Press Releases – Sick Gaming

Posted on May 7, 2025 by — Leave a comment

Microsoft and FFA help students use smart sensors and AI to learn about the future of farming and technology

Partnership expands FarmBeats for Students program to all 50 states to help grow next generation of farmers

REDMOND, Wash. — May 6, 2025 — Microsoft Corp. and the National FFA Organization on Tuesday announced the national expansion of FarmBeats for Students, a cutting-edge educational program integrating smart sensors, data science and artificial intelligence (AI) to teach precision agriculture in classrooms. Starting today, FFA teachers and students throughout the United States, including FFA chapters in 185 middle and high schools, will receive a classroom set of FarmBeats for Students kits free of charge. The kits include ready-to-use sensor systems along with curriculum for teachers and are designed for classrooms of all kinds; no prior technical experience is required.

More and more farmers are adopting advanced technology, including automating systems such as tractors and harvesters and using drones and data analysis to intervene early against pests and disease, to maximize crop yield, optimize resource usage, and adjust to changing weather patterns. Gaining hands-on experience with machine automation, data science and AI will help American agricultural students remain competitive in the global market.

Using the FarmBeats for Students kits and free curriculum, students build environmental sensor systems and use AI to monitor soil moisture and detect nutrient deficiencies — allowing them to understand what is happening with their plants and make data-driven decisions in real time. Students can adapt the kit to challenges unique to their region — such as drought, frost and pests — providing them with practical experience in tackling real-world issues in their hometowns.

“Microsoft is committed to ensuring students and teachers have the tools they need to succeed in today’s tech-driven world, and that includes giving students hands-on experience with precision farming, data science and AI,” said Mary Snapp, Microsoft vice president, Strategic Initiatives. “By teaming up with FFA to bring FarmBeats for Students to students across the country, we hope to inspire the next generation of agriculture leaders and equip them with the skills to tackle any and all challenges as they guide us into the future.”

“Our partnership with Microsoft exemplifies the power of collaboration in addressing industry needs while fostering personal and professional growth among students,” said Christine White, chief program officer, National FFA Organization. “Supporting agricultural education and leadership development is crucial for shaping the next generation of innovators and problem solvers. Programs like this equip students with technical knowledge, confidence and adaptability to thrive in diverse and evolving industries. Investing in these young minds today sets the stage for a more sustainable, innovative and resilient agricultural future.”

In addition, teachers, students or parents interested in FarmBeats for Students can purchase a kit for $35 at this link and receive free training at Microsoft Learn.

Any educator interested in implementing the FarmBeats for Students program can now access a new, free comprehensive course on the Microsoft Educator Learn Center, providing training on precision agriculture, data science and AI, allowing teachers to earn professional development hours and badges.

FarmBeats for Students was co-developed by Microsoft, FFA and agriculture educators. The program aligns with the AI for K-12 initiative guidelines; Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources career standards; Computer Science Teachers Association standards; and Common Core math standards.

For more information about FarmBeats for Students, visit aka.ms/FBFS.

About National FFA Organization

The National FFA Organization is a school-based national youth leadership development organization of more than 1,027,200 student members as part of 9,235 local FFA chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The FFA mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. The technology company is committed to making AI available broadly and doing so responsibly, with a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, We. Communications, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit Microsoft Source at https://news.microsoft.com/source. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.

Posted on April 30, 2025 by — Leave a comment

Microsoft Cloud and AI strength drives third quarter results

Microsoft Cloud and AI Strength Drives Third Quarter Results

REDMOND, Wash. — April 30, 2025 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the following results for the quarter ended March 31, 2025, as compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year:

· Revenue was $70.1 billion and increased 13% (up 15% in constant currency)

· Operating income was $32.0 billion and increased 16% (up 19% in constant currency)

· Net income was $25.8 billion and increased 18% (up 19% in constant currency)

· Diluted earnings per share was $3.46 and increased 18% (up 19% in constant currency)

“Cloud and AI are the essential inputs for every business to expand output, reduce costs, and accelerate growth,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft. “From AI infra and platforms to apps, we are innovating across the stack to deliver for our customers.”

“We delivered a strong quarter with Microsoft Cloud revenue of $42.4 billion, up 20% (up 22% in constant currency) year-over-year driven by continued demand for our differentiated offerings,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft.

Business Highlights

Revenue in Productivity and Business Processes was $29.9 billion and increased 10% (up 13% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

· Microsoft 365 Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 11% (up 14% in constant currency) driven by Microsoft 365 Commercial cloud revenue growth of 12% (up 15% in constant currency)

· Microsoft 365 Consumer products and cloud services revenue increased 10% (up 12% in constant currency) driven by Microsoft 365 Consumer cloud revenue growth of 10% (up 12% in constant currency)

· LinkedIn revenue increased 7% (up 8% in constant currency)

· Dynamics products and cloud services revenue increased 11% (up 13% in constant currency) driven by Dynamics 365 revenue growth of 16% (up 18% in constant currency)

Revenue in Intelligent Cloud was $26.8 billion and increased 21% (up 22% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

· Server products and cloud services revenue increased 22% (up 24% in constant currency) driven by Azure and other cloud services revenue growth of 33% (up 35% in constant currency)

Revenue in More Personal Computing was $13.4 billion and increased 6% (up 7% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

· Windows OEM and Devices revenue increased 3%

· Xbox content and services revenue increased 8% (up 9% in constant currency)

· Search and news advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 21% (up 23% in constant currency)

Microsoft returned $9.7 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases in the third quarter of fiscal year 2025.

Business Outlook

Microsoft will provide forward-looking guidance in connection with this quarterly earnings announcement on its earnings conference call and webcast.

Quarterly Highlights, Product Releases, and Enhancements

Every quarter Microsoft delivers hundreds of products, either as new releases, services, or enhancements to current products and services. These releases are a result of significant research and development investments, made over multiple years, designed to help customers be more productive and secure and to deliver differentiated value across the cloud and the edge.

Here are the major product releases and other highlights for the quarter, organized by product categories, to help illustrate how we are accelerating innovation across our businesses while expanding our market opportunities.

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)

To learn more about Microsoft’s corporate governance and our environmental and social practices, please visit our investor relations Board and ESG website and reporting at Microsoft.com/transparency.

Webcast Details

Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer, Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer, Alice Jolla, chief accounting officer, Keith Dolliver, corporate secretary and deputy general counsel, and Jonathan Neilson, vice president of investor relations, will host a conference call and webcast at 2:30 p.m. Pacific time (5:30 p.m. Eastern time) today to discuss details of the company’s performance for the quarter and certain forward-looking information. The session may be accessed at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor. The webcast will be available for replay through the close of business on April 30, 2026.

