Microsoft at IBC 2025: Accelerating the frontier of media and leisure with AI

The worldwide enterprise panorama is getting into the period of the Frontier Agency—a brand new actuality the place organizations aren’t simply adapting to alter however driving it. For media and leisure leaders, embracing agentic AI with human creativity is the important thing to unlocking new worth, accelerating innovation, and shaping the way forward for the {industry}. We’re already seeing 90% of our strategic media and leisure prospects are leveraging Microsoft and accomplice cloud and AI options to speed up their journey towards changing into Frontier Corporations.

A Frontier Agency is a next-generation media group that reimagines what’s attainable—throughout storytelling, viewers engagement, operations, and monetization. These firms embrace agentic AI to unlock creativity in each nook of the enterprise, from editorial and manufacturing to advertising, distribution, and technique. By deploying AI brokers that act, study, and adapt, Frontier Corporations empower groups to give attention to high-value work, speed up innovation, and ship clever, customized experiences at scale.

Within the period of the Frontier Agency, AI isn’t just automating duties in media and leisure—it’s unleashing creativity throughout the workforce.

• Enrich worker experiences: AI helps workers by taking good care of repetitive duties, giving them extra time to give attention to artistic and strategic work, and connecting their instruments and information into easy, clever workflows.
• Reinvent viewers engagement: AI transforms how media firms join with audiences by enabling hyper-personalized content material, adapting tales to viewer preferences, and delivering experiences that drive deeper engagement throughout platforms and codecs.
• Reshape enterprise processes: AI streamlines media operations—from metadata tagging and localization to marketing campaign administration and distribution—by automating routine duties and enabling agile, outcome-driven groups that target strategic oversight and artistic excellence.
• Bend the curve on innovation: Generative AI accelerates content material creation in media by serving to writers, editors, and designers ideate, produce, and refine property quicker, whereas preserving artistic uniqueness and unlocking new codecs like artificial video and multimodal storytelling.

As McKinsey’s Expertise Pattern Outlook 2025 notes, “Those that act with focus and agility won’t solely unlock new worth but additionally form the way forward for their industries and the way forward for as we speak’s rising frontier applied sciences.”

Media and leisure prospects as we speak are embracing what it means to be a Frontier Agency by main with imaginative and prescient, investing in expertise and know-how, and boldly experimenting to form the way forward for leisure and drive {industry} transformation. The Frontier Corporations of media and leisure are usually not outlined by the scale of their library or attain, however by the boldness to reimagine how tales are created, how groups collaborate, and the way worth is found in each second. Microsoft helps organizations around the globe construct the muse for this future.

The following wave for media is just not about automating yesterday’s processes however reasonably about reimagining the complete again workplace operation and manufacturing pipeline. From streamlining editorial workflows to managing the total content material lifecycle, leaders in media and leisure are searching for instruments that free groups to give attention to storytelling innovation as a substitute of guide duties. Examples of our prospects reimaging their enterprise operations embody:

• The Nationwide Soccer League (NFL) is without doubt one of the world’s hottest sports activities leagues, with 335 occasions every season and lots of of hundreds of thousands of followers throughout the globe renewed its partnership with Microsoft. Incorporating the brand new Microsoft options will assist drive innovation and improve the sport day expertise leaguewide from the sideline to workforce headquarters to the league workplace. The NFL is implementing Microsoft Copilot and Azure AI to boost sideline analysis and workflows, scout new expertise, and streamline operations that preserve the stadiums working easily. The NFL added an AI assistant to its current Mix App, utilizing Azure OpenAI Service to ship quick, correct solutions to pure language questions in real-time. Groups now entry insights in seconds, serving to coaches and scouts consider expertise quicker—even whereas athletes are nonetheless on the sector.
• The Nationwide Basketball Affiliation (NBA) reworked fan engagement, operational agility, and information safety by migrating to Microsoft Azure—unlocking real-time insights, scalable AI innovation, and customized digital experiences throughout its world ecosystem.
• The Indiana Pacers use Azure AI Speech to create an answer that delivers real-time captions with the pace and accuracy required for a reside game-day expertise. Utilizing Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, Pacers Sports activities & Leisure pioneered a real-time captioning system that transforms reside basketball into an inclusive, immersive expertise for deaf, hard-of-hearing, and non-English-speaking followers redefining accessibility in sports activities.
• LaLiga makes use of Microsoft Azure Arc to unify cloud and on-premises operations throughout 42 stadiums, enabling low-latency AI-powered insights and seamless fan experiences that enhance productiveness, safety, and engagement.
• Dentsu carried out Microsoft Azure AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI Providers to construct a predictive analytics copilot that helps media insights, reducing evaluation time by 80% and total time to perception by 90%.
• Kantar modernized its world IT infrastructure utilizing Microsoft 365 Copilot to streamline endpoint administration, cut back pricey guide processes, and enhance worker productiveness—in the end enhancing consumer outcomes by means of improved operational effectivity.
• The Worldwide Tennis Federation (ITF) reworked match-day technique and training effectiveness by deploying Microsoft Azure Databricks, Azure SQL Database, Floor gadgets, and Azure Knowledge Lake to ship real-time efficiency insights by means of the Billie Jean King Cup Match Insights app, empowering athletes and coaches with data-driven selections.

