In a post published Tuesday on the Official Microsoft Blog, Judson Althoff, executive vice president of worldwide commercial business, writes about how cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) are “democratizing digital,” which he describes as “empowering everyone to have a digital experience and enabling everyone to participate in the digital economy.”
It is a movement, he writes, that spans industries, transforming government agencies, as well as businesses involved with health care, media and entertainment.
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers one of the best examples of the power of data and AI to transform agricultural productivity through the FarmBeats initiative,” Althoff writes. “By using data from sensors, drones, satellites and tractors, farmers hope to reduce costs, increase yields and grow crops that are more sustainable.”
He also cites key partnerships with health care companies Humana, Nuance and Novartis. “Health care is one of the most important areas of focus as we talk about democratizing digital,” he writes. “To support this, we have announced three important partnerships, each aimed at solving pressing challenges facing doctors, researchers and patients.”
Read the full post on the Official Microsoft Blog.
Photo: Steven Mirsky, a research ecologist in the USDA’s Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland. (Photo by Dan DeLong)