Microsoft launches AI-focused professional services business with $2.5B investment
Microsoft Corp. has formed a new business that will help organizations build and manage artificial intelligence applications.
The Microsoft Frontier Company, as the venture is called, launched today with an initial $2.5 billion investment from the tech giant. It’s staffed by 6,000 “industry and engineering experts.” The group is led by Microsoft Corp. executive Rodrigo Kede Lima, who was previously the president of Microsoft Asia.
The unit will speed up enterprise customers’ AI projects by sending forward-deployed engineers, or FDEs, to their offices. The FDEs will help clients’ in-house development teams build custom AI applications. They will use FinOps, a set of technology-focused financial analysis methods, to determine their projects’ return on investment.
The Microsoft Frontier Company’s engineers will also help customers “continuously improve AI systems.” Some software teams fine-tune their large language models on a regular basis to address changes in user request patterns. Without such adjustments, an LLM can experience a decrease in output quality.
