In northern Canada, translator apps are helping researchers preserve a threatened Inuit language and connecting the remote communities that still speak it. In London, developers are working to make object recognition more personal for blind and low-vision individuals, a critical step in including the users of the technology in collecting the data that creates it, and improving their access to the world. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, cognitive search functions are being used to tag and classify artworks in more detail than ever before in order to make the collection accessible, in a meaningful way, to people who may never set foot inside. Scientists at the CSIRO in Australia are reducing plastic waste flowing into the ocean by using object recognition on river bridges and sensors in stormwater drains to identify, quantify and remove rubbish before it reaches the sea. The common denominators in these initiatives is the fact they are powered by AI and supported by Microsoft Azure's cloud technology, with funds also provided by Microsoft.

Microsoft Australia's national technology officer Lee Hickin has reaffirmed that artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are not replacing humans in the workforce, but are placing humans into positions where they can provide more value in their work. Speaking at ZDNet's Next Big Thing event in Sydney on Thursday, Hickin said the implementation of AI into work environments will augment the human experience, rather than replace it altogether. Using Microsoft's work at Northern Territory fisheries as an example, Hickin said the implementation of AI can "take away what we would call'grunt work' in jobs and functions". The AI fisheries project uses the company's Azure Cognitive Service to identify and count fish in waters without needing to sort through hours of under-water footage. The solution has already shown that the local golden snapper and black jewfish species are overfished.