For example, 15 million developers are already using GitHub Copilot, and features like agent mode and code review are streamlining the way they code, check, deploy and troubleshoot.

Hundreds of thousands of customers are using Microsoft 365 Copilot to help research, brainstorm and develop solutions, and more than 230,000 organizations — including 90% of the Fortune 500 — have already used Copilot Studio to build AI agents and automations.

Companies like Fujitsu and NTT Data are using Azure AI Foundry to build and manage AI apps and agents that help prioritize sales leads, speed proposal creation and surface client insights. Stanford Health Care is using Microsoft’s healthcare agent orchestrator to build and test AI agents that can help alleviate the administrative burden and speed up the workflow for tumor board preparation.

Developers are at the center of it all. For 50 years Microsoft has been empowering developers with tools and platforms to turn their ideas into reality, accelerating innovation at every stage. From AI-driven automation to seamless cloud integration and more, it’s exciting to see how developers are fueling the next generation of digital transformation.

So, what’s next?

We envision a world in which agents operate across individual, organizational, team and end-to-end business contexts. This emerging vision of the internet is an open agentic web, where AI agents make decisions and perform tasks on behalf of users or organizations.

At Microsoft Build we’re showing the steps we’re taking to make this vision a reality through our platforms, products and infrastructure. We’re putting new models and coding agents in the hands of developers, introducing enterprise-grade agents, making our platforms like Azure AI Foundry, GitHub and Windows the best places to build, embracing open protocols and accelerating scientific discovery with AI, all so that developers and organizations can go invent the next big thing.

Here’s a glimpse at just a few of the announcements today:

Reimagining the software development lifecycle with AI
AI is fundamentally shifting how code is written, deployed and maintained. Developers are using AI to stay in the flow of their environment longer and to shift their focus to more strategic tasks. And as the software development lifecycle is being transformed, we’re providing new features across platforms including GitHub, Azure AI Foundry and Windows that enable developers to work faster, think bigger and build at scale.

GitHub Copilot coding agent and new updates to GitHub Models: GitHub Copilot is evolving from an in-editor assistant to an agentic AI partner with a first-of-its-kind asynchronous coding agent integrated into the GitHub platform. We’re adding prompt management, lightweight evaluations and enterprise controls to GitHub Models so teams can experiment with best-in-class models, without leaving GitHub. Microsoft is also open-sourcing GitHub Copilot Chat in VS Code. The AI-powered capabilities from GitHub Copilot extensions will now be part of the same open-source repository that drives the world’s most popular development tool. As the home of over 150 million developers, this reinforces our commitment to open, collaborative, AI-powered software development. Learn more about GitHub Copilot updates.
Introducing Windows AI Foundry: For developers, Windows remains one of the most open and widely used platforms available, with scale, flexibility and growing opportunity. Windows AI Foundry offers a unified and reliable platform supporting the AI developer lifecycle across training and inference. With simple model APIs for vision and language tasks, developers can manage and run open source LLMs via Foundry Local or bring a proprietary model to convert, fine-tune and deploy across client and cloud. Windows AI Foundry is available to get started today. To learn more visit our Windows Developer Blog.
Azure AI Foundry Models and new tools for model evaluation: Azure AI Foundry is a unified platform for developers to design, customize and manage AI applications and agents. With Azure AI Foundry Models, we’re bringing Grok 3 and Grok 3 mini models from xAI to our ecosystem, hosted and billed directly by Microsoft. Developers can now choose from more than 1,900 partner-hosted and Microsoft-hosted AI models, while managing secure data integration, model customization and enterprise-grade governance. We’re also introducing new tools like the Model Leaderboard, which ranks the top-performing AI models across different categories and tasks, and the Model Router, designed to select an optimal model for a specific query or task in real-time. Read more about Azure AI Foundry Models.
Making AI agents more capable and secure
AI agents are not only changing how developers build, but how individuals, teams and companies get work done. At Build, we’re unveiling new pre-built agents, custom agent building blocks, multi-agent capabilities and new models to help developers and organizations build and deploy agents securely to help increase productivity in meaningful ways.

With the general availability of Azure AI Foundry Agent Service, Microsoft is bringing new capabilities to empower professional developers to orchestrate multiple specialized agents to handle complex tasks, including bringing Semantic Kernel and AutoGen into a single, developer-focused SDK and Agent-to-Agent (A2A) and Model Context Protocol (MCP) support. To help developers build trust and confidence in their AI agents, we’re announcing new features in Azure AI Foundry Observability for built-in observability into metrics for performance, quality, cost and safety, all incorporated alongside detailed tracing in a streamlined dashboard. Learn more about how to deploy enterprise-grade AI agents in Azure AI Foundry Service.
Discover, protect and govern in Azure AI Foundry: With Microsoft Entra Agent ID, now in preview, agents that developers create in Microsoft Copilot Studio or Azure AI Foundry are automatically assigned unique identities in an Entra directory, helping enterprises securely manage agents right from the start and avoid “agent sprawl” that could lead to blind spots. Apps and agents built with Foundry further benefit from Purview data security and compliance controls. Foundry also offers enhanced governance tools to set risk parameters, run automated evaluations and receive detailed reports. Learn more about Microsoft Entra Agent ID and Azure AI Foundry integrations with Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager.
Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot Tuning and multi-agent orchestration: With Copilot Tuning, customers can use their own company data, workflows and processes to train models and create agents in a simple, low-code way. These agents perform highly accurate, domain-specific tasks securely from within the Microsoft 365 service boundary. For example, a law firm can create an agent that generates documents aligned with its organization’s expertise and style. Additionally, new multi-agent orchestration in Copilot Studio connects multiple agents, allowing them to combine skills and tackle broader, more complex tasks. Check out the Microsoft 365 blog to learn how to access these new tools as well as the Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2 spring release, which has moved to general availability and begins rolling out today.
Supporting the open agentic web
To realize the future of AI agents, we’re advancing open standards and shared infrastructure to provide unique capabilities for customers.

Supporting Model Context Protocol (MCP): Microsoft is delivering broad first-party support for Model Context Protocol (MCP) across its agent platform and frameworks, spanning GitHub, Copilot Studio, Dynamics 365, Azure AI Foundry, Semantic Kernel and Windows 11. In addition, Microsoft and GitHub have joined the MCP Steering Committee to help advance secure, at-scale adoption of the open protocol and announced two new contributions to the MCP ecosystem, an updated authorization specification, which enables people to use their existing trusted sign-in methods to give agents and LLM-powered apps access to data and services such as personal storage drives or subscription services, and the design of an MCP server registry service, which allows anyone to implement public or private, up-to-date, centralized repositories for MCP server entries. Check out the GitHub repository. As we expand our MCP capabilities, our top priority is to ensure we’re building upon a secure foundation. To learn more about this approach see: Securing the Model Context Protocol: Building a Safe Agentic Future on Windows.
A new open project called NLWeb: Microsoft is introducing NLWeb, which we believe can play a similar role to HTML for the agentic web. NLWeb makes it easy for websites to provide a conversational interface for their users with the model of their choice and their own data, allowing users to interact directly with web content in a rich, semantic manner. Every NLWeb endpoint is also an MCP server, so websites can make their content easily discoverable and accessible to AI agents if they choose. Learn more here.
Accelerating scientific discovery with AI
Science may be one of the most important applications of AI, helping to tackle humanity’s most pressing challenges, from drug discovery to sustainability. At Build we’re introducing Microsoft Discovery, an extensible platform built to empower researchers to transform the entire discovery process with agentic AI, helping research and development departments across various industries accelerate the time to market for new products and accelerate and expand the end-to-end discovery process for all scientists. Learn more here.

This is only a small selection of the many exciting features and updates we will be announcing at Build. We’re looking forward to connecting with those who have registered to join us virtually and in-person, for keynote sessions, live code deep dives, hack sessions and more — much of which will be available 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 Microsoft Build 2025: The age of AI agents and building the open agentic web appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

Research has always been an integral part of Microsoft’s identity, driving our role as a global technology leader. Since 1991, Microsoft Research has dedicated itself to a fundamental research approach—advancing knowledge, deepening our understanding of the world, and exploring how technology can empower people and organizations. Through its extensive body of publications and a commitment to openly sharing its work, Microsoft Research continues to collaborate with the global research community to drive breakthroughs in AI and beyond. Together, we are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible to extend human capability, create value for our customers, and deliver broad societal benefit. 

Transforming research with AI at Microsoft Research 

With Microsoft leading the charge in AI, Microsoft Research teams are at the forefront, using our expertise, fostering thought leadership, and driving innovation in AI and research. AI is at the center of many of Microsoft Research’s pioneering projects, from helping researchers analyze massive datasets within seconds, inventing new AI solutions that would benefit humanity, and collaborating with the global research community through the Accelerating Foundation Models Research (AFMR) program.  

