Strategic partnership for next-gen solutions built on Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Fabric, and Microsoft Teams and Moody’s proprietary data to empower financial services, capital markets, and more
NEW YORK and REDMOND, Wash. – June 29, 2023 – Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) today announced a new strategic partnership to deliver next-generation data, analytics, research, collaboration and risk solutions for financial services and global knowledge workers. Built on a combination of Moody’s robust data and analytical capabilities and the power and scale of Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, the partnership creates innovative offerings that enhance insights into corporate intelligence and risk assessment, powered by Microsoft AI and anchored by Moody’s proprietary data, analytics, and research.
Strategic Partnership Highlights
- Microsoft and Moody’s are co-creating new products and services for research and risk assessment, built on Azure OpenAI Service for enhanced data and risk management.
- “Moody’s CoPilot,” an internal copilot tool, is now deployed to Moody’s 14,000 global employees, and will combine Moody’s proprietary data, analytics and research with the latest large language models (LLMs) and Microsoft’s world-class generative AI technology to drive firm-wide innovation and enhance employee productivity in a safe and secure digital sandbox.
- Moody’s is adopting Microsoft Teams to provide a new platform for its knowledge workers and customers that will enhance collaboration, productivity, and communication, while maintaining the highest compliance standards.
- For internal use and co-innovations, Microsoft is leveraging Moody’s broad range of solutions, including Moody’s database – one of the world’s most powerful databases on companies – with applications that include third-party reference data, counterparty risk assessment, and supply chain management.
- Microsoft and Moody’s will collaborate on the opportunity to deliver data to their shared customers through , a new analytics platform for end-to-end data management.
- Moody’s commits to using Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to power its growing suite of generative AI capabilities and cloud-based applications.
Rob Fauber, president and chief executive officer of Moody’s Corporation, said, “Generative AI represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enhance how companies navigate the ever-evolving world of . By combining Microsoft’s cutting-edge AI capabilities with our proprietary data, research and analytics, Moody’s is positioned to lead the next generation of risk analysis, helping our customers make better decisions by unlocking deeper, more integrated, and unmatched perspectives on risk. We have activated our 14,000 global employees to drive unprecedented experimentation and ignite new innovations across our suite of products and solutions. We are excited to partner with Microsoft to set the standard for how generative AI will pioneer new advancements across our industry.”
Unlocking Advancements in Integrated Risk Analysis
A new copilot tool for customers, “Moody’s Research Assistant” will unlock the full potential of Moody’s resources and solutions to provide customers with a multifaceted view of risk. Built on Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and available through multiple channels, including Microsoft Teams, Moody’s Research Assistant will quickly compile and summarize complex information from multiple data sources, all in a safe and secure environment that protects private and proprietary information. Among its many anticipated uses will be the ability to generate custom, detailed analyses of a company or sector by seamlessly combining data from across multiple dimensions – such as firmographic data, credit indicators, economic forecasts, and risk and reputational profiles – to provide fast, contextual and informative answers based on the integration of expansive LLMs and Moody’s industry-leading data, analytics and research.
Bill Borden, corporate vice president of worldwide financial services at Microsoft said, “Our partnership will bring together world-class insights from Moody’s with the capabilities, trust and breadth of Microsoft Cloud – including Azure OpenAI Service, Fabric and Teams – to enable next-gen solutions that will unlock powerful business intelligence and transform productivity and collaboration. We look forward to the new opportunities and value this will bring to employees and firms across banking, capital markets and insurance as well as those in other industries such as manufacturing, telecommunications, transportation and utilities.”
Enhancing Moody’s Collaboration and Productivity through Microsoft Teams
Additionally, through the partnership, Moody’s will leverage Microsoft Teams to create a new collaboration, productivity and communication platform for its knowledge workers and customers. With the integration of Moody’s copilot tools, Teams will automate and streamline manual workflows, provide more efficient access to data and content, and synthesize and summarize information from across multiple data sets, resulting in better insights, improved productivity and compliance, and enhanced employee and customer experiences.
Collaborating to Enhance the New Microsoft Fabric
Microsoft and Moody’s will collaborate on the opportunity to deliver data to their shared customers through Microsoft Fabric, a new end-to-end data analytics platform. Microsoft Fabric includes technologies like Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Data Factory, and Power BI in a single unified product, allowing data engineers opportunity to easily connect and curate data from multiple sources, eliminating sprawl, while better governing data across the entire organization.
ABOUT MOODY’S CORPORATION
Moody’s (NYSE: MCO) is a global integrated risk assessment firm that empowers organizations to make better decisions. Its data, analytical solutions and insights help decision-makers identify opportunities and manage the risks of doing business with others. We believe that greater transparency, more informed decisions, and fair access to information open the door to shared progress. With approximately 14,000 employees in more than 40 countries, Moody’s combines international presence with local expertise and over a century of experience in financial markets.
