colorful picture boxes on a gray background

AI momentum in Europe: How organizations are creating value with AI transformation

Joacim Damgard

Joacim Damgard

President, Microsoft Western Europe

Read Time, 5 min.

With 67% of businesses in Europe using AI today according to the IDC, there is real momentum in investing in this technology. The infusion of data in all business operations, the availability of pretrained models, investments in AI infrastructure and new expertise on AI implementation are fuelling this growth and creating an abundance of AI transformation opportunities for organisations across Europe.

But how are organizations capturing value with AI?

At Microsoft, we’re seeing that where businesses create value seems to fall within four areas of AI transformation opportunities: enriching employee experiences, reinventing customer engagement, reshaping business processes and bending the curve on innovation.

A large truck driving on a road

Volvo Group saved 10,000 manual hours by streamlining invoice and claims processing with Azure AI and AI Document Intelligence

Enriching employee experiences and shaping the future of work

Lindex, Iveco Group and Ineco built their own AI tools using Azure OpenAI to create experiences which support their employees in a wide range of use cases. Together, employees are using natural language prompts to experiment and use AI to support their work and ultimately, customers.

Law firm Wiersholm has been using AI to test the simulation of litigation, the construction of arguments, increase the quality of their work and save time. Meanwhile automotive manufacturer Volvo Group launched a solution that simplifies document processing and meets the objectives of data extraction from images and translation. The solution has saved Volvo Group more than 10,000 manual hours.

And from the summer of 2023, telecommunication provider Elisa from Finland and Aker BP from Norway have been part of Microsoft’s early access program forCopilot for Microsoft 365 . Both organisations have benefitted from the investment in our Copilot stack and become more productive and engaged at work.

Two male football players playing football

LALIGA delivers next-generation fan experiences by reimagining data and AI at scale

Reinventing customer engagement with generative AI to deliver greater value and increased satisfaction

In healthcare, Kry has teamed up with Azure OpenAI Service to harness the power of generative AI. Together, they are revolutionizing the way patients access healthcare, reducing administrative burdens for clinicians and improving the overall quality of patient care. Meanwhile, Laerdal medical is investing in AI to help train healthcare providers with their 3D virtual training simulators and provide an immersive experience that simulates real-life interactions.

Would you like to talk to your car? TomTom has changed how drivers reach their destinations with it’s navigation solution. Book a restaurant, control the temperature and windows in your car and more – all with the power of natural language on Azure OpenAI.

LALIGA’s partnership on Azure has transformed fan engagement, using AI experiences to drive revenue growth and create new opportunities for fans to engage with sports clubs, leagues and federations – delighting consumers at scale.

In the retail space, FARFETCH are using Microsoft’s security, ERP and AI features to lay the foundation of their leadership as a luxury e-commerce destination. Meanwhile, SPAR ICS is using AI to analyse data on weather conditions, marketing campaigns, seasonality and more to ensure every shop has exactly what every customer needs.

Both W2M, the travel division of Iberostar Group and Telefonica, have changed how they engage with customers by creating virtual assistants using AI. The aim for both projects is to create a more personalised, interactive agent for multiple services.

A man sitting on a sofa working with a tablet

Swift is innovating with Azure confidential computing to help secure global financial transactions

Reshaping business processes to uncover efficiencies, improve developer creativity and spur AI innovation

Fighting financial crime is a priority for Swift, Swedbank, Belifus and Lucinity. Each of them have changed how they identify illegal activity from money laundering and reducing financial crime by using Azure Open AI and machine learning to get the best out of AI models whilst maintaining the highest privacy and security standards.

Security solution provider Gunnebo wanted to extract more information from IOT devices it operated all around the world, and enable engineers to focus on other tasks which were more creative and innovative. Using Azure OpenAI and GPT-4, they’ve greatly simplified and sped up log analysis to do just that.

Finally, manufacturer Epiroc created an ESML AI Factory on Microsoft Azure. The company was able to get it up and running within 60 hours. The scalable solution gave Epiroc’s manufacturing teams across the globe the ability to share data, best practices, and create consistent, repeatable processes to ensure the highest quality steel—and equipment—while increasing efficiencies and reducing waste.

EDP: powering the global energy transition

EDP is powering the global energy transition using Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform, AI and IoT technology

Bending the curve on innovation across industries with differentiated AI offerings

Creating more sustainable batteries is key which is why Umicore is entering an AI platform agreement with Microsoft to accelerate and scale its battery materials technologies development.

For energy providers, using generative AI to transform their organisations to become decarbonised, efficient and sustainable faster – is crucial. Both EDP and Repsol have missions to drive sustainability in their sector and they’re using AI to analyse the data needed to do it.

