The new yr brings alternative for considerate reflection concerning the previous yr, each personally and professionally. 2022 was a yr of firsts for me—first time having clam chowder at Pike Place Market as an area, first time going searching for heels with my daughter, and first time delivering an Azure keynote at Inspire as a Microsoft worker when pre-COVID-19, I used to be a Partner listening within the viewers. And right here is one other first; the beginning of a brand new weblog collection the place I plan to share extra about noteworthy and galvanizing information and AI improvements we’re releasing throughout Microsoft. Given the National Retail Federation’s Big Show this week, I’ll additionally spotlight how these improvements affect retail.
Let’s discover what’s new for Azure Data & AI this month:
Microsoft underscores resilient retail at NRF
A bellwether for financial and societal developments, the retail business continues to be on the entrance line of adaptive innovation. And fairly than attempting to foretell the longer term, retailers are working to realize larger enterprise agility essential to thrive in it. This signifies that, like Majid Al Futtaim Retail, they automate tedious processes so workers can deal with higher-value duties. Like Grupo Bimbo, they unify disparate information factors in actual time in order that workers can entry a central supply of fact when and the place they want it. And, like CCC Group, they keep laser-focused on delivering differentiated buyer experiences to construct loyal followers. Across every of those organizations, information is seen as an accelerant for development, powering extra customized buyer experiences, cost-efficient provide chains, and proactive responses to market developments.
Business agility requires folks, processes, and applied sciences to work in concord, and to align on how large quantities of information are managed, analyzed, and actioned to reply to market calls for. Increasingly, these efforts deal with driving sustainable development that limits carbon emissions, for instance through the use of machine studying to extra precisely forecast demand to cut back extra stock and waste.
We know cloud applied sciences like databases, containers, and AI can allow extra correct choices, however it may be difficult to make sure these applied sciences communicate to one another in the precise means on the proper time on a worldwide scale. This is the place Azure and the Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform—the outline we use to discuss with all the Data & AI Azure services and products we provide shine. With managed databases like Cosmos DB, analytics providers like Azure Synapse, and main AI choices, retailers can benefit from the “by design” integration the Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform provides, which implies they’re able to make investments extra time in creating worth fairly than integrating and managing their information property.
The Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform got here to life by new immersive demo experiences this yr at NRF and I’m going to briefly spotlight what we showcased on the convention. Earlier this week at NRF, Microsoft’s Alysa Taylor and Shelley Bransten spoke on the subject of Resilient Retail and shared examples of organizations digitizing their companies to do extra with much less. You can learn extra about their talks on our Industry weblog.
Microsoft additionally met with prospects at our NRF sales space to debate methods for making sense of all their information. For instance, these two demos spotlight how tight integrations between information, analytics, and AI may help make resilient retail a actuality.
Wide World Importers (WWI), a worldwide grocery store chain, needs to maximise the worth of their information property. By utilizing Azure Synapse pipelines with Cosmos DB, they get actual time insights that are robotically shared with the precise choice makers by instruments like Azure Data Explorer and Power BI. They’re capable of observe their provide chain information in actual time and use predictive AI to cut back prices. They’re additionally capable of govern their information property from a single utility one pane of glass utilizing Microsoft Purview.
Next, Wide World Importers faucets into the facility of Azure AI to construct a extra related buyer expertise. They use Azure Form Recognizer to detect and redeem promotional provides. Azure Cognitive Search helps prospects discover product data extra shortly by recognizing their search intent and helps WWI ship extra customized suggestions. Pre-built AI capabilities, reminiscent of speech recognition and pc imaginative and prescient, additionally differentiate the buying expertise and supply a extra accessible circulate.
The normal availability of Azure OpenAI Service
As Eric Boyd talked about in his weblog, we introduced the overall availability of Azure OpenAI Service as a part of our ongoing partnership with OpenAI. Azure OpenAI Service offers a commercialization platform for companies to leverage superior AI fashions like GPT-3.5, Codex, and DALL*E to create revolutionary purposes. Customers of all sizes throughout industries are utilizing Azure OpenAI Service to do extra with much less, enhance experiences for finish customers, and streamline operational efficiencies.
Microsoft Responsible AI Dashboard now obtainable
The digitization of retail allows retailers to fulfill buyer expectations with growing precision, from offering customized suggestions on-line to restocking stock primarily based on pc imaginative and prescient in bodily shops. Shoppers count on the expertise behind their retail expertise to use information and AI responsibly. In December, we started rolling out our new Responsible AI dashboard in Azure Machine Learning, which incorporates capabilities like equity evaluation, interpretability, error evaluation, and causal inferencing. And as we speak, we’re excited to announce the overall availability of the Microsoft Responsible AI dashboard. Retailers can leverage the Responsible AI dashboard to optimize the consumer’s expertise in addition to construct belief and optimistic notion for his or her manufacturers.
