Alice Chambers |
12 July 2024
Judson Althoff, Nick Parker and Nicole Dezen highlighted the transformative power of artificial intelligence and the critical role of partners in Microsoft’s vision for the 2025 financial year (FY25) in the MCAPS Start For Partners keynote session on 10 July.
Althoff, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Microsoft, emphasised the importance of integrating partners into Microsoft’s sales plan for FY25. Reflecting on the rapid adoption of AI, he noted that a year ago the concept of Microsoft Copilot was merely aspirational, but today, 60 per cent of the Fortune 500 companies are leveraging Copilot.
He then expressed pride in making Copilot synonymous with AI empowering human achievement and in Microsoft’s role in AI transformation.
For Microsoft to continue its work with AI transformation, Althoff outlined five priorities: implementing copilots, achieving AI design wins by stacking platforms, ensuring robust cybersecurity, Microsoft 365 core execution and data migrations because “no system can be any more intelligent that the data in which it resides,” according to Althoff.
There is partner opportunity in each priority. “There has never been a better time to be a Microsoft partner than right now,” said Althoff.
From left: Phil Oh, chief technology officer at KT, Clodagh Moriarty, chief retail and technology officer at Sainsbury’s, and Nick Parker at MCAPS Start For Partners
Nick Parker, president of industry and partnerships at Microsoft, then highlighted the daily application of AI by customers and partners across various industries.
“AI is being used daily by our customers and partners who are seeing success in designing, building and deploying solutions across every industry globally,” he said.
He invited representatives from KT and Sainsbury’s to share their success stories. KT has used generative AI in contact centres to enhance agent performance while Sainsbury’s is in the early stages of employing generative AI to optimise its supply chain and better understand customer preferences. Both firms considered the challenges and benefits of calculating return on investment from AI investments, with KT focusing on operational changes and Sainsbury’s balancing growth and efficiency.
The keynote also showcased AI solutions in action, such as Epic’s use of AI to assist physicians and patients, benefiting over 185 million patients by leveraging Nuance to capture notes from patient appointments. Yobi demonstrated how AI is revolutionizing consumer interactions through its chatbot technology.
Nicole Dezen at MCAPS Start For Partners
In addition, Nicole Dezen, chief partner officer and corporate vice president of global partner solutions at Microsoft, expressed deep appreciation for Microsoft’s partners, highlighting the opportunities with AI. She outlined what Microsoft offers to partners, including cloud innovation, extensive go-to-market resources and significant investments in an AI supercomputer.
She then highlighted the three key elements that aid partners in going to market: the largest sales force in the industry, a robust marketplace and comprehensive go-to-market resources. She highlighted a 250 per cent increase in generative AI partners over the past eight months and emphasised Microsoft’s commitment to supporting independent software vendors, system integrators, channel and device partners.
Dezen also expanded on Althoff’s priorities for AI transformation by providing Microsoft partner examples for each including Kyndryl, Arrow, Rubrik, Lenovo and Logicalis.
The keynote concluded with customer testimonials from companies like Dynatrace, Nutanix and Profisee, showcasing the tangible benefits and successes achieved through their partnerships with Microsoft.
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