93 across multiple systems and reason across all of it,” says Crownshaw. “And then responsible AI – how we embed the right process, the right trust, the right governance into those workflows – is core to everything we do.” The Premier League partnership illustrates what this looks like in practice. Microsoft is building connected layers across production, performance and consumer data, enabling personalised experiences in sports video workflows and companion apps. “We can isolate less relevant content, remove irrelevant segments and give statistical overlays that make the most sense,” says Crownshaw. “That’s measurable transformation in terms of how we deliver the right outcome for a customer to the fan.” Media ecosystems are complex, and Microsoft’s approach is built around working with the partners already embedded in them. “We can call Adobe’s services directly through our Foundry APIs to Firefly, and that directly impacts editorial workflows and post-production,” says Crownshaw. Asset management integrations with IPV and Prime Focus Technologies give AI agents direct access to media libraries, enabling smarter retrieval, transcoding decisions and metadata management at scale. Meanwhile, the combination of Microsoft and Nvidia’s infrastructure accelerates compute for rendering and AI-driven content generation. “When you put Microsoft and Nvidia together, it’s incredibly powerful,” says Crownshaw. The result is a platform where partners are no longer disconnected tools but components of a unified, orchestrated architecture. For Crownshaw, the direction is no longer in doubt. “We’re seeing an emerging pattern,” he says. “The tools Microsoft has connected to the partner ecosystem are driving a meaningful and consistent architectural discussion about how to deploy these things at scale.” Across the industry, he argues, the organisations that have moved from experimentation to deployment are beginning to pull away. The distance between early adopters and more cautious organisations is only likely to grow. “The moment is real,” he says. “It opens up the ability for organisations that have been stuck in legacy applications for a very long time to transform their business in ways they’ve never done before. They can’t sit back anymore and say change isn’t possible, because with AI, it is.” Technology Record asked Microsoft partner Reply how it is using AI technology to offer new capabilities to media organisations Partner perspective “The most powerful content experiences reach audiences in the moment. With Microsoft AI and Azure, Reply enables organisations to turn data into personalised engagement at scale. At Art Basel, we built an Azure AI-powered image recognition platform that identifies artworks in under two seconds, delivering real-time attribution and gallery insights worldwide. For the Vatican, we processed 400,000 photogrammetry images to create a scalable digital twin of St. Peter’s Basilica. And at the Billie Jean King Cup, our cloud-native Match Insights app (pictured) delivers real-time AI analytics that empower coaches and players to act instantly. Microsoft AI doesn’t just distribute content, it makes every interaction smarter and more meaningful.” Richard Acreman Executive Partner, Reply MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzQ1NTk=