En garde! Wearable IoT and AI keep fencers on point
A Hong Kong startup has developed a smart garment to better understand human motion. Integrated with lightweight sensors and analysed on the Microsoft Azure environment, an AI algorithm delivers real-time information. Sports coaches can then receive a holistic view of how an athlete is performing and what needs to be improved, like getting the best knee angle when lunging.
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Read our top Asia Pacific customer and partner stories across key vertical sectors
Manufacturing
Digital technologies are transforming the face of manufacturing across Asia Pacific. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, mixed reality, edge computing, and the Internet of Things are empowering organizations at all levels. This is producing exciting new business outcomes through increased security, productivity, and efficiency.
Komatsu Japan
Komatsu Japan developed a smart factory platform to visualize and optimize conditions by collecting and analyzing data from the machine tools and robots. This enabled the company to increase production efficiency without extra equipment or personnel.
Downer
Downer, a company with over 100 years’ rail experience in Australia, is using AI to make sense of operational data and put it into the hands of the workers that need it. It is working together with Microsoft to support the smooth delivery of Waratah commuter services across Sydney.
Financial Services
Digital economies are evolving at pace. And financial institutions of all sizes and scope are facing challenges including higher customer expectations, drawbacks from legacy systems, dangers of cybercrime, and complexities of new regulatory environments. Technology helps transform customer experiences, optimize operational efficiencies, and tap new revenue streams.
Moula
Moula in Australia is using AI to accelerate the speed at which small businesses can get a loan with AI and machine learning. With smaller businesses moving online, this translates into triple-digit growth for Moula. Over the next year, Moula aims to lend $250 million to businesses after major banks pulled back from SME lending.
China Asset Management Co., Ltd
One of China’s largest investment houses, China AMC partnered with Microsoft researchers to develop a new AI model that sifts and analyzes vast amounts of real-time financial data. It empowers financial professionals to make better informed buy-and-sell market decisions.
Healthcare
Providing affordable and accessible healthcare is a key challenge for Asia Pacific countries. Organizations, professionals, and policymakers are using digital solutions to guide treatment choices, deliver better diagnoses, optimize clinical trials, accelerate drug development, and streamline administration. Technology and the information it provides also empowers patients.
Narayana Health
India’s Narayana Health believes that the key to affordable and high-quality healthcare services is embracing technology. The hospital is leveraging AI to decipher X-Rays to point out any irregularities from a normal X-Ray, helping doctors make more accurate diagnoses in less time.
Airdoc
Airdoc, a start-up in China, has created an AI-driven system that takes and analyzes photographic images of the retina at the back of each eye. Painless and low-cost, its high accuracy rate on finding indications of diseases on retinal images could make preventative healthcare available to millions of people.
Retail
Consumers are becoming more demanding as the digital economy generates greater choice. They also expect higher levels of personalized service. To meet this need, retailers are turning to technologies to boost their businesses. By leveraging data and deploying new systems, they can better understand what their customers want.
The Blackmores Group
Australia’s leading natural health company adopted Dynamics 365 for its advisory service and customer management. Over the next year, Blackmores will shift to new product development and create a Power App in the future to provide sales reps with key customer information while they are out in the field.
Japan Travel Board
The JAPAN Trip Navigator smartphone app has been updated with a new chatbot, Miko, amongst other new features that use the computational power of Microsoft Azure and Artificial Intelligence to help independent foreign visitors explore the country almost effortlessly.
Public Sector
Asia Pacific governments are turning to technology to help raise the well-being of their citizens, influence positive societal change, and bring new efficiencies to administration. Data and digital solutions are promoting efficiency, collaboration, transparency, and sustainability. Governments are also being empowered to better engage and connect with people.
Dehradun Regional Transport Office (RTO)
To decrease chaotic, unsafe traffic for Uttarakhand citizens, Microsoft Research India assisted RTO to develop HAMS—an AI, smartphone-based driving test system replacing human evaluators in issuing licenses to ensure only qualified drivers are given licenses.
WaterNSW
Water is an asset that is critical to the success of every community. Adopting a three-cloud approach—Dynamics 365, Office 365 and Microsoft Azure—WaterNSW in Australia can now support their national critical computing, which translates to streamlined operations and reliable water supply.
Education
The world is changing fast. And so are the skills that today’s students will need to be life- and career-ready when they graduate and move into the workforce. Affordable and user-friendly technologies are empowering educators to deliver impactful and personalized learning experiences in the classroom and beyond.
Hongik University
In Seoul, South Korea, a professor from Hongik University developed a new model to analyse and predict the probability of fires so that authorities could take action to make the city safer for its more than 9 million residents.
University of Western Australia
Microsoft recently awarded an AI for Earth Compute Grant to the University of Western Australia (UWA) to monitor quokkas to accelerate research into endangered species around the world. The UWA team is planning to trial “scat drones” along with high-powered cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
Other Industries
The rise of the digital age is transforming how we learn, work, and play. Breakthroughs in technologies – like artificial intelligence and the intelligent edge – are also changing how we do business. Organizations throughout Asia Pacific stand to reap significant rewards as they embrace new solutions and adopt new business models.
Towada Art Center
To keep visitors in Japan’s Towada Art Center safe in an experiential art exhibition, the centre worked with Nissho Electronics to monitor the vehicles’ locations, with palm-sized GPS devices leveraging Azure. Through the scalability of Azure, the solution was delivered in 10 days.
Eros Now
Eros Now in India is leveraging Azure to improve the customer viewing experience with enhanced features, with viewers in more than 135 countries. Eros hopes that its work with Microsoft will generate expansion into new markets and reach its goal of 50 million subscribers over the next three years.
