Microsoft Ignite Showcases AI’s Impact Across Industries
CHICAGO — November 19, 2024 — At this year’s Microsoft Ignite, a global summit showcasing Microsoft’s latest technological innovations, organizations from various sectors are spotlighting how they are using the Microsoft Copilot and AI stack to significantly transform their operations.
Companies across the globe are implementing generative AI to enhance employee capabilities and provide better services to their customers. NASA’s Earth Science Data Systems Program is utilizing the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to create its Earth Copilot solution, while Accenture plans to deploy Microsoft 365 Copilots and agents to 200,000 employees, and has already begun rolling them out to 100,000.
Internal Microsoft data along with third-party research points to the ongoing AI boom. More than 85% of Fortune 500 companies are using Microsoft AI, with nearly 70% utilizing the Microsoft 365 Copilot. A global IDC survey revealed that the use of generative AI jumped from 55% in 2023 to 75% in 2024. Further, the study showed that for every $1 a company invests in generative AI, the return on investment (ROI) is $3.7x. IDC also forecasts that worldwide spending on AI will reach $632 billion by 2028.
These statistics are impressive, but the real story is in the outcomes. Here are a few of the success stories shared at Microsoft Ignite:
Transforming Operations and Efficiency
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ABB Group: The company’s Genix Copilot, built using Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, helps industrial-sector customers manage their carbon footprint by providing natural language answers and actionable insights from their industrial IoT and analytics data. When a customer asked, “What’s the status of carbon emission across all our plants?” the system reported that a plant was nearing its carbon emissions cap and recommended specific steps to prevent excess emissions. This proactive approach has led to significant cost savings, increased production efficiency, and improvements in sustainability. Rajesh Ramachandran, Global Chief Digital Officer for Process Automation at ABB, stated that Genix Copilot is expected to drive a 20% increase in sales, an 80% reduction in service calls.
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Air India: Has enhanced its customer experience by migrating its workloads to Microsoft Azure, developing an AI-powered virtual assistant, AI.g. It can handle 30,000 daily queries on topics like bookings and flight status, freeing up contact center staff to deal with more complex issues. Dr. Satya Ramaswamy, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Air India, noted that call volume has remained constant even though passenger counts have doubled, “That saves us several million dollars a year. And AI.g would not have been possible without strong collaboration with Microsoft.”
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C.H. Robinson: This logistics platform automated its email price quoting system using Microsoft Azure AI to significantly reduce response times from hours to just 32 seconds. Mark Albrecht, Vice President of Data Science at C.H. Robinson, said, “Incorporating Azure AI in our tech has helped put us on pace to achieve another 15% increase in productivity this year.” This automation allows employees to focus on delivering more value to their clients.
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Eaton: The intelligent power management company is leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot to streamline operations, enhance data access, and centralize knowledge. Copilot helped Eaton document over 9,000 standard operating procedures (SOPs), resulting in an 83% time savings for each SOP documented. Katrina Redmond, CIO at Eaton Corp, said, “We’re working to get information out of people’s heads, to get the expertise of the organization into technology where it’s accessible.”
Boosting Productivity and Employee Experience
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Campari Group: This leader in the spirits industry embraced Microsoft 365 Copilot, enabling its employees (Camparistas) to integrate Generative AI capabilities into their daily work. Early adopters report saving 16 to 30 minutes a day. Jeremie Mortiz, Global Consumer Engagement Senior Director at Campari Group, said, “Copilot is a game changer…We’re focusing on what matters most — creativity and decision-making rather than spending time on time-consuming tasks.”
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Dentsu: The integrated marketing solutions agency uses Microsoft Azure AI to help employees interpret media metrics and reduce analysis time by 80%. Becca Kline, Senior Director of Analytics at Dentsu, said, “We can complete media plans faster and with more confidence to help clients optimize their media spend and exceed their goals for customer response.”
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Lenovo: Uses Dynamics 365 Contact Center and Dynamics 365 Customer Service, both with Copilot, to deliver an AI-powered chat service to streamline support operations. Chen Lu, Director, Services IT Delivery at Lenovo, said, “As a result, average handling time has fallen by 20% and agent productivity is up 15%.”
Accelerating Research and Development
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Mars Veterinary Health: Used a Mistral Large Language Model from the Azure AI Studio model catalog to build RapidRead, a new diagnostic tool to review X-ray images and provide a diagnosis for a human radiologist to review, potentially saving hundreds of pets in life-threatening situations. Jerry Martin, Vice President, Research & Development at Mars Science & Diagnostics, said, “Clinics are now getting results in mere minutes versus hours or days…We are saving more lives and pets are home with their families much, much faster. For Mars, that is the best metric by which we can measure our success.”
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Medigold Health: Has transformed its operations with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Azure Cosmos DB, and Azure SQL database. These tools automate manual aspects of traditional client health assessments, leading to a 58% rise in clinician retention and job satisfaction. Alex Goldsmith, CEO of Medigold Health, said, ” One clinician told me that since we started using AI, they’ve been able to see their family more — that means everything.”
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Ontada: Utilizes Microsoft Azure AI to process over 150 million unstructured oncology document components to extract valuable information and accelerate cancer research and development. Amy O’Sullivan, Chief Research Officer at Ontada, said, “Utilizing Azure OpenAI Service, we are now processing over 150 million unstructured data documents in half the time it previously took.”
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Toyota Motor Corporation: Is using Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Azure Functions, and Cosmos DB to build a system of generative AI agents to capture and share internal expertise, allowing them to develop vehicle models faster. Kenji Onishi, automotive engineer at Toyota said, “When they retire, their knowledge will be gone. The mission here is to prevent it from happening. So we’d like to transfer this knowledge to the next generation.”
These real-world examples demonstrate how companies in multiple industries are embracing Microsoft AI to reinvent customer engagement, enrich employee experiences, reshape business processes, and drive significant innovation. For more insights, you can visit the Microsoft AI in Action page to see how leading companies are using AI to transform and innovate.
