Digital transformation is not a one-day process. In this article, we invited Angie Zhu, General Manager of Microsoft AI & IoT Insider Lab, to reveal the thinking and logic behind the joint efforts of technology giants and trendsetting startups in the post-epidemic era to seize the first opportunity of the digitalization wave.

We have entered a new era of digital intelligence. Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud-native have moved from the customer’s side to the business side. As a technology giant empowered by digital intelligence, Microsoft hopes to help developers worldwide explore their AI and IoT projects with its rich open resources and platforms through Microsoft AI & IoT Insider Lab.

As a critical partner of the Microsoft AI & IoT Insider Lab, Cloudpick Technology recently completed a Pre-B round of financing. Cloudpick is committed to providing customers with a “grab-and-go, pay-as-you-get” shopping experience in the retail industry. In addition, the technology is also applied to other sectors and scenarios such as government, education, finance, transportation, aged services, and real estate, matching different unmanned solutions to improve industry efficiency and reduce operational costs.

The empowering case of Microsoft AI & IoT Insider Lab and Cloudpick Technology gives us a reference to think about how to solve various problems in digital transformation.

"Microsoft AI & IoT Insider Lab is led directly by the headquarter of Microsoft and is a global open R&D organization. We mainly help large enterprises and startups to build solutions based on Microsoft Azure, AI, and IoT and provide innovation and upgrading services in the stages of idea incubation, design and development, testing and experimentation, prototype production, technical support, and market cooperation," said Angie Zhu.

Currently, there are four labs in Seattle, Munich, Tokyo, and Shanghai. The labs now cover various industries, including medicine, retail, manufacturing, finance, agriculture, etc. Now our focus is on AI and IoT.

Before joining Microsoft, Angie Zhu was in charge of investment and financing in a self-driving unicorn company and private equity funds, and now she is mainly responsible for Microsoft AI & IoT Insider Lab. 

1. Digital intelligence empowerment: Large and small enterprises have their focus

Q: Ms. Zhu, how does Microsoft AI & IoT Insider Lab's support for small and medium-sized firms differ from its support for larger startups? How does Microsoft support these distinct areas of focus?

Angie Zhu: We treat all companies equally in size and industry type and provide comprehensive support programs for everyone. For startups, we provide technical support and help them provide many ecosystem resources, including Go-to-market, Co-sell (joint sales with Microsoft) opportunities, and even off-shore business. In fact, Microsoft has also made a lot of effort to help these startups and bring them together to sell to many overseas enterprise customers jointly. 

For startups, we help provide them with many types of equipment, hardware, software, cloud-based technical support, etc. Many startups do not have a production line yet, and they need to do a prototype design and make improvements when designing IoT hardware. They can come to our lab, and we help build and develop such a prototype IoT device, including doing some tests and improving the prototype. All these can be done with our 3D printers, laser cutters, and other first-class industrial-grade equipment in the lab. All equipment is shipped from overseas and is very advanced in China.

Besides providing technical support, Microsoft AI & IoT Insider Lab is also working with our partner Zhangjiang Group to provide financing opportunities for startups, including some channels. In terms of policies, Zhangjiang Group can offer some preferential policies for startups, such as enterprise qualification certification, preferential policy declaration, etc.

Microsoft also has decades of experience in global business and can help startups explore overseas to enhance their international competitiveness.

For larger enterprises, the focus is on technology empowerment and ecosystem convergence. We are also helping them leverage Microsoft’s best practices in digital transformation and our technology platforms in the cloud to empower them to do joint innovation together.

In terms of marketing and sales, we helped them make some joint sales, including attracting some domestic and international market customers, thus speeding up their digital transformation process. Meanwhile, we also hold some activities for these larger enterprises to match some startups’ solutions to their business. We act as a hub to help multiple parties achieve win-wins and connect these innovative solutions.

Q: For startups, you have multiple focus dimensions, including technology, financing, policy, and oversea business support; for large companies, you have ecosystem empowerment, technical empowerment, and sales experience to work as a hub.

Angie Zhu: Yes, the hub mainly refers to two aspects: one is to help them contact some third parties besides joint innovation. We also help promote their innovative solutions; the other one is we will let these companies reach each other as our current or potential downstream partners.

2. Microsoft Lab’s alumni circle: how to get involved

Q: Whether it is a large or small & medium-sized startup, Microsoft AI & IoT Insider Lab acts as a hub between them. Then, how do you select companies for free admission? What are the requirements and criteria?

Angie Zhu: Our program is open to all industries and includes different companies, so we receive a lot of applications because of the wide range. We have several criteria because we also hope that our resources will meet them. One is our technical expert resources. Also, laboratory hardware and ecosystem resources can be more effectively used. Therefore, we would make a preferential selection for several criteria. Besides, for the overall project goal, we hope that the settled company has a plan to build the right AI or IoT-based products or solutions.

The second is that they’ve used Microsoft technology or are about to use it to achieve some business (plans), meaning using our technology as a platform to serve their products or solutions.

The third one is that we want to see that the project has been approved by their decision-makers within the company, which means they have a decision-making team and their own R & D group to support the project. We will not help them do all the development work, but we will work together to improve the solution.

The fourth is that we hope the solution is innovative in the industry and it has a clear business application prospect and solid needs.

These are the four criteria in our selection.

Q: Would you briefly introduce the process of admission?

Angie Zhu: I would like to share how we keep in touch with the companies from the time they get in till the end of the process.

We have two ways of admission: remote admission, which means our technical experts provide online guidance and then give them one week or two to complete the project. And another is the offline way, meaning they send their R & D fellows to our laboratory, and we go through days or weeks to jointly complete the project’s development. 

3. Talent perspective: capacity building and future direction

Q: As the leader and manager, how do you consider your team’s capacity building? What are the next steps for Microsoft AI & IoT Insider Lab (Shanghai) in the future?

Angie Zhu: In terms of team building, because Microsoft AI & IoT Insider Lab always wants to empower enterprises from all industries, I generally hope that my team, not only masters cloud or Microsoft technologies but also stands at the forefront of the industry to understand the most innovative applications. Because this is also a continuous learning process, which is equivalent to the team itself, a method of constant improvement and advancement, which can also better empower the enterprises. We hope to share these best practices in the industry and cutting-edge applications with our alumni and partners.

We regularly do some team sharing sessions because all colleagues, especially the technical experts, actually have their own focus, such as hardware, AI, and IoT. Each can share some of their current technology trends, including some exciting applications, with the rest of the team to help them learn and understand. 

In addition to the internal team sharing sessions, we also do some cross-lab sharing. There are often some differences in applying the same technology in various industries. At this time, we can help our team grow through cross-lab sharing and learning.

In the team’s development, the lab practices Microsoft’s open and inclusive culture. It will regularly communicate with the team on a one-to-one basis to plan some experimental targets, understand some of the latest employee feedback, etc.

From the perspective of Microsoft’s future development, we plan to focus more on the medical industry this year, such as the R&D of “AI + innovative drugs”, as well as IoT and MR to combine some digital therapies in the medical field, which are some very promising application scenarios in the future.