Microsoft AI Tour in Munich: Satya Nadella Unveils German Sovereignty Update
Munich, February 25, 2026 – The Microsoft AI Tour 2026 in Munich, one of Germany’s largest AI events, drew approximately 1,700 visitors to the Eisbach Studios. Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, alongside Agnes Heftberger, Corporate Vice President & CEO, Microsoft Germany & Austria, and other prominent figures from business and the public sector, showcased how organizations are embracing the AI era with innovative solutions. The event emphasized AI’s role in advancing Germany and Europe, from organizing patient transport with AI to accelerating patent applications and scaling German innovation globally.
Comprehensive Sovereignty Update for Germany
Nadella introduced a comprehensive sovereignty update for Germany, expanding the capabilities for customers to configure Microsoft solutions according to their specific needs and requirements. This update includes:
- Azure Local Disconnected: Critical infrastructures can now operate completely decoupled, allowing Azure governance and policy controls to be used without a cloud connection. This ensures continuity and resilience in sovereign, classified, or isolated environments.
- Microsoft 365 Local Disconnected: The advanced and secure productivity suite, M365, is now available without a cloud connection. Central collaboration tools like Exchange Server, SharePoint, and Skype-for-Business Server can be operated entirely within customers’ sovereign environments, maintaining team productivity even without cloud access.
- Foundry Local: Organizations can now bring large AI models into completely separate, sovereign environments using Foundry Local. This allows customers with high sovereignty needs to operate multimodal models locally on their own hardware within strict, sovereign boundaries, offering greater freedom in selecting models for powerful, local AI applications.
- Microsoft European Sovereignty Studio: The newly opened studio in Munich offers customers the opportunity to design sovereignty according to their ideas. They can analyze their sovereignty needs in exchange with Microsoft experts and configure a suitable architecture that aligns with both regulatory requirements and business goals.
Partnerships for Progress: Joint Innovations in the AI Age
Nadella met with representatives from numerous organizations that have already implemented advanced AI solutions. Key highlights included:
- Munich Fire Department: Microsoft and the Munich Fire Department developed an AI-powered voice bot for the integrated control center, automating the recording of non-critical patient transports. This frees up valuable resources for emergency calls, reducing waiting times for clinic staff and providing structured, complete data to specialists for final transport decisions.
- European Patent Office (EPO): The EPO is transforming its patent granting process with new AI solutions. A pilot project, successfully completed using Microsoft’s secure AI platforms, leverages Copilot models to draft oral hearing protocols, ensuring compliance with EPO standards and delivering high-quality output. The EPO is also exploring the use of “Confidential GPUs” in Azure for highly confidential patent information.
- Volkswagen Group: Microsoft 365 Copilot is an integral part of daily collaboration at Volkswagen, with AI agents and humans working together across more than 50 group entities.
- Parloa: This German startup aims to provide every customer with a personal AI agent, available 24/7. Parloa orchestrates its AI solutions in Microsoft Azure, enabling global scalability for German innovation.
- Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft: Microsoft and Fraunhofer presented initial results of their collaboration on new AI-powered applications for research. Fraunhofer showcased its first prototype of the “Research Democratization” agent, which translates scientific publications into easily understandable, multimodal communication formats, such as simplified summaries and audio overviews.
Fraunhofer’s independent scientific study on the productive use of Copilot for Microsoft 365 in research and administration shows positive results, with 80% of users willing to continue using Copilot and an estimated productivity gain of approximately 2 hours per week. The full results are expected to be published later in 2026.
More information about the Microsoft AI Tour 2026 in Munich and event photos can be found here.
Source: Microsoft Deutschland GmbH