Microsoft Research is in a unique position where it can not only adopt and use AI but also invent AI. We have made significant investments in AI, building new AI methods, models, and technologies. To infuse AI more deeply into the research process, an experimental initiative is underway, helping teams move faster, think bigger, and share more effectively. This initiative breaks down into three key strategies: using, infusing, and diffusing AI across the organization. 

• Using AI (Tools and Operations) focuses on optimizing access and advancement of AI.
• Infusing AI (Research and Development) is about maximizing the potential of AI to revolutionize research processes.
• Diffusing AI (Connectivity and Information Flow) ensures rapid sharing of AI insights, tools, and learnings with others, both inside and outside of Microsoft Research. 

The goal is not just to adopt AI, but to augment and reinvent the way research is done—empowering everyone in the organization to achieve more. 

The integration of AI into research processes at Microsoft Research provides valuable insights for researchers and businesses. Using AI can accelerate innovation cycles, improve operational efficiency, and lead to the development of cutting-edge tools and products. These advancements highlight how AI can reinvent traditional workflows, streamline operations, and drive growth and profitability, making it a strategic focus for organizations to implement. 

GraphRAG: Advancing research with knowledge graphs 

GraphRAG is a modular graph-based retrieval augmented generation (RAG) system that uses large language models to create knowledge graphs from raw text. This technique enhances large language model performance on private datasets by providing structured data and summaries, making it easier for researchers to extract meaningful insights from complex data. 

The changes that are happening in AI right now, they really are surprising. The capabilities are expanding so quickly. I think of it as kind of an accelerator. Everything that we do in research, we can do faster, we can ask more questions, and this has all been kind of a warp speed thing.

—Nathan Evans, Principal Software Architect at Microsoft Research 

Data Formulator: Transforming data into insights 

Data Formulator is an innovative tool designed to help researchers quickly explore and analyze data. By using AI, Data Formulator lets users to create rich visualizations without the need for extensive programming knowledge. This tool combines AI and interactive approaches to communicate visualization intent, making data analysis more accessible and efficient 

AI really speeds up our experimentation process. In the past, we really needed to do a lot of hacking over weeks to experiment on designs. But now we can have a high-level thought, we can do the prototype in a short amount of time, and we can start thinking on top of that.

—Chenglong Wang, Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research 

Accelerating Foundation Models Research: Democratizing AI research  

The Accelerating Foundation Models Research (AFMR) program provides academic researchers with access to state-of-the-art foundation models hosted on Microsoft Azure through Microsoft Azure AI services. This initiative fosters a global AI research network and offers robust, trustworthy models that help further research in disciplines ranging from scientific discovery and education to healthcare, multicultural empowerment, legal work, and design. 

The AFMR program works with the broader academic research community to explore different aspects of foundation models to accomplish three goals:  

Goal 1: Align AI with shared human goals, values, and preferences 

This involves enhancing the safety, robustness, sustainability, responsibility, and transparency of AI models. One notable project aligned to this goal is “ERBench: An Entity-Relationship based Automatically Verifiable Hallucination Benchmark for Large Language Models.” For this project, researchers created ERBench which helps in evaluating and improving the accuracy and reliability of AI-generated content. This ensures that AI models align with human values and reduces the risk of misinformation.  

Goal 2: Improve AI-human interactions 

The second goal focuses on improving AI-human interactions by increasing trust, human ingenuity, creativity, and productivity while reducing the risk of developing AI that is harmful for individuals and society. The project “As Generative Models Improve, People Adapt their Prompts” explores how prompting changes as generative AI models improve. Results showed that participants using more advanced models produced better, longer, and more descriptive prompts. This research provides valuable insights into the evolving dynamics between humans and AI, helping to create more intuitive and effective AI systems. 

Goal 3: Accelerate scientific discovery 

The third goal is to accelerate scientific discovery through proactive knowledge discovery, hypothesis generation, and multimodal data generation. One project that exemplifies this goal explored “Artificial Intelligence–Based Copilots to Generate Causal Evidence.” In this initiative, large language models were explored as causal “copilots” to help identify flaws in medical study designs. These models could assist researchers by providing expert guidance in study design, improving the accuracy of conclusions drawn from the studies. 

AI is really important in research because AI has the potential, the huge potential to really accelerate the research, which is needed to address some of the greatest challenges of today and tomorrow.

—Evelyne Viegas, Technical Advisor at Microsoft Research

The next frontier: Looking ahead to the future of AI in research 

As scientific research evolves in an era powered by AI and cloud technologies, the opportunities for innovation, collaboration, and global impact are unprecedented. From accelerating scientific discovery to improving human-agent alignment, foundation models are reshaping how research is conducted, shared, and scaled. Looking ahead, researchers and institutions must not only embrace these tools but also build robust frameworks for adoption, and evaluation. 

There is still much more for us to explore on how we can advance research at Microsoft and we’re just getting started. 

The post Microsoft as customer zero: Empowering research teams with AI appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

It’s remarkable to think how far we’ve come since Microsoft was founded 50 years ago. But what’s truly astonishing is the pace of progress we’re now seeing, as rapid advancements in AI create opportunities to solve industry problems that once seemed intractable.

Microsoft has been at the frontier of AI research and development for decades, and we’re committed to sharing our learnings and insights with stakeholders throughout healthcare and life sciences. That’s why we’ve created the 2025 AI in Healthcare Decision Brief. This in-depth industry analysis is split into two parts: Part 1: Insights on navigating the AI platform shift, and Part 2: Perspectives on the role of AI in shaping the future of healthcare.

Each part features expert perspectives from Microsoft leaders, inspirational examples of AI successes in healthcare and life sciences, and practical advice for accelerating AI adoption in your organization.

Read the 2025 AI in Healthcare Decision Brief, Part 1
Here’s an overview of what you’ll find in the report.

The current state of AI in healthcare and life sciences 
Over half (57%) of life sciences organizations and 45% of healthcare organizations see generative AI as the most important technology to adopt, and 79% are currently using some form of AI.1 While early use cases for generative AI typically focus on boosting productivity, as trust and adoption continue to grow, new use cases will emerge that have a transformational impact on the entire sector—and on patients’ health.

Realizing this AI-powered future of health will require organizations to: 

Create trustworthy AI.
Trustworthy AI is essential for systems that have a direct impact on drug development and patient care—the stakes are too high to compromise on security, privacy, and safety. That’s why the work of collaborative industry bodies like the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) and the Trustworthy and Responsible AI Network (TRAIN) is so vital to build confidence that AI solutions are safe for use in medical research and clinical practice.
Overcome adoption challenges.
While all organizations must overcome concerns around skills, security, compliance, and change management, healthcare-specific AI solutions must also prove their worth in existing workflows.
Understand how to succeed.
Successful adoption depends on having a clear understanding of organizational readiness and the drivers of AI value. The report offers a wealth of best-practice guidance and expert advice on key considerations and practical actions for achieving your desired outcomes with AI.
Learn from the industry’s AI pioneers.
The report also features success stories from Microsoft customers in healthcare and life sciences, showing how they’re overcoming common hurdles and accomplishing ambitious goals.
2025 AI Decision Brief

Get the report
Today’s AI innovations—and tomorrow’s possibilities
AI innovators are already delivering meaningful impact in healthcare and life sciences—from creating synthetic data to accelerate drug development to supporting physicians with real-time clinical insights at the point of care. New technology advances will allow innovators to create solutions that will have an even greater, industry-wide impact, dramatically improving health equity and care outcomes for patients worldwide.

Organizations leading the innovation charge.
Part two of our report explores examples of how startups, established technology companies, and research organizations are innovating and collaborating to advance AI capabilities in healthcare and life sciences.
Technology advancements supporting the next wave of innovation.
Significant advances in underlying infrastructure, data platforms, and foundational models are creating the conditions for a “Cambrian explosion” of AI innovations that will propel scientific progress and support a new age of precision medicine and predictive health.
Advice from Microsoft leaders for accelerating AI success
Maximizing AI’s potentiaL:

Learn more
As we celebrate the accomplishments of Microsoft employees, alumni, partners, and customers over the last half-century, we’re also looking ahead to what the next 50 years could bring, as we continue our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Wherever your organization is on its AI journey, we’re here to make the path smoother and help you achieve the right outcomes.

