete features, eliminating repetitive tasks and making coding more efficient. This has allowed me to focus on the more complex elements in building great software.” Nayana Hodi, Engineering Manager at GoTo Group South Africa’s Milpark Education faced operational challenges when shifting to online learning due to legacy systems slowing down student interactions and support. Through close collaboration with Enterprisecloud, Milpark migrated its back-office infrastructure to Azure within three months, replacing its legacy student admissions system with an extensible, integrated digital platform powered by technologies such as Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Studio. In just four months, the educational institution improved efficiency and accuracy of student support, decreasing the average resolution time by 50% and escalations by more than 30%. “Using Copilot, agents are now able to use generative AI to rapidly get up to speed on case details and respond to students using standardized templates that help them provide more personalized and professional responses. The results speak for themselves.” Shaun Dale, Managing Director at Enterprisecloud For over two decades, Teladoc Health has been offering a broad spectrum of services to patients using virtual care services — from primary care to chronic condition management. After the rapid growth of telehealth adoption post-pandemic, operational efficiency was instrumental in managing internal processes and external client interactions. By deploying Microsoft 365 Copilot and using Copilot in Power Automate, the company has reshaped business processes to help employees realize greater time savings while enhancing the client experience. The Copilots and agents helped employees save five hours per week and thousands of enterprise hours annually by eliminating mundane daily processes and fostering better cross-department communications, while also helping new employees get set up to run their workflows 20% faster. “Copilot is changing the way we work. It’s not just about saving time; it’s about enhancing the quality of our work, allowing us to focus on what truly matters: delivering exceptional care to our members.” Heather Underhill, SVP Client Experience & Operations at Teladoc Health International energy company Uniper adopted a single-cloud strategy with Azure as its foundation to drive rapid AI innovation. To help its employees focus on using core competencies, the company implemented Microsoft 365 Copilot to reduce time spent on manual and repetitive tasks, and help workers focus on more pressing work, such as developing enhanced solutions to speed up the energy transition. Its in-house auditors have already increased productivity by 80% by using Copilot to create plans and checklists. Uniper is also using Copilot for Security to help identify risks twice as fast and take appropriate action sooner. “As an operator of critical infrastructure, we have to contend with a growing number of reports of phishing and attacks by hackers. AI can help us implement a sensible way of managing the sheer number of threats.” Damian Bunyan, CIO at Uniper British telecommunications company Vodafone has transformed its workplace productivity with Microsoft 365 Copilot, already seeing strong ROI from its adoption. In early trials, Copilot saved employees an average of three hours per week by using the tool to draft emails, summarize meetings and search for information. Copilot is also enriching the employee experience, with 90% of users reporting they are eager to continue using Copilot and 60% citing improved work quality. For Vodafone’s legal and compliance team, Copilot has significantly accelerated the processes of drafting new contracts, reducing the time required to complete this work by one hour. As a result of these efficiency gains, Vodafone is rolling out Copilot to 68,000 employees. “Our AI journey is focusing on three areas: operational efficiency inside the organization; rewiring the business to provide an enhanced customer experience; and unlocking growth opportunities through new products and services that we can create around generative AI. Copilot will help drive all three.” Scott Petty, Chief Technology Officer at Vodafone Wallenius Wilhelmsen, a global leader in roll-on/roll-off shipping and vehicle logistics, is empowering better decision-making while fostering a culture of innovation and inclusion with AI tools. After participating in an early access program, the company broadly adopted Microsoft Copilot 365 to help streamline processes, enhance data management and improve communication across its 28 countries. To help strengthen Copilot immersion and realize value faster, they introduced a seven-week Microsoft Viva campaign to teach, communicate and measure Copilot adoption. The campaign resulted in 80% of employees using Copilot, with some teams realizing time savings of at least 30 minutes per day. The company also uses Copilot Dashboard to manage usage and gather user feedback, helping demonstrate ROI and measure results outside of time savings alone. “Copilot changes the way we think and work while keeping us curious and open to embracing opportunities. I think that is the sort of benefit that is not so measurable, but important. So, my time management and structured approach to my everyday work life has been enhanced with Copilot and Viva.” Martin Hvatum, Senior Global Cash Manager at Wallenius Wilhelmsen I believe that no other company has a better foundation to facilitate your AI Transformation than Microsoft. As we look ahead to Microsoft Ignite, I am excited by the latest innovation we will announce as a company, and the customer and partner experiences we will share. We remain committed to driving innovation that creates value in ways that matter most to our customers, and believe