Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd. held the online event “Azure AI Days 2021 Winter” on December 14th and 15th, 2021.
At this event, under the theme of ” the power of AI to support data-driven businesses and organizations, ” examples of Azure AI utilization will be widely introduced to organizations considering the use of AI and data.
Day 1 was the theme of business promotion using AI (Business Session) , and Day 2 was the training of AI and data human resources (Learning Session) , and many people took the stage.
This time, we will report on ” Business implementation of innovation led by Microsoft AI ” in the session of Azure AI Days 2021 Winter .
What kind of difference does Microsoft have between companies that can successfully adopt AI and those that cannot, and what do you think are the barriers to AI adoption?
Table of Contents
- Rinna selected to be the host of the event? !
- Business implementation of innovation led by Microsoft AI
- Three gaps between companies that introduce AI into their business and those that do not
- Top 3 Barriers to Implementing AI in Business
- 5 Deployment Areas for Azure AI in Business
- Three stages of Azure AI developed by Microsoft
- Five deployment areas for Azure AI
- lastly
Rinna selected to be the host of the event? !
Details of the event were introduced at the beginning of the breakout session. Microsoft Japan evangelist Suketetsu Nishiwaki and former high school girl AI Rinna were selected as moderators.
Rinna graduated from high school in 2019 and became independent from Microsoft in the summer of 2020. After that, in August 2020, he established “rinna Co., Ltd.” to develop AI chatbots.
Currently, the number of registered users has exceeded 8.5 million, and we are further improving the accuracy as an AI that is loved by many users in Japan. During the event, he communicated fluently with the moderator, Mr. Nishiwaki
In the next section, we will report on ” Business implementation of innovation led by Microsoft AI “.
Business implementation of innovation led by Microsoft AI
Three gaps between companies that introduce AI into their business and those that do not
In this session, Mr. Shotaro Uehara, General Manager of Microsoft Japan Azure Business Headquarters, and Mr. Kentaro Oda, Marketing Manager of Microsoft Japan Azure Business Headquarters, introduced the world of AI envisioned by Microsoft.
Mr. Uehara pointed out, “ The purpose of AI implementation is to accelerate innovation and amplify the imagination of employees so that they can do more, achieve more, and grow their business .”
However, there are those who adopt AI as a powerful means of moving their business forward, and those who do not. Uehara attributed these companies a significant gap, attributed to three major factors .
Mr. Uehara: The first is that AI must have a semantic purpose. Implementing AI as a means becomes an abstract utilization method and does not lead to sustainable scale.
Second, AI must amplify and support the capabilities of all people. The true value of AI is that all employees, including developers and IT departments, implement AI in their daily work.
Third, AI must be designed and used responsibly. By implementing governance based on AI principles, including fairness and transparency, and using AI responsibly, risks such as AI interpretability can be minimized.
The link between innovation and DX has become even stronger over the last few years.
According to a Microsoft survey, 81% of companies that have already started DX cite technology and innovation as strengths that differentiate them from other companies.
In addition, more than 90% of executives regard DX as a top priority in their management strategy, and many companies plan to use or implement AI within the next three years.
Organizations that leverage AI to scale faster than their competitors can leverage their business in the medium- to long-term and gain an edge.
So, what are the barriers to change when it comes to implementing AI? In the next section, we will look at some of the barriers that companies face in implementing AI in practice.
Top 3 Barriers to Implementing AI in Business
Based on research published by McKinsey, Uehara cites three barriers to AI implementation:
Mr. Uehara: The biggest obstacle is the lack of a clear strategy when implementing AI.
The next most common barrier is the lack of people with the right skill sets for AI work.
The third is that information and solutions are isolated and not coordinated, hindering utilization.
These are the three.
In addition, Mr. Uehara classifies the barriers to innovation into the following five categories.
- “Internal politics” where AI can be used in horizontal collaboration
- “Growth motivation (mindset)” using technology
- “Skills” that can utilize AI in the field
- “Budget” for introducing IT services and working on new businesses
- “Strategy and vision” using AI
5 Deployment Areas for Azure AI in Business
Three stages of Azure AI developed by Microsoft
Before introducing Azure AI case studies, I would like to introduce ” Azure AI ” developed and provided by Microsoft .
Azure AI is a portfolio of AI services designed for developers and data scientists. By calling a simple API, you can access AI models such as image recognition , voice interaction, data prediction, and decision making, allowing you to build your own AI solutions.
Azure AI consists of three stages as shown in the image below.
” Azure Machine Learning ” is a platform where machine learning operations work and can be delivered end-to-end.
” Azure Cognitive Services ” is a service that makes it easy to use trained models. For example, the “Vision” function can easily use technologies such as object detection and image recognition, and the “Speech” function can easily use technologies such as speech recognition, translation, and transcription.
Unlike the other two, ” Azure Applied AI Services ” is a service that can deploy scenarios according to business use cases to some extent by utilizing six products.
Five deployment areas for Azure AI
There are five use cases for Azure AI in business.
Oda: The first is “ knowledge mining , ” also known as full-text search. You can structure unstructured data such as materials and documents that are scattered in the company and improve searchability.
The second is “ conversation AI (bot) ”. In recent years, in order to improve engagement with customers, scenes that are used within services are increasing.
The third is ” Automation of document process “. As with knowledge mining, automating the process of reading books and invoices scattered across a company with OCR will lead to business improvements.
The fourth is “ machine translation ,” which has a particularly high affinity with AI . For example, you will be able to translate spoken Japanese into English.
The fifth is ” speech transcription and analysis “, which has a high affinity with machine translation. Transcribe and analyze the natural language that is actually spoken. For example, by introducing it to a call center, you can find insights from conversations with customers, leading to improved customer engagement.
Mr. Oda: These five scenarios are highly compatible with AI, and Microsoft is also receiving a lot of inquiries from clients.
Among the clients who have introduced Azure AI, there are many who have never used Azure AI in the first place, or who have not used AI to that extent. It will bring value to your business and help you connect to DX.
lastly
In connection with this event, Microsoft Japan will hold the following event in February 2022. Various examples of data utilization, which is indispensable for the use of AI, will be introduced.