ABOUT MICROSOFT
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @Microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
“SAFE HARBOR” STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995
Certain statements contained in this release are forward-looking statements and are based on future expectations, plans and prospects for Moody’s business and operations that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Such statements involve estimates, projections, goals, forecasts, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those contemplated, expressed, projected, anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. Stockholders and investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements and other information in this release are made as of the date hereof, and Moody’s undertakes no obligation (nor does it intend) to publicly supplement, update or revise such statements on a going-forward basis, whether as a result of subsequent developments, changed expectations or otherwise, except as required by applicable law or regulation. In connection with the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Moody’s is identifying certain factors that could cause actual results to differ, perhaps materially, from those indicated by these forward-looking statements. Those factors, risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the impact of current economic conditions, including capital market disruptions, inflation and related monetary policy actions by governments in response to inflation, on worldwide credit markets and on economic activity, including on the volume of mergers and acquisitions, and their effects on the volume of debt and other securities issued in domestic and/or global capital markets; the uncertain effectiveness and possible collateral consequences of U.S. and foreign government initiatives and monetary policy to respond to the current economic climate, including instability of financial institutions, credit quality concerns, and other potential impacts of volatility in financial and credit markets; the global impact of the Russia – Ukraine military conflict on volatility in world financial markets, on general economic conditions and GDP in the U.S. and worldwide, on global relations and on the Company’s own operations and personnel; other matters that could affect the volume of debt and other securities issued in domestic and/or global capital markets, including regulation, increased utilization of technologies that have the potential to intensify competition and accelerate disruption and disintermediation in the financial services industry, as well as the number of issuances of securities without ratings or securities which are rated or evaluated by non-traditional parties; the level of merger and acquisition activity in the U.S. and abroad; the uncertain effectiveness and possible collateral consequences of U.S. and foreign government actions affecting credit markets, international trade and economic policy, including those related to tariffs, tax agreements and trade barriers; the impact of MIS’s withdrawal of its credit ratings on countries or entities within countries and of Moody’s no longer conducting commercial operations in countries where political instability warrants such action; concerns in the marketplace affecting our credibility or otherwise affecting market perceptions of the integrity or utility of independent credit agency ratings; the introduction of competing products or technologies by other companies; pricing pressure from competitors and/or customers; the level of success of new product development and global expansion; the impact of regulation as an NRSRO, the potential for new U.S., state and local legislation and regulations; the potential for increased competition and regulation in the EU and other foreign jurisdictions; exposure to litigation related to our rating opinions, as well as any other litigation, government and regulatory proceedings, investigations and inquiries to which Moody’s may be subject from time to time; provisions in U.S. legislation modifying the pleading standards and EU regulations modifying the liability standards applicable to credit rating agencies in a manner adverse to credit rating agencies; provisions of EU regulations imposing additional procedural and substantive requirements on the pricing of services and the expansion of supervisory remit to include non-EU ratings used for regulatory purposes; uncertainty regarding the future relationship between the U.S. and China; the possible loss of key employees and the impact of the global labor environment; failures or malfunctions of our operations and infrastructure; any vulnerabilities to cyber threats or other cybersecurity concerns; the timing and effectiveness of our restructuring programs, such as the 2022 – 2023 Geolocation Restructuring Program; currency and foreign exchange volatility; the outcome of any review by controlling tax authorities of Moody’s global tax planning initiatives; exposure to potential criminal sanctions or civil remedies if Moody’s fails to comply with foreign and U.S. laws and regulations that are applicable in the jurisdictions in which Moody’s operates, including data protection and privacy laws, sanctions laws, anti-corruption laws, and local laws prohibiting corrupt payments to government officials; the impact of mergers, acquisitions, such as our acquisition of RMS, or other business combinations and the ability of Moody’s to successfully integrate acquired businesses; the level of future cash flows; the levels of capital investments; and a decline in the demand for credit risk management tools by financial institutions. These factors, risks and uncertainties as well as other risks and uncertainties that could cause Moody’s actual results to differ materially from those contemplated, expressed, projected, anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements are described in greater detail under “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of Moody’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, and in other filings made by the Company from time to time with the SEC or in materials incorporated herein or therein. Stockholders and investors are cautioned that the occurrence of any of these factors, risks and uncertainties may cause the Company’s actual results to differ materially from those contemplated, expressed, projected, anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements, which could have a material and adverse effect on the Company’s business, results of operations and financial condition. New factors may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict new factors, nor can the Company assess the potential effect of any new factors on it. Forward-looking and other statements in this document may also address our corporate responsibility progress, plans, and goals (including sustainability and environmental matters), and the inclusion of such statements is not an indication that these contents are necessarily material to investors or required to be disclosed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, historical, current, and forward-looking sustainability-related statements may be based on standards for measuring progress that are still developing, internal controls and processes that continue to evolve, and assumptions that are subject to change in the future.