Empowering content material creators

For media and leisure, Microsoft Copilot is an clever assistant creators have all the time wanted—from answering easy information inquiries to supporting superior manufacturing work that was as soon as out of attain. By placing AI along with each editor, producer, and storyteller, we’re not simply making processes quicker—we’re increasing what’s attainable. Which means extra capability for creativity, stronger content material lifecycles, and measurable enterprise impression at each stage.

• WPP’s T&Pm company revolutionized artistic workflows through the use of Microsoft Azure OpenAI and Sora to quickly prototype and scale customized video content material—enabling quicker manufacturing, deeper experimentation, and extra emotionally resonant storytelling throughout world campaigns.
• Penguin Random Home (a subsidiary of Bertelsmann), the world’s largest e-book writer, partnered with Microsoft to deal with the European Union Accessibility Act and promote inclusivity by automating the era of high-quality, context-aware different textual content for photos in over 160,000 eBooks. Utilizing Azure and Azure AI Foundry, the answer extracts picture context from digital books and generates descriptive captions, dramatically decreasing guide effort whereas guaranteeing compliance. The initiative not solely enhances accessibility for visually impaired readers but additionally delivers projected annual financial savings of USD1.5 to 1.8 million.

“Our collaboration with Microsoft’s Business Options Engineering workforce has enabled us to fulfill the necessities of the EU Accessibility Act and proceed our quest to make accessible content material for all our readers. Constructing on the Azure platform allowed us to make the most of out-of-the-box safety and performance to craft a cheap answer that pulled collectively environment friendly compute capabilities alongside AI Foundry. Our capacity to construct shortly in a managed atmosphere will permit us to ship compliant and accessible content material in a fraction of the time and price.”

—Chris Hart, Vice President at Penguin Random Home

• By integrating options like Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service, Dentsu is accelerating each stage of the artistic cycle—from brainstorming and briefing to marketing campaign execution and efficiency evaluation. Idea artwork and marketing campaign property that after took weeks can now be produced in days and even hours, assembly the rising expectations of shoppers for pace and high quality. The truth is, 62% of their surveyed customers reported a noticeable enchancment within the high quality of content material created with Microsoft 365 Copilot, whereas groups are gaining deeper insights into marketing campaign efficiency and viewers segmentation.¹

“Copilot helps shut the loop after a marketing campaign goes reside, enabling creators to shortly decide what’s working and why—making it an indispensable accomplice for contemporary artistic groups” 

—Kate Slade, Head of Accountable AI, Dentsu

• HyperCinema transforms reside leisure through the use of Azure OpenAI to generate hyper customized, real-time storytelling experiences that immerse visitors in model worlds—scaling effortlessly throughout exhibitions, theme parks, and retail venues.
• Pixar Animation Studios democratized high-fidelity rendering for world creators by leveraging Microsoft Azure HPC, enabling anybody—from college students to professionals—to take part in its RenderMan® Problem with scalable cloud compute energy.

