Microsoft’s newest AI Co-Innovation Lab, the company’s first dedicated to advanced manufacturing, officially opened Wednesday evening at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
This is Microsoft’s fifth AI Co-Innovation Lab. The company has also built facilities in Japan, Germany, Uruguay and California.
Wisconsin’s AI Co-Innovation Lab, housed within the
Connected Systems Institute at UWM, was announced at the same time Microsoft unveiled
a $3.3 billion investment to build a data center campus in Mount Pleasant.
The tech giant partnered with
WEDC,
TitletownTech, and UWM to make the lab a reality.
“The lab brings a startup mindset to industry by moving fast, building with purpose and focusing on outcomes,” said
Craig Dickman, managing partner at TitletownTech. “As AI becomes foundational to every sector, building fluency is critical not just for innovation but for staying competitive.”
Microsoft’s Co-Innovation Lab gives companies a space to build, develop, prototype and test their AI-centered solutions. Each company’s engineering team works directly with Microsoft experts who are knowledgeable about AI and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.
Microsoft has committed to working with 270 Wisconsin companies, including 135 manufacturers by 2030.
Already, several local companies have turned to the AI Co-Innovation Lab to help find solutions for their unique challenges.
Milwaukee-based logistics company
Renaissant used the lab to develop an AI-powered solution to manage truck drivers. Renaissant, which is a TitletownTech portfolio company, provides its customers with an automated logistics software.
Renaissant’s clients wanted a way to process drivers more efficiently, so the company set out to develop a tool that could use verbal commands to help speed up the process of checking in at a shipping yard.
"We did a lot of planning with Microsoft around the technology stack that we were going to use and how it's going to be architected," said
Tom Dean, CEO of Renaissant. "Then we came into the lab, and within one day, we accomplished what we'd set out to do in a week."
The AI tool is still being piloted with a few of Renaissant’s clients, with plans for full-scale implementation in the coming months.
Scaling profitably
Milwaukee-based
Regal Rexnord already has a technology stack that relies heavily on Microsoft programs. As it looked to scale up the use of its Perceptiv platform, which is used to monitor the existing condition of manufacturing equipment, Regal Rexnord once again looked to Microsoft for help.
"We had a four-day engagement that delivered trained models across three or four different failure modes of our products that would have taken us months," said
Robert Federer, vice president and general manager at Regal Rexnord. “That speed to value was a big part in allowing us to scale our services profitably.”
Federer says the company’s custom-built AI solution is currently “between sandbox and pushing it to production.”
A big part of the AI Co-Innovation Lab’s ability to provide manufacturers with solutions at such a rapid pace is a preparation period that can take several weeks.
In the case of Regal Rexnord, 10 to 12 weeks was spent making sure a clear problem had been identified, and that a solution could be scalable.
"We need a clear definition of what we're solving for rooted in true business value," said
Kathryn Clouse, director of innovation at TitletownTech. "So, we're asking: can this help you increase top line? Can this help you decrease or increase bottom line?"
Each business that participates in the program keeps its own intellectual property, so the team at the AI Co-Innovation Lab must make sure the proper permission settings are in place for the technology they’re using.
Depending on the need, the lab supports both full prototyping sprints, where teams build working solutions using Microsoft’s cloud and AI technologies, and design sessions that focus on solution architecture and feasibility.
"This is the first Microsoft AI Co-Innovation lab focused on manufacturing, the bedrock of this state's economy," said
Rima Alaily, corporate vice president and general counsel, infrastructure legal affairs at Microsoft. "That means Wisconsin is not just part of the AI conversation. It is actually leading it already."
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