Advancing Sustainable Agricultural Practices in Africa with AI
AfriCHI 2025 | Cairo, Egypt | Half-Day In-Person Workshop
We invite researchers, practitioners, NGOs, community stakeholders, and African academics to join our half-day, in-person workshop at AfriCHI 2025. This workshop addresses the critical challenge of supporting smallholder farmers in developing sustainable agricultural practices amid the escalating uncertainties of rapid climate change. Central to our inquiry is the exploration of artificial intelligence (AI) as a means to bolster farmer resilience—when designed in a culturally and linguistically appropriate, participatory manner that reflects local contexts.
Empowering the World through Embodied AI Workshop is a premier technical forum designed to advance research and foster collaboration in Embodied AI and Robotics. This workshop brings together leading researchers, industry innovators, and academic experts to exchange ideas, share breakthroughs, and explore the future of intelligent systems that seamlessly integrate perception, learning, and interaction.
AI is everywhere. Once the sole domain of researchers and institutions, this technology has emerged in a wide variety of areas, including network infrastructure, platforms, and services. With AI, software developers now have the means to build a variety of intelligent solutions. This report, A Developer’s Guide to Building AI Applications, Second Edition, lets you check out AI’s possibilities hands-on.
You’ll learn how to create a virtual assistant—a conversational AI application that can understand language, perceive vast amounts of information, and respond intelligently. Authors Elaine Chang and Darren Jefford will guide you through the many AI resources and capabilities now available to developers. Jump in and discover powerful and innovative ways to approach hard-to-solve problems.
You’ll explore:
- How artificial intelligence works in the cloud.
- Azure AI’s services, infrastructure, and tools for developing AI apps.
- Microsoft’s Bot Framework ecosystem and the lifecycle of conversational AI app development.
- How to use Bot Framework to deliver tailored conversational assistant experiences.
- Expert guidance for developing your conversational AI app.
- Channels and adapters that help conversational experiences reach end users.
- Analytics tools for conversational AI applications.
- How Azure AI encourages you to create responsible and trustworthy solutions.
Learn how to create powerful, intelligent applications with help from AI experts.
Download Enhance your apps with AI Report Whitepaper
Sellers often find themselves pulled in multiple directions with not enough time to focus on what matters most—fully engaging with customers, managers, and other sellers.
Read The Future of Sales: Elevating Customer Connection and Productivity with AI to discover how sellers can accomplish more in less time using AI-assisted tools, such as conversation intelligence and generative AI capabilities from Microsoft Sales Copilot.
In this e-book, you’ll learn five ways your organization can take advantage of AI and automation to help sellers:
- Better connect with customers with AI-powered insights and automatic content generation.
- Accelerate sales by replacing manual tasks with intelligent automation.
- Improve sales strategies using data-driven coaching and real-time customer sentiments.
- Work seamlessly with managers and other sellers using collaboration tools.
- Stay people-centric by using solutions that support ethical AI.
Download The Future of Sales: Elevating Customer Connection and Productivity with AI E-Book
The world continues to move toward a hybrid, flexible workforce. And IT departments must look for innovative devices to enable their teams to securely and efficiently do their best work.
In the e-book Unlock workforce potential with innovative Microsoft Surface solutions, you’ll learn how Surface devices can help your organization:
- Increase security.
- Reduce the burden of deployment and device management.
- Enable employees to be more productive.
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The way we work has fundamentally changed, putting added responsibility on ITDMs and CIOs to deliver employee-centric experiences with flexibility and resilience at the forefront. Adapting to new technologies, like AI, poses a challenge, but also an opportunity to gain a competitive edge and ensure all employees can contribute in a way that’s productive, satisfying, and sustainable.
J.P. Gownder, VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester, will delve into insights and strategies to show you how modern devices can empower your employees and position your organization at the forefront of innovation and adaptability. And Nancie Gaskill, GM of Surface Business, Microsoft will provide ways Microsoft Surface can help you build business resilience and enhance employee engagement.