• Premier League is redefining the fan expertise with its new fan-facing digital platforms that leverage Microsoft’s cloud and AI applied sciences to usher in a brand new period of clever and intuitive fan experiences. This partnership marks probably the most vital technological transformations within the league’s historical past, anchored round 4 key areas: fan engagement, match insights and evaluation, cloud transformation, and organizational productiveness. Leveraging Azure AI Foundry and OpenAI, the partnership will ship real-time match information, interactive evaluation, and safe media experiences—setting a brand new commonplace for world sports activities know-how.
• Main League Soccer (MLS) reworked its fan engagement technique by integrating Microsoft Azure AI into its revamped league app, delivering real-time match insights, customized content material, and interactive options by means of the brand new Sidekick companion expertise. Sidekick makes use of agentic AI to anticipate fan wants—delivering real-time match insights and customized content material precisely when followers need it. Co-developed with Microsoft and OpenAI, Sidekick adapts to every person, testing and refining engagement to maximise relevance for hundreds of thousands of followers.
• The NBA reworked its world fan engagement and operational agility by migrating to Microsoft Azure and Azure OpenAI Service, enabling real-time information insights, scalable AI innovation, enhanced safety, and customized digital experiences throughout its ecosystem.
• Artwork Basel reworked world artwork honest experiences by deploying Microsoft Azure AI Foundry and Copilot to energy a safe, real-time companion app that bridges bodily and digital worlds, enabling immediate paintings recognition, customized steering, and deeper customer engagement throughout 5 worldwide cities.
• Fukuoka SoftBank HAWKS revolutionizes the stadium expertise by deploying a lifelike AI avatar of retired star Ryota Igarashi—powered by Microsoft Azure AI—to have interaction followers in actual time, driving full-season suite sellouts and redefining digital fan interplay. The AI avatar, skilled to match Igarashi’s intonation, pace, and lip sync, seems on a big show and communicates in actual time, answering questions from customers, giving participant info, commenting on the present sport, and cheering for the SoftBank HAWKS.
• Common Locations & Experiences, a division of Comcast, is remodeling theme park operations and visitor experiences by leveraging Microsoft Azure and Azure Knowledge Explorer to ship real-time information insights, improve personalization, and streamline digital innovation throughout its world points of interest.

AI-powered Microsoft platform permits ecosystem co-innovation

Microsoft provides complete cloud and AI options that allow media and leisure companies to enhance effectivity, ship customized and interesting experiences, and unlock new income. As platform-first firm, we additionally empower our accomplice ecosystem with AI-platform, Azure cloud infrastructure, and strong instruments to increase Microsoft provides or construct industry-specific options that drive actual enterprise impression. Uncover how a few of our main companions are shaping the way forward for media and leisure:

• Adobe Expertise Cloud and Dynamics 365 combine seamlessly with Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing AI-powered advertising straight into Outlook, Microsoft Groups, and Phrase. Media groups can now create campaigns, handle approvals, and monitor efficiency—all inside acquainted workflows, accelerating time-to-market and scaling viewers engagement.
• MediaKind and DAZN delivered the FIFA Membership World Cup 2025 globally utilizing Azure’s cloud-native infrastructure, enabling dynamic scaling and broadcast-quality streaming for hundreds of thousands of followers.
• Help Companions’ Catalyst, constructed on Azure, empowers retailers to automate video manufacturing with brand-trained AI brokers—reducing prices and delivering content material quicker throughout each channel.
• SOUTHWORKS, MediaKind, and Microsoft Safety launched the primary Media Safety Copilot, defending streaming workflows and guaranteeing content material safety at each stage.
• Cognizant helps media organizations modernize enterprise processes by deploying Dynamics 365 into core workflows, enabling them to take full benefit of Microsoft’s AI platform to unlock effectivity and perception.
• UIC Digital is leveraging our whole AI know-how stack to automate reside broadcasts, full with real-time language translation and customized experiences that convey occasions nearer to audiences all over the place.
• At IBC, IPV is unveiling Curator’s subsequent evolution, powered by Azure Content material Understanding and Microsoft Foundry APIs for superior picture and video era.

From advertising and sports activities to safety and artistic workflows, Microsoft and its accomplice ecosystem are redefining what’s attainable—serving to media and leisure firms invent the way forward for storytelling with AI.

Be part of the motion of Frontier Agency

The way forward for media and leisure is being written as we speak by organizations that mix human creativity with AI-powered intelligence. Be part of the motion. Be part of us at IBC 2025, attend classes, take a look at demos, and meet with Microsoft executives who’re accelerating frontier creativity with AI. Take a look at this doc for particulars of Microsoft presence at IBC2025.

¹ An upcoming commissioned Whole Financial Influence™ examine of Microsoft’s Gen AI and Agentic AI Options for media and leisure organizations performed by Forrester Consulting, 2025.

Silvia Candiani

Vice President WW Telecommunications, Media and Gaming, Microsoft

Silvia Candiani leads Microsoft’s Worldwide Telecommunications, Media and Gaming Business, overseeing {industry} technique, go-to-market plan, ecosystem development, and answer growth. Silvia was previously CEO of Microsoft Italy, targeted on accelerating digital transformation. Previous to Microsoft, Silvia led Client Advertising and marketing for Vodafone in Italy and was beforehand a guide at McKinsey within the Media and Telecommunication industries. She has a BA from Bocconi College and an MBA from INSEAD. Silvia can also be a member of the Bocconi College Alumni Advisory Board and Lavazza Group.

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