Kathleen Mitford

Kathleen Mitford is the Corporate Vice President of Global Industry Marketing at Microsoft. A renowned expert in the industrial and manufacturing space, Kathleen cross-collaborates with engineering, sales and Microsoft’s partner team to brainstorm and executive marketing strategies that address the needs of industry today.

Before this, Kathleen was Corporate Vice President of Azure Marketing at Microsoft. She also served as PTC’s Chief Strategy Officer, leaving a respected legacy over her fifteen-year stint at the company.

As CVP of Global Industry Marketing at Microsoft, Kathleen has been a critical voice in Microsoft’s drive to enhance its AI, data and cloud solutions. Between now and 2026 Microsoft will invest US$3.3bn to develop its state-of-the-art data centre campus in Wisconsin. 

The company also announced in April it would invest US$1.7bn into advancing AI infrastructure and new cloud in Indonesia. This is in addition to the suite of solutions that Microsoft announced at Hannover Messe earlier in June. Kathleen sat down with Manufacturing Digital to tell us more, sharing her perspective on the data-driven future of manufacturing and her accomplished career. 

What solutions did Microsoft announce at Hannover Messe? 

So we announced at Hannover Messe manufacturing data solutions in fabric and Copilot template for factory operations on Azure AI. We had over 24 different partners showcasing their technology built on the Microsoft stack at our booth. Let me tell you what gets me excited about them, starting with manufacturing data solutions in fabric.

In this space, we've been talking about digital transformation and digital thread for years, but it's oftentimes felt a little out of reach for our customers to achieve. And why is that? Because in manufacturing you have IT data and you have OT data. The IT data is typically managed by those who sit in an office space, and the OT data originates from the factory floor. What manufacturing data solutions in fabric allows you to do is to create the data context for all of your different data, no matter where it is, which is critical to be able to make sense of it.

And that's where our Copilot templates come in. Let's say I'm a frontline worker on the factory floor. A machine goes down, I see an error code and I don't know how to address it. I can use the Copilot template to discover the steps to address the error of the particular machine or asset, without having to look through manuals and lots of different data. Another reason why I get so excited about this is because we're talking about data and AI, but it's not just data and AI.

We’re taking into consideration the advancements that manufacturers and industrial customers have been making for years in moving their data to the cloud, getting their data estate in order, and implementing IoT solutions. All of the other supporting technology has reached a maturity level and customers have reached an implementation level that enables AI adoption at a pace that I have never seen in my 30-plus-year career working with customers in this space.

We also announced at Hannover Messe a new Traceability add-in feature for Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. This feature gives organisations greater supply chain resilience by allowing them to increase visibility into product genealogy throughout different steps of the supply chain.

The capability is designed to support users, meet industry-specific regulatory requirements, track sustainability and ethical supply chain goals, and gain deeper insights into how supply chain events impact product quality and customer satisfaction.

Once again I’m really excited about the announcements we made at Hannover Messe and the impact they’re set to have. The manufacturing industry has gone through many challenges over the last few years, but it's an industry that's very resilient. 

How will an Adaptive Cloud Approach Help Manufacturers? 

So first of all, when you think of adaptive cloud, the ‘adaptive’ is key. Really meaning let's adapt to where you have your data and meet customers on their journey, no matter where they are.

The adaptive cloud approach is essential to manufacturers bringing IT and IoT data together, a critical component to helping customers achieve the outcomes they're looking for. There are individual outcomes that a customer wants to advance on the factory floor and there are outcomes they'd want to achieve in engineering, supply chain and service. 

But where the true value for the company comes is when you can look across your entire value chain and have true visibility into product engineering, manufacturing and maintenance, seeing every component aspect. If you’re facing challenges, this allows you to truly identify the source. Is it a challenge in how the product was designed and do we need to make modifications to the design? Is it a challenge in the manufacturing process on the factory floor? That's where this type of approach can help you with these really hard problems.

How is Microsoft working with partners? 

Microsoft’s manufacturing industrial strategy is about embracing our partners. Hexagon is such a great partner, at Hannover Messe they participated with Microsoft at a key press briefing and it's really exciting to share continued advancements to the strategic partnership we have. They have very similar goals to Microsoft, making sure that data is readily available so there’s that collaboration across the value chain. That's why I love working with our partner ecosystem because they really want to make it easier for engineers to collaborate.

We were thrilled to share in Hexagons announcements about making their solutions available on Azure and continuing to deepen our collaboration. We’ve also been deepening our collaboration with Rockwell Automation and PTC, to generate further technological advancement and insights about industry. Microsoft and Siemens, we’ve also been partners for a very long time, for more than 35 years. They announced they’ll be delivering TeamCenter X software, which is their PLM system on Microsoft Azure. Going beyond that, they like us here at Microsoft are innovating with AI as well.

Do you believe AI will help get more people into manufacturing? 

My 8-year-old son uses AI technology. He was a child that was learning to read during COVID-19 and was struggling. At Microsoft, we have a programme called Reading Coach, available to students everywhere, where AI is used to generate a story for the child to read aloud. 

The AI captures which words they’re getting right, which words they’re getting wrong and helps them practise. My son started using this before it was beta around May last year. He went from being at the very bottom of his class for reading to the top of his class in just a three-month time frame.

The younger generation likes technology. They’re digital natives, my kids live on all of their different devices. I do think the technological innovations coming like AI are going to change the face of manufacturing and what it means to work on a factory floor. I do think that technology has the power to make manufacturing attractive for the younger generation. With the advancements we’re making to make AI accessible, this technology is going to be an important aspect of building digital skills and interest in the manufacturing environment. It means workers don’t have to be experts on everything, they can be trained faster, and they can get access to information and support faster. So that is helping to close those skill gaps and capitalise on the younger generation's enthusiasm for tech. 

And I know what this enthusiasm feels like. In the early days of the internet, my view of technology was a mix of excitement and caution. Transitioning from fashion design to the tech world in the late 1990s, I was captivated by the potential of digital innovations to revolutionise collaboration, efficiency and business practices, prompting my shift to technology for business improvement and growth. The dot-com bubble burst happened during my early twenties, and it highlighted the risks but also the opportunities for improvement in the tech industry. This experience taught me to focus on technologies with significant potential impact, a principle that has guided my career since. It was the inception of a digital transformation across borders.  

With the emergence of AI, the tech landscape has transformed again. AI's ability to automate processes, analyse data, and boost productivity opens new possibilities. However, alongside its promise, there are other factors to consider, such as advancing responsible AI practices and ensuring safety, privacy and security. Navigating these complexities requires a nuanced understanding of the capabilities of AI technology while measuring and managing potential risks.

We’ve transitioned from the era of digital transformation to the era of AI transformation, and through the evolution of technology, from PCs and the internet to IoT, the cloud, and AI, my focus has remained constant: leveraging these tools to accelerate time to value and deliver meaningful outcomes for our customers. 

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