Microsoft is deepening its commitment to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, an effort to use AI to accelerate scientific discovery, with a $60 million investment and the launch of SPARK, a new hub for scientific collaboration. The effort brings together national laboratories, AI, advanced computing and emerging quantum technologies to support research in areas including energy storage, biosecurity, materials science and nuclear energy.

Manulife is expanding its longstanding partnership with Microsoft through a new five-year agreement aimed at helping the company use AI more broadly. The financial services provider will roll out Microsoft 365 Copilot to more than 30,000 employees and deploy Microsoft Agent 365 to help oversee AI agents across the business. The companies said the move will support innovation while strengthening AI governance and security across Manulife’s global operations.

Much of what AI knows about the world comes from data most people never see and from technical processes that determine what’s included or left out.

As AI becomes increasingly influential in daily life, a new platform aims to help communities participate in that foundation being built behind the scenes to ensure they’re portrayed accurately and fairly, especially in imagery. Called the Community Library Creator, the Microsoft research effort gives groups a structured way to help shape how they show up in AI-generated pictures.

As Mistral expands its AI computing capacity in Europe, Microsoft is deepening its partnership with the French AI company through a multibillion-dollar infrastructure agreement. Mistral’s models will be available across Microsoft services, including Microsoft Foundry, Copilot Studio and Azure, giving customers more options for how and where they run AI. The move is designed to help organizations access advanced AI while maintaining control over data, operations and critical workloads.

As AI workloads become more specialized, Microsoft is bringing Advanced Micro Devices’ (AMD) Helios AI platform and next-generation EPYC processors to Azure. The technologies will power three upcoming Azure offerings for AI inference, data processing and chip design, giving customers more options for matching infrastructure to specific workloads.

Australia is developing a national approach to AI as it looks to equitably expand the technology’s use across the country’s economy. Microsoft is supporting that effort by backing a coordinated national framework for AI and highlighting its own investments, including $25 billion Australian dollars (about $17 billion) in new digital infrastructure and a pledge to help 3 million Australians build AI skills for the workforce by 2028.

Travel plans rarely go perfectly. To help customers navigate changes, refunds and other disruptions, Indonesian travel platform tiket.com has built AI-powered tools using Microsoft’s cloud and AI technologies. Its CRATER assistant now handles more than 75,000 customer interactions a month, while its halo tiket AI agent automates 87% of inquiries, allowing customer service teams to devote more time to complex cases. Together, the tools are helping customers get support faster when their travel plans change.

Security teams have more data than ever, but knowing what deserves attention and what to do next remains a challenge. The new Microsoft Defender Experts Threat Intelligence and expanded Defender Experts MDR services are designed to help organizations act sooner by closing the gap between threat intelligence and action. The goal is to provide expert guidance that brings clarity before threats arrive and support that follows attacks across environments.

As AI-driven phishing attacks become more effective, Microsoft is making passkeys the default sign-in method. Starting Sept. 1, Entra ID users will be prompted to register passkeys during multifactor authentication. Microsoft will retire its native SMS and voice authentication service on Feb. 1, as it pushes organizations toward phishing-resistant alternatives. Passkeys use public-key cryptography rather than shared secrets, making them more secure and easier to use, the company says.

What if your sales and service teams spent less time hunting for information and more time interacting with customers? Microsoft is expanding Microsoft 365 Copilot and Dynamics 365 with new agentic AI tools designed to bring customer context, next-step guidance and CRM updates into the flow of work. The company says the new capabilities help connect data, teams and customer interactions across workflows.

What if weather forecasts could show not just what is likely to happen, but what else might happen too? Aurora 1.5 expands Microsoft’s open-source Earth-system foundation model with more weather variables, hourly forecasts and a new ensemble forecasting capability. Developed by Microsoft Weather, the model is designed to evaluate, extend and apply weather and Earth-system intelligence in real-world settings.

Microsoft researchers have identified GigaWiper, a malware tool that gives attackers multiple ways to cause damage. First observed in 2025, it combines remote-control capabilities with tools that can wipe disks, encrypt files beyond recovery and sabotage systems. The analysis found that GigaWiper was built by stitching together pieces of at least three separate malware families, reflecting a broader shift toward more versatile and destructive cyber tools.

Microsoft’s latest sustainability report argues that the AI era demands a new balance between technological growth and environmental responsibility. The company reported matching 100% of its global electricity consumption with renewable energy and, for the first time, replenishing more water than it withdrew. Yet total emissions rose 25%, driven largely by datacenter growth. The report argues that responsible AI requires environmental stewardship, local community engagement and a more integrated approach to sustainability.

As hospitals and humanitarian groups rely more on digital systems, it can be hard to tell protected infrastructure from the rest of cyberspace. That’s why Microsoft is supporting the International Committee of the Red Cross as it advances the Digital Emblem, a machine-readable signal designed to help identify protected medical and humanitarian systems.

William Sieghart has spent years recommending poems to people based on what’s on their minds. Now, with help from Microsoft AI (MAI), he’s bringing that experience to a wider audience online through Ode Poetry. The tool asks how you’re feeling, suggests a poem that might resonate and uses MAI voice and speech models to create a conversational experience rooted in Sieghart’s approach to connecting people with poetry.

Customer expectations are changing faster than contact centers can keep up. So, Australia’s largest bank, Commonwealth Bank, partnered with Microsoft to rethink the model entirely. It meant separating intelligence from channels and using an AI orchestration agent to interpret intent and route interactions to connect customers to the right help, faster. It’s now a more intuitive, always-on experience that now supports over two million conversations a month, uplifting the customer self service experience, while empowering frontline teams with real-time AI assistance. Co-engineering like this is only possible when the customer’s AI ambition matches the technology partner’s AI ambition.