Constant Currency

Microsoft presents constant currency information to provide a framework for assessing how our underlying businesses performed excluding the effect of foreign currency rate fluctuations. To present this information, current and comparative prior period results for entities reporting in currencies other than United States dollars are converted into United States dollars using the average exchange rates from the comparative period rather than the actual exchange rates in effect during the respective periods. All growth comparisons relate to the corresponding period in the last fiscal year. Microsoft has provided this non-GAAP financial information to aid investors in better understanding our performance. The non-GAAP financial measures presented in this release should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, the measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Financial Performance Constant Currency Reconciliation

	Three Months Ended March 31,
($ in millions, except per share amounts)	Revenue	Operating Income	Net Income	Diluted Earnings per Share
2024 As Reported (GAAP)	$61,858	$27,581	$21,939	$2.94
2025 As Reported (GAAP)	$70,066	$32,000	$25,824	$3.46
Percentage Change Y/Y (GAAP)	13%	16%	18%	18%
Constant Currency Impact	$(1,059)	$(703)	$(392)	$(0.05)
Percentage Change Y/Y Constant Currency	15%	19%	19%	19%

Segment Revenue Constant Currency Reconciliation

	Three Months Ended March 31,
($ in millions)	Productivity and Business Processes	Intelligent Cloud	More Personal Computing
2024 As Reported (GAAP)	$27,113	$22,141	$12,604
2025 As Reported (GAAP)	$29,944	$26,751	$13,371
Percentage Change Y/Y (GAAP)	10%	21%	6%
Constant Currency Impact	$(626)	$(308)	$(125)
Percentage Change Y/Y Constant Currency	13%	22%	7%

We have recast certain prior period amounts to conform to the way we internally manage and monitor our business.

Selected Product and Service Revenue Constant Currency Reconciliation

	Three Months Ended March 31, 2025
	Percentage Change Y/Y (GAAP)	Constant Currency Impact	Percentage Change Y/Y Constant Currency
Microsoft Cloud	20%	2%	22%
Microsoft 365 Commercial products and cloud services	11%	3%	14%
Microsoft 365 Commercial cloud	12%	3%	15%
Microsoft 365 Consumer products and cloud services	10%	2%	12%
Microsoft 365 Consumer cloud	10%	2%	12%
LinkedIn	7%	1%	8%
Dynamics products and cloud services	11%	2%	13%
Dynamics 365	16%	2%	18%
Server products and cloud services	22%	2%	24%
Azure and other cloud services	33%	2%	35%
Windows OEM and Devices	3%	0%	3%
Xbox content and services	8%	1%	9%
Search and news advertising excluding traffic acquisition costs	21%	2%	23%

About Microsoft

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this release that are “forward-looking statements” are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors such as:

· intense competition in all of our markets that may adversely affect our results of operations;

· focus on cloud-based and AI services presenting execution and competitive risks;

· significant investments in products and services that may not achieve expected returns;

· acquisitions, joint ventures, and strategic alliances that may have an adverse effect on our business;

· impairment of goodwill or amortizable intangible assets causing a significant charge to earnings;

· cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities that could lead to reduced revenue, increased costs, liability claims, or harm to our reputation or competitive position;

· disclosure and misuse of personal data that could cause liability and harm to our reputation;

· the possibility that we may not be able to protect information stored in our products and services from use by others;

· abuse of our advertising, professional, marketplace, or gaming platforms that may harm our reputation or user engagement;

· products and services, how they are used by customers, and how third-party products and services interact with them, presenting security, privacy, and execution risks;

· issues about the use of AI in our offerings that may result in reputational or competitive harm, or legal liability;

· excessive outages, data losses, and disruptions of our online services if we fail to maintain an adequate operations infrastructure;

· supply or quality problems;

· government enforcement under competition laws and new market regulation may limit how we design and market our products;

· potential consequences of trade and anti-corruption laws;

· potential consequences of existing and increasing legal and regulatory requirements;

· laws and regulations relating to the handling of personal data that may impede the adoption of our services or result in increased costs, legal claims, fines, or reputational damage;

· claims against us that may result in adverse outcomes in legal disputes;

· uncertainties relating to our business with government customers;

· additional tax liabilities;

· sustainability regulations and expectations that may expose us to increased costs and legal and reputational risk;

· an inability to protect and utilize our intellectual property may harm our business and operating results;

· claims that Microsoft has infringed the intellectual property rights of others;

· damage to our reputation or our brands that may harm our business and results of operations;

· adverse economic or market conditions that may harm our business;

· catastrophic events or geo-political conditions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, that may disrupt our business;

· exposure to increased economic and operational uncertainties from operating a global business, including the effects of foreign currency exchange; and

· the dependence of our business on our ability to attract and retain talented employees.

For more information about risks and uncertainties associated with Microsoft’s business, please refer to the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Risk Factors” sections of Microsoft’s SEC filings, including, but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, copies of which may be obtained by contacting Microsoft’s Investor Relations department at (800) 285-7772 or at Microsoft’s Investor Relations website at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor.

All information in this release is as of March 31, 2025. The company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the company’s expectations.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]

For more information, financial analysts and investors only:

Jonathan Neilson, Vice President, Investor Relations, (425) 706-4400

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers, and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. Shareholder and financial information, as well as today’s 2:30 p.m. Pacific time conference call with investors and analysts, is available at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor.

**MICROSOFT CORPORATION**

INCOME STATEMENTS

(In millions, except per share amounts) (Unaudited)
	Three Months Ended March 31,		Nine Months Ended March 31,
	Three Months Ended March 31,		Nine Months Ended March 31,
	2025	2024	2025	2024
Revenue:
Product	$15,319	$17,080	$46,810	$51,556
Service and other	54,747	44,778	158,473	128,839
Total revenue	70,066	61,858	205,283	180,395
Cost of revenue:
Product	3,037	4,339	10,187	13,834
Service and other	18,882	14,166	53,630	40,596
Total cost of revenue	21,919	18,505	63,817	54,430
Gross margin	48,147	43,353	141,466	125,965
Research and development	8,198	7,653	23,659	21,454
Sales and marketing	6,212	6,207	18,369	17,640
General and administrative	1,737	1,912	5,233	5,363
Operating income	32,000	27,581	94,205	81,508
Other expense, net	(623)	(854)	(3,194)	(971)
Income before income taxes	31,377	26,727	91,011	80,537
Provision for income taxes	5,553	4,788	16,412	14,437
Net income	$25,824	$21,939	$74,599	$66,100
Earnings per share:
Basic	$3.47	$2.95	$10.03	$8.90
Diluted	$3.46	$2.94	$9.99	$8.85
Weighted average shares outstanding:
Basic	7,434	7,431	7,434	7,431
Diluted	7,461	7,472	7,466	7,467

