Snowflake Inc. is expanding its partnership with Microsoft Corp. to simplify joint customers’ artificial intelligence projects.

The expanded partnership was announced at Snowflake Summit 2023, which kicked off today in Las Vegas. 

A core focus of the collaboration is Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service. It provides cloud-based versions of OpenAI LP’s machine learning models, including GPT-4. The service also offers customization options that enable companies to adapt the models to their requirements. 

As part of their expanded partnership, Snowflake and Microsoft are working on an integration that will make it easier to use Azure OpenAI Service with records stored in the former company’s cloud data platform. There are a number of ways enterprises can use such records in their AI projects.

A company that uses Snowflake to store sales logs, for example, could leverage a language model from Azure OpenAI Service to automatically determine which of its products are most popular. Alternatively, data stored in Snowflake can be used to train neural networks. Microsoft recently updated Azure OpenAI Service with a new tool, Azure AI Studio, that allows companies to train OpenAI models on custom datasets. 

Snowflake is also making it easier to use its platform with another Azure machine learning service called Azure ML. It’s a set of tools that companies can use to build custom neural networks. Azure ML eases tasks such creating training data, inputting the data into AI models and monitoring neural networks for accuracy issues after they’re deployed.

The expanded partnership also extends beyond Microsoft’s AI service. Snowflake plans to roll out new or improved integrations for several other components of the tech giant’s cloud portfolio. 

The first two products on the list are Power Automate and Power Apps, two low-code development tools. The former service allows business users to create simple software workflows for automating specific tasks, such as copying data between two systems. Power Apps has a similar focus, but it enables users to create entire applications rather than only specialized workflows. 

Another focus of Snowflake’s expanded partnership is Azure Data Factory, an extract/transform/load or ETL data service that can be used to move data between applications. Companies can use it for, among other tasks, streaming business records to their Snowflake-based analytics environments. The expanded partnership will also prioritize Microsoft’s Azure Purview data governance tool and Power BI business intelligence platform. 

“Snowflake’s partnership with Microsoft is evolving and focused on improving our field collaboration to help our customers enter the next wave of generative AI,” said Snowflake Chief Revenue Officer Chris Degnan. “Our integrations with Microsoft’s generative AI and LLM services will enable joint customers to leverage the latest AI models and frameworks, enhancing the productivity of developers.”

In addition to enhancing their product integrations, the companies plan to collaborate more closely on customer acquisition initiatives. Snowflake detailed today that its expanded partnership with Microsoft will “significantly elevate” joint go-to-market programs.

Image: Snowflake