The Portuguese capital was the city chosen by Microsoft to launch its new Artificial Intelligence Innovation Factory. In partnership with Accenture, Avanade – a joint venture between the consultancy and the technology company – and the Unicorn Factory (Unicorn Factory Lisboa), Microsoft will create an AI Innovation Factory in the Alvalade area of Lisbon.
The project, which is still in the construction phase, should be completed in around nine months' time, according to Lusa. The initiative was announced at the Building the Future 2024 event by Manuel Dias, CTO of Microsoft Portugal.
Microsoft wants to accelerate Artificial Intelligence in Portugal
The creation of this foundation aims to accelerate the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in public and private companies in Portugal and to make the connection to the startup ecosystem. It is also committed to designing customized plans for organizations and providing training in these digital skills.
This is a platform for inspiration and ideas, with access to demonstrations and real cases, where industry and technology experts will be facilitators in identifying digital skills;facilitators in identifying opportunities and prioritizing use cases, following the best practices in the market, supported by proven design thinking methodologies, says Microsoft.
While in the future it will be housed in the AI hub of the Unicorn Building, with around 200 square meters, until then the program will continue in Microsoft's offices in Parque das Naçcedil or in those of partners, with a program made up of three verticals: inspire and immerse, of such workshops, demonstrations and immersive experiences; vision and roadmap, of strategy sessions for designing roadmap (use cases) and adoption and scaling.
The third includes architecture design sessions to list the technical requirements of a solution, including the initial scope, rapid prototyping workshops to implement key ideas in two stages.