[THE INVESTOR] Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Nov. 7 shared his vision for artificial intelligence and the progress of partnerships with Korean companies during his second visit here after talking over the helm of the software giant.

He was delivering a keynote speech at the company’s AI conference Future Now in Seoul.

Nadella last visited in 2014 soon after he was appointed to head the company. Since then, the firm has been pouring in resources to bolster its capabilities in emerging segments, such as cloud computing and AI. 

“As computing gets embedded everywhere, it really transforms every industry and every business process,” said Nadella, mentioning the AI solutions being adopted in all business operations from production to marketing.

“The sense of purpose (at Microsoft) is to make tools, platforms, capability and mainframes so that you can build your own digital capability, that is our mission.”

He introduced some Korean projects, utilizing MS’s Azure and Office lineup, which could possibly bring breakthroughs in the IT segment as well as the whole society.

Nadella cited a robotic arm, developed by researchers at Korea University, which can be controlled by brain signals, and systems to predict traffic conditions and prevent possible accidents, developed by a research team at KAIST.

Tech giant Samsung Electronics, game developing company Pearl Abyss, 365mc, a clinic for liposuction surgery, and auto repair app operator Cardoc are some of MS’ partners that he said have successfully implemented its AI solutions.

Samsung, for instance, incorporated the Azure AI solution into its air-conditioning system to improve energy efficiency. As a result, the air conditioner is 30 percent more cost effective than other air conditioner models.

He also stressed that the US software behemoth is paying a great deal of attention to ethical issues, and encouraging its employees to take fairness, privacy, security, transparency and inclusion into consideration when developing AI solutions.

After participating in the event, CEO Nadella had a meeting with Samsung vice chairman Lee Jae-yong and discuss collaboration in segments, like AI and 5G.

MS’s push to grow AI and cloud computing solutions have seen some positive results. It saw the revenue of its AI and cloud services division increase from US$24.9 billion in 2016 to US$32.2 billion this year.

Its traditional PC division, which includes the Windows unit, on the other hand, posted US$42.2 billion in 2018, down from US$40.4 billion in 2016.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)