Microsoft: Generative AI at the Hannover Fair

Artificial Intelligence Microsoft rolls out AI assistant in the industry

2024-05-10 Source: Pressemitteilung Microsoft | Translated by AI 5 min Reading Time

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This year AI becomes tangible: At the Hannover Fair, Microsoft showed, together with customers and partners, how industrial companies achieve competitive advantages through generative AI. Especially co-pilots were seen at many booths.

At the Hannover Fair 2024, Microsoft introduced practical applications as well as new standard tools that companies can use to build their own industrial co-pilots.(Image: Sandro Kipar/VCG) — At the Hannover Fair 2024, Microsoft introduced practical applications as well as new standard tools that companies can use to build their own industrial co-pilots.
(Image: Sandro Kipar/VCG)

More and more industrial companies are harnessing the potential of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and integrating it into their production processes. "The results are astonishing," says the Managing Director of Microsoft Germany, Florian Deter. "They show how quickly industrial companies can make the collaboration between humans and machines more productive through generative AI." At the Hannover Messe, Microsoft showcased practical applications and new standard tools that companies can use to build their own Industrial Copilot.

"The advance of industrial copilots is impressive and shows how quickly real progress is being made in the collaboration between industry and technology," says Florian Deter. Many AI solutions are already available at the push of a button in standard software and can be accessed "as-a-service" via the cloud. The new products introduced in Hanover also include new standard tools for generative AI applications in industry: "Manufacturing Data Solutions in Microsoft Fabric" and "Copilot Template for Factory Operations" are now available as a private preview.

Generative AI: Addressing skills shortage and realizing competitive advantages

Generative AI is supposed to make it possible to continue to grow and realize competitive advantages despite a shortage of skilled workers. According to figures from the International Monetary Fund, Germany is one of only three countries that can gain the greatest benefit from AI worldwide. This context also sheds light on the recent investment in the site: In February, Microsoft announced it would invest 3.2 billion euros in expanding AI infrastructure and cloud capacities and in the training of over 1.2 million people in Germany. And in March, Microsoft, together with local partners from business, municipalities, schools, and education providers, launched its major AI training initiative in North Rhine-Westphalia.

More than half of the industrial decision-makers in large companies believe in a digitalization boost through generative AI.

New study: Generative AI proves its value in industry.

Today, 37 percent of industrial decision-makers in Germany believe that generative AI can accelerate the digital transformation in their companies. This is a significant increase from the previous year, as it was 29 percent in 2023. This is especially true for large companies with over 1,000 employees, where even more than half of the industrial decision-makers (52 percent) believe in a digitalization boost through generative AI. Last year, this survey value was just under 32 percent. This is shown in a new representative survey by the opinion research institute Civey on behalf of Microsoft, in which 1,500 industry decision-makers in Germany were surveyed.

More than two thirds of companies (71 percent; 2023: 62 percent) therefore see multiple benefits from generative AI in the industry. According to them, the main advantages are: efficiency increases (48 percent; 2023: 36 percent), cost savings (46 percent; 2023: 41 percent) and increasing productivity (35 percent; 2023: 25 percent). It is clear that generative AI is becoming more and more established in companies: already 22 percent of decision-makers report that they are using it productively in their companies, while in 2023 it was only 8 percent. A further 6 percent plan to use generative AI in the next twelve months (2023: 4 percent).

Copilot enables human-machine communication in natural language.

At the Hannover Messe, Microsoft, together with over 25 customers and partners, demonstrated the advantages of generative AI for the manufacturing industry. An example is their own industrial copilot, which enables people to communicate with machines in natural language or allows them to write programming code to control machines.

BMW Showcase and extensions of Siemens Industrial Copilot

At the trade fair stand, two examples in particular showed how AI is being used successfully. BMW presented a project developed together with Microsoft in a showcase. The co-pilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides helps at BMW via voice control to integrate data for vehicle development from different systems, draw conclusions and thus significantly simplify and accelerate the development processes. BMW also relies on HoloLens 2, through which the data-based results are projected as holograms onto real components.

Siemens has introduced the Siemens Industrial Co-pilot, which is being developed together with Microsoft and other co-creation partners, for the entire value chain: from design and planning to engineering and operations to service. With the Siemens Industrial Co-pilot for Operations, which is being presented at the Microsoft stand, for example, information from machines can be queried in natural language instead of laboriously searching for it in manuals. The seamless connection of the Siemens portfolio with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service creates connectivity, speeds up processes and takes human-machine interaction to a new level.

Industrial copilots for every company

The standard tools "Manufacturing Data Solutions in Microsoft Fabric" and the "Copilot Template for Factory Operations" will be available in Azure AI. These solutions help manufacturing companies to merge their data stocks from OT and IT as well as to accelerate and scale the data transformation in Microsoft Fabric, which is necessary for the use of AI. With the "Copilot Template for Factory Operations", companies can also create their own co-pilots, through which their manufacturing personnel can query such data stocks in natural language in order to find information, conduct training, solve problems or maintain plants. This is particularly interesting for the German middle class.

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Further showcases at a glance

The Kuka copilot interprets, comments and generates the new Kuka Robotic Language Code based on Azure OpenAI Services. This makes it easier for companies to program robots and configure them with less experience, improving the return on their investment.
With the Schneider Electric PLC Code Generation Copilot, PLC engineers who program machine controls can optimize their programming workflows, shorten the development time, and ensure the consistency and quality of the code.
The Andritz Metris Copilot combines anomaly detection with a digital AI assistant with chat interface that provides information almost in real time and supports decision making. The solution uses data from IoT sensors and control systems to detect and prevent disruptions, errors, and failures using algorithms.
From creating work orders with the right information to assigning them to the right technicians to successfully complete the job: Volvo Penta uses the Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service and the Copilot in Guides with HoloLens 2 to support its staff in service and production.
Harting is showcasing the AI-supported development of connectors. Together with partners Microsoft and Siemens, the company is showing how AI can revolutionize customer-specific adjustments to industrial products: Inputs in natural language are interpreted by advanced Microsoft recognition algorithms and context-sensitive understanding to adapt products through a Harting connector AI to specific requirements and create 3D models for Siemens NX CAD software. This accelerates development processes, enables connectivity solutions that are ideally tailored to the application, and ensures the minimum possible use of resources.