Microsoft has reinforced its desire to be the AI backbone for businesses of all sizes as it looks to empower companies and industries across the world.
Speaking at the firm’s Microsoft Envision event in London, Judson Althoff, EVP and Chief Commercial Officer, noted how the role of AI is set to be the next step for many firms following the previous trends of cloud computing and digital transformation.
But Althoff emphasized that Microsoft is keen for its work to be recognized as not just the next step, but as a platform for real change and innovation for organizations everywhere.
AI transformation
“AI transformation is going to follow many of the same rules of digital transformation,” Althoff told his audience. “Many of you embarked upon your cloud journeys many years ago, and one rule really applied - that digital transformation was business transformation, empowered by technology, and in that order.”
“AI transformation must be about pragmatic innovation and applied use of AI to move your business forward - it's critical for us that the work that we're doing, the innovation that we're putting forward, the research and development we're applying to our capabilities actually creates the business yield for each and every one of you.”
Althoff highlighted a wide range of use cases for AI technologies in business, with chatbots, security and coding all mentioned as areas where its tools could benefit firms. A particularly striking demo showcased the company’s Azure OpenAI Studio creating a bespoke copilot for a business.
He also pointed to the imminent general release of Microsoft Fabric, set for November 1, as a crucial juncture for the company, bringing a real-world generative AI platform to a business by tying up end-to-end analytics.
“This last decade has been a real journey for us,” he added, “We're excited to embark on this journey with this journey that you're all on, to partner with you on your AI transformation to help you unlock new employee experiences, to help you enrich customer engagement, help you reshape businesses, and reshape innovation.”
“AI transformation is going to reshape how companies think about their employees, how they think about engaging with their customers, how they think about their own businesses, and how they think about innovation.”
“Our mission is to empower every person at every organization on the planet to achieve more, and we believe this new era of AI transformation allows us to live more true to our mission than ever before.”
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