Microsoft and Fujitsu announce collaboration in Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft and multinational services company Fujitsu have today announced their plans to team up in the field of Artificial Intelligence. The companies aim to advance the evolution of ways in which people work in different companies.

These solutions will be based on Microsoft 365, combined with Fujitsu's Global Communications Platform. Ultimately, this collaboration will be making use of services such as Fujitsu Human Centric AI, and Microsoft's AI platform on Azure. Furthermore, the companies will be performing several trials in different countries in order to enhance the quality of their jointly built solutions.

Fujitsu's press release highlights a few key areas upon which they will be looking to focus, as an attempt to enhance customer value:

Focus on creative work, generating high added value.
Automate and streamline routine tasks leveraging AI.
Eliminate silos and discover the right person, insights, and network.
Analyze the drivers of productivity and motivation comparing people, teams, and companies.

Judson Althoff, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Commercial Business at Microsoft, commented on the expansion of the company's collaboration with Fujitsu, noting:

Expanding our collaboration with Fujitsu provides customers with yet another way to take advantage of the powerful and intelligent digital capabilities of our platform to drive more collaboration and creativity. Through integrations across our productivity suite and Fujitsu's unique industry expertise, customers will have more tools to create and collaborate.

Importantly, the firms aim to run experience courses as well as offering consultation services. These courses will be held at two or three different locations, including the Microsoft Technology Center located in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Interestingly, Fujitsu and Microsoft have their eyes set on developing around two billion US dollars of new business in the global market within the next couple of years by focusing on customer development.

Both companies plan to make these jointly formed AI solutions available in the Japanese market by the second quarter of 2018, before initiating a global rollout.