COMPREHENSIVE INCOME STATEMENTS

(In millions) (Unaudited)
	Three Months Ended March 31,		Nine Months Ended March 31,
	Three Months Ended March 31,		Nine Months Ended March 31,
	2025	2024	2025	2024
Net income	$25,824	$21,939	$74,599	$66,100
Other comprehensive income (loss), net of tax:
Net change related to derivatives	(20)	10	4	28
Net change related to investments	450	(202)	1,130	869
Translation adjustments and other	353	(294)	(377)	11
Other comprehensive income (loss)	783	(486)	757	908
Comprehensive income	$26,607	$21,453	$75,356	$67,008

BALANCE SHEETS

(In millions) (Unaudited)
	March 31, 2025	June 30, 2024
Assets
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents	$28,828	$18,315
Short-term investments	50,790	57,228
Total cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments	79,618	75,543
Accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts of $695 and $830	51,700	56,924
Inventories	848	1,246
Other current assets	24,478	26,021
Total current assets	156,644	159,734
Property and equipment, net of accumulated depreciation of $87,074 and $76,421	183,939	135,591
Operating lease right-of-use assets	24,475	18,961
Equity and other investments	16,035	14,600
Goodwill	119,329	119,220
Intangible assets, net	23,968	27,597
Other long-term assets	38,234	36,460
Total assets	$562,624	$512,163
Liabilities and stockholders’ equity
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable	$26,250	$21,996
Short-term debt	0	6,693
Current portion of long-term debt	2,999	2,249
Accrued compensation	10,579	12,564
Short-term income taxes	6,805	5,017
Short-term unearned revenue	44,636	57,582
Other current liabilities	22,937	19,185
Total current liabilities	114,206	125,286
Long-term debt	39,882	42,688
Long-term income taxes	25,061	27,931
Long-term unearned revenue	2,840	2,602
Deferred income taxes	2,522	2,618
Operating lease liabilities	17,686	15,497
Other long-term liabilities	38,536	27,064
Total liabilities	240,733	243,686
Commitments and contingencies
Stockholders’ equity:
Common stock and paid-in capital – shares authorized 24,000; outstanding 7,434 and 7,434	106,965	100,923
Retained earnings	219,759	173,144
Accumulated other comprehensive loss	(4,833)	(5,590)
Total stockholders’ equity	321,891	268,477
Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity	$562,624	$512,163

CASH FLOWS STATEMENTS

(In millions) (Unaudited)
	Three Months Ended March 31,		Nine Months Ended March 31,
	Three Months Ended March 31,		Nine Months Ended March 31,
	2025	2024	2025	2024
Operations
Net income	$25,824	$21,939	$74,599	$66,100
Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash from operations:
Depreciation, amortization, and other	8,740	6,027	22,950	15,907
Stock-based compensation expense	2,980	2,703	8,901	8,038
Net recognized losses (gains) on investments and derivatives	(298)	49	553	261
Deferred income taxes	(2,244)	(1,323)	(4,835)	(3,593)
Changes in operating assets and liabilities:
Accounts receivable	(2,461)	(2,028)	5,598	6,055
Inventories	52	260	390	1,229
Other current assets	1,076	951	642	880
Other long-term assets	(518)	(2,137)	(3,368)	(5,577)
Accounts payable	1,179	648	1,221	(659)
Unearned revenue	(1,032)	(645)	(12,923)	(10,309)
Income taxes	1,298	2,622	(1,081)	2,493
Other current liabilities	2,839	2,803	576	215
Other long-term liabilities	(391)	48	292	313
Net cash from operations	37,044	31,917	93,515	81,353
Financing
Proceeds from issuance (repayments) of debt, maturities of 90 days or less, net	0	(3,810)	(5,746)	6,392
Proceeds from issuance of debt	0	6,352	0	24,198
Repayments of debt	(2,250)	(11,589)	(3,216)	(16,005)
Common stock issued	546	522	1,508	1,468
Common stock repurchased	(4,781)	(4,213)	(13,874)	(13,044)
Common stock cash dividends paid	(6,169)	(5,572)	(17,913)	(16,197)
Other, net	(382)	(498)	(1,614)	(1,006)
Net cash used in financing	(13,036)	(18,808)	(40,855)	(14,194)
Investing
Additions to property and equipment	(16,745)	(10,952)	(47,472)	(30,604)
Acquisition of companies, net of cash acquired and divestitures, and purchases of intangible and other assets	(981)	(1,575)	(4,235)	(67,790)
Purchases of investments	(4,474)	(2,183)	(8,144)	(14,901)
Maturities of investments	6,721	3,350	11,461	23,218
Sales of investments	2,161	1,941	6,688	8,871
Other, net	604	(1,281)	(325)	(916)
Net cash used in investing	(12,714)	(10,700)	(42,027)	(82,122)
Effect of foreign exchange rates on cash and cash equivalents	52	(80)	(120)	(107)
Net change in cash and cash equivalents	11,346	2,329	10,513	(15,070)
Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period	17,482	17,305	18,315	34,704
Cash and cash equivalents, end of period	$28,828	$19,634	$28,828	$19,634

SEGMENT REVENUE AND OPERATING INCOME

(In millions) (Unaudited)
	Three Months Ended March 31,		Nine Months Ended March 31,
	Three Months Ended March 31,		Nine Months Ended March 31,
	2025	2024	2025	2024
Revenue
Productivity and Business Processes	$29,944	$27,113	$87,698	$78,193
Intelligent Cloud	26,751	22,141	76,387	63,679
More Personal Computing	13,371	12,604	41,198	38,523
Total	$70,066	$61,858	$205,283	$180,395
Operating Income
Productivity and Business Processes	$17,379	$15,143	$50,780	$43,955
Intelligent Cloud	11,095	9,515	32,449	27,978
More Personal Computing	3,526	2,923	10,976	9,575
Total	$32,000	$27,581	$94,205	$81,508

We have recast certain prior period amounts to conform to the way we internally manage and monitor our business.

Posted on March 17, 2025 by — Leave a comment

Microsoft responds to TRC Capital’s “mini-tender” offer

REDMOND, Wash. — March 17, 2025 — Microsoft Corp. has received notice of an unsolicited “mini-tender” offer by TRC Capital Investment Corporation (TRC) dated Feb.21, 2025, to purchase up to 300,000 shares of Microsoft’s common stock at a price of $391.00 per share in cash. The offer represents less than 0.01% of Microsoft’s outstanding common stock.

