When C-suite executives think about artificial intelligence (AI), they traditionally think of the same names they’ve thought of for years. But a new study just out from HFS Research suggests that it’s time for them to think again.

“Microsoft is emerging as the most ‘enterprise friendly’ AI ecosystem” according to the research, HFS Top 10 Microsoft AI Services 2019. “Few are better positioned to deliver the power of AI to enterprises than Microsoft, a technology giant with extensive cloud delivery and hosting infrastructure, ground-breaking AI R&D, and longstanding experience working with large enterprises.”

The HFS research mirrors what I’ve seen in 26 years in the industry, helping enterprise clients to adopt technologies including AI. It used to be that AI adoption was a massive undertaking, consuming millions of dollars and years of effort. Consequently, it was the prerogative of only the largest companies.

Against that background, Microsoft’s accomplishment in democratizing AI, in bringing AI to the masses, is breathtaking. Microsoft has made AI readily consumable in a variety of ways. It is connecting AI to the core of every application, platform and process. Its deep investments in research and development around speech recognition, image recognition and other elements of AI are helping to propel the industry forward at an incredible rate.

Recent research from Forbes outlines that not only do most organizations believe that AI will change the world, but they no longer need to design, develop and support enormous new infrastructures for AI. By making AI available as a series of prebuilt, discrete services within Azure, Microsoft enables businesses of all sizes—from startups and small businesses to the largest enterprises—to buy only what they need, and only as much as they need, for only as long as they need it.

The new economics of AI, combined with the ease of subscribing to existing services rather than building from scratch, expand the universe of potential users exponentially. Mom-and-pop shops can begin to use AI as an off-the-shelf commodity, while the Fortune 500 can build the most secure, distributed AI solutions for their most complex business problems.

Another key finding of the HFS Research study demonstrates one more way in which Microsoft has made AI enterprise friendly. The researchers identified a rich ecosystem of service providers that have formed alliances with Microsoft specifically over AI. Those alliances cover proof-of-concept and pilot funding, talent development, workshops, technical collaboration, joint research, IP creation, and more.

And their existence makes it even easier for companies, whatever their size, to adopt Microsoft AI successfully. With the Microsoft ecosystem drawing on the best talent around the world, customers can expect that their AI services and solutions will remain cutting edge for the foreseeable future.

HFS Research investigated and ranked the top 10 solution providers for Microsoft AI. Topping the study’s roster: Accenture, which has a 30-year relationship with Microsoft. That relationship includes their joint founding of Avanade, which the study identified as a unique strength for “helping organizations implement and get the most ROI out of Microsoft technologies, including AI.”

That’s a pretty good description of what we do. For example, we helped:

• An insurance company reduce churn by 65% and post an 80% upsell success rate on cross-promotions by using analytics to better understand customer behavior
• A large software company reduce resolution time on its help desk by 50% by using intelligent automation to more accurately route incidents
• A major North American bank save $1.8 million a year by using cognitive services to enhance back-office automation
• A top consumer goods company achieve 77% accuracy in predicting sales and optimize brand-level marketing spend by using machine learning

As the HFS Research study shows, there’s never been a better time to adopt AI and there’s never been a better AI to adopt than Microsoft’s.If you haven’t already considered what Microsoft AI can do for you, now’s the time to learn more.

If you’re already an Azure customer, you’ll likely be surprised at how little it will take to kick off a proof of concept that demonstrates the business value you can get from AI. We’ll be glad to show you.

Download your copy of the “HFS Top 10 Microsoft AI Services 2019” report now.