Amid the monumental change that is happening around the globe when every single industry is being digitally transformed, all have the opportunity to lead in this transformation, Microsoft's Indian-origin CEO Satya Nadella said on Monday.
At the Microsoft's Ignite conference in Orlando, Florida, Nadella in his keynote address, spoke about the use of technology in promoting inclusiveness and how technology could solve biggest challenges that people face today.
"We live in a time where the profound impact of technology in everything that we do is so much deeper, so much broader, whether you're talking about precision agriculture, or precision medicine, the future of connected products, smart cities or smarter factories," Nadella told the gathering of nearly 25,000 people.
"We live in a golden age where technology can enable more people to participate in our technology and in our society. This is what grounds us in our mission: to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more," he added.
He said that Microsoft is building systems of intelligence, virtuous cycles and new feedback loops that help create data and refine how you reason over this data to gain insights from information.
Nadella pointed out that these Microsoft is focused on four "solution areas": modern workplace, business applications, applications and infrastructure and data and AI "as these ingredients transcend product category definitions and business models".
He said that Microsoft has been working to invent a universal, programmable quantum computer and to identify revolutionary applications that will run on it.
To unlock the creativity in people, Nadella announced advancements that Microsoft has made so that they can bring out the best in every organization. Microsoft announced the first phase of integration between the LinkedIn graph and the Microsoft graph.
With this rich platform and rich data graph firms can start building AI-first applications and "bring the power of AI, the power of natural language, the power of deep learning to the enterprise and unlock it".
He also talked about the role of business applications, mixed reality and IoT digital transformation. "Microsoft is infusing AI into our business applications to transform customer care and equip customer support agents with intelligence to best serve their customers' needs," Nadella added. "Through quantum computing, we can unlock solutions to problems in areas such as AI, clean energy, global warming, materials design and much more.
"At Microsoft, we're on the cusp of empowering a quantum revolution with our unique, topological approach," he said.
To unlock cloud-based success for all its customers, Microsoft focused innovation into four key areas: enabling IT and developer productivity, providing a consistent hybrid cloud, unlocking AI solutions and ensuring trust through security, privacy and cost controls.
The tech giant also expanded Microsoft 365 — Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility + Security — to provide a complete, intelligent solution for empowering its customers. It said it is delivering new Microsoft 365 offerings and expanding the capabilities offered in Microsoft 365 across creativity, teamwork, IT simplicity and security.
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.