Microsoft is not affiliated with TRC and does not endorse the offer documentation or the offer itself. Microsoft expresses no opinion and is neutral on TRC’s offer and encourages shareholders to obtain current market quotations for their shares of Microsoft common stock consult with their brokers or financial advisors, to review the terms and conditions of the offer, to consider any changes TRC may make to the terms (including pricing) and conditions, and to exercise caution with respect to TRC’s offer. TRC’s offer is currently scheduled to expire one minute after 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on March 24, 2025. TRC may extend the offer, or subject to the conditions of the offer, terminate it, before the expiration date.

TRC has made many similar mini-tender offers for shares of other companies. A mini-tender offer is an offer for less than 5% of a company’s shares. It is not subject to the disclosure and procedural requirements required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for larger tender offers. As a result, mini-tender offers do not provide investors with the same level of protections as provided for larger tender offers under U.S. securities laws. The SEC has cautioned investors about mini-tender offers, providing guidance to investors at https://www.sec.gov/about/reports-publications/investorpubsminitend.

Microsoft requests that a copy of this news release be included with all distributions of materials relating to TRC’s mini-tender offer.

For more information, financial analysts and investors only:
Investor Relations, Microsoft, (425) 706-4400

For more information, press only:
Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit Microsoft Source at https://news.microsoft.com/source. Web links were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. Shareholder and financial information is available at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor.

Posted on March 3, 2025 by — Leave a comment

Microsoft Dragon Copilot provides the healthcare industry’s first unified voice AI assistant that enables clinicians to streamline clinical documentation, surface information and automate tasks

By combining and extending the proven capabilities of Dragon Medical One (DMO) and DAX Copilot (DAX), Dragon Copilot promotes clinician well-being, increases efficiency, improves patient experiences and drives financial impact

REDMOND, Wash. — March 3, 2025 — On Monday, Microsoft Corp. is unveiling Microsoft Dragon Copilot, the first AI assistant for clinical workflow that brings together the trusted natural language voice dictation capabilities of DMO with the ambient listening capabilities of DAX, fine-tuned generative AI and healthcare-adapted safeguards. Part of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, Dragon Copilot is built on a secure modern architecture that enables organizations to deliver enhanced experiences and outcomes across care settings for providers and patients alike.

Clinician burnout in the U.S. dropped from 53% in 2023 to 48% in 2024, in part due to technology advancements. However, with an aging population, and persistent burnout felt across the profession, a significant U.S. workforce shortage is projected. In response, health systems are adopting AI to streamline administrative tasks, enhance care access, and enable faster clinical insights to improve healthcare globally.

“At Microsoft, we have long believed that AI has the incredible potential to free clinicians from much of the administrative burden in healthcare and enable them to refocus on taking care of patients,” said Joe Petro, corporate vice president of Microsoft Health and Life Sciences Solutions and Platforms. “With the launch of our new Dragon Copilot, we are introducing the first unified voice AI experience to the market, drawing on our trusted, decades-long expertise that has consistently enhanced provider wellness and improved clinical and financial outcomes for provider organizations and the patients they serve.”

“With Dragon Copilot, we’re not just enhancing how we work in the EHR — we’re tapping into a Microsoft-powered ecosystem where AI assistance extends across our organization, delivering a consistent and intelligent experience everywhere we work,” said Dr. R. Hal Baker, senior vice president and chief digital and chief information officer, WellSpan Health. “It’s this ability to enhance the patient experience while streamlining clinician workflows that makes Dragon Copilot such a game-changer.”

Dragon Copilot combines DMO’s speech capabilities, which has helped clinicians document billions of patient records, and DAX’s ambient AI technology, which has assisted over 3 million ambient patient conversations across 600 healthcare organizations in the past month alone. With these ambient AI capabilities, organizations have already realized significant outcomes, with clinicians reporting five minutes saved per encounter,[1] 70% of clinicians reporting reduced feelings of burnout and fatigue,[2] 62% of clinicians stating they are less likely to leave their organization,[3] while 93% of patients report a better overall experience.[4]

Key features of Dragon Copilot allow clinicians and other care providers across specialties to:

Streamline documentation: Clinicians can take advantage of multilanguage ambient note creation, automated tasks and multilanguage support, personalized style and formatting, natural language dictation capabilities, speech memos, editing, customized texts, templates, AI prompts, and more in one singular user interface.
Surface information: The embedded AI assistant functionality allows clinicians to conduct general-purpose medical information searches from trusted content sources.
Automate tasks: New capabilities allow clinicians to automate key tasks, such as conversational orders, note and clinical evidence summaries, referral letters, and after-visit summaries, in one centralized workspace.

Clinicians working across ambulatory, inpatient, emergency departments and other care settings will benefit from Dragon Copilot’s fast, accurate, secure and intuitive speech and ambient capabilities to document care, navigate electronic health record (EHR) workflows, and perform other administrative tasks. Dragon Copilot will be generally available in the U.S. and Canada in May, followed by the U.K., Germany, France and the Netherlands. Microsoft is also committed to bringing a new Dragon experience to other key markets using Dragon Medical today.

“We are aware of the administrative burnout affecting our clinicians, and the need for improved care access for our patients, and the newest evolution of Dragon represents a significant step forward in alleviating this strain,” said Glen Kearns, EVP and CIO, The Ottawa Hospital. “We are thrilled to be one of the first customers in Canada to use Microsoft’s ambient and generative AI technology. The newest evolution of Dragon Copilot could help alleviate documentation burden for our clinical teams.”

With Microsoft’s extensive healthcare industry partner ecosystem, healthcare organizations can unlock more value from Dragon Copilot by accessing new solutions and integrated offerings. These partners include leading EHR providers, independent software vendors, system integrators and cloud service providers that each play a unique role in enabling organizations to deliver meaningful outcomes using the Dragon Copilot solution.

Embracing AI innovations with a secure data estate and responsible AI

Dragon’s new capabilities are built on a secure data estate and incorporate healthcare-specific clinical, chat and compliance safeguards for accurate and safe AI outputs. They also align to Microsoft’s responsible AI principles to help guide AI development and use —transparency, reliability and safety, fairness, inclusiveness, accountability, privacy, and security. We remain committed to developing responsible AI by design and ensuring that these technologies positively impact both the healthcare ecosystem and broader society and will share our learnings on this journey with our customers.

