Recognising the speed with which AI is being adopted, Microsoft has formed a new operating business – Microsoft Frontier Company – focused on delivering Frontier Transformation through AI for its global customer base.
The software giant says customers have moved beyond AI experimentation and are now concentrating on delivering measurable business outcomes and demonstrating a return on their AI investments, while ensuring their intelligence is amplified and their IP is protected.
Microsoft Frontier Company, it says, will provide a unique combination of skills inclusive of deep industry knowledge, change management and continuous improvement experience, and enterprise-grade AI engineering expertise.
This goes beyond what has been labeled as Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE), it adds, and will be the largest, most capable, outcome-driven engineering organisation in the industry.
“We are making a $2,5-billion investment in Microsoft Frontier Company, embedding 6 000 industry and engineering experts at customers to co-design, co-innovate, deploy and continuously improve AI systems at scale based on measurable business outcomes,” Judson Althoff, CEO of Microsoft Commercial Business, says. “I recently wrote more about my conviction that Intelligence + Trust are the two most important components of any AI solution and how our customers can use different levers to manage cost.
“Companies need to establish an intelligence platform so their unique IQ – their proprietary data, expertise, workflows and decision-making processes – compounds over time from within, using their choice of models to build AI solutions and workflows,” Althoff continues. “They need a trusted platform that allows them to observe, govern, manage and secure AI solutions across every layer of the technology stack, using FinOps to assess their ROI.
“Enterprise AI engineering expertise with deep industry knowledge is required to build a system that acts as a continuous loop of improvement between the two platforms to fine tune agentic business processes, ensuring that a customer’s intelligence compounds over time and delivers real business outcomes.
“This is what Microsoft Frontier Company was built to do: focus on end-to-end Frontier Transformation, enabling customers to amplify their IQ with AI while refining their differentiated value in the markets that they serve,” Althoff says.
The new organisation will be headed up by Rodrigo Kede Lima.
“Rodrigo brings 30 years of industry experience, and for the past six at Microsoft has led enterprise-wide transformations as a sales leader in the Americas and Asia,” Althoff says. “He has been at the forefront of helping customers and partners translate technology shifts into business outcomes, and understanding how platform innovation, engineering and partner ecosystem collaboration come together to drive growth.
“I am excited about all the things that Microsoft Frontier Company will do for our customers to realise the gains of Frontier Transformation,” Althoff says. “At the end of the day, it comes down to Intelligence + Trust and empowering our customers to achieve meaningful outcomes and a return on their investments.”