Microsoft’s AI Tour didn’t make a stop in Belgium this year, but CEO Satya Nadella was present in Amsterdam.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella visited Amsterdam for the Microsoft AI Tour and announced new sovereign cloud solutions aimed at giving customers in Europe more control over their data. He also emphasized how AI is making a concrete impact on Dutch organizations.
New Cloud Services for European Customers
During his keynote in Amsterdam, Nadella announced a series of Microsoft Sovereign Cloud solutions. These solutions are designed to provide organizations in Europe with more autonomy and security when using cloud technology. They include Data Guardian, External Key Management, Regulated Environment Management, and Microsoft 365 Local. These services give European customers the ability to manage their data within public or private clouds without having to migrate to separate data centers.
The sovereign cloud services are available to all European customers. Nadella emphasized that this expansion is particularly important for digital resilience in the current geopolitical context. According to him, the technology must provide room for continued innovation. The European Commission thought the same when it released its digital sovereignty strategy of fifteen pages. It contained many plans, but few actions to enforce those plans. Perhaps it’s even impossible to completely decouple Europe from the US.
Dutch Practical Examples with AI
Nadella also visited several Dutch organizations that are already using AI. For example, Albert Heijn uses AI assistant Steijn to help customers with their meal choices. UMC Utrecht and ChipSoft demonstrate how AI reduces administrative burden by automatically generating medical discharge letters. HEINEKEN developed an internal AI platform that allows development teams to create digital products faster and more securely. The company works with GitHub Copilot and Microsoft Azure DevOps, which has significantly reduced time-to-market.