09-03-2018, 02:24 PM
How government is transforming with AI – part 3
<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/how-government-is-transforming-with-ai-part-3.jpg" width="760" height="400" title="" alt="" /></div><div><p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-11767 aligncenter" src="http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/how-government-is-transforming-with-ai-part-3.jpg" alt="" width="760" height="400" /></p>
<p>In our last two blogs in this series, we discussed how governments are using <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/bot-service/">digital assistants</a>—often with cognitive services such as language translation built in—to engage their community in more accessible ways and support their teams.</p>
<p>Another way that governments are using emerging technologies such as <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/empowering-innovation?&ocid=AID_SEM_0bdfhrYy">artificial intelligence (AI)</a> and the <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-of-things/intelligentedge">Internet of Things (IoT)</a> is to help them predict needs and anticipate issues so they can prepare accordingly.</p>
<p>For example, to keep Alaska’s highways open and safe during severe winter weather, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities uses the <a href="https://fathym.com/">Fathym</a> <a href="http://weathercloud.co/">WeatherCloud</a> solution and <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/overview/iot/">Microsoft Azure IoT technologies</a> to make better, hyper-local decisions about deploying road crews. Being able to make more informed decisions with better data is helping Alaska save lives and significantly reduce road maintenance costs.</p>
<p>“The information we get from WeatherCloud puts us miles ahead in creating accurate forecasts,” says Daniel Schacher, Maintenance Superintendent at the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, in <a href="https://customers.microsoft.com/en-US/story/alaskadotpf-government-azure-iot">this article</a>. “We’ve become much more proactive in our responses.”</p>
<p>Read <a href="https://customers.microsoft.com/en-US/story/alaskadotpf-government-azure-iot">“<u>How Alaska outsmarts Mother Nature in the cloud” </u></a>to learn about what led Alaska to deploy the system, how it works, and the way it’s helping the state keep residents safer and save hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in resource usage.</p>
<p>Another example of keeping vital infrastructures up and running with insight from AI and IoT solutions comes from our partner <u><a href="https://www.esmartsystems.com/">eSmart Systems</a></u>. With its Connected Drone portfolio, utilities can send smart drones out on beyond-line-of-sight missions to inspect power lines and pinpoint faults and weaknesses.</p>
<p>Utilities are using Connected Drones to stay ahead of power grid maintenance issues and help them prevent or reduce blackouts in the communities they serve. And by using drones to inspect lines, which can be dangerous for personnel, they can keep their teams safer.</p>
<p>Utilities are also using Connected Drones to get power back up and running after a disaster, as was the case in Florida after Hurricane Irma. Watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4fLEI4m9Us&feature=youtu.be">this video</a> to see how the drones helped to assess the damage quickly—inspecting hazardous areas so human inspectors wouldn’t have to be put in harm’s way. With insight from the Connected Drones, the utility company was able to know not only precisely where repairs were required, but also which crew and equipment were needed to get power restored as quickly as possible in the affected communities.</p>
<p>Those are just a few examples of how governments can gain insight with AI and IoT that can help them keep the infrastructures their citizens rely on up and running. To learn about more vertical and horizontal areas where your government agency can benefit from AI, <u><a href="https://info.microsoft.com/Where_You_Should_Use_Artificial_Intelligence_and_Why-Registration.html">read the Gartner report: “Where you should use artificial intelligence—and why.”</a></u> It provides research on the potential of various use cases and offers recommendations on the most effective strategies for applying AI.</p>
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<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/how-government-is-transforming-with-ai-part-3.jpg" width="760" height="400" title="" alt="" /></div><div><p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-11767 aligncenter" src="http://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/how-government-is-transforming-with-ai-part-3.jpg" alt="" width="760" height="400" /></p>
<p>In our last two blogs in this series, we discussed how governments are using <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/bot-service/">digital assistants</a>—often with cognitive services such as language translation built in—to engage their community in more accessible ways and support their teams.</p>
<p>Another way that governments are using emerging technologies such as <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/empowering-innovation?&ocid=AID_SEM_0bdfhrYy">artificial intelligence (AI)</a> and the <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-of-things/intelligentedge">Internet of Things (IoT)</a> is to help them predict needs and anticipate issues so they can prepare accordingly.</p>
<p>For example, to keep Alaska’s highways open and safe during severe winter weather, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities uses the <a href="https://fathym.com/">Fathym</a> <a href="http://weathercloud.co/">WeatherCloud</a> solution and <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/overview/iot/">Microsoft Azure IoT technologies</a> to make better, hyper-local decisions about deploying road crews. Being able to make more informed decisions with better data is helping Alaska save lives and significantly reduce road maintenance costs.</p>
<p>“The information we get from WeatherCloud puts us miles ahead in creating accurate forecasts,” says Daniel Schacher, Maintenance Superintendent at the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, in <a href="https://customers.microsoft.com/en-US/story/alaskadotpf-government-azure-iot">this article</a>. “We’ve become much more proactive in our responses.”</p>
<p>Read <a href="https://customers.microsoft.com/en-US/story/alaskadotpf-government-azure-iot">“<u>How Alaska outsmarts Mother Nature in the cloud” </u></a>to learn about what led Alaska to deploy the system, how it works, and the way it’s helping the state keep residents safer and save hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in resource usage.</p>
<p>Another example of keeping vital infrastructures up and running with insight from AI and IoT solutions comes from our partner <u><a href="https://www.esmartsystems.com/">eSmart Systems</a></u>. With its Connected Drone portfolio, utilities can send smart drones out on beyond-line-of-sight missions to inspect power lines and pinpoint faults and weaknesses.</p>
<p>Utilities are using Connected Drones to stay ahead of power grid maintenance issues and help them prevent or reduce blackouts in the communities they serve. And by using drones to inspect lines, which can be dangerous for personnel, they can keep their teams safer.</p>
<p>Utilities are also using Connected Drones to get power back up and running after a disaster, as was the case in Florida after Hurricane Irma. Watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4fLEI4m9Us&feature=youtu.be">this video</a> to see how the drones helped to assess the damage quickly—inspecting hazardous areas so human inspectors wouldn’t have to be put in harm’s way. With insight from the Connected Drones, the utility company was able to know not only precisely where repairs were required, but also which crew and equipment were needed to get power restored as quickly as possible in the affected communities.</p>
<p>Those are just a few examples of how governments can gain insight with AI and IoT that can help them keep the infrastructures their citizens rely on up and running. To learn about more vertical and horizontal areas where your government agency can benefit from AI, <u><a href="https://info.microsoft.com/Where_You_Should_Use_Artificial_Intelligence_and_Why-Registration.html">read the Gartner report: “Where you should use artificial intelligence—and why.”</a></u> It provides research on the potential of various use cases and offers recommendations on the most effective strategies for applying AI.</p>
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