cloud ai

Canadian Tire’s announcement that it is scaling a Microsoft-built, Azure-hosted AI platform to detect “micro-occasions” in customer demand marks a clear accelerating point in the race to operationalize AI across North American retail — not as a flashy storefront assistant, but as a...

As Artificial Intelligence continues to reshape industries, the race to acquire credible, job‑ready AI skills has become a defining element of professional development in 2026. BusinessDay’s roundup highlights a practical shortlist of globally recognised certification programmes — from cloud...

Microsoft’s headline multiples from an automated Benzinga snapshot—mid‑30s P/E, low‑double P/B and a double‑digit P/S—create an apparent paradox: the stock looks cheap by earnings and book value but expensive by revenue, while its absolute cash generation dwarfs peers and points to strategic...

Microsoft’s tie-up with Nakuru-born health‑tech startup Zendawa to roll out an AI‑powered pharmacy platform in Kenya signals a practical, immediate application of cloud AI to frontline healthcare retail — one that promises to shrink expiry‑driven losses, speed everyday inventory work, and create...

OpenAI’s latest acqui‑hire brings the three co-founders of Convogo into its ranks while Convogo’s product is being wound down — a talent-first acquisition that underscores OpenAI’s continued focus on building out AI cloud capabilities and accelerating enterprise adoption, even as it leaves a gap...

OpenAI has quietly scooped up the three co‑founders of Convogo — a small U.S. startup that built an AI product for executive coaches and HR teams — in an acqui‑hire that will wind down Convogo’s service while bringing the team into OpenAI to work on the company’s AI cloud efforts. Overview The...

Microsoft used CES 2026 to put a stake in the ground: the future of the car will be cloud-native, AI-driven, and built around software-first engineering — and Microsoft’s Azure, Foundry, and partner ecosystem are being positioned as the secure backbone for that transition. Background The...

MISO today announced a strategic collaboration with Microsoft to bring cloud-native AI, advanced analytics and a unified data platform to the Midwest power grid — a move designed to speed planning, improve real-time operations and help the region absorb rising electricity demand from...

Microsoft’s expanding partnership with Iberdrola — announced in mid‑December — bundles two long‑term Spanish wind power PPAs with a deeper Azure and Copilot rollout across the utility group, marking a strategic step in how hyperscalers and utilities are fusing renewable procurement, cloud...

Cloud infrastructure has become the single most powerful accelerator for modern AI — not because of abstract synergy, but because the cloud solves the specific operational problems that AI demands: instant access to massive GPU fleets, distributed training fabrics, integrated MLOps toolchains...

Microsoft’s Copilot—an AI assistant embedded across Office, Edge and Teams—suffered another service disruption that has reignited debate over the fragility of cloud‑hosted AI features and the operational risks businesses accept when they outsource critical productivity functions to centrally...

Microsoft’s latest strategic sweep — an unapologetic pivot to cloud and AI at industrial scale — has reshaped the company from a platform incumbent into a capital‑intensive infrastructure and software behemoth, delivering record revenues while creating a new set of execution and regulatory...

Microsoft and Lockheed Martin have announced a close collaboration to build Sanctum, a cloud-enabled, AI-driven counter‑uncrewed aerial system (C‑UAS) that fuses Lockheed Martin’s C‑UAS operational know‑how with Microsoft Azure’s cloud, analytics and agent tooling to deliver real‑time detection...

The Property Council’s new half‑day course, Copilot Essentials for the Property Sector, packages a practical, role‑focused introduction to Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 and is explicitly built to help property managers, asset teams and shopping‑centre administrators apply AI to reporting...

Microsoft is reportedly in advanced talks with Broadcom to co-design custom AI chips for Azure, a development that — if finalized — would sharpen the industry’s move toward vertically integrated, hyperscaler-owned silicon and reshape cloud AI infrastructure economics and competition. Background...

Microsoft’s push into cloud and AI has shifted from strategy to scale: the company is now building capacity and product lines that materially move markets while reshaping how enterprise software, developer platforms, and everyday Windows experiences are delivered. This isn’t incremental...

Microsoft Ignite 2025 felt like a landmark moment for enterprise cloud and AI: Oracle used the stage and partner booth time to show how its database portfolio is explicitly engineered to run within Microsoft Azure data centers while remaining managed by Oracle — a multicloud play that now ties...

Auckland‑based Spotto has moved its AI‑driven cloud optimisation platform out of beta and into general availability, pitching an Azure‑first tool designed to convert scattered cloud signals into engineer‑ready, billable work for managed service providers (MSPs) and large enterprise IT teams. The...

Auckland startup Spotto has moved its AI-driven cloud optimisation platform out of beta and into general availability, pitching a product aimed squarely at managed service providers (MSPs) and enterprise IT teams running Microsoft Azure estates and promising continuous scanning, consolidated...

Microsoft’s place in the software industry looks less like a runaway growth story and more like a playbook in disciplined scale: high absolute profitability, conservative leverage, and heavy, strategic reinvestment into cloud and AI — a profile that explains why headline valuation multiples can...