- How employee engagement is the key to unlocking business resilience in the modern work environment.
- The role of ITDMs and CIOs in choosing the right technology for designing employee experiences.
- How device choice can influence productivity and collaboration to navigate modern work effectively and sustainably.
Speakers:
J.P. Gownder
VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester
Nancie Gaskill
GM of Surface Business, Microsoft
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Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab forecast on Wednesday stronger-than-expected quarterly growth for its cloud-computing business Azure after blowout results in the latest quarter, calming investor worries in an uncertain economy and lifting its shares 7% after hours.
Microsoft’s results, which follow similar outcomes from Google last week, could ease concerns about a potential slowdown in AI demand, after some analysts pointed to canceled data-center leases at Microsoft as a sign of excess capacity.
Investors had also been worried about the fallout from sweeping U.S. tariffs that are prompting businesses to rein in spending, but robust advertising sales at Meta Platforms suggested that is so far not happening.
The rise in Microsoft’s shares set it on course to add more than $200 billion to its value.
Microsoft said revenue at its Azure cloud division rose 33% in the third quarter ended March 31, exceeding estimates of 29.7%, according to Visible Alpha. AI contributed 16 percentage points to the growth, up from 13 points in the previous quarter.
The company also forecast cloud-computing revenue growth of 34% to 35% on a constant currency basis for the fiscal fourth quarter to between $28.75 billion and $29.05 billion, well above analyst estimates, according to data from Visible Alpha.
Commercial bookings growth – which reflects new infrastructure and software contracts signed by business customers – rose 18% in the fiscal third quarter, driven in part by a new Azure contract with ChatGPT creator OpenAI. Microsoft declined to comment on the size of the deal or what role it played in overall Azure sales growth.
However, Amy Hood, Microsoft’s chief financial officer, told investors on a conference call that the AI contribution to the cloud computing business was in line with the company’s expectations, while “the real outperformance in Azure this quarter was in our non-AI business.”
“So the only real upside we saw on the AI side of the business was that we were able to deliver supply early to a number of customers,” Hood said.
The company’s Azure results came after a number of Wall Street analysts had lowered expectations as research reports said Microsoft had ended some data center lease obligations.
CEO Satya Nadella said on a conference call that Microsoft has a long history of constantly adjusting its data center plans, but only in recent quarters had analysts started closely scrutinizing those moves.
“The numbers were skeptical going in, giving them the room to beat pretty heavy. The beat wouldn’t have been this big if we didn’t have all these problems,” said Dan Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust, referring to tariff uncertainty.
SPENDING RISES FOR SHORTER-LIVED ASSETS
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft reported a profit of $3.46 per share in the quarter, topping expectations of $3.22 per share.
Revenue rose 13% to $70.1 billion, with the Intelligent Cloud unit, which houses Azure, contributing $26.8 billion.
In the third quarter, Microsoft’s capital expenditures jumped 53% to $21.4 billion, however the proportion of longer-lived asset expenditures fell to about half of the total.
Hood told investors that in the company’s fiscal 2026, which will begin in July, capital expenditures will continue to grow, but at lower growth rates than for the current year and with more of an emphasis on shorter-lived assets.
That reflected a shift in Microsoft’s spending on assets such as data center buildings toward assets such as chips, said Jonathan Neilson, Microsoft’s vice president of investor relations.
“You plug in CPUs and GPUs, and then you can start recognizing revenue,” Neilson said, referring to categories of chips made by Intel (INTC.O), opens new tab, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), opens new tab and Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab, among others.
Microsoft, which has repeatedly said it is capacity constrained on AI, has been pouring billions into building its AI infrastructure and expanding its data-center footprint.
A pullback in Big Tech’s AI spending would have big implications for suppliers such as chip giant Nvidia, as well as the U.S. economy. J.P. Morgan analysts estimated in January that data-center spending could contribute between 10 and 20 basis points to U.S. economic growth in 2025-2026.