The AI Economy Institute has named a new global cohort of researchers to study how AI is changing the way companies and the broader economy work. This year’s fellows will examine how leading organizations are adopting AI and what that means for jobs, skills, productivity and economic growth. The research marks a shift from earlier studies on education and career pathways, with a goal this year to generate evidence that can help policymakers, businesses and institutions navigate a rapidly evolving AI economy.

Even though AI can predict how the brain will respond to language with remarkable accuracy, it’s been far less useful trying to explain why. In a new paper in Nature Neuroscience, Microsoft researchers and academic collaborators describe a method they developed that turns those AI predictions into testable scientific theories and evaluates them through follow-up experiments. The approach validated known brain functions, distinguished similar brain regions and uncovered previously unmapped areas linked to specific concepts.

As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, Microsoft is reflecting on the choices that shaped the country, the progress those choices made possible and the responsibility to think seriously about the future.

The new America 250 video series explores pivotal moments in U.S. history that continue to shape innovation and what comes next.

The pace of AI adoption is moving incredibly fast. Organizations have moved beyond AI experimentation and are using the new technology to transform business, concentrating on delivering measurable business outcomes and demonstrating a return on their AI investments, while ensuring their intelligence is amplified and their IP is protected.

Today, Microsoft is announcing Microsoft Frontier Company, a new operating business focused on delivering Frontier Transformation through AI for customers around the world. It will provide a unique combination of skills inclusive of deep industry knowledge, change management and continuous improvement experience and enterprise-grade AI engineering expertise.

Microsoft will continue to provide Ukraine with free cloud services to government institutions, educational establishments and regional authorities through the end of 2027. The announcement extends a program that since 2022 has helped Ukraine keep essential public services running during the war, from social benefits and tax collection to business and land registries, by moving critical systems to cloud infrastructure across Europe.

What was once seen as a distant security challenge may be arriving faster than expected. Citing advances in quantum computing, Microsoft is accelerating its timeline for post-quantum cryptography, or new encryption designed to remain secure in the era of quantum computing. The company now has a goal of transitioning products and services by 2029. Microsoft says the biggest hurdle likely will not be choosing new algorithms but rather untangling the cryptography already embedded across modern systems.

More than 30 years after DOOM first redefined the shooter genre, XBOX’s latest expansion is speeding things up again. Arriving July 7, Revelations introduces the Chain Spear, a versatile new weapon that adds grappling, aerial movement and new combat techniques to DOOM: The Dark Ages. The expansion also includes a story campaign, new arenas and 10 to 12 hours of new content.

He led the Rough Riders, became the youngest U.S. president and inspired the teddy bear — but Theodore Roosevelt probably never imagined anything like this. His new presidential library will give visitors a fresh peek into history and even let them chat with a lifelike version of himself.

Located in Medora, North Dakota, the unassuming building is covered in native grasses, with skylights providing most of the light. But in addition to the expected re-creations of the president’s home and White House, the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, opening to the public on July 4, is designed as a “living library” powered by AI.

Generating reports, writing boilerplate code and monitoring systems are among the tasks technical experts are most comfortable handing to AI agents, according to a new global survey of 300 AI, data and cloud leaders. The 2026 Agent Confidence Index, developed by Microsoft and MIT Technology Review Insights, found an average confidence score of 64 out of 100 across 101 tasks. Microsoft is sharing the findings at this week’s AI Engineering World’s Fair. 

As datacenters that power cloud and AI services become more essential, communities are paying closer attention to how this infrastructure affects local resources, particularly water. Microsoft has long prioritized water stewardship and last year reached a milestone toward its 2030 goal, replenishing more water than it used globally. Advances in cooling technology have improved water efficiency in the company’s datacenters by nearly 90% since the early 2000s, and a new datacenter design introduced in 2024 consumes zero water for cooling during operations. Read on for more about how it works.

New technology tends to reach developers first and is often followed by finance departments, where it must meet a higher standard, with every number traceable and trusted. Microsoft says Copilot in Excel is being tested against that reality to work like a trusted analyst, embedded in day-to-day finance work. With new features like reusable skills, data connections and clearer audit trails, the aim is to help teams spend less time rebuilding analyses and more time making decisions.

When market research firm Kantar handed Copilot licenses to every employee, chaos and creativity erupted. Andy Doyle, the company’s chief people and agent officer, joins the WorkLab podcast to share how a wave of maverick experimentation led to the creation of more than 15,000 AI agents — and an “agent factory” that’s reshaping the enterprise. He explains how the experiment pushed leaders  to rethink control, scale and what’s possible when you let employees drive transformation.  

Artificial intelligence is already common in schools, with most students and educators using it in some form. But a new Microsoft report suggests the focus is shifting, with many calling for more training and clearer guidelines to ensure it supports real learning, not just faster work. New tools in Microsoft 365 Education aim to help, combining lesson planning, assignments and study aids designed to encourage deeper thinking.

Microsoft is shifting its cybercrime strategy , focusing on the infrastructure behind attacks rather than isolated threats. In a case unsealed Wednesday, the company said it simultaneously targeted two widely used malware tools, Amadey and StealC, after AI-assisted analysis showed they rely on shared systems. The tools, often deployed together to access devices and steal sensitive data, were linked to more than 140,000 cyberattacks in just the first two weeks of May. Working with Europol and industry partners, Microsoft said it has since cut off criminal control of 18,000 computers to disrupt the broader “assembly line” that enables cyberattacks to scale.