The new 12 months brings alternative for considerate reflection concerning the previous 12 months, each personally and professionally. 2022 was a 12 months of firsts for me—first time having clam chowder at Pike Place Market as a neighborhood, first time going purchasing 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 sequence the place I plan to share extra about noteworthy and galvanizing knowledge 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 influence 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 quite than attempting to foretell the long run, 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 concentrate on higher-value duties. Like Grupo Bimbo, they unify disparate knowledge 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, knowledge is seen as an accelerant for progress, powering extra personalised 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 huge quantities of knowledge are managed, analyzed, and actioned to reply to market calls for. Increasingly, these efforts concentrate on driving sustainable progress 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 converse to one another in the precise approach on the proper time on a world scale. This is the place Azure and the Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform—the outline we use to consult with all the Data & AI Azure services we provide shine. With managed databases like Cosmos DB, analytics companies like Azure Synapse, and main AI choices, retailers can reap the benefits of the “by design” integration the Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform affords, which suggests they’re able to make investments extra time in creating worth quite than integrating and managing their knowledge property.
The Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform got here to life by new immersive demo experiences this 12 months 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 knowledge. For instance, these two demos spotlight how tight integrations between knowledge, analytics, and AI may help make resilient retail a actuality.
Wide World Importers (WWI), a world grocery store chain, needs to maximise the worth of their knowledge property. By utilizing Azure Synapse pipelines with Cosmos DB, they get actual time insights that are mechanically shared with the precise choice makers by instruments like Azure Data Explorer and Power BI. They’re capable of observe their provide chain knowledge in actual time and use predictive AI to cut back prices. They’re additionally capable of govern their knowledge property from a single utility one pane of glass utilizing Microsoft Purview.
Next, Wide World Importers faucets into the ability of Azure AI to construct a extra linked buyer expertise. They use Azure Form Recognizer to detect and redeem promotional affords. Azure Cognitive Search helps prospects discover product info extra shortly by recognizing their search intent and helps WWI ship extra personalised suggestions. Pre-built AI capabilities, equivalent to speech recognition and laptop imaginative and prescient, additionally differentiate the purchasing expertise and supply a extra accessible circulate.
The basic 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 gives a commercialization platform for companies to leverage superior AI fashions like GPT-3.5, Codex, and DALL*E to create progressive 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 accessible
The digitization of retail permits retailers to fulfill buyer expectations with growing precision, from offering personalised suggestions on-line to restocking stock based mostly on laptop imaginative and prescient in bodily shops. Shoppers count on the know-how behind their retail expertise to use knowledge 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 in the present day, we’re excited to announce the overall availability of the Microsoft Responsible AI dashboard. Retailers can leverage the Responsible AI dashboard to optimize the patron’s expertise in addition to construct belief and constructive 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 great momentum throughout the retail business, given its potential to mechanically and immediately scale when site visitors is unpredictable with out sacrificing efficiency or price effectivity. Microsoft runs each the Windows retailer and Xbox Live on Azure Cosmos DB for this very goal. This month, we’re asserting a number of efficiency enhancements to Azure Cosmos DB to make it simpler and sooner for builders to question knowledge 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 help 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 help for Azure Cache for Redis Enterprise typically accessible
Support for JSON paperwork in Azure Cache for Redis Enterprise tiers, delivered through the RedisJSON module, has been made typically accessible 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 nicely suited to retail prospects seeking to retailer, search, and index product catalogs and shopper knowledge through a single atomic operation.
To be taught extra on Azure Cache for Redis Enterprise and the RedisJSON module please try 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 varied distributors available in the market for offering enterprise-scale seek for app improvement. Organizations profit, irrespective of the business, however Cognitive Search is an exceptionally highly effective instrument for retailers, serving to them to shortly discover and analyze knowledge associated to buyer habits, gross sales, and stock. It can be used to personalize the purchasing expertise for particular person prospects based mostly 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 approach of creating every little thing I’ve coated above actionable—by sharing examples of our prospects succeeding. I share them as a approach of serving to spark the understanding—perhaps even slightly creativeness—in order that others can higher envision how this superb new Data & AI know-how 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 sit up for sharing extra insights and inspiration within the months forward.
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Grupo Bimbo transforms the info evaluation of economic areas with Microsoft Solutions Mexico—The world baking firm carries out a whole lot of hundreds of transactions globally and wanted a approach 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 knowledge, improve enterprise agility, and democratize insights for elevated productiveness throughout the group. Read the total Case Study. |
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How on-line market CDON used AI to change into 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 had 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 companies to raised perceive the person expertise on their web site and improve personalization for higher efficiency. Read the total CDON Case Study. |
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How AEON Group elevated earnings and maximized stock with knowledge 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 progress was sustainable, the corporate launched into an initiative to optimize retailer ordering and operations utilizing Azure Cognitive Services, maximizing provide chain and stock based mostly on promoting patterns all through the day. |
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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 client preferences. This helps style firms perceive buyer demand, get to market sooner, and cut back clothes waste by solely producing what they know will promote. Read the total Fashable Case Study. |
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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 progress in knowledge for these packages and apply improvements in superior analytics and AI, WTW moved its workload to Azure. Now their workers have extra time to concentrate on uncovering insights for purchasers. Read the total WTW Case Study. |
