30 hospital built an AI-powered shift-scheduling solution within Teams to cut planning time by two-thirds and free up caregivers to focus on patient care. Before the solution, nurses described creating monthly schedules for three daily shifts, seven days a week as “a game of Tetris”, where moving one cell triggered a cascade of adjustments. More than 100 nurses spent two to three days each month organising these schedules. With AI handling the planning, staff now have time to provide better patient care and manage their teams more effectively. “We have too few nurses and too much work, so if there is a way to give time back to the nurses, we want to do it,” says Michael Döring, the hospital’s chief nursing officer. Frontier firms like Lucerne Cantonal Hospital are seeing measurable results, achieving up to three times higher returns from AI investments than late adopters, according to Taylor. “This isn’t just about efficiency, it’s about unlocking new markets, business models and revenue streams,” she says. “AI is transforming how organisations engage with customers through personalisation at unprecedented scale. Ralph Lauren is a powerful example. The company built Ask Ralph, an AI-powered conversational styling companion using Azure AI. It delivers real-time outfit recommendations, styling tips and gift ideas, turning every customer interaction into a datadriven, high-margin engagement that deepens loyalty and drives new revenue opportunities.” German automotive manufacturer MercedesBenz is using Azure AI to optimise its global production network across more than 30 plants. “Innovation is deeply rooted in our DNA and fast forward to today, AI for us is our best colleague,” said Daniela Dimitrova, chief information officer at Mercedes, at Microsoft Ignite 2025. “With the Microsoft AI tools, we put a lot of power in the hands of our employees. We are bringing AI to the factory floor so we can analyse production data and improve efficiency across our factories.” For example, Mercedes employees are alerted when there is a decrease in efficiency and can ask Digital Factory Chat, a self-serve platform to investigate the cause and analyse potential machine malfunctions. By deploying the AI solution, Mercedes reduced energy consumption by more than 20 per cent. Mercedes is not alone in realising these kinds of gains; organisations across different sectors are accelerating similar outcomes and entering new markets with the support of Microsoft partners. “Our partner ecosystem is the force multiplier,” says Taylor. “Partners design and build AI apps and agents, stand up secure data foundations, deploy and manage solutions at scale, and co-sell through our programmes and marketplace so customers realise value faster. That end-to-end motion – from advising on strategy to operating the solution – is how customers move from pilots to production and unlock new growth.” For example, in the highly regulated life sciences sector, pharmaceutical company Hetero needed more than a basic infrastructure upgrade – it required a secure, scalable foundation that could support AI-driven COVER STORY “ Cloud and AI are no longer technology choices; they’re becoming the business model itself” ALYSA TAYLOR, MICROSOFT Finance professionals at UBS are using AI-powered intelligent insights to review and approve client requests quickly
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