- Hello Lamp Post came
from exploring the idea of smart cities.
But one thing that we
were really interested in,
is how do we bring humans
into that conversation?
- Hello Lamp Post makes any
place or space interactive.
We do that by allowing people
to have chat interactions
with inanimate objects on the street.
So we're working with
people like councils,
shopping mall operators, airports,
and even places like museums.
And really what we're doing
is enabling easier access
to local information and
allowing decision-makers
to make more efficient decisions.
- So using Azure has really transformed
what we're able to do.
It means, that now and in the future,
we can scale from, you know,
several hundred thousand
users to millions of users,
but it also means we've got access
to a wider suite of tools.
Some of their Machine Learning,
Natural Language Processing,
and QnA Maker tools.
- A great example of our work
is the Environment Agency.
They have a real issue gathering feedback
from the communities they
work with in an efficient way.
- The Environment Agency
discovered Hello Lamp Post
for the first time, right at
the start of the pandemic,
where a lot of our in-person
outreach work was stopped
and Hello Lamp Post actually offered
the perfect solution for us.
Exmouth has had a really long
history of tidal flooding.
Community engagement is
a really important part
of our flood defense work.
Since the first couple
of signs were installed,
we've had over 250 separate
customer interactions with them
and almost a thