Across all industries, AI is creating a fundamental shift in what is possible, enabling new use cases and driving business outcomes. While organizations around the world recognize the value and potential of AI, to be truly effective AI must be tailored to specific industry needs.
Today, we’re announcing custom AI models that expand our industry capabilities and enable organizations to meet their unique needs more accurately and efficiently. Working with industry partner experts such as Bayer, Cerence, Rockwell Automation, Saifr, Siemens Digital Industries Software, Sight Machine and more, we make these fine-tuned models, pre-trained using industry-specific data, available to address customers’ top use cases.
Underpinning these custom AI models is Microsoft Cloud, our platform for industry innovation. By integrating Microsoft Cloud with our industry-specific capabilities and a robust ecosystem of partners, we provide a secure approach to driving innovation across industries. This collaboration allows us to create rich scenarios for customers globally with embedded AI capabilities – from industrial data solutions in Microsoft Fabric to AI agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio to AI models in Azure AI Studio – enabling industries to realize their full potential.
Introducing custom AI models to industry
We are excited to introduce these new partner-enabled models from leading organizations that leverage the power of Microsoft’s Phi family of Small Language Models (SLMs). These models will be available through the Azure AI Model Catalog, where customers can access a wide range of AI models to build custom AI solutions in Azure AI Studio or directly from our partners. The models available in the Azure AI Model Catalog can also be used to configure agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio, a platform that allows customers to create, customize and deploy AI-powered agents that can be applied to an industry’s most popular use cases for to address their most pressing needs.
- Bavariaa global company with core competencies in the life sciences areas of healthcare and agriculture, will make ELY Crop Protection available in the Azure AI model catalog. A specialized SLM, it is designed to improve crop protection sustainable use, application, compliance and knowledge within the agricultural sector. Built on Bayer’s agricultural intelligence and trained on thousands of real-world questions about Bayer’s crop protection brands, the model provides agencies, their partners and developers with a valuable tool to tailor solutions to specific food and agriculture needs. The model stands out because of its commitment to responsible AI standards, scalability for agricultural operations of all types and sizes, and customization options that allow organizations to adapt the model to regional and crop-specific requirements.
- Cerencewhich creates intuitive, seamless and AI-powered user experiences for the world’s leading automakers, enhances its in-vehicle digital assistant technology with fine-tuned SLMs in vehicle hardware. CaLLM™ Edge, an automotive-specific, embedded SLM, will be available in the Azure AI model catalog. It can be used for in-car controls such as air conditioning adjustment and scenarios involving limited or no cloud connectivity, enabling drivers to access the rich, responsive experiences they have come to expect from cloud-based large language models ( LLM ‘er), regardless of where they are.
- Rockwell Automationa global leader in industrial automation and digital transformation, will deliver industrial AI expertise via the Azure AI model catalog. The FT Optix Food & Beverage model brings the benefits of industry-specific capabilities to frontline production workers, supporting asset troubleshooting in the food and beverage domain. The model provides timely recommendations, explanations and knowledge about specific manufacturing processes, machines and inputs to factory floor workers and engineers.
- Saifr, a RegTech within Fidelity Investments’ innovation incubator, Fidelity Labs, will introduce four new models to the Azure AI model catalog, enabling financial institutions to better manage compliance with broker-dealer communications and investment advisor advertising. The models can highlight potential regulatory compliance risks in text (Retail Marketing Compliance model) and images (Image Detection model); explain why something was flagged (risk interpretation model); and suggest alternative language that might be more compatible (language suggestion model). Together, these models can improve regulatory compliance by acting as an additional set of review eyes and increase efficiency by speeding review and time to market.
- Siemens Digital Industries Software, which helps organizations of all sizes digitally transform using software, hardware and services from the Siemens Xcelerator business platform, introduces a new copilot for NX X software that leverages a custom AI model that enables users to ask questions on natural languages, access detailed technical insights and streamline complex design tasks for faster and smarter product development. The Copilot will provide CAD designers with AI-driven recommendations and best practices to optimize the design process within the NX X experience, helping engineers implement best practices faster to ensure expected quality from design to production. The NX X copilot will be available on the Azure Marketplace and other channels.
- Vision machinea leader in data-driven manufacturing and industrial AI, will release the Factory Namespace Manager to the Azure AI model catalog. The model analyzes existing factory data, learns the patterns and rules behind the naming conventions, and then automatically translates these data field names into standardized enterprise formats. This translation makes the universe of plant data in the manufacturing company AI-ready, enabling manufacturers to optimize production and energy consumption in factories, balance production with logistics and demand in the supply chain, and integrate factory data with enterprise data systems for end-to-end optimization. The bottling company Swire Coca-Cola USA plans to use the Factory Namespace Manager to efficiently map its extensive PLC and plant floor data into its company data namespace.
We also encourage innovation in the open source ecosystem and offer five open source Hugs face models fine-tuned for summarizing and sentiment analysis of financial data.
In addition, last month we announced new AI models for healthcare in Azure AI Studio. These state-of-the-art multimodal medical imaging foundation models, created in partnership with organizations such as Providence and Paige.aienables healthcare organizations to integrate and analyze a variety of data types by leveraging intelligence in modalities other than text in specialties such as ophthalmology, pathology, radiology and cardiology.
Accelerating transformation with industry agents
Microsoft also offers AI agents that are purpose-built for industrial scenarios. These agents are available in Copilot Studio and can be configured to support organizations’ industry-specific needs. Dealers can e.g. use the store operations agent to support retail sales associates and the personal shopping agent to enhance customers’ shopping experiences. Manufacturers can use the Factory Operations Agent to increase production efficiency and reduce downtime by enabling engineers and frontline workers to quickly identify and troubleshoot problems.
All of this AI innovation wouldn’t be possible without a solid data space because AI is only as good as the data it’s built on. By ensuring that data is accurate, accessible and well-integrated, organizations can unlock deeper insights and drive more effective decision-making with AI. Microsoft Fabric, a data platform built for the AI era, helps unify disparate data sources and prepares data for advanced analytics and AI modeling. It offers industry data solutions that meet the unique needs of each organization and empower them to discover, implement and do more with AI.
At the forefront of meeting industry needs safely
At the heart of our AI strategy is a commitment to trustworthy AI. This commitment includes safety, security and privacy, ensuring that AI solutions are built with the highest standards of integrity and responsibility. Trusted artificial intelligence is fundamental to everything we do, from how we work with customers to the capabilities we build into our products.
At Microsoft, we combine industry experience, insight and capabilities with a deep understanding of customers’ challenges and goals. Together with a trusted ecosystem of experienced partners, we unlock the full potential of AI for every industry and business. Our goal is not just to offer or implement AI tools, but to help customers succeed by embedding AI into the very core of what every industry does.
AI transformation is here and Microsoft is at the forefront of this revolution. As we continue to navigate this new era of innovation, it’s clear that artificial intelligence will play a critical role in shaping the future of business across all industries, and that Microsoft will continue to lead the way. To learn more about how customers in a variety of industries are transforming with AI, visit How Real Businesses are Transforming with AI.