From idea to impact: Real-world success stories of building intelligent apps with Azure

In this new age of AI, businesses across industries are recognizing the power of intelligent apps to drive innovation and maintain a competitive edge. By harnessing cloud-native technologies and AI-powered tools, companies are modernizing their applications, creating new experiences for their users, and creating new revenue streams. This blog explores the benefits of modernizing and building intelligent apps through real-world examples, demonstrating how organizations have boosted speed and efficiency using Microsoft Azure’s comprehensive suite of tools and services. We hope these customer success stories inspire you to not only set off on your own Azure AI journey, but also explore the newly released Plans on Microsoft Learn specifically designed for building and modernizing AI apps.

Azure AI is transforming business across sectors

Modernizing apps is a crucial step for organizations aiming to stay relevant in a fast-evolving AI landscape, as legacy apps often struggle to meet modern performance, scalability, and security standards. In fact, a 2024 Forrester study found that one in four business decision makers said their organization experiences digital platform failures because of their modernization challenges.

By refactoring or re-platforming legacy apps with cloud-native Azure tools, businesses can unlock improved flexibility, faster development cycles, and more efficient operations. According to the Forrester study, 89% of decision makers surveyed said their firm plans to increase or at least maintain their current application modernization investments over the next year to achieve key priorities and address modernization gaps.

Azure provides a comprehensive set of tools and services to enable businesses to build new application and modernize existing app and data estate, with an intelligent application platform, cloud-scale databases, Azure AI Services, and Azure Machine Learning. These enable the creation of intelligent apps that leverage real-time, cloud-scale data and advanced analytics. Cloud-native apps on Azure benefit from features such as auto-scaling, microservices, and continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, ensuring high performance and cost-effectiveness.

Let’s meet some of the many Azure customers who have not only been able to differentiate their business in the market and accelerate product innovation by building new, AI-powered intelligent apps, but also skill their teams with the latest learning resources from Azure designed for adopting AI applications.

ASOS: Leveraging AI for personalized fashion recommendations

ASOS, a global online fashion retailer, leveraged Azure AI Studio to revolutionize its customer experience by creating an AI-powered virtual stylist that could engage with customers and help them discover new trends.

Having a conversational interface option gets us closer to our goals of fully engaging the customer and personalizing their experience by showing them the most relevant products at the most relevant time.
—Cliff Cohen, Chief Technology Officer, ASOS

Azure AI Studio enabled ASOS to rapidly develop and deploy their intelligent app, integrating natural language processing and computer vision capabilities. This showcases Azure’s ability to support cutting-edge AI applications in the retail sector, driving business growth and customer satisfaction.

CarMax: Revolutionizing customer service with Azure OpenAI

CarMax, a leading United States used car retailer, utilized Azure OpenAI Service to create an AI-powered research assistant. This innovative tool streamlined the car-buying process, providing customers with instant, accurate information and improving overall satisfaction.

“Our initial goal was customer review summaries for 5,000 car pages, and we figured that using our existing manual process it would have taken about 11 years of content generation. With OpenAI Service, we hit that goal in just a few months.
—Sean Goetz, Director, Application Systems, CarMax

The implementation of Azure OpenAI Service allowed CarMax to process vast amounts of automotive data efficiently, demonstrating Azure’s capability to handle complex, industry-specific AI applications. This case highlights the potential of AI-powered apps to transform traditional business models and enhance customer experiences.

Ally: Empowering personalized banking with Azure

Ally Bank is a digital-first financial institution that used insights from Azure AI to help customers manage their finances more effectively while streamlining the bank’s operations. By deploying intelligent apps through Azure, Ally introduced personalized banking services, offering customized recommendations based on user behavior and financial patterns.

“The goal was to free up associates to truly focus on the customer and support that customer-obsessed mentality they have.
—Wendy Dempsey, Executive Director of Customer Experience, Ally

This implementation showcases Azure’s strength in supporting AI applications in the highly regulated banking sector, balancing innovation with security and compliance.

TomTom: Optimizing real-time mapping with Azure

TomTom, a global leader in location technology, turned to Azure to modernize its map-making processes. By building intelligent, cloud-native apps with Azure AI and Azure Data Services, TomTom improved the accuracy and speed of its real-time mapping services. The integration of Azure AI services allowed TomTom to process massive amounts of geospatial data efficiently, demonstrating Azure’s scalability and performance in handling data-intensive AI applications.

[Together with Azure,] we have developed TomTom Orbis Maps, which are built on TomTom’s AI-based mapping platform, and TomTom Digital Cockpit, an in-vehicle digital infotainment solution with cloud analytics.
—Paul Hesen, Vice President of Product Management, TomTom Group

With Azure, TomTom significantly increased the efficiency of its mapping operations, reducing response times for driver queries from 12 seconds to as little as 2.5 seconds in a matter of months. This allowed the company to deliver faster, more precise location services to its global user base, enhancing both productivity and customer trust.

KPMG Australia: Automating audits with Azure AI

KPMG Australia used Azure AI to integrate intelligent apps into their audit process. By leveraging Azure’s natural language processing (NLP) capabilities, KPMG built a solution called KymChat that automates document analysis and enhances data extraction. This transformation reduced the time required for auditing tasks, improving both accuracy and efficiency.

We had experience with Azure Cosmos DB, which gave us confidence in its potential capabilities, but Microsoft’s support for vCore was instrumental in ensuring smooth operations as we increased the scope and capabilities of KymChat.
—Robert Finlayson, Senior Product Manager, KPMG Australia

With Azure AI, KPMG significantly improved the productivity of its auditors, freeing them from labor-intensive, repetitive tasks. The effort not only sped up the audit process but also increased the quality of insights provided to clients, showcasing the power of intelligent apps in professional services.

Manulife: Accelerating innovation with Azure Kubernetes Service

Manulife, a leading financial services group, leveraged Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) to accelerate the development and deployment of innovative apps. By modernizing its legacy systems with Azure Kubernetes Service, Manulife was able to create cloud-native, containerized apps that streamlined operations and improved scalability.

With Azure, our customers can submit more documentation online, and we can then use document analysis to extract information and conduct processing to accelerate workflows, ensure accuracy, and improve user experiences.
—Len van Greuning, Chief Information Officer, John Hancock (as Manulife is known in the United States)

Azure’s robust infrastructure enabled Manulife to reduce operational complexity and increase speed-to-market, enhancing its ability to innovate in a competitive industry. The modernization with AKS empowered Manulife to remain agile and responsive, driving higher productivity and delivering better services to its customers.

H&R Block: Enhancing document processing with Azure Form Recognizer

Seeking to revolutionize its document handling, global tax services giant H&R Block turned to Azure Form Recognizer for a cutting-edge solution. By building an intelligent app that automates the extraction of key data from tax documents, H&R Block reduced the time and manual effort involved in document handling. The AI-driven solution significantly increased accuracy while speeding up the overall tax preparation process.

Machine learning frees up the precious time we have with the client to actually have richer conversations about their financial needs and aspirations, beyond the immediate task of ensuring the best tax outcome for the current year.
—Aditya Thadani, H&R Block’s vice president.

Through Azure’s intelligent services, H&R Block modernized its operations, improving both productivity and client service and classifying more than 30 million tax documents a year. The solution has allowed the company to handle more clients with greater efficiency, providing a faster, more accurate tax filing experience.

Start innovating today with Azure AI Services

These customer success stories illustrate how modernizing with Azure can deliver enhanced user experiences, drive innovation, and significantly boost operational efficiency in a secure, highly available environment. Write your own success story with cloud-native app development and try Azure AI Services for free by visiting our homepage.

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