During the pandemic, San Raffaele University and Research Hospital saw an opportunity to start using artificial intelligence to triage incoming patients. Fast forward three years, the pilot project has been turned into an intelligent data solution powered by AI which San Raffaele is using to transform clinical research and improve the end-to-end patient journey.

These are just some of the examples of how AI is transforming industries and creating new opportunities for growth, innovation and social impact. AI is not a distant future, but a present reality that can empower organisations to achieve more and make a positive difference in the world.

You can explore more AI customers stories and be inspired by organizations across industries and Europe which are leveraging the power of AI and the cloud to be more productive, creative and innovative.

Registrations for the Microsoft Ignite 2024 events across Europe have also opened up – secure your spot now and join local technology leaders and local Microsoft experts to experience AI transformation in action.

Explore more AI customer success stories

Discover how organizations across industries are leveraging the power of AI and the cloud to be more productive, creative, and innovative.

From Buzz to Brilliance: Achieving Business Success with AI in Europe

Download the paper to discover how business leaders and decision makers are currently bringing AI to life at their organisations.

Discover more related articles per industry:

Education

Finance & Insurance

Government

  • a woman sitting on a sidewalk

    How to digitally transform citizen services

    “Having a website, call centre and information desk isn’t enough. Citizen services need to be streamlined to empower citizens and government employees alike.” The eBook ‘The digital transformation of citizen services’ is honest in its appraisal of the urgent challenge facing governments worldwide, whose citizens expect their digital experiences to match the quality of those […]

  • a close up of a mans face

    AI is driving value across businesses in Europe – so why is only 4% of the public sector seeing real impact?

    In April 2018, the European Commission adopted its first AI strategy, laying out a vision for how AI could transform the public sector. The strategy revealed how new machine-learning technologies and data tools can improve public services, reduce costs, provide staff with new skillsets and drive efficiencies. And yet, for the vast majority of public […]

Healthcare

  • A woman working in healthcare talking to another woman

    How Capio is using interoperability and conversational intelligence to transform healthcare

    “Our doctors and staff were running faster and faster. Like mice on a wheel trying to keep up,” recalls Niklas Sundler, Technology Innovation Director at Ramsay Santé and Capio, as he explains how COVID-19 changed the rules of healthcare delivery as it swept across Sweden in early 2020. “Everything happened so quickly,” Sundler continues. “We […]

  • One nurse is holding a Surface Go 3 and Surface Pen while sharing the screen with another nurse.

    Caring for nurses: How technology can support the frontline of healthcare

    Nurses make up around 70% of the healthcare workforce, providing the vast majority of direct care to patients in the health service. But despite playing such a major role, the job of nursing is becoming more and more challenging and the churn rate is increasing. Demographics show that the population is aging across Europe, with […]

Manufacturing

Retail

  • Two women in a furniture shop looking at color tones on a tablet

    Resilient Retailing: thriving in times of uncertainty

    I’ve been to many NRFs and it’s always exciting. But the energy at this year’s event was positively electric.   After a 3-year hiatus, retailers from across the globe flocked to New York for NRF 2023 in search of ideas and inspiration for how to tackle some of the biggest questions facing retail and CPG right […]

  • Shopkeeper tending a customer in a clothing store

    Blending the physical and digital retail experience? Add a splash of data!

    There is a simple truth at the heart of the retail sector – if you don’t look after your customers, someone else will. The fight for customers has intensified in recent years and shows no sign of cooling down. The retail success stories of the future are expected to be a smart and seamless blend […]

Discover more related articles per dossier:

Customer Stories

  • Woman clothes shopping

    Italy’s National Chamber of Fashion turns the Milan Fashion Week into a digital event

    Fashion brands all over the world have spent the past year reimagining the industry with a more digital mindset. The disrupting effect of COVID-19 has forced them to keep their stores shut for long months, cancel their fashion shows and make their day-to-day operations much more complex than they used to be. Yet as the […]

Digital Transformation

  • a woman sitting at a desk using a computer

    4 reasons Citrix and Windows Virtual Desktop are better together for government agencies

    Government agencies all over the world experience a huge transformation. Obviously, because of the COVID-19 pandemic the trend of remote work has taken off in ways nobody could have imagined a year ago. Since offices closed and civil servants needed to stay in their homes, remote work collaboration was the only option to continue serving […]

Security & Privacy

Tips

  • Asian woman looking at a tablet

    Microsoft Cloud for Retail: Connect your customers, people, and data

    Retailers have experienced times of tremendous uncertainty. It’s time to lean into change and thrive by becoming a resilient retailer that drives sustainable profitability and growth. We work closely with our partner ecosystem to offer proven solutions that help retailers in 4 key areas to become resilient and experience sustainable success:  Maximize the value of […]