For more information on Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, please visit the Microsoft health and life sciences press site here. For more information on Dragon Copilot, click here or visit us at booth #2221 at HIMSS.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications, (425) 638-7777,
[email protected]

[1] Microsoft survey of 879 clinicians across 340 healthcare organizations using DAX Copilot; July 2024

[2] Microsoft survey of 879 clinicians across 340 healthcare organizations using DAX Copilot; July 2024

[3] Microsoft survey of 879 clinicians across 340 healthcare organizations using DAX Copilot; July 2024

[4] Survey of 413 patients conducted by multiple healthcare organizations whose clinicians use DAX Copilot; June 2024

Posted on September 28, 2023 by — Leave a comment

Mayo Clinic to deploy and test Microsoft generative AI tools

ROCHESTER, Minn., and REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 28, 2023 — Mayo Clinic, a world leader in healthcare known for its commitment to innovation, is among the first healthcare organizations to deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot. This new generative AI service combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with organizational data from Microsoft 365 to enable new levels of productivity in the enterprise.

Mayo Clinic is testing the Microsoft 365 Copilot Early Access Program with hundreds of its clinical staff, doctors and healthcare workers.

“Microsoft 365 Copilot has the ability to transform work across virtually every industry so people can focus on the most important work and help move their organizations forward,” said Colette Stallbaumer, general manager, Microsoft 365. “We’re excited to be helping customers like Mayo Clinic achieve their goals.”

Generative AI has the potential to support Mayo Clinic’s vision to transform healthcare. For example, generative AI can help doctors automate form-filling tasks. Administrative demands continue to burden healthcare providers, taking up valuable time that could be used to provide more focused care to patients. Microsoft 365 Copilot has the potential to give healthcare providers valuable time back by automating tasks.

Mayo Clinic is one of the first to start working with Copilot tools to enable staff experience across apps like Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel and more. Microsoft 365 Copilot combines the power of LLMs with data in the Microsoft 365 apps, including calendars, emails, chats, documents and meeting transcripts, to turn words into a powerful productivity tool.

“Privacy, ethics and safety are at the forefront of Mayo Clinic’s work with generative AI and large language models,” said Cris Ross, chief information officer at Mayo Clinic. “Using AI-powered tech will enhance Mayo Clinic’s ability to lead the transformation of healthcare while focusing on what matters most — providing the best possible care to our patients.”

As a leader in healthcare, Mayo Clinic is always looking for new ways to improve patient care. By using generative AI and LLMs, Mayo Clinic will be able to offer its teams new timesaving tools to help them succeed.

About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]

Samiha Khanna, Mayo Clinic, (507) 266-2624, [email protected]

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.

Posted on September 27, 2023 by — Leave a comment

Microsoft and Mercy collaborate to empower clinicians to transform patient care with generative AI

Multiyear alliance creates foundation for innovation and deeper insights with data

REDMOND, Wash., and ST. LOUIS — Sept. 27, 2023 — Microsoft Corp. and Mercy are forging a long-term collaboration using generative AI and other digital technologies to give physicians, advance practice providers and nurses more time to care for patients and improve the patient experience. This work represents what’s next in healthcare for applying advanced digital technologies to the delivery of care to consumers.

“With the latest advances in generative AI, this moment marks a true phase change where emerging capabilities can help health care organizations address some of their most pressing challenges, create needed efficiency and transform care,” said Peter Lee, corporate vice president of research and incubations at Microsoft. “Mercy has a reputation for ongoing innovation and — through our years working together — has been a leader in the industry in creating an intelligent data platform on which to launch this kind of transformation. This is just the beginning, and it’s inspiring to see Mercy’s leadership adopting these tools to empower physicians, providers, nurses and all clinicians to improve patient care.”

Mercy plans to use Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to improve care in several immediate new ways:

Patients will have the information to better understand their lab results and engage in more informed discussions about their health with their provider through the help of generative AI-assisted communication. Patients will be empowered to get answers in simple, conversational language.
Mercy will apply generative AI when taking patient calls for actions like scheduling appointments. Beyond the initial call, the AI solution will provide recommendations for additional follow-up actions to make sure all the patient’s needs are met during a single interaction, limiting the need for follow-up calls.
A chatbot for Mercy co-workers will help quickly find important information about Mercy policies and procedures, and locate HR-related answers such as information on benefits or leave requirements. By helping nurses and co-workers find the information they need more quickly, they can spend more time on patient care.

“Because of all the investments we have made together with Microsoft in the past few years, including the use of Microsoft’s secure cloud, we are better positioned to perform real-time clinical decision-making that ultimately improves patient care,” said Joe Kelly, Mercy’s executive vice president of transformation and business development officer. “With Microsoft, we are exploring more than four dozen uses of AI and will launch multiple new AI use cases by the middle of next year to transform care and experiences for patients and co-workers. This is predictive, proactive and personalized care at its best.”

As Mercy’s preferred platform for ongoing innovation, the Microsoft Cloud provides the health system with a trusted and comprehensive platform to improve efficiency, connect and govern data, impact patient and co-worker experience, reach new communities, and build a foundation for ongoing innovation. By securely centralizing and organizing data in an AI-powered intelligent data platform built on Azure, Mercy is uniquely positioned to deliver on evolving clinician and patient expectations more quickly. For example, Mercy can tap into secure data insights to reduce many unnecessary patient days in the hospital by giving care teams smart dashboards and better visibility into the factors that impact how soon patients can return home. Additionally, Microsoft’s modern work solutions will help Mercy co-workers improve productivity and communication so they can spend more time improving patient care and experience.

“Mercy and Microsoft are creating a new path for health systems in which we are working shoulder to shoulder to combine our 200-year heritage in health care and Microsoft’s extensive expertise in cloud and AI to enhance care for the patients we serve and improve the working experience for our physicians, advanced providers, nurses and all co-workers,” said Steve Mackin, Mercy’s president and CEO. “By using technology in new and secure ways, we innovate better health care for all.”

The organizations recently brought together Mercy’s engineering teams and senior leaders with Microsoft leaders, engineers and industry experts for a hackathon to co-imagine and begin to co-innovate around the generative AI use cases in development. Additionally, Microsoft and Mercy are working together to showcase Mercy’s solutions in the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) in Chicago in 2024. The showcase will highlight transformational clinical experiences and demonstrate what the future of health care could look like using Microsoft technology.