Explore RevTech News for the latest advancements in Revenue, Business & Marketing Operations with insightful updates from industry experts!
Microsoft reported Q2 2025 financial performance today with earnings per share of $3.23 on revenue of $69.6 billion, exceeding analyst estimates.
In announcing the results, CEO Satya Nadella highlighted “the massive opportunity ahead” for customers using AI and stated that the company’s AI business has an annual run rate of $13 billion, up 175 percent year-over-year.
Microsoft CFO Amy Hood noted total Microsoft Cloud revenue of $40.9 billion, up 21%. Business highlights announced by the company include:
- Azure and other cloud services revenue growth of 31%, in line with different analyst estimates
- Dynamics products and cloud services revenue increased 15% driven by Dynamics 365 revenue growth of 19%
- Microsoft 365 Commercial revenue growth of 15%
Last quarter, Microsoft reported Q1 2025 reported EPS of $3.30 on revenue of $65.6 billion, exceeding analyst estimates.
A year ago in Q2 2024 Microsoft reported EPS of $2.93 on revenue of $62.0 billion, also exceeding analyst estimates. At that time, Dynamics 365 revenue growth was 26% and Microsoft 365 Commercial cloud revenue growth was 20%.
Explore RevTech News for the latest advancements in Revenue, Business & Marketing Operations with insightful updates from industry experts!
Source: https://msdynamicsworld.com/story/microsoft-2025-q2-earnings-cloud-and-ai-revenue-climb
AI technology sparks a lot of excitement and anticipation, and it’s natural to be curious about the impact it will have on company culture.
The e-book, Preparing your culture for AI, shares expert advice to help you get ahead of these cultural shifts and pave the way for successful AI adoption. Read the e-book to learn how to:
- Establish a clear vision for the role you want AI to play in your organization.
- Empower your team with the skills they need to maximize the benefits of AI.
- Anticipate cultural impact and intentionally shape changes to your organizational culture.
- Assess your organization’s readiness and lay the groundwork for successful AI adoption.
Plus, discover how Microsoft handled its own Microsoft Copilot rollout and generated employee enthusiasm to drive adoption.
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AI has the potential to uplevel skills and create an environment where creativity and productivity thrive. Discover how to bring the power of AI to your business in a secure, compliant, and privacy-preserving way with Microsoft 365 Copilot.
In this video, you’ll learn:
- About the benefits your organization can see from AI tools.
- What employees and their managers want from AI.
- How AI integrates with the tools you use every day.
*Some Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites in the European Economic Area and Switzerland do not include Microsoft Teams. Learn more on our licensing page.
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There’s a lot of talk about how companies are getting amazing results from using generative AI to produce new content like blog posts, code, and images. But what’s the real story? Recent research from Microsoft shows that organizations really do experience significant benefits in productivity, innovation, and employee satisfaction when they use Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365, a generative AI assistant, in the flow of work.
Read the e-book Maximize the impact of AI at work to:
- See compelling data on the benefits of using Copilot.
- Find out how generative AI can drive business innovation and agility.
- Make the right AI investment decisions for your specific organization.
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Security decision makers are investing heavily in software security. However, neglecting vulnerable hardware can undermine all these efforts. With cyberattacks growing in frequency and cost, leaders must move beyond prevention and focus on constructing a resilient security infrastructure capable of withstanding and recovering from an attack.
The Microsoft e-book, How Device Choice Can Make or Break Your Cyber Resilience Plan, sets you up to achieve cyber resilience from chip to cloud.
Download the e-book to learn how to:
Build your organization’s cyber resiliency by implementing Zero Trust security measures and investing in technology that can withstand disruption.
Assess the current impact of your devices and delve deeper into security planning with a helpful cyber resiliency checklist.
Provide proactive protection against evolving threats by using Microsoft Surface devices combined with Windows 11 and Microsoft 365.