AI (Artificial Intelligence) has become a key driver for industrial transformation. Companies around the world have leveraged it to optimize manufacturing processes, reduce costs and production times, and even improve product quality. What is the role of the Microsoft Cloud powered by artificial intelligence?
In our last blog “Microsoft Dynamics 365, the smarter alternative to evolve” we highlighted how Microsoft Dynamics 365 mixed ERP and CRM solutions are a great alternative to create solid experiences for your customers and accelerate your business growth.
This time, we will take a little deeper journey into the world of Microsoft solutions to understand how its cloud has contributed to the accelerated transformation of AI across multiple industries in the global economy. But first, let’s take a look at some history.
A short overview of the history of Artificial Intelligence
1950: For many, the story begins here, when Alan Turing, considered the father of artificial intelligence, published an article in Mind magazine titled “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”, in which he questioned whether machines could think.
1956: For others, the golden age and starting point dates to 1956, when the computer scientist John McCarthy during the Darmouth conference (considered as the event where the concept was born) used the term artificial intelligence. In addition, advances were made in areas such as natural language processing, problem solving and machine learning.
1980- 1997: there was a renaissance of AI with a renewed focus on machine learning and neural networks. More sophisticated algorithms and techniques were developed for pattern recognition and decision making.
2002: iRobot launches Roomba, a robotic vacuum cleaner for household cleaning.
2008: iPhones incorporate a voice recognition application for the first time.
2011: IBM’s Watson supercomputer surprises the world with its ability to interact with human speech, and Apple introduces its Siri virtual assistant.
2012: Google introduces its virtual assistant Google Now.
2014: Microsoft introduces its virtual assistant Cortana.
2017: in a poker tournament called “Brains vs. Artificial Intelligence”, the Alpha Go machine beats 4 professional players.
2018: artificial intelligence plays a major role in the automotive sector with automated driving in the case of Tesla.
2019: use increases in other industries such as mobility, financial, insurance and tourism as leveraging predictive models of human behavior.
2020-2021: Covid-19 favors advances in the health sector to predict and control outbreaks of contagion.
2022: there is a notable growth in offices, work areas and homes through voice assistants from Google, Amazon, or Apple.
The truth is that in the last year the boom has been greater. Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a critical catalyst for business success and progress across all industry sectors. As technology continues to advance by leaps and bounds, AI has proven to be a powerful tool that drives innovation, improves operational efficiency and generates competitive advantage.
Which Microsoft solutions are related to AI?
Microsoft offers multiple solutions that use artificial intelligence and are contributing significantly to the growth of the industry. All under a premise that is the operation of a responsible AI. For this purpose, they have created an Engineering and Research Ethics Committee in charge of centralizing information and working closely with the development teams. To highlight some of them:
Azure Cognitive Services: a set of cloud-based services that enable developers to add AI capabilities to their applications without the need for extensive experience. These solutions enable businesses to improve user experience, automate tasks and processes, and gain valuable insights from data.
Dynamics 365 AI: a solution that combines AI capabilities with Microsoft Dynamics 365 business applications. This enables organizations to improve customer relationship management, optimize business operations, and make data-driven decisions.
Power BI: a business analytics platform that uses AI to provide advanced analytics, interactive visualizations, and personalized dashboards. It helps to automatically identify patterns, make forecasts and recommendations, and provide valuable information for decision making. This enables companies to better understand their data, uncover hidden information and improve their business performance.
Among others are Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Viva Sales, Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, Dynamics 365 Marketing, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Business Central, 365 Supply Chain Management, GitHub Copilot and more.
These Microsoft Cloud products and solutions, leveraging AI, are designed to help businesses reach their full potential in 6 critical areas: security, infrastructure, digital and application innovation, data, and modern work.
How has Microsoft contributed to the evolution of companies?
It is increasingly critical for the world’s enterprises and leaders in various industries to embrace AI to achieve a business that is data-driven, but also empowered with digital and cloud capabilities. And this is where Microsoft comes in to play an important role, to help those organizations leverage generative AI as an accelerator of innovation and transformation.
Microsoft modernizes manufacturing operations to reduce costs, increase efficiency and security.
There are several examples. Around the world, thousands of companies have been benefiting from all that Microsoft has to offer. For example, Mercedes Benz, from the conversational AI capabilities of Azure Open AI Service, has managed to offer better customer service with the Mercedes Virtual Assistant, where customers can interact with their vehicles to get answers to numerous questions about the operation of the vehicle.
In the case of Coca-Cola, they have been relying on Microsoft Azure for the scaling of their financial and supply chain operations for some years now. Through AI they have been able to monitor and analyze the consumption and costs of resources in the cloud, allowing them to identify areas where they can optimize the use of resources, eliminate unnecessary or underutilized services.
And to highlight another interesting case, FUJIFILM created their Cash Application service with Azure AI and Dynamics 365 to automate 20% of their manual billing processes. In this way they were able to optimize infrastructure and operations expenses, to focus on their specific needs and avoid unnecessary costs.
How has Microsoft revolutionized the retail industry?
Unilever is quite an interesting success case. Their need was to accelerate product launches and improve customer service, so they decided to adopt Microsoft Azure, making it their main cloud platform, and achieving one of the largest migrations to the cloud in the consumer goods industry. With Azure Machine Learning they built and deployed machine learning models, facilitating the building, and training of AI models in a collaborative development environment.
Campari Group, an Italian company producing alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages with a portfolio of more than 40 brands and distribution in more than 190 countries leverages the capabilities and benefits of Dynamics 365 Copilot. With AI and this solution, it has achieved more personalized content creation and deeper understanding of its audience’s behavior, to double the impact of its marketing actions and campaigns.
How has Microsoft revolutionized the financial sector?
Microsoft has made very close alliances with companies in this sector. Not only offering its innovative solutions, but it has also provided them with advice and support to adopt artificial intelligence effectively. In addition to AI training and certification programs to help professionals and developers in the financial industry acquire the necessary skills to take full advantage of these technologies.
In Australia, Triday, an entity that provides small businesses with comprehensive control of their money, including transaction accounts and debit and credit cards, leveraging Microsoft solutions with artificial intelligence and machine learning, has simplified administrative tasks and improved financial management solutions, freeing up time for business owners so they don’t lose focus on their business.
HDFC Bank, an Indian banking and financial services company based in Mumbai, uses Microsoft Cloud to securely modernize its data landscape to scale information management and data analytics. With Azure Machine Learning and Big Data, they have been able to validate, deploy and implement machine learning AI models efficiently.
And traveling to the other side of the world, in Brazil, ClearSale, an e-commerce fraud protection entity, combines advanced AI and human intelligence to ensure that fraudsters or hackers do not make e-commerce purchases.
Microsoft has played a significant role in driving scalability and innovation for companies around the world.
In summary, Microsoft has contributed significantly to the advancement of enterprises with its AI-leveraged solutions. Its AI platforms, tools, and services, as well as its efforts, have enabled enterprises to embrace innovation more effectively, drive transformation, and improve their ability to meet the challenges of today’s business world.
Its research and development efforts have enabled companies to efficiently scale their resources according to changing needs. This has facilitated the adoption and expansion of large-scale artificial intelligence projects.
Do you want to accelerate your company’s innovation?
Rely on Interfaz. As Microsoft Partners, we have worked with customers in the retail and financial industries, enabling them to leverage the capabilities of the solutions we offer.
If you are looking for a reliable and experienced partner, count on our team of experts. Together we can find the solution that best fits your business vision with the support that only Microsoft can offer.
Source: Microsoft Partner Go-to-market | BBVA Open Mind | IA Latam