About Mercy

Mercy, one of the 20 largest U.S. health systems and named the top large system in the U.S. for excellent patient experience by NRC Health, serves millions annually with nationally recognized quality care and one of the nation’s largest Accountable Care Organizations. Mercy is a highly integrated, multi-state health care system including more than 40 acute care, managed and specialty (heart, children’s, orthopedic and rehab) hospitals, convenient and urgent care locations, imaging centers and pharmacies. Mercy has 900 physician practices and outpatient facilities, more than 4,000 physicians and advanced practitioners and more than 45,000 co-workers serving patients and families across Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has clinics, outpatient services and outreach ministries in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @Microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]

Bethany Pope, Mercy, (314) 251-4472 office, [email protected]

Joe Poelker, Mercy, (314) 525-4005 office, (314) 724-6095 mobile, [email protected]

Posted on September 14, 2023 by — Leave a comment

Microsoft and Oracle expand partnership to deliver Oracle Database Services on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure in Microsoft Azure

Microsoft joins Oracle as the only other hyperscaler to offer Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Database Services to simplify cloud migration, multicloud deployment and management

Austin, TX and Redmond, WA — September 14, 2023 — Oracle Corp and Microsoft Corp today announced Oracle Database@Azure, which gives customers direct access to Oracle database services running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and deployed in Microsoft Azure datacenters.

Oracle Database@Azure delivers all the performance, scale, and workload availability advantages of Oracle Database on OCI with the security, flexibility, and best-in-class services of Microsoft Azure, including best-in-class AI services like Azure OpenAI. This combination provides customers with more flexibility regarding where they run their workloads. It also provides a streamlined environment that simplifies cloud purchasing and management between Oracle Database and Azure services.

With the introduction of Oracle Database@Azure, Oracle and Microsoft are helping customers accelerate their migration to the cloud, so they can modernize their IT environments and take advantage of Azure’s infrastructure, tooling, and services. Customers will benefit from:

More options to move their Oracle databases to the cloud;
The highest level of Oracle database performance, scale, and availability, as well as feature and pricing parity;
The simplicity, security, and latency of a single operating environment (datacenter) within Azure;
The ability to build new cloud native applications using OCI and Azure technologies, including Azure’s best-in-class AI services;
The assurance of an architecture that is tested and supported by two of the most trusted names in the cloud.

“We have a real opportunity to help organizations bring their mission-critical applications to the cloud so they can transform every part of their business with this next generation of AI,” said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “Our expanded partnership with Oracle will make Microsoft Azure the only other cloud provider to run Oracle’s database services and help our customers unlock a new wave of cloud-powered innovation.”

“Most customers already use multiple clouds,” said Larry Ellison, Oracle Chairman and CTO. “Microsoft and Oracle have been working together to make it easy for those customers to seamlessly connect Azure Services with the very latest Oracle Database technology. By collocating Oracle Exadata hardware in Azure datacenters, customers will experience the best possible database and network performance. We are proud to partner with Microsoft to deliver this best-in-class capability to customers.”

Multicloud Made for Customers

The new service delivers a fully integrated experience for deploying, managing, and using Oracle database instances within Azure. It enables organizations to drive breakthroughs in the cloud using their existing skills to leverage the best of Oracle and Microsoft capabilities directly within the Azure portal.

The new service is designed to eliminate customers’ biggest challenges in adopting multicloud architectures, including disjointed management, siloed tools, and a complex purchasing process.

As a result of this expanded partnership, customers will have the choice to deploy their Azure services with their fully managed Oracle Database services all within a single datacenter, including support for Oracle Exadata Database services, Oracle Autonomous Database services, and Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC). Oracle and Microsoft have also developed a joint support model to provide rapid response and resolution for mission-critical workloads.

Additionally, Oracle and Microsoft have significantly simplified the purchasing and contracting process. Customers will be able to purchase Oracle Database@Azure through Azure Marketplace, leveraging their existing Azure agreements. They will also be able to use their existing Oracle Database license benefits including Bring Your Own License and the Oracle Support Rewards program.

“As we continue our digital transformation through innovation and technology, interoperability across cloud service providers to enable safe, secure, and rapid financial transactions for our 40 million customers is paramount,” said Mihir Shah, enterprise head of data, Fidelity Investments. “Today’s announcement displays how industry leaders Microsoft and Oracle are putting their customers’ interests first and providing a collaborative solution that enables organizations like Fidelity to deliver best-in-class experiences for our customers and meet the substantial compliance and regulatory requirements with minimal downtime.”

“Data is the lifeblood of any business, and the cloud is the best way to analyze it so that insights become actionable,” said Magesh Bagavathi, senior vice president and global chief technology officer, PepsiCo. “As one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world with a market value of over 200 billion U.S. dollars, the ability to run our mission-critical systems and associated data in the cloud with Oracle Database@Azure gives us a scaled strategic advantage across our global operations.”

“We are looking to our technology partners to support Vodafone’s strategic focus on customers, simplicity and growth across Europe and Africa,” said Scott Petty, Chief Technology Officer, Vodafone. “This new offering from Oracle and Microsoft does that by enabling us to deliver innovative and differentiated digital services faster and more cost effectively to our customers.”

“As a global leader in the financial services industry, Voya has harnessed the power of digital transformation to help provide the best experience for our customers and employees. As we continue to bring our business applications to the cloud, cloud partnerships have the potential to help the entire industry maintain better security, compliance, and performance, helping to accelerate the development of new technology products, solutions, and services that enhance customer experience and help achieve better financial outcomes,” said Santhosh Keshavan, executive vice president and chief information officer, Voya Financial, Inc.

Oracle will operate and manage these OCI services directly within Microsoft’s datacenters globally, beginning with regions in North America and Europe.

For more information on how to get started with Oracle Database@Azure, visit our Microsoft and Oracle solutions page.

Additional Resources

Contact Info

Oracle PR

Carolin Bachmann
[email protected]
+1.415.622.8466

Microsoft Media Relations

WE Communications for Microsoft
[email protected]
+1.425.638.7777

About Oracle
Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com.

About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Trademarks
Oracle, Java, MySQL and NetSuite are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. NetSuite was the first cloud company—ushering in the new era of cloud computing.

“Safe Harbor” Statement: Statements in this press release relating to Oracle’s future plans, expectations, beliefs, intentions and prospects, including statements regarding expected benefits of Oracle Database@Azure and its best-in-class capability, are “forward-looking statements” and are subject to material risks and uncertainties. Risks and uncertainties that could affect our current expectations and our actual results, include, among others: our ability to develop new products and services, integrate acquired products and services and enhance our existing products and services; our management of complex cloud and hardware offerings, including the sourcing of technologies and technology components; significant coding, manufacturing or configuration errors in our offerings; risks associated with acquisitions; economic, political and market conditions; information technology system failures, privacy and data security concerns; cybersecurity breaches; unfavorable legal proceedings, government investigations, and complex and changing laws and regulations. A detailed discussion of these factors and other risks that affect our business is contained in our SEC filings, including our most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, particularly under the heading “Risk Factors.” Copies of these filings are available online from the SEC or by contacting Oracle’s Investor Relations Department at (650) 506-4073 or by clicking on SEC Filings on the Oracle Investor Relations website at www.oracle.com/investor/. All information set forth in this press release is current as of September 14, 2023. Oracle undertakes no duty to update any statement in light of new information or future events.