we are at our best when we serve others. There has never been a better opportunity for us to accomplish our mission of empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more than now, and I look forward to the ways we will partner together to help you achieve more with AI. AI Customer Stories from FY25 Q1 Accelleron: Accelleron turbocharges IT support solutions and resolution times with Power Platform Agnostic Intelligence: Agnostic Intelligence transforms risk management with Azure OpenAI Service, achieving up to 80% time savings Alaska Airlines: How Alaska Airlines uses technology to ensure its passengers have a seamless journey from ticket purchase to baggage pickup Allgeier: Allgeier empowers organizations to own and expand data operations ANZ Group: ANZ launches first-of-its-kind AI Immersion Centre in partnership with Microsoft Asahi Europe & International: Asahi Europe & International charts new paths in employee productivity with Microsoft Copilot Auburn University: Auburn University empowers thousands of students, faculty and staff to explore new ways of using AI with Microsoft Copilot Avanade: Avanade equips 10,000 employees with Microsoft Fabric skills to help customers become AI-driven and future-ready Azerbaijan Airlines: Azerbaijan Airlines expands data access to increase efficiency by 70% with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Aztec Group: Aztec Group uses Copilot for Microsoft 365 to enhance the client experience whilst powering efficiencies Bader Sultan: Bader Sultan uses Microsoft Copilot to boost productivity and serve clients faster BaptistCare: BaptistCare supports aging Australians and tackles workforce shortages through Microsoft 365 Copilot Barbeque Mania!: Barbecue Mania! centralizes your data with Microsoft Azure and saves $3.5 million over 5 years Bank of Montreal: Bank of Montreal reduces costs by 30% with Azure BlackRock: How BlackRock’s ‘flight crew’ helped Copilot for Microsoft 365 take off Capita: Capita uses GitHub Copilot to free developers and deliver faster for customers Cassidy: Cassidy and Azure OpenAI Service: Making AI simple for all Cdiscount: Cdiscount, Azure OpenAI Service and GitHub Copilot join forces for e-commerce Celebal: Celebal drives custom business transformations with Microsoft Fabric Chalhoub Group: Chalhoub Group’s People Analytics team speeds reporting with Microsoft Fabric ClearBank: ClearBank processes 20 million payments a month — up from 8,000 — with platform built on Azure Cloud Services: Faster with Fabric: Cloud Services breaks new ground with Microsoft Coles Supermarkets: Coles Supermarkets embraces AI, cloud applications in 500-plus stores with Azure Stack HCI​ Commercial Bank of Dubai: Commercial Bank of Dubai: innovating a future proof banking platform with Microsoft Azure CPFL: CPFL expands its data repository by 1500% with Mega Lake project on Microsoft Azure Cummins: Cummins uses Microsoft Purview to automate information governance more efficiently in the age of AI Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA): DEWA pioneers the use of Azure AI Services in delivering utility services Digi Rogaland: Digi Rogaland prioritizes student safety with Bouvet and Microsoft Fabric Eastman: Eastman catalyzes cybersecurity defenses with Copilot for Security E.ON: A modern workspace in transition: E.ON relies on generative AI to manage data floods with Copilot for Microsoft 365 EPAM Systems: Efficiency inside and out: EPAM streamlines communications for teams and clients with Copilot for Microsoft 365 EY: EY redefines sustainability performance management with Microsoft Fast Shop: Fast Shop consolidated its data platform on Microsoft Azure and is now ready for the era of AI FIDO Tech: AI tool uses sound to pinpoint leaky pipes, saving precious drinking water Florida Crystals Corporation: Telecom expenses for Florida Crystals dropped 78% with Teams Phone and Teams Rooms Four Agency: Four Agency innovates with Microsoft 365 Copilot to deliver better work faster Fractal: Fractal builds innovative retail and consumer goods solutions with Microsoft’s AI offerings including Azure OpenAI Service GE Aerospace: GE Aerospace launches company-wide generative AI platform for employees Georgia Tech Institute for Data Engineering and Science: Georgia Tech is accelerating the future of electric vehicles using Azure OpenAI Service Hitachi Solutions: Hitachi Solutions transforms internal operations with Microsoft Fabric IBM Consulting: How IBM Consulting drives AI-powered innovation with Fabric expertise iLink Digital: Transforming user-driven analytics with Microsoft Fabric Insight Enterprises: Insight Enterprises achieves 93% Microsoft Copilot use rate, streamlining business operations to pave the way for customer success Intesa Sanpaolo: Intesa Sanpaolo accrues big cybersecurity dividends with Microsoft Sentinel, Copilot for Security ITOCHU Corporation: ITOCHU uses Microsoft Fabric and Azure AI Studio to evolve its data analytics dashboard into a service delivering instant recommendations IU International University of Applied Sciences (IU): IU revolutionizes learning for its students with the AI study buddy Syntea and Azure OpenAI Service John Cockerill: John Cockerill engages pro developers to build enterprise-wide apps with Power Platform Kaya Limited: Kaya Limited elevates customer experience and operational efficiency with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power BI LexisNexis: LexisNexis elevates legal work with AI using Copilot for Microsoft 365 Lionbridge: Lionbridge disrupts localization industry using Azure OpenAI Service and reduces turnaround times by up to 30% Lotte Hotels & Resorts: Hotelier becomes a citizen developer, building a smart work culture based on Power Platform and hyper-automated work environment Lumen Technologies: Microsoft and Lumen