Get The 2025 AI in Healthcare Decision Brief, Part 1: Insights on navigating the AI platform shift now for Microsoft AI leadership perspectives on: 

Generative AI’s impact in healthcare—Joe Petro, Corporate Vice President, Healthcare and Life Sciences Solutions and Platforms
Staying ahead of emerging challenges and threats with AI and security for AI—Ann Johnson, Microsoft Corporate Vice President and Deputy CISO
Navigating the future of healthcare together—Kees Hertogh, Vice President, Healthcare and Life Sciences Marketing
The role of partners and startups to advance innovation—Sally Frank, Worldwide Lead, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Microsoft for Startups
Building trust to operationalize responsible AI in healthcare—Dr. David Rhew, Chief Medical Officer and Vice President for Healthcare
Read The 2025 AI in Healthcare Decision Brief, Part 2: Perspectives on the role of AI in shaping the future of healthcare for more leadership perspectives on:

Empowering people to deliver and receive better health—responsibly and purposefully—Dr. Peter Lee, President, Microsoft Research
The real-world impact of AI in healthcare—Matthew Lungren, MD MPH, Chief Scientific Officer, Healthcare and Life Sciences
Microsoft’s commitment to supporting customers to succeed with AI—Patty Carrolo, Corporate Vice President, US Healthcare and Life Sciences
Building the AI-powered future of health—Kathleen Mitford, Corporate Vice President, Global Industry Marketing
Explore the 2025 AI in Healthcare Decision Brief
For insights on how to navigate the AI platform shift, read Part 1.
For perspectives on the role AI plays in shaping the future of healthcare, read Part 2.
1McKinsey, Market perspective: AI and GenAI in Life Sciences

The post The AI-powered future of health: Insights from Microsoft leaders appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

AI is rapidly accelerating Japan’s transformation—driving innovation, unlocking new opportunities, and helping organizations reimagine what’s possible. Across industries such as manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, and IT, we’re seeing businesses embed AI into their core operations to improve efficiency, enhance service, and stay competitive. At the same time, government agencies at every level are embracing AI to modernize how they serve citizens and meet the needs of a changing society.

One of the most exciting developments is the rise of AI agents—autonomous systems that can reason, respond, and act with minimal human input. These agents have the potential to play a central role in Japan’s future. Interpreter agents, for example, could help overcome long-standing language barriers, enabling Japanese companies to participate more fully and confidently in the global economy.

At Microsoft, we are proud to support this momentum. Through our growing ecosystem of AI tools, cloud platforms, and strong local partnerships, we are committed to helping Japan lead in this new era. That commitment includes one of our largest-ever investments in the country, focused on expanding cloud infrastructure, advancing cybersecurity, developing talent, and deepening research.

These themes came to life at the recent Microsoft AI Tour in Tokyo, where I had the privilege of joining thousands of business leaders and developers to explore the future of AI. The energy and ambition on display made one thing clear: Japan is not just adopting AI—it is shaping the future with it.

Japan Airlines transforms inflight events reporting with AI-powered app

Japan Airlines (JAL), Japan’s flagship carrier, is developing the JAL-AI, an AI-powered app that streamlines how cabin attendants document inflight events. Previously, reporting events like medical emergencies or delays could take up to an hour and were prone to omissions. Now, using Microsoft’s Phi-4 small language model, attendants can enter keywords and select relevant options, and the AI is designed to generate detailed reports—even offline.

The tool has cut reporting time by up to two-thirds, allowing crew to spend more time with passengers and enhance service quality. JAL’s future objective is to facilitate the automatic generation of reports based on transcribed verbal accounts from cabin attendants.

The app is part of a broader generative AI rollout launched in mid-2023. All 36,500 JAL Group employees now can assess AI tools with JAL-AI on Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service platform for tasks like email drafting, document summarization, and translation. JAL sees generative AI as central to transforming operations and customer service, with people and AI working together to improve performance.

Sumitomo Corporation gains productivity and operational efficiency with Microsoft 365 Copilot

Sumitomo Corporation implemented Microsoft 365 Copilot company-wide as part of a strategic push to boost productivity, empower employees, and drive sustainable business growth. The rollout followed Sumitomo’s participation in the Early Access Program (EAP) in September 2023, where executives and tech savvy employees tested Copilot in practical, day-to-day scenarios and reported high satisfaction, especially from those managing heavy information loads.

Copilot has since been deployed to all 8,800 Sumitomo employees and temporary staff, supported by a robust change management strategy including everything from posters and videos to seminars and prompt templates. In addition, the Copilot Champions appointed within each strategic business unit (SBU) act as on-the-ground advisors to build confidence and drive momentum. Likened to such essential infrastructure as phones and PCs, Sumitomo has encouraged employees to adopt generative AI early and take advantage of being ahead of the curve.

By embedding generative AI directly into the Microsoft 365 tools employees already use daily, the company aimed to eliminate time-consuming, repetitive tasks and unlock greater creativity and efficiency across its workforce. These efforts have already delivered measurable impact, with the company reporting annual cost savings of JPY1.2 billion through improved efficiency and productivity, bringing the company closer to their vision of being “No. 1 in Each Field.”

Turing accelerates autonomous driving with Microsoft Azure

Turing Inc. has leveraged Microsoft Azure to accelerate the training, development, and deployment of advanced AI models, with the goal of achieving fully autonomous driving. By harnessing Azure’s scalable computing power and robust infrastructure, Turing has streamlined complex AI workflows, reduce development time, and push the boundaries of safe, self-driving technology.

Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education equips student with AI hackathon

The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education organized a hackathon for public junior and senior high school students, focused on building digital skills through hands-on experience with Microsoft Copilot and Power Platform. Students used the tools to plan and complete their own projects, applying AI and low-code technology in a practical setting.

Every participating team successfully completed their project, resulting in a 100% completion rate. The outcome underscores the effectiveness of integrating generative AI and accessible development platforms into education, enabling students to move from concept to execution with real-world tools.

Aisin expands accessibility with AI-powered speech transcription tool 

Aisin Corporation, best known for automotive components, has extended its innovation efforts to develop the YYSystem—an AI-powered application that transcribes speech into text in real time for individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Built on Microsoft Azure’s AI tools, including generative AI and translation services, the system provides highly accurate transcription, summarization, and translation.

Initially created during COVID-19 to help employees document meetings, the tool proved especially valuable for staff who were deaf or hard-of-hearing. It can recognize and transcribe the unique speech patterns often associated with hearing loss—a breakthrough that has given many users a renewed sense of connection and inclusion.

Encouraged by its impact, Aisin expanded the technology for broader public use, deploying it in government offices and retail settings to promote more inclusive communication.

AI for everyone in Japan

The promise of AI in Japan goes far beyond technology—it’s about creating opportunity for every individual, every business, and every community. Whether in classrooms, public institutions, or corporate offices, AI is already reshaping how we work, learn, and serve. And the momentum is only growing.

At Microsoft Japan, we are deeply committed to making this transformation inclusive and far-reaching. That’s why we are investing not only in infrastructure, but in people. The launch of Microsoft Research Asia–Tokyo in late 2024 marks an important step forward—establishing a hub for advanced research in areas like embodied AI, societal AI, and neuroscience, tailored to the needs and aspirations of Japan.

At the Microsoft AI Tour in Tokyo, we also introduced CyberSmart AI, a new initiative to support small and midsize businesses with AI-powered cybersecurity tools—free of charge for eligible organizations. And through AI Skills Navigators, we’ve set an ambitious goal to help 3 million people in Japan build AI fluency by 2027.

These efforts, together with our USD2.9 billion investment in cloud and AI infrastructure, expanded developer workshops, AI seminars for subject matter experts (SMEs), women-in-tech programs, and a new micro degree in partnership with the United Nations University, reflect our long-term partnership with Japan.

Our vision is clear: to ensure that AI in Japan is not just powerful, but empowering—for everyone.

Find the resources to support your AI journey

• Explore Microsoft’s AI solutions.
• Advance your AI transformation with AI business resources.

The post Transforming Japan with AI: 5 companies from the front lines of innovation appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

At Microsoft, we’ve seen this transformation firsthand. Azure AI Foundry is now used by developers at more than 70,000 enterprises and digital native companies, including Atomicwork, Epic, Fujitsu, Gainsight, H&R Block, and LG Electronics, to design, customize, and manage AI apps and agents. In just four months, over 10,000 organizations have adopted our new Agent Service to build, deploy, and scale agentic systems. More than 230,000 organizations, including 90% of the Fortune 500, have already used Microsoft Copilot Studio. 

As agents take on more sophisticated roles, they need access not only to diverse models and tools but also to one another. That is why we are committed to advancing open protocols like Agent2Agent (A2A), coming soon to Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio, which will enable agents to collaborate across clouds, platforms, and organizational boundaries.

We’re aligning with the broader industry push for shared agent protocols—doing what we’ve always done: embracing openness, supporting real-world developers, and turning experimentation into enterprise-grade platforms. Our goal is simple: empower both pro and citizen developers to build agents that interoperate across clouds and frameworks.  

We believe that Microsoft Copilot will empower every employee and act as the “UI for AI” to connect with agents and agentic systems—networks of agents that reason, act, and adapt across boundaries. As customers scale these systems, interoperability is no longer optional. They want their agents to orchestrate tasks that span vendors, clouds, and data silos. They want control, visibility, and trust—without being locked in.  

A2A can enable structured agent communication—exchanging goals, managing state, invoking actions, and returning results securely and observably. Developers can use tools they know, like Semantic Kernel or LangChain, and still interoperate. Every call travels through enterprise-grade safeguards: Microsoft Entra, mutual TLS, Azure AI Content Safety, and full audit logs. Azure AI Foundry is built with trust by default, and as agent ecosystems grow more open and distributed, safety, compliance, and accountability remain first-class.  

