COVER STORY When a client requests an urgent fund transfer, financial advisors need instant access to account details and approvals, as delays can affect revenue and client trust. The same urgency applies to farmers, who must decide the optimal time to harvest to maximise yields, and to warehouse operators, who rely on real-time insights to manage stock and keep supply chains flowing. In every sector, speed, accuracy and actionable data – and the intelligence to interpret it – are more than just operational concerns, they are key to organisations achieving a competitive edge in fast-moving markets. “Across every industry, generative and agentic AI are deriving insights from data and redefining how organisations operate, compete and grow,” says Alysa Taylor, chief marketing officer for commercial cloud and AI at Microsoft. In finance, investment banking firm UBS is innovating with AI through its Smart Technologies and Advanced Analytics Team (STAAT), which combines advanced data analytics with machine learning to power intelligent insights. Built on Microsoft Azure, STAAT Assist automatically extracts key client information and populates transfer requests, enabling advisors to review and approve them with a single click, surfacing opportunities and speeding up the client experience. In agriculture, Land O’Lakes, a farmer-owned cooperative, built its Oz assistant on models within Azure AI Foundry to provide fast, accurate, mobile-friendly responses to BY ALICE CHAMBERS Organisations are increasingly embedding AI into their operations to work smarter and faster. Microsoft’s Alysa Taylor explains how Microsoft and its partners are helping businesses turn AI and data into insights that have a real-world impact intelligence Rising 28
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzQ1NTk=