Microsoft Corp. recently welcomed over 25,000 business customers to its annual IT event, Microsoft Ignite in Orlando, Fla., where the company showcased how it is infusing cloud, AI and mixed reality across it products to help customers visualize and create the future of business. Microsoft also shared how quantum computers could help solve some of our planet’s biggest challenges. News spanned Microsoft’s commercial businesses — Office 365, Windows 10, Microsoft Azure, Dynamics 365 and Microsoft AI — with a focus on how the company is empowering people and organizations to succeed in a rapidly evolving workplace, and enabling customers to harness data, AI, hybrid and cloud technologies to evolve business process and innovate for the future.
“Digital technology is impacting all aspects of our society and economies, creating unprecedented opportunity for organizations of all sizes,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “I’m optimistic and inspired by the ingenuity of customers, partners and developers everywhere that are pushing the frontiers of what’s possible with mixed reality and artificial intelligence infused across Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Azure, to transform and have impact in the world.”
The next frontier of computing
Following 12 years of investment in its vision to create a scalable computer based on quantum physics, today Microsoft announced the creation of a new programming language optimized for exploiting scalable quantum computers and deep integration of the programming language into Visual Studio, providing developers debugging and other support and state-of-the-art simulators that can run locally or on Microsoft Azure. The tools will be available for free by year’s end. Developers can join Microsoft’s quantum community today by signing up at www.microsoft.com/quantum.
Empowering employees and fostering a new culture of work
Microsoft also announced the expansion of Microsoft 365 with two new solutions to empower firstline workers and education customers. The company also introduced new intelligent search capabilities, a vision for intelligent communications centering on Microsoft Teams, and security and IT management enhancements to help customers stay secure and compliant, including meeting the General Data Protection Regulation.
Modernizing business processes with cloud and AI
Microsoft expanded Dynamics 365 with new AI solutions that transform critical enterprise scenarios and apps and services to help business users reinvent the processes they use every day. Microsoft Dynamics 365 AI solutions are designed to tackle high-value, complex enterprise scenarios and tailored to existing processes, systems and data. The first solution includes an intelligent virtual agent for customer care, an intelligent assistant for customer service staff and conversation management tools, all powered by Microsoft AI.
Advancing the enterprise cloud
Microsoft Azure is driving new levels of organizational productivity, intelligent data-driven experiences and deepened business trust—all via a consistent, unique hybrid cloud approach across data, apps and infrastructure, whether on-premises or in the cloud.