What we are delivering 

With support for A2A: 

• Azure AI Foundry customers can build complex, multi-agent workflows that span internal copilots, partner tools, and production infrastructure—while maintaining governance and SLAs.
• Copilot Studio agents will be able to securely invoke external agents, including those built with other platforms or hosted outside Microsoft.
• Enterprises gain a path to composable, intelligent systems that scale across organizational and cloud boundaries.
• Microsoft’s contributions will accelerate development and adoption of the open A2A protocol across the industry.

This is just one step on a longer journey. As we’ve done with innovations like Autogen, Semantic Kernel, our contributions to Model Context Protocol (MCP), and our catalog of open models, we will continue to evolve the platform to support the protocols, models, and frameworks that matter most to developers and enterprises. We see protocols like A2A and MCP as important steps in the direction of realizing our vision for the agentic future.    

What’s next 

Agentic computing isn’t a trend—it’s a foundational shift. It changes how software is built, how decisions are made, and how value is created. 

We have joined the A2A working group on GitHub to contribute to the spec and tooling. The A2A public preview in Foundry and Copilot Studio will arrive soon.  

By supporting A2A and building on our open orchestration platform, we’re laying the foundation for the next generation of software—collaborative, observable, and adaptive by design. The best agents won’t live in one app or cloud; they’ll operate in the flow of work, spanning models, domains, and ecosystems. We’re building that future with openness at the center—because agents shouldn’t be islands, and intelligence should work across boundaries, just like the world it serves.  

Getting started 

We’ve introduced a new sample in Semantic Kernel (available in Python) that demonstrates how two local agents can collaborate using the A2A protocol. In this example, the agents work together to plan a travel itinerary and handle currency conversions, showcasing seamless interoperability without the need for custom orchestration code.

Resources 

• Semantic Kernel A2A sample
• Azure AI Foundry
• Azure AI Agent Service docs
• Copilot Studio
• Responsible AI guidance

The post Empowering multi-agent apps with the open Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

Forty-two years ago, Microsoft released the very first version of Microsoft Word. It was a major milestone in the company’s journey to enhance people’s productivity through innovation. It also marked the young and growing company’s first big step in Europe with the first Microsoft product localized in multiple European languages, starting with German and French.

Since then, our economic reliance on Europe has always run deep. We recognize that our business is critically dependent on sustaining the trust of customers, countries, and governments across Europe. We respect European values, comply with European laws, and actively defend Europe’s cybersecurity. Our support for Europe has always been–and always will be–steadfast.

In a time of geopolitical volatility, we are committed to providing digital stability. That is why today Microsoft is announcing five digital commitments to Europe. These start with an expansion of our cloud and AI infrastructure in Europe, aimed at enabling every country to fully use these technologies to strengthen their economic competitiveness. And they include a promise to uphold Europe’s digital resilience regardless of geopolitical and trade volatility.

As a multinational company, we believe in trans-Atlantic ties that promote mutual economic growth and prosperity. ​We were pleased the Trump administration and the European Union recently agreed to suspend further tariff escalation while they seek to negotiate a reciprocal trade agreement. We hope that successful talks can resolve tariff issues and reduce non-tariff barriers, consistent with the recommendations in the recent Draghi report.

We will always be dedicated to creating jobs, promoting economic opportunities, and strengthening cybersecurity on both sides of the Atlantic. The five commitments below, like the very first European version of Microsoft Word, take our support for Europe another step forward.

1. We will help build a broad AI and cloud ecosystem across Europe

We recognize that European nations want and need a world class and broad AI and cloud ecosystem. Today, we are announcing plans to increase our European datacenter capacity by 40% over the next two years. We are expanding datacenter operations in 16 European countries. When combined with our recent construction, the plans we’re announcing today will more than double our European datacenter capacity between 2023 and 2027. It will result in cloud operations in more than 200 datacenters across the continent.

This expansion will play an important role in boosting Europe’s economic growth and competitiveness. We believe that broad AI diffusion will be one of the most important drivers of innovation and productivity growth over the next decade. Like electricity and other general-purpose technologies in the past, AI and cloud datacenters represent the next stage of industrialization. They are creating real-world capabilities to fuel business and manufacturing innovation, run national health systems, enable secure government services, and support digital tools in education—all while keeping data and operations close to home, subject to European laws and regulations.

Public cloud datacenters

Our public cloud datacenters are a foundation for the diversified cloud ecosystem we are committed to supporting across Europe. This includes the Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, a package of technologies and configurations to help governments and other customers run on Azure in our public cloud datacenters with greater control over data location, encryption, and administrative access.

Sovereign cloud datacenters

A second aspect of our diversified approach involves sovereign cloud datacenters. In France, Microsoft has partnered with Capgemini and Orange, who formed a joint venture named Bleu. Designed as a “cloud de confiance” (trusted cloud) platform, Bleu offers a broad range of Microsoft Azure cloud services and Microsoft 365 productivity tools operated under French control. In Germany, a similar sovereign cloud initiative is underway through a partnership between Microsoft, SAP, and Arvato Systems (a Bertelsmann IT subsidiary). This effort, through SAP’s subsidiary, Delos Cloud GmbH, is creating a sovereign cloud platform for the German public sector, hosted in German datacenters and operated by German personnel.

Support for European cloud providers

A third aspect of our work involves our collaboration with European cloud providers to offer Microsoft applications and services on their local cloud infrastructure. This partnership provides these European providers with the opportunity to run Microsoft applications on more favorable terms than we make available to Amazon and Google. Additionally, we are developing new technology and licensing solutions tailored for these European providers and the markets they serve.

Emerging options

Given recent geopolitical volatility, we recognize that European governments likely will consider additional options. Some of these may involve public financing to support European home-grown offerings. We recognize the importance of a diversified technology ecosystem, and we are committed to collaborating with European participants across the tech ecosystem.

Respect for European laws

Microsoft is investing tens of billions of dollars annually in expanding its datacenters across Europe. These investments aren’t on wheels. They are permanent structures and subject to local laws, regulations, and governments. Like every citizen and company, we don’t always agree with every policy of every government. But even when we’ve lost cases in European courts, Microsoft has long respected and complied with European laws.

We understand that European laws apply to our business practices in Europe, just as local laws apply to local practices in the United States and similar laws apply elsewhere in the world. This includes European competition law and the Digital Markets Act, among others. We’re committed not only to building digital infrastructure for Europe, but to respecting the role that laws across Europe play in regulating our products and services.

2. We will uphold Europe’s digital resilience even when there is geopolitical volatility

By building a European cloud for Europe, Microsoft is committed to helping Europe navigate the uncertain geopolitical and trade environment and better manage risk by strengthening the continent’s digital resilience. We will always strive to be a voice of reason that promotes mutual opportunities and stable ties across the Atlantic. We in fact believe that even amidst current trade and tariff disputes, there is a strong consensus in Washington supporting the sustained flow of digital services from the United States to Europe.

We also are listening closely to the views of European governments and leaders. We recognize that European countries, like nations everywhere, need to have rock-solid confidence in the digital infrastructure on which they rely. To ensure this confidence, we will take the following three steps:

A European cloud for Europe

Microsoft is headquartered in the United States, but we provide cloud services to Europe through corporate entities headquartered in Europe. To further cement the nexus between Microsoft and Europe, going forward our European datacenter operations and their boards will be overseen by a European board of directors that consists exclusively of European nationals and operates under European law.

A Digital Resilience Commitment

In the unlikely event we are ever ordered by any government anywhere in the world to suspend or cease cloud operations in Europe, we are committing that Microsoft will promptly and vigorously contest such a measure using all legal avenues available, including by pursuing litigation in court. By including a new European Digital Resilience Commitment in all of our contracts with European national governments and the European Commission, we will make this commitment legally binding on Microsoft Corporation and all its subsidiaries.

Microsoft has a demonstrated history of pursuing litigation when that has been needed to protect the rights of our customers and other stakeholders. This includes four lawsuits we filed against the U.S. Executive Branch during President Obama’s tenure, including to protect the privacy of our customers’ data in the United States and Europe. It also included, during President Trump’s first term, a successful decision before the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the rights of employees who are immigrants. When necessary, we’re prepared to go to court.

We are confident of our legal rights to ensure continuous operation of our datacenters in Europe. And we are prepared to back this confidence with our contractual commitments to European governments.

Business continuity partnerships

Finally, we will designate and rely upon European partners with contingency arrangements for operational continuity in the unlikely event Microsoft were ever required by a court to suspend services. We are already enabling our partners in France and Germany to do this for the Bleu and Delos datacenters, and we will pursue arrangements for our public cloud datacenters in Europe. We will store back-up copies of our code in a secure repository in Switzerland, and we will provide our European partners with the legal rights needed to access and use this code if needed for this purpose.

3. We will continue to protect the privacy of European data

Microsoft has long been at the forefront in designing and implementing technology solutions to protect customer data. We enable customers to control where their data is stored and processed, how it is encrypted and secured, and when Microsoft can access it. We offer customers robust capabilities across the entire cloud stack from infrastructure to platform to software as a service, from Azure to Microsoft 365 to Dynamics 365. We back our technical solutions with strong contractual commitments and, as noted above, a demonstrated history of going to court on behalf of our customers.

The EU data boundary project

Reflecting our continuing commitment to innovation, we recently finished implementing our EU Data Boundary project. This offers European customers the ability to have their data stored and processed in Europe. Since January 2024, our European commercial and public sector customers have been able to store and process their data and personal identifiers for Microsoft core cloud services—including Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Azure services—within the EU and EFTA regions. Three months ago, Microsoft completed the project by extending the EU Data Boundary to include professional services data from technical support interactions. And, critically, we make these solutions available in all our European cloud regions and throughout our tech stack, from IaaS, to PaaS, to SaaS, including M365 Copilot.

Additional security and encryption options

In addition to the EU Data Boundary, we provide European customers with multiple options for securing and encrypting their data. Our Confidential Compute offerings in Azure eliminate the ability of third parties—including Microsoft—to access customer data by ensuring data is processed within a trusted environment the customer alone controls. We enable customers to create a “lockbox” around their data across Azure, Dynamics 365, and Microsoft 365 by giving them the ability to review and approve before Microsoft accesses their data for customer and service support operations. We also enable customers to secure their data with encryption keys that they, not Microsoft, control with Azure Key Vault and Microsoft Purview Customer Key. Our Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty offers customers a range of other tools to secure data, protect against unauthorized access, and satisfy legal requirements.

A strong legal track record

In addition to technical measures, we will continue our fight to protect the rights of European customers. Microsoft has a strong track record of going to court in the rare instances that we need to protect European data from unauthorized access. We have consistently fought legal demands that conflict with European law and have taken our challenges all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. In 2018, as a direct result of litigation Microsoft brought on behalf of our European customers, the U.S. Congress enacted legislation that guarantees our right to object to U.S. law enforcement demands to access European data that conflict with EU law.

We codified our promise to protect our European customers’ data with our Defending Your Data commitment, in which we agreed to challenge any government demand for EU public sector or enterprise customer data where we have a legal basis for doing so. We have included that commitment in our customer contracts and backed it up with a promise to compensate customers if we disclose their data in violation of EU law.

New opportunities for innovation

Today we commit to further strengthen and expand solutions that allow European customers to control and protect their data. We are embarking on new steps to listen to and consult with European customers to build on what already is the most complete, widest range of privacy, security, and sovereignty solutions that any cloud services provider now offers to customers in Europe. We look forward to sharing in the coming months the conclusions that emerge and the new steps we decide to take.

For more details about Microsoft’s data protection and compliance programs, see the Microsoft Trust Center.

4. We will always help protect and defend Europe’s cybersecurity

As war erupted in 2022, Microsoft immediately helped evacuate Ukraine’s critical data and technology services to our datacenters across Europe. This move ensured Ukraine’s continued digital operation outside the range of cruise missile and air attacks. In many ways, this illustrates the role that a broad network of datacenters plays in supporting not only digital but broader resilience, both for a country and a continent.

Uninterrupted, world-class cybersecurity protection

In addition to safeguarding the country’s data, we immediately helped Ukraine’s officials and citizens defend their nation from Russian cyberattacks. Since the start of the war, Microsoft has provided more than $500 million of free technology and financial assistance to Ukraine and has sustained our substantial support to this day. Without interruption, we have provided cybersecurity support to NATO, Ukraine, and other European governments, including by sharing cybersecurity threat intelligence, protecting elections, and disrupting attacks against European governments, companies, and citizens.

New measures to protect against new threats

More than three years since the start of the war in Ukraine, European governments and countries confront ongoing cyberattacks from Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. As these threats grow in number and sophistication, strong cybersecurity protection and coordination are more important than ever, as is the ability to respond rapidly to regional demands. That is why today we are announcing the following cybersecurity steps, which will be followed by additional announcements in the coming weeks.

A new Deputy CISO for Europe

Today, our Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Igor Tsyganskiy announced that we are appointing a new Deputy CISO for Europe as part of the Microsoft Cybersecurity Governance Council. This senior executive will be dedicated to Microsoft’s security responsibilities in Europe. Last year we created this council, consisting of our Global CISO and Deputy Chief Information Security Officers (Deputy CISOs) representing each of our technology services. This Council oversees the company’s cyber risks, defenses, and compliance across regions and domains.

The appointment of a Deputy CISO for Europe reflects the importance and global influence of EU cybersecurity regulations and the company’s commitment to meeting and exceeding those expectations to prioritize cybersecurity across the region. This new position will report directly to Microsoft’s CISO. The Deputy CISO for Europe will be accountable for compliance with current and emerging cybersecurity regulations in Europe, including the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), the NIS 2 Directive, and the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA). These laws will prove transformative not only in EU markets, but worldwide, and Microsoft is actively engaged in preparing for what lies ahead.

New security steps under the Cyber Resilience Act

We believe the CRA will reshape the regulatory landscape as a new gold standard for cybersecurity, much as the GDPR did for privacy. We will build on the work of our Secure Future Initiative and dedicate additional resources to comply with the CRA. As its deadlines approach, we look forward to continuing our years of engagement with the European Commission, industry partners, and customers on CRA implementation efforts. We are committed to our role as a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on Cybersecurity of Products with Digital Elements.

To that end, Microsoft will continue to engage with stakeholders across a range of CRA topics. These will include incident and vulnerability reporting, security by design and default, cybersecurity best practices and improving open-source security and attestation. We will share our innovations that support implementing the CRA essential security requirements to help European economic operators also prepare for CRA compliance.

Security is the foundation of trust. To sustain that trust, we will engage an independent auditor to verify and validate our commitments to Europe. We know that people will only use technology that they trust, which is why we are dedicating resources to accelerate our compliance with the CRA and committing to independent validation.

5. We will help strengthen Europe’s economic competitiveness, including for open source

Our AI Access Principles

We recognize the importance of ensuring open access to our AI and cloud platform and infrastructure across Europe, including for open-source development. That is why we announced last year a set of AI Access Principles and we will introduce new enhancements to these commitments in the coming months.

Open access across Europe

These principles have ensured that our Azure AI platform and infrastructure is open to a variety of business models—both open-source and proprietary. We now host more than 1,800 AI models. Most of these models are open-source models, such as those from European-based AI developers Mistral and Hugging Face. And they are all available via public APIs to facilitate interoperability. This means that customers can choose which models to use and where to build their AI-powered solutions: on Azure, in another public cloud, or in their own datacenter. Finally, we enable customers to export and transfer their data. Last year we eliminated fees for the transfer of data when customers choose to switch to another cloud provider.

A foundation for European competitiveness

Over the past year, we have seen European startups, established businesses, and other organizations take advantage of the open access to models and tools that we provide to innovate, grow, and compete in the new AI economy. This includes technology startups such as Factorial in Spain to build AI-driven automation for HR professionals, iGenius in Italy to develop AI solutions for regulated industries, and Visma in Norway to provide AI solutions for companies in accounting, payroll, invoicing, and beyond. And it includes the Institute Curie in France to research new therapies for cancer, UBS in Switzerland to create the future of banking, and Heineken in The Netherlands to boost employee productivity.

Building European infrastructure for Europe’s future

We recognize that Microsoft must constantly remain focused on earning and sustaining our “license to operate” in each country across Europe. With datacenters and digital technology, this starts with each local community and country and includes officials with continental-wide responsibilities.

Since we first brought the first version of Microsoft Word to Europe 42 years ago, digital technology has changed the ways people work many times over. Yet as we look forward, we believe the second quarter of the 21^st century may bring even bigger changes ahead. Artificial intelligence offers what may become the most powerful tool for people in the history of humanity. And like all tools, there will be some who will seek to turn it into a weapon.

More than ever, it will be critical for us to help Europe harness the power of this new technology to strengthen its competitiveness. We will need to partner with smaller and larger companies alike. We will need to support governments, non-profit organizations, and open-source developers across the continent. And we will need to listen closely to European leaders, respect European values, and adhere to European laws. We are committed to doing all these things well.

As we celebrated Microsoft’s 50^th birthday earlier this month, we recognized that our longstanding presence in Europe has been a lynchpin of our success. Europe has treated us well. Our support for Europe has always been—and always will be—steadfast.

The post Microsoft announces new European digital commitments appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

In a world where technology evolves at breakneck speed, it’s astonishing to realize that many businesses still rely on systems built decades ago. Imagine this: 220 billion lines of COBOL code are still running in production today, powering critical operations in industries ranging from finance to government. These systems, often maintained by developers who are now in retirement homes, underscore a stark reality—our modern economy is deeply intertwined with aged technology. This reliance on legacy systems poses significant risks and challenges, yet it also highlights the resilience and longevity of COBOL. As we forge ahead into the future, the question remains: how long can we sustain this dependence on the past?  

Innovations like generative AI are quickly becoming the baseline for how organizations differentiate. From companies like the Volvo Group using Microsoft Azure AI and Microsoft Azure AI Document Intelligence to streamline their invoice and claims process (saving Volvo employees about 850 hours a month) to Medigold Health using Azure OpenAI Service to automate administrative tasks for clinicians giving them time to focus on patient care.

Organizations are sensing that if they don’t truly transform, they risk being left behind and missing the AI wave. “AI is redefining work and it’s clear we need new playbooks,” said Ryan Roslansky, CEO of LinkedIn. “It’s the leaders who build for agility instead of stability and invest in skill building internally that will give their organizations a competitive advantage and create more efficient, engaged, and equitable teams.”

Innovation requires transformation and modernization of your business across people, process, and technology

Setting a strong cloud foundation is paramount for organizations striving to achieve superior differentiation. However, migrating to the cloud isn’t the end point, it is merely the starting point and a pathway to further improvements. Continuous cloud migration and modernization make it significantly easier for organizations to deliver successful transformation initiatives and be future-ready.

In fact a 2024 Forrester study states that, “Organizations must increasingly adopt a mindset of continuous modernization to keep pace with shifting customer expectations, drive innovation, and fuel profitable growth. Just moving to the cloud is not enough: Modernization, incorporating advances like generative AI (GenAI), is playing a critical role in driving competitive advantage.”¹

Continuous modernization is an ongoing process that features a clear technology strategy built around innovation and employee training, integrated key metrics tied to business outcomes, and upgrades to your technology stack powered by the right strategic partnerships.

But there are challenges and requirements standing in the way of continuous modernization

Many businesses recognize the need to take this sort of approach to modernization: according to a 2023 Forrester survey, 89% of decision-makers said their firm plans to increase or at least maintain their current application modernization investments over the next year to achieve key business priorities and address modernization gaps. However, only one in five respondents said their firm has already begun to overcome foundational barriers in its application modernization journey to bring critical value back to the business.

Why? For one, many legacy systems can’t support the requirements of modern tech like AI-powered applications, leading to excessive manual processes and clunky stopgap measures. In fact, 53% of business decision makers (BDMs) say that operations are simply too slow at their firms to take the next step in their application modernization journey according to the Forrester survey.

Once organizations get to the implementation phase of modernization, 48% of survey respondents say that they lack required IT skills, which can make it difficult to to plan and execute holistic modernization, and they also have a hard time filling employee tech skill gaps.

So how can businesses best position themselves to mitigate these challenges and achieve modernization success? Earlier, I mentioned that continuous modernization is an ongoing process that features a clear technology strategy built around innovation and employee training, integrated key metrics tied to business outcomes, and upgrades to your technology stack powered by the right strategic partnerships.

How to think about modernization

Modernizing applications is a transformative journey that requires careful planning and strategic decision-making to balance immediate operational needs with long-term goals.

Organizations must begin by thoroughly assessing their current technical landscape, business objectives, industry trends, and internal capabilities before selecting the most appropriate modernization path—whether that’s using managed platform as a service (PaaS) services for maximum cloud benefits, containerizing applications with Azure Kubernetes Services, reimagining applications as cloud-native services, or using Azure’s hybrid capabilities to evolve at your own pace. The right approach depends on your specific circumstances and constraints, with options ranging from incremental improvements for established systems to comprehensive application refactoring for organizations seeking full cloud advantages.

Ultimately, a well-executed Azure modernization strategy does more than just update technology, it liberates IT teams from routine maintenance tasks, allowing them to focus on innovative initiatives that drive competitive advantage and business growth in an increasingly digital marketplace.

Azure can support your continuous modernization process at each step along the journey

We understand that navigating any transformation project can be daunting, but Azure helps companies modernize every day by offering comprehensive guidance, expert help, cost-saving strategies and tools, and more. Embracing Azure’s managed app and data PaaS lets you automate manual tasks and streamline and standardize development processes—empowering your developers and IT teams to be more productive and focused on innovative solutions for your customers.

Understanding the state of your IT estate

Any cloud migration and modernization project starts with getting a consolidated view of app, data, and infrastructure to understand your IT estate.

This can be a daunting first step, with applications siloed in different parts of your organization that are hard to understand together. Through our Solution Assessment Program, we provide a robust set of resources that enable you to run a comprehensive assessment of your IT estate. By streamlining your first steps, you can focus on creating a cohesive strategy and commencing your modernization projects.

Use outcome-aligned technical skilling to help your employees operate with new paradigms

By equipping teams with the right skills, businesses can unlock the full potential of modernized applications, ensuring successful transformations that drive measurable business outcomes. Azure offers extensive skilling workshops and tools for IT pros, developers, technical managers, and others that teach employees at every level of your organization how new technologies impact them and their work.

These role- and scenario-based trainings are easy to use for busy IT and developer teams and allow them to quickly understand and use their new tools to build AI-powered modernized apps. Skilling can be the difference between transformative, modernized applications and partially implemented, ineffective initiatives.

Working with Azure to modernize means factors that often lead to success are built into the process, allowing you and your team to focus on innovating.

“I think it has been a very well-rounded partnership. We’ve learned how to work in lockstep and be productive as we work together,” says Sahil Gupta, NBA Senior Vice President and Head of Application Development. “We’ve learned how to better utilize Microsoft Cloud and the resources and data systems that exist at Microsoft. We are committed to staying current with innovative technology like Web 3.0 and metaverse—bringing that knowledge into the NBA has been paramount.”

Wherever you are on your digital transformation journey, we want to help you take the next step

Whether you’ve already begun your cloud journey or are planning to commence soon, Azure can help you actualize your transformation vision regardless of your cloud approach—whether hybrid, single, or multi-cloud.

Microsoft has a robust partner ecosystem of Azure specialized partners that support organizations in their continuous modernization efforts.

Modernize for AI Innovation

Accelerate app and data estate readiness for AI Innovation with Microsoft Azure.

Learn more

¹ “Checklist: Steps To Operationalize AI Innovation Through Application Modernization,” Forrester, June 2024

The post Accelerate AI innovation and business transformation: Scaling AI transformation with strategic cloud partnership appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

South Korea is rapidly establishing itself as a global force in AI innovation, propelled by a unique blend of industrial strength, technological ambition, and cultural adaptability. From healthcare to renewable energy, Korean organizations are actively deploying AI to reimagine systems, improve efficiency, and create entirely new value.

This nationwide momentum is supported by a growing ecosystem of partners with investments in infrastructure, cloud platforms, and nationwide skilling. Microsoft is expanding access to AI and strengthening Korea’s long-term digital resilience via partnerships with Korean enterprises and institutions, supporting responsible and scalable adoption grounded in transparency, security, and fairness.

At the Microsoft AI Tour in Seoul, Korean companies demonstrated how AI is moving beyond efficiency gains to become a true growth engine—reshaping customer experiences, opening new markets, and driving cross-industry collaboration for a more innovative, inclusive future.

KT accelerates AI transformation through strategic Microsoft partnership

KT, one of South Korea’s largest telecommunications and digital services companies, is driving large-scale AI and cloud. As part of its enterprise transformation, KT has deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot company-wide, using AI to streamline operations and enhance workplace efficiency. In collaboration with Microsoft, their dedicated Center of Excellence (CoE) supports the development of AI-powered systems across teams.

To meet the needs of highly regulated industries, KT is building a secure public cloud based on Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty. This infrastructure will support scalable, compliant AI adoption in sectors such as public services and finance.

Meanwhile, KT is also developing a large language model (LLM) optimized for the Korean language and cultural context. The model will be embedded into KT’s customer service to deliver next-generation AI experiences.

To promote broad, inclusive workforce development, the company is launching a nationwide AI skilling initiative with new training centers that will equip university students, professionals, and the general public with practical AI knowledge. With this multifaceted strategy, KT is advancing its digital capabilities and enabling AI innovation across Korea’s public and private sectors.

LG Electronics launches AI-powered home robot Q9

LG Electronics, a global leader in consumer electronics and smart home technology, is expanding the role of AI in daily life with the introduction of its AI home robot Q9, developed using Azure OpenAI Service. Designed to go beyond basic smart appliance control, Q9 supports functions such as elderly care, childcare, and overall home management.

The robot integrates Microsoft’s voice AI with LG’s own AI agent FURON to allow natural user interactions and adaptive learning. It serves as a central AI hub, connecting with and coordinating smart devices throughout the home to create a responsive living environment tailored to individual needs.

Q9 reflects LG’s vision for the smart home as an active, AI-powered ecosystem that enhances convenience, comfort, and support for daily routines. By combining conversational AI with practical applications, LG is shaping a new category of home technology focused on human-centered design.

Seegene advances molecular diagnostic development with AI system

Seegene, a leading biotechnology and molecular diagnostics company based in South Korea, is transforming how PCR testing kits are developed with its AI-powered Seegene Digitalized Development System (SGDDS).

Originally created by Seegene and further advanced in partnership with Microsoft, SGDDS automates the critical planning and design stages of PCR testing kit development—steps that have traditionally required large teams of experts. By streamlining these processes, the platform enables even non-specialists to participate, accelerating research timelines and improving development efficiency.

Powered by AI and data analytics, SGDDS helps standardize and simplify the development process, allowing Seegene to respond more quickly and precisely to emerging health threats. This capability expands access to accurate diagnostics and strengthens global preparedness for future public health challenges.

Through the integration of AI into its core research and development (R&D) operations, Seegene is building a more agile and scalable approach to healthcare innovation. Its collaboration with Microsoft also supports broader technology-sharing efforts designed to improve diagnostic infrastructure across global markets.

Hanwha Qcells optimizes solar energy with AI and IoT

Hanwha Qcells, a global leader in solar energy solutions, is advancing smart energy management by integrating Azure OpenAI Service and Internet of Things (IoT) technology. In response to the urgent challenges of climate change and resource depletion, the company is using AI to optimize solar power usage and enhance system efficiency across its operations.

By combining real-time data from IoT devices with AI-powered analytics, Hanwha Qcells is developing intelligent energy strategies that improve performance and support sustainability goals. The AI models help forecast energy needs, identify inefficiencies, and adjust power usage dynamically—laying the groundwork for more resilient and eco-friendly infrastructure.

Through its collaboration with Microsoft, Hanwha Qcells is not only improving operational efficiency but also creating scalable solutions for the global energy transition. These innovations support the development of clean energy ecosystems while opening new business opportunities in an increasingly AI-powered market.

Galaxy Corporation uses AI to transform creative enter-tech content

Galaxy Corporation, a South Korea–based AI enter-tech company, is reshaping digital content creation with Sora, its proprietary AI platform powered by Azure OpenAI Service. Designed to support creative professionals, Sora applies generative AI to assist in content development across video, animation, and other entertainment formats.

By embedding AI into the creative workflow, Galaxy Corporation is expanding the role of technology as an active partner in idea generation and production. Sora enables faster prototyping, helps refine concepts, and introduces new possibilities for immersive storytelling—bringing imagination to life with greater speed and scale.

Galaxy Corporation plans to continue expanding its AI offerings to meet the growing demand for innovation in entertainment. Galaxy Corporation is deeply committed to exploring the possibilities of the enter-tech creative vision of artists in this era of rapid innovation. By using AI to overcome creative limitations and redefine the standards of content development, the company is fostering a dynamic synergy between entertainment and AI technology. By positioning AI as a core creative tool, this approach not only reimagines experiences entirely but also delivers transformative content value to audiences, paving the way for a more meaningful, dynamic, and forward-thinking future in content creation.

Amorepacific simplifies complex beauty decision with AI

Amorepacific, South Korea’s largest beauty and cosmetics company, is known for its trend-setting brands and deep understanding of consumer needs. In the fast-moving K-beauty market—where skincare routines are complex and trends shift quickly—delivering timely, personalized guidance has become both a challenge and a competitive advantage.

To meet that need, Amorepacific is developing the AI Beauty Counselor (AIBC), a generative AI-powered app built on Microsoft’s Azure AI stack. The solution analyzes user photos to assess facial features and skin tone, then offers makeup recommendations informed by data from professional artists. To deepen personalization, users can chat with AIBC to share their skin care concerns, ask questions, and report on their post-sale experience.

By integrating AI into the consultation experience, Amorepacific is helping customers navigate beauty choices with confidence while staying ahead of evolving trends.

AI for everyone in South Korea

What sets South Korea apart in the global AI landscape is not only its rapid adoption of new technologies, but its intentional, people-centered approach to applying them. Korean enterprises are using AI to address real-world challenges, and these innovations are rooted in Korea’s industrial expertise and cultural context, with AI deployed to create practical value across sectors.

Aligned with the theme “AI for Everyone,” South Korea’s AI transformation reflects a belief that this technology should be accessible, inclusive, and impactful across all sectors of society. Microsoft supports this vision through close collaboration with Korean institutions and businesses—advancing skilling initiatives, education programs, and trusted cloud infrastructure to help turn bold ideas into lasting results.

Meanwhile, as AI becomes central to how organizations compete and collaborate, trust is essential. Microsoft’s focus on ethical development, responsible deployment, and secure systems enables Korean companies to build AI solutions that are not only powerful but grounded in both innovation and social responsibility.

South Korea’s AI momentum is accelerating, crossing boundaries between industries, strengthening competitiveness, and opening space for new partnerships. With the right foundation and a clear commitment to inclusion, responsibility, and innovation, the country is showing what a truly accessible, future-ready AI ecosystem can look like—for everyone.

Find the resources to support your AI journey

• Explore Microsoft’s AI solutions.
• Advance your AI transformation with AI business resources.

The post How South Korea is building an AI-powered future for everyone appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

The 2025 Work Trend Index Annual Report is designed to prepare leaders and employees for this shift. As in previous years, it draws on a large global survey, Microsoft 365 telemetry and LinkedIn hiring and labor trends. New this year are insights from AI-native startups, economists, scientists and academics — all pointing to a seismic shift already underway. In fact, 82% of leaders say this is a pivotal year to rethink core aspects of strategy and operations.

The data reveals the emergence of a new kind of organization: the Frontier Firm — built around intelligence on tap, human-agent teams and a new role for everyone: agent boss. While the shift ahead is profound, human ambition, creativity and ingenuity will continue to create new economic value and opportunity. In fact, 71% of workers at these firms say their company is thriving, compared to just 37% globally.

You can buy intelligence on tap

Imagine if you knew, before the internet took off, just how much it would reshape business. That’s where we are with AI. Intelligence is no longer bound by headcount or expertise. It’s an essential durable good: abundant, affordable and scalable on-demand. As economic and shareholder pressures grow, this on-demand intelligence offers a new lever for growth — one that can close the growing gap between business demands and human capacity. While 53% of leaders say productivity must increase, 80% of the global workforce reports lacking the time or energy to do their job. And on average, employees are interrupted by a meeting, email or ping every 2 minutes. To bridge this Capacity Gap, 82% of leaders expect to use digital labor to expand their workforce in the next 12 to 18 months.

Digital labor will spur the reinvention of even the most established firms — and the birth of new companies we haven’t even thought of yet. On LinkedIn, top AI startups are hiring at 2X the rate of Big Tech. Much of that talent is flowing out of Big Tech and staying in the startup world, pointing to a deeper shift where innovation — and opportunity — are rising. As incumbents adapt and challengers scale, like we saw in the .com boom, the rules of talent and competition are being rewritten in real time.

Human-agent teams will upend the org chart

As AI continues to democratize expertise, we’re seeing a move from rigid org charts to more fluid, outcome-driven Work Charts. These structures flex with the needs of the business, drawing on the right mix of humans and agents to get the job done. While every function will evolve at a different pace and scale, 46% of leaders say their organization is using agents to fully automate workstreams or business processes — with customer service, marketing and product development as the top AI investment priorities.

To maximize the impact of these human-agent teams, organizations need a new metric: the human-agent ratio. Leaders must ask two critical questions: How many agents are needed for which roles and tasks? And how many humans are needed to guide them? Getting that ratio right will be critical — and task-specific. Organizations will need to consider if there are times when human and digital labor outperform AI alone, when customers prefer a human touch or when society expects people to be responsible for the consequences — like a high-stakes product or finance decision. Whether it’s a customer conversation, a strategic decision or a product launch, knowing how to staff the right mix of humans and agents will define how work gets done — and how success is measured.

Every employee becomes an agent boss

As agents increasingly join the workforce, we’ll see the rise of the agent boss: someone who builds, delegates to and manages agents to amplify their impact and take control of their career in the age of AI. From the boardroom to the frontline, every worker will need to think like the CEO of an agent-powered startup. In fact, leaders expect their teams will be training (41%) and managing (36%) agents within five years.

For those ready to lean in, AI will be a career accelerator — but leaders are ahead. We measured the agent boss mindset across seven indicators — from regular use and trust to career impact. Leaders outpace employees on every measure: 67% are familiar with agents (vs. 40% of employees) and 79% believe AI will accelerate their careers (vs. 67%). But this shift won’t stop at the top. As agents become embedded into daily work, roles across every level and function will evolve — along with the broader workforce. While 33% of leaders are considering headcount reductions, 78% are considering hiring for new AI roles. And 83% say AI will enable employees to take on more complex and strategic work earlier in their careers.

This shift is multifaceted — every industry and role will evolve differently as the technology diffuses across business and society. Just as the internet era created billions of new knowledge jobs — from social media managers to UX designers — the AI era is already giving rise to new roles, with many more to come. Preparing for what’s next is no longer optional. Employees must build AI skills and companies must support them with the right tools and training. This moment calls for honest conversations, intentional communication and real investment in reskilling. The companies that invest now won’t just keep up — they’ll shape what comes next.