Technologies partner to power the future of AI and enable digital transformation to benefit hundreds of millions of customers LS ELECTRIC: LS ELECTRIC uses data to optimize power consumption with Sight Machine and Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing MAIRE: MAIRE, transforming the energy sector and an entire company culture with Microsoft 365 Copilot Mandelbulb Technologies: Early-adopter Mandelbulb Technologies finds success with Fabric McKnight Foundation: McKnight Foundation accelerates its mission and supports community partners with Microsoft 365 Copilot MISO: MISO undergoes a digital transformation with Microsoft Industry Solutions Delivery Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI): Recognizing the essence of AI and building the future with clients: MHI’s DI to create proprietary architecture using Azure OpenAI Service Molslinjen: Molslinjen develops an AI-powered dynamic pricing strategy with Azure Databricks National Australia Bank: National Australia Bank invests in an efficient, cloud-managed future with Windows 11 Enterprise Nagel-Group: Works agreements and contracts: Nagel-Group uses Azure OpenAI Service to help employees find information NC Fusion: Elevating experiences with AI, from productivity to personalization National Football League Players Association: The National Football League Players Association and Xoriant use Azure AI Services to provide protection to players across 32 teams Northwestern Medicine: Northwestern Medicine deploys DAX Copilot embedded in Epic within its enterprise to improve patient and physician experiences Oncoclínicas: Oncoclínicas creates web portal and mobile app to store clinical and medical procedures with Azure Cognitive Services PA Consulting: PA Consulting saves hours a week with Copilot for Microsoft 365 and Copilot for Sales Parexel: Parexel speeds operational insights by 70% using Microsoft Azure, accelerating data product delivery and reducing manual work Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC): From weeks to days, hours to seconds: PIC automates work processes to save time with Microsoft 365 Copilot PKSHA Technology: PKSHA leans on Copilot for Microsoft 365 as part of their team Planted: Planted combines economic growth and environmental sustainability — with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Profisee: Profisee eliminates data siloes within Microsoft Fabric Programa De Atención Domiciliaria: The Home Care Program in Panama helped more than 17,000 people with the power of Microsoft Power Automate PwC: PwC scales GenAI for enterprise with Microsoft Azure AI QNET: QNET increases security response efficiency 60 percent with Microsoft Security Solutions RTI International: Research nonprofit RTI International improves the human condition with Microsoft 365 Copilot Rijksmuseum: Rijksmuseum transforms how art lovers engage with the museum, with Dynamics 365 Sandvik Coromant: Sandvik Coromant hones sales experience with Microsoft Copilot for Sales Share.Market: Share.Market redefines the investment experience with Microsoft Azure Simpson Associates: Simpson Associates spurs justice for at-risk communities with Azure AI Softchoice: Softchoice harnesses Microsoft Copilot and reduces content creation time by up to 70%, accelerating customer AI journeys with its experience Sonata Software: Sonata Software goes from early adopter to market leader with Fabric Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS): SWISS targets 30% cost savings, increased passenger satisfaction with Azure SymphonyAI: SymphonyAI is solving real problems across industries with Azure AI Syndigo: Syndigo accelerates digital commerce for its customers by more than 40% with Azure TAL: TAL and Microsoft join forces on strategic technology deal Tecnológico de Monterrey: Tecnológico de Monterrey university pioneers ambitious AI-powered learning ecosystem Telstra: Telstra and Microsoft expand strategic partnership to power Australia’s AI future The University of Sydney: The University of Sydney utilizes the power of Azure OpenAI to allow professors to create their own AI assistants Torfaen County Borough: Torfaen County Borough Council streamlines organizational support for Social Care using Copilot for Microsoft 365 Trace3: Trace3 expands the realm of clients’ possibilities with Windows 11 Pro and Microsoft Copilot Unilever: Unilever is reinventing the fundamentals of research and development with Azure Quantum Elements University of Wisconsin: Microsoft collaborates with Mass General Brigham and University of Wisconsin–Madison to further advance AI foundation models for medical imaging Via: Marketplace, online support, and remote work: Via embraces the digital world supported by Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Azure Virgin Atlantic: How Virgin Atlantic is flying higher with Copilot Virgin Money: Redi, set, go: Virgin Money delivers exceptional customer experiences with Microsoft Copilot Studio Visier: Visier achieves performance improvements of up to five times using Azure OpenAI Service World2Meet (W2M): World2Meet, the travel company providing a better customer experience and operations with a new virtual assistant powered by Microsoft Azure Xavier College: Xavier College begins a process of modernizing its student information systems on Dynamics 365 and AI, unlocking powerful insights ZEISS: More time for research: ZEISS supports businesses and researchers with ZEISS arivis Cloud based on Microsoft Azure ZF Friedrichshafen AG (ZF Group): ZF Group builds manufacturing efficiency with over 25,000 apps on Power Platform The post How Copilots are helping customers and partners drive pragmatic innovation to achieve business results that matter appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog. 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