See how one can be taught extra about Responsible AI.
Full textual content search capabilities come to Azure Cosmos DB for Apache Cassandra
Azure Cosmos DB has seen super momentum inside the retail business, given its capability to robotically and immediately scale when visitors is unpredictable with out sacrificing efficiency or value effectivity. Microsoft runs each the Windows retailer and Xbox Live on Azure Cosmos DB for this very goal. This month, we’re saying a number of efficiency enhancements to Azure Cosmos DB to make it simpler and quicker for builders to question information shops in Azure Cosmos DB. These embrace the flexibility to do full textual content searches in Azure Cosmos DB for Apache Cassandra by a local integration with Azure Cognitive Search, and assist for GraphQL and REST by Data API builder.
For extra technical element about these and different updates to Azure Cosmos DB, go to our developer weblog.
JSON assist for Azure Cache for Redis Enterprise typically obtainable
Support for JSON paperwork in Azure Cache for Redis Enterprise tiers, delivered through the RedisJSON module, has been made typically obtainable as of November 2022. This turns Azure Cache for Redis Enterprise right into a high-performance NoSQL doc retailer and drives effectivity for builders to modernize their purposes. The new RedisJSON module replace is properly suited to retail prospects seeking to retailer, search, and index product catalogs and shopper information through a single atomic operation.
To be taught extra on Azure Cache for Redis Enterprise and the RedisJSON module please take a look at the weblog.
Microsoft named a Leader within the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Insight Engines
In December, Microsoft was named a frontrunner within the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Insight Engines, which evaluates the capabilities of assorted distributors available in the market for offering enterprise-scale seek for app growth. Organizations profit, irrespective of the business, however Cognitive Search is an exceptionally highly effective software for retailers, serving to them to shortly discover and analyze information associated to buyer habits, gross sales, and stock. It may also be used to personalize the buying expertise for particular person prospects primarily based on their previous interactions and preferences.
Learn extra and obtain the report.
Customers innovating with Azure Data & AI
I’d like to shut my inaugural “what’s new” weblog put up with my favourite means of constructing every thing I’ve lined above actionable—by sharing examples of our prospects succeeding. I share them as a means of serving to spark the understanding—perhaps even a bit creativeness—in order that others can higher envision how this wonderful new Data & AI expertise can be utilized in their very own organizations.
I hope you loved studying this month’s version of what’s new in Azure Data & AI. We stay up for sharing extra insights and inspiration within the months forward. If you could have a query or thought you’d like to listen to perspective on, please share within the feedback part.
|
|
Grupo Bimbo transforms the information evaluation of economic areas with Microsoft Solutions Mexico—The world baking firm carries out tons of of 1000’s of transactions globally and wanted a means for collaborators to shortly entry and act on insights to enhance gross sales. By adopting Power BI and Azure Synapse, Grupo Bimbo was capable of unify inner and exterior information, enhance enterprise agility, and democratize insights for elevated productiveness throughout the group. Read the complete Case Study. |
 |
How on-line market CDON used AI to turn out to be a market chief Sweden—CDON started as a small on-line retailer of CDs, DVDs, and video games and shortly turned the Nordic’s largest on-line market. When CDON realized legacy applied sciences have been holding it again, the corporate appeared to Azure to speed up its innovation and scale. Now their builders use Azure Cognitive Search, Azure DevOps, and different providers to raised perceive the consumer expertise on their web site and enhance personalization for higher efficiency. Read the complete CDON Case Study. |
 |
How AEON Group elevated earnings and maximized stock with information and AI Japan—Since opening its first retailer in December 2005, Maibasuketto, a member of the AEON Group’s grocery store enterprise, has expanded its footprint at a tempo of 100 shops yearly. To guarantee its development was sustainable, the corporate launched into an initiative to optimize retailer ordering and operations utilizing Azure Cognitive Services, maximizing provide chain and stock primarily based on promoting patterns all through the day. Read the complete AEON Group Case Study. |
 |
How Fashable reimagines style design with Azure Machine Learning and PyTorch Portugal—Using Azure Machine Learning, Fashable created an AI utility that generates unique clothes designs to shortly get a pulse on shopper preferences. This helps style firms perceive buyer demand, get to market quicker, and scale back clothes waste by solely producing what they know will promote. Read the complete Fashable Case Study. |
 |
WTW accelerates supply time with Azure Migration and Analytics United Kingdom—Operating in additional than 140 nations with over 40,000 workers, Willis Towers Watson (WTW) has many years of expertise working with the world’s largest loyalty packages. To effectively govern the exponential development in information for these packages and apply improvements in superior analytics and AI, WTW moved its workload to Azure. Now their workers have extra time to deal with uncovering insights for purchasers. Read the complete WTW Case Study. |