Copilot is the new UI for AI

Today we’re announcing the Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2 Spring release — designed to power the next era of human–agent collaboration. The Microsoft 365 Copilot app is now your window into the world of agents, with new capabilities for this next phase — driven by more advanced models, adaptive memory and reasoning agents that work alongside you. Updates include:

• Researcher and Analyst agents powered by OpenAI’s deep reasoning models rolling out to customers through the Frontier program — and with our new Agent Store, you can easily find, pin and use agents — from partners like Jira, Monday.com and Miro — or your own custom agents.
• Create brings OpenAI’s GPT-4o AI image generator to work, unlocking design and content creation skills for everyone. Easily modify or customize brand images or generate AI images aligned to your company’s approved brand guidelines and create everything from marketing copy and social assets to newsletter banners, videos and more.

• Copilot Notebooks transforms your notes, documents and data into immediate insights and actions. By grounding Copilot in a notebook containing specific chats, files, meeting recordings and more, it can focus on the most relevant information — all while constantly scanning your source material to update in real time as your data evolves. Notebooks can even create an audio overview of your content with two hosts that walk you through the key points — a fun, flexible way to stay informed.
• Copilot Search is a new AI-powered enterprise search that helps you find what you need instantly with rich, context-aware answers from across your organization’s apps and data. It connects to first- and third-party apps — from ServiceNow to Google Drive, Slack, Confluence, Jira and more — so you get fast, relevant results at work no matter where your data lives.
• New capabilities in the Copilot Control System empower IT pros to enable, disable or block agents for specific users or groups — to help ensure the right agents are being used by the right people.

2025 will be remembered as the year the Frontier Firm was born — the moment companies moved beyond experimenting with AI and began rebuilding around it. Like the digital native companies of a generation ago, they understand the power of pairing irreplaceable human insight with AI and agents to unlock outsized value. We’re giving customers the insight to anticipate what’s next — and the technology to help shape it.

Read the Annual Work Trend Index on WorkLab and visit the Microsoft 365 Blog to learn more about our product announcements. Learn what this year’s Work Trend Index findings mean for small and medium-sized businesses.

For all the blogs, videos and assets related to today’s announcement, please visit our microsite.

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As AI becomes more deeply embedded in workflows, having a secure foundation from the start is essential for adapting to new innovations with confidence and ease. New regulations like the European Union AI Act demand greater transparency and accountability, while threats like shadow AI and adversarial attacks highlight the urgent need for robust governance. 

Getting Started with AI Applications

Microsoft Guide for Securing the AI-Powered Enterprise

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To help organizations navigate these challenges, Microsoft has released the Microsoft Guide for Securing the AI-Powered Enterprise Issue 1: Getting Started with AI Applications—the first in a series of deep dives into AI security, compliance, and governance. This guide lays the groundwork for securing the AI tools teams are already exploring and provides guidance on how to manage the risks associated with AI. It also dives into some unique risks with AI agents and how to manage these. Here’s a look at the key themes and takeaways. 

Securing AI applications: Understanding the risks and how to address them 

AI adoption is accelerating, bringing remarkable opportunities but also a growing set of security risks. As AI becomes more embedded in business decision-making, challenges such as data leakage, emerging cyber threats, and evolving and new regulations demand immediate attention. Let’s explore the top risks and how organizations can address them. 

Data leakage and oversharing: Keeping AI from becoming a liability 

AI thrives on data. But without guardrails, that dependence can introduce security challenges. One major concern is shadow AI—when employees use unapproved AI tools without oversight. It’s easy to see why this happens: teams eager to boost efficiency turn to freely available AI-powered chatbots or automation tools, often unaware of the security risks. In fact, 80% of business leaders worry that sensitive data could slip through the cracks due to unchecked AI use.² 

Take a marketing team using an AI-powered content generator. If they connect it to unsecured sources, they might inadvertently expose proprietary strategies or customer data. Similarly, AI models often inherit the same permissions as their users, meaning an over-permissioned employee could unknowingly expose critical company data to an AI system. Without proper data lifecycle management, outdated or unnecessary data can linger in AI models, creating long-term security exposure. 

Addressing the risk

• Implement clear AI usage policies so employees stick to vetted, secure tools.
• Allow AI’s to access data only based on the user’s credentials and use role-based access controls (RBAC) to manage that data access.
• If an AI does need to use its own credentials to access resources, only grant AI access to people who should have access to those resources.
• Automate data retention policies to prevent sensitive information from persisting beyond its intended use.

Emerging threats: The expanding landscape of AI vulnerabilities 

As AI evolves, so do the threats against it. According to Gartner® Peer Community, among 332 participants, a staggering 88% of organizations are concerned about the rising risk of indirect prompt injection attacks,³ with attackers developing new ways to exploit vulnerabilities. One of the most pressing concerns is prompt injection attacks—where malicious actors embed hidden instructions in input data to manipulate AI behavior. A cleverly worded query, for example, could trick an AI-powered chatbot into revealing confidential information. 

Beyond direct attacks, AI systems themselves can introduce security risks. AI models are prone to hallucinations (generating false or misleading information), unexpected preferences (amplifying unfair decision-making patterns), omissions (leaving out critical details), misinterpretation of data, and poor-quality or malicious input leading to flawed results. A hiring tool, for example, might favor certain candidates based on biased historical data rather than making fair, informed decisions. 

Addressing the risk

• Validate and sanitize input data before AI processes it to prevent manipulation.
• Limit AI’s access to sensitive information and implement identity verification.
• Design (and secure) the end-to-end (E2E) business process, not the AI component.
• Secure the AI component by imagining replacing it with a new hire fresh out of school. What would you do to make your process robust against it making mistakes?
• Use robust monitoring, validation, and oversight to ensure AI operates securely and responsibly.
• Leverage commercial AI tools with built-in safeguards like bias detection, input sanitization, and access controls to reduce risks while supporting business goals.

Compliance challenges: Navigating the complex AI regulatory landscape

Beyond security, compliance is another major hurdle in AI adoption. Over half of business leaders (52%) admit they’re unsure how to navigate today’s rapidly evolving AI regulations.² Frameworks like the European Union AI Act, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) are rapidly evolving, making compliance a moving target. Organizations must establish clear governance and documentation to track AI usage, decision-making, and data handling, reducing the risk of non-compliance. Digital resilience laws like DORA require ongoing risk assessments to ensure operational continuity, while GDPR mandates transparency in AI-powered decisions like credit scoring and job screening. Misclassifying AI risk levels—such as underestimating the impact of a diagnostic AI tool—can lead to regulatory violations. Staying ahead requires structured risk assessments, automated compliance monitoring, and continuous policy adaptation to align with changing regulations. 

Addressing the risk

• Align AI governance with evolving regulations like DORA through risk assessment, testing, and monitoring.
• Keep detailed AI records to ensure compliance and responsible use.
• Use AI-powered tools to monitor compliance with GDPR and HIPAA, reducing risks like data drift and unauthorized access.
• Audit AI decisions to ensure fairness, transparency, and regulatory compliance.
• Classify AI risks clearly and stay updated on evolving regulations to maintain compliance. 

The next frontier: Unique challenges in securing agentic AI 

The pace of AI growth is staggering, with AI capabilities doubling every six months. Organizations are rapidly adopting more autonomous, adaptable, and deeply integrated systems to tackle complex challenges. 

One of the most significant developments in this shift is agentic AI—a new class of AI systems designed to act independently, make real-time decisions, and collaborate with other AI agents to achieve complex objectives. These advancements have the potential to revolutionize industries, from optimizing energy grids to managing fleets of autonomous vehicles.  

But with greater autonomy comes greater risk. Overreliance on AI outputs, cyber vulnerabilities, and reliability concerns all need to be addressed. As these systems integrate deeper into operations, strong security, oversight, and accountability will be essential. 

Building a secure AI future: A responsible AI adoption playbook 

AI’s transformative power comes with inherent risks, requiring a proactive, strategic approach to security. A Zero Trust framework ensures that every AI interaction is authenticated, authorized, and continuously monitored. But security isn’t something that happens overnight—it requires a phased approach. 

Microsoft’s AI adoption guidance, part of the Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure, provides a structured path for organizations to follow and is clearly outlined in the Microsoft Guide for Securing the AI Powered Enterprise Issue 1: Getting Started with AI Applications. This guide offers a starting point for embracing the cultural shift needed to secure AI with clarity and confidence.  

Cross-team collaboration, employee training, and transparent governance are just as essential as firewalls and encryption. By embedding security at every stage, breaking down silos, and fostering trust, organizations can confidently navigate the AI landscape, ensuring both innovation and resilience in a rapidly evolving world. 

Learn more 

• Guide for Securing the AI Powered Enterprise Issue 1: Getting Started with AI Applications.
• Get the playbook: AI Adoption Guidance.
• Read the e-book: Grow Your Business with AI You Can Trust.

¹Microsoft internal research, February 2025 

² ISMG, First Annual Generative AI Study: Business Rewards vs. Security Risks.

³ Gartner Peer Community Poll: If your org’s using any virtual assistants with AI capabilities, are you concerned about indirect prompt injection attacks?

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. 

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