120 With the manufacturing and industrial sectors seeking greater efficiency, increased agility and resilience, the spotlight is turning to a sector of the workforce that has long been underserved by digital innovation: frontline workers. “Frontline workers are the heartbeat of operations across industries – they keep factories running, supply chains moving, stores organised and serve as the first touchpoint for customers,” says Parag Ladha, director of manufacturing industry marketing at Microsoft. “Equipping them with technology is essential not just for operational success but also to boost engagement and retention in a time of labour shortages and an ageing workforce.” Despite their importance, frontline workers often struggle to access the vital information they need to complete their daily tasks, leading to slow decisionmaking and negatively impacting productivity. Now, manufacturers and industrials are turning to AI to help them overcome these challenges. Amey, a UK-based engineering firm that manages infrastructure affecting 75 per cent of the UK population, faced this particular challenge. Its mobile workforce found it difficult to retrieve health and safety documentation when needed. “To solve this, Amey turned to the Microsoft 365 Copilot ecosystem, deploying the SharePoint agent – a powerful AI assistant that puts answers just a chat away,” says Ladha. “Now, 99 per cent of Amey’s millions of documents are stored in SharePoint and can be accessed via a natural language chat – right from a mobile phone, in any language. This leads to faster decisions, safer workers and fewer delays.” BY RICHARD HUMPHREYS Digital and AI tools have the power to reshape frontline operations, says Microsoft’s Parag Ladha. He shines a light on several companies, spanning three continents, that have adopted Microsoft’s suite of products to make faster decisions, reduce downtime and enhance productivity Bringing frontline workers to the FEATURE forefront
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