Posted on August 30, 2023 by — Leave a comment

Lumen Technologies dives into Microsoft 365 Copilot to help enhance employee efficiency and customer relationships

Generative AI tool shows early signs of helping Lumen innovate for growth

DENVER, Colo., and REDMOND, Wash. — Aug. 30, 2023 — Lumen Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LUMN), a multinational technology company, is working with Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) to deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot to empower its approximately 30,000 employees. Lumen is beta-testing Microsoft 365 Copilot as a part of the Early Access Program (EAP). The company has already seen the benefits of equipping some of its teams with Microsoft’s large language model (LLM) AI solutions, with plans to deploy the tech more broadly in the future.

“We are thrilled to be leading the early deployment of Microsoft 365 Copilot at Lumen Technologies,” said Kate Johnson, president and CEO, Lumen Technologies Inc. “Giving our workforce the digital tools they need to deliver dramatically improved customer experiences with greater ease is an essential part of our company transformation. Our people are seeing immediate productivity improvements with Copilot, allowing them to focus on more value-added activities each day.”

Microsoft 365 Copilot can disrupt the telecommunications industry by providing employees with a tool to help enhance creativity, productivity and skills with real-time intelligent assistance. It has the potential to significantly improve employee productivity by automating tedious tasks and providing powerful tools for data analysis and decision-making. With features such as meeting summaries in Microsoft Teams and Copilot enhancements across Outlook, PowerPoint and other Microsoft 365 apps, employees can get back important time to deliver on strategic priorities.

Customer service teams at Lumen are using Copilot to surface relevant policies, summarize tickets or easily access step-by-step repair instructions from manuals. Sales and customer experience teams are using Copilot to add depth and context to customer communications and summarize actions and next steps. Across the board, teams are using Copilot to quickly create presentations, and for new business proposal and statement-of-work creation to deliver a consistent Lumen message and experience.

Lumen is among the first companies to start working with Microsoft 365 Copilot as one of the EAP adopters. Microsoft 365 Copilot combines the power of LLMs with data in the Microsoft Graph — calendar, emails, chats, documents, meetings and more — and the Microsoft 365 apps to turn words into a powerful productivity tool.

“Microsoft 365 Copilot has the power to revolutionize the way we work, enabling people to focus on what truly matters and drive their organizations forward,” said Deb Cupp, president, Americas Microsoft. “We are thrilled to be delivering this technology to innovative companies like Lumen to help them achieve their goals.”

As a pioneer in the telecommunications industry, Lumen is pushing the envelope when it comes to enhancing the customer experience. By harnessing the power of advanced AI technologies such as generative AI and AI language models through tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot, Lumen can provide their teams with the cutting-edge tools they need to succeed and drive their business forward.

About Lumen Technologies

Lumen connects the world. We are dedicated to furthering human progress through technology by connecting people, data, and applications – quickly, securely, and effortlessly. Everything we do at Lumen takes advantage of our network strength. From metro connectivity to long-haul data transport to our edge cloud, security, and managed service capabilities, we meet our customers’ needs today and as they build for tomorrow. For news and insights visit news.lumen.com, LinkedIn: /lumentechnologies, Twitter: @lumentechco, Facebook: /lumentechnologies, Instagram: @lumentechnologies, and YouTube: /lumentechnologies.

About Microsoft

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]

Danielle Spears, Corporate Communications for Lumen, (407) 961-3838, [email protected]

Posted on August 10, 2023 by — Leave a comment

Microsoft Azure meets growing needs of healthcare organizations, such as Mount Sinai Health System, with a highly scalable public cloud for Epic

New Azure Large Instances allows healthcare providers to manage large EHR database loads using public cloud-hosted infrastructure

REDMOND, Wash. — Aug. 10, 2023 — Microsoft Corp. on Thursday announced that Epic clients, starting with Mount Sinai Health System (Mount Sinai), one of New York City’s largest academic medical systems, can use Microsoft Azure Large Instances, a solution designed to achieve the scale needed to run the large Epic electronic health record (EHR) database — up to 50 million database accesses per second. Azure Large Instances leverages dedicated resources, which allows Mount Sinai and other Epic clients to scale beyond the previous limits of shared public cloud infrastructure solutions.

Through close collaboration with Accenture, Mount Sinai continues to migrate many of its workloads to Azure and now has the largest production instance of Epic running on Azure in the world. “We are very excited about this move as it further enables digital transformation, accelerates artificial intelligence (AI) and innovation, provides scalability and flexibility, and reduces upfront infrastructure costs, ultimately leading to improved care and discovery as well as streamlined operations,” said Kristin Myers, executive vice president, chief digital and information officer, and dean for digital and information technology at Mount Sinai.

At the core of healthcare provider organizations and care delivery is the EHR, a real-time, patient-centered record that contains the medical and treatment history of a patient, giving providers a broad view of a patient’s care. As healthcare organizations manage an increasingly complex care landscape and challenging economic conditions, there is a growing desire to consolidate and exit on-premises data centers and build for further innovation. “Going through this digital transformation requires partners who understand our health system’s mission and the criticality of patient care,” said Joseph Gimigliano, chief technology officer at Mount Sinai. Microsoft’s long-standing collaboration with Epic includes enabling the migration of Epic EHR environments to Azure through ongoing joint testing and engineering.

“Our mission is to empower the healthcare industry to achieve more, helping to deliver the best experiences for providers and patients,” said Tom McGuinness, corporate vice president, global healthcare & life sciences at Microsoft. “Through our collaboration with Epic, we are delivering innovation for customers on Azure that will help healthcare organizations reduce the complexity of infrastructure management and control costs with a secure, scalable and agile public cloud solution. These benefits are key to helping healthcare organizations succeed, particularly as they navigate through today’s economic landscape.”

Moving to a cloud-first computing model is essential for many healthcare providers looking to implement a digital transformation strategy to enable better care at lower costs. Healthcare organizations are faced with the increased costs of hardware, software, installation, maintenance and management of healthcare IT landscapes on-premises as well as with the difficulty of finding and retaining staff to build and manage highly available, secure and compliant environments. Azure offers opportunities for agility, cost management and risk reductions by offloading the data center and hardware management to Microsoft. With faster time to value from current investments in the cloud and opportunities to innovate quickly, organizations can rethink how they utilize data and AI and take a digital health platform approach.

For more information on Epic on Azure, visit Epic on Azure.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications, (425) 638-7777,

[email protected]

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.

Posted on July 11, 2023 by — Leave a comment

KPMG and Microsoft enter landmark agreement to put AI at the forefront of professional services

Multi-year cloud and AI alliance to supercharge the employee experience and accelerate innovation for clients across Audit, Tax and Advisory

LONDON and REDMOND, Wash. — July 11, 2023 — KPMG and Microsoft have announced a significant expansion of their global relationship that will reshape professional services across a number of business-critical areas including workforce modernization, safe and secure development, and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions for clients, industries and society more broadly.

The industry-leading collaboration between the two global organizations includes a KPMG multibillion dollar commitment in Microsoft cloud and AI services over the next 5 years that will help to unlock potential incremental growth opportunity for KPMG of over US$12 billion. The expanded alliance will enhance KPMG client engagements and supercharge the employee experience in a way that is responsible, trustworthy and safe.

The Microsoft cloud and Azure OpenAI Service capabilities will empower the KPMG global workforce of 265,000 to unleash their creativity, provide faster analysis and spend more time on strategic advice. This will enable them to help clients, including more than 2,500 KPMG & Microsoft joint clients, keep pace with the rapidly evolving AI landscape and solve their greatest business challenges while positioning them for success in the future world of work.

As an early access partner for Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service, KPMG professionals will pilot the technologies with select business groups across the global organization, bringing together the increased capabilities of these tools with their experience, insights and sector expertise to enhance client engagements and accelerate digital solution development.

Bill Thomas, Global Chairman and CEO, KPMG International, said: “Our renewed and strengthened relationship with Microsoft is an exciting moment for our people and our clients. It will help harness the power of our multidisciplinary model by ensuring that our people always have the right expertise, skills, and tools to overcome challenges and provide the very best advice to clients. It will also help make KPMG a more agile and resilient business that continues to be an interesting and exciting place to work.

This expansion of our global alliance builds on the combined power of two world-class organizations that share a common set of core values, working together to responsibly use cutting-edge cloud and AI technologies. KPMG is embracing the future, and we believe that AI is key to unlocking sustainable growth in a way that will build a better future for our people, our clients and society.”

Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft, said: “We have a real opportunity to apply this next generation of AI to help transform every industry, including professional services. Our expanded partnership with KPMG will bring together AI innovation across the Microsoft Cloud with KPMG’s tax, audit and advisory expertise to empower its employees and unlock insights for its customers.”

The collaboration which spans more than a decade underpinned by this major expansion will benefit KPMG firms’ core business areas in the following ways:

Audit

By infusing data analytics, AI and Azure Cognitive Services into the audit process, through the KPMG smart audit platform KPMG Clara, 85,000 audit professionals who collectively work on hundreds of thousands of audits a year will be empowered to focus more closely on higher-risk areas of the audit, sector-specific risks and challenges – to the benefit of both stakeholders and capital markets. This integration also opens up new market opportunities for KPMG professionals and their clients. For example, with the integration of Microsoft Fabric, KPMG teams will have the ability to directly point to client data instead of having to ingest it, which is a key component to helping enable KPMG professionals to perform audits on a more real time basis.

Tax

Integrating Azure OpenAI Service and Microsoft Fabric into KPMG Digital Gateway, a KPMG single platform solution, will give clients access to the full suite of KPMG Tax & Legal technologies, and allow them to gain more integrated and transparent access to their data and take a more holistic management approach to their tax functions. This was demonstrated most recently through a co-developed AI solution using the Azure OpenAI Service that helps to analyze environmental, social and governance (ESG) data, establish data patterns and draft ESG tax transparency reports, all at increased speed and scale. Additionally, KPMG firms will operate a generative-AI powered “virtual assistant” to create new client service models to help tax professionals become more efficient. It will also help with revenue-generating opportunities such as product experience enhancements and Knowledge management for complex tax laws.

Advisory

Developing an AI-enabled application development and knowledge platform on Microsoft Azure will expedite the creation of specialized solutions for clients, helping to enhance their competitive advantage and profitability while putting ethics and security at the very core of the offerings. The benefits and ongoing success of this continued collaboration already include a joint engagement with Coca-Cola EuroPacific Partners (CCEP) of which Peter Brickley, Chief Information Officer at CCEP said, “KPMG and Microsoft are working together with Coca-Cola EuroPacific Partners on innovative use cases which pioneer improvements to back-office efficiency using generative AI on the Azure platform. By using this new technology, we will prepare our organization for the future, improve our employee experience and support our growth ambitions globally.”

Making an Impact

KPMG professionals will work together with Microsoft to help support businesses with their ESG agendas. Building on the success of the KPMG Circularity Tracker and an ESG and climate data management and analytics solution, both of which have Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability and Microsoft Azure at their core, joint teams will continue to help clients to unify their data sources, leverage the required inputs to help make real-time value-add decisions, and help them to deliver on their sustainability commitments.

In addition, to enhance the commercial prospects of the agreement, KPMG and Microsoft will continue to explore and participate in joint opportunities where they can work together to drive social and community impact worldwide. These currently include the UNESCO global education coalition and KPMG’s 10×30 strategy to help economically empower 10 million underprivileged youths by 2030 — through education, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. The companies will also continue to work together to enhance the reliability of carbon accounting through the Carbon Call to which both KPMG and Microsoft were founding signatories.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Kathryn Wright, Head of Global External Communications, KPMG International
T: +44 (0)7880784296
E: [email protected]

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft

T: +1 (425) 638-7777

E: [email protected]

Some or all of the services described herein may not be permissible for KPMG audit clients and their affiliates or related entities.

The information contained herein is of a general nature and is not intended to address the circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Although we endeavor to provide accurate and timely information, there can be no guarantee that such information is accurate as of the date it is received or that it will continue to be accurate in the future. No one should act on such information without appropriate professional advice after a thorough examination of the particular situation.

KPMG refers to the global organization or to one or more of the member firms of KPMG International Limited (“KPMG International”), each of which is a separate legal entity. KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee and does not provide services to clients. For more detail about our structure please visit kpmg.com/governance.

The KPMG name and logo are trademarks used under license by the independent member firms of the KPMG global organization.

ABOUT MICROSOFT

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @Microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Editor’s note – July 12, 2023 – The note to editors about additional clients already seeing the benefits of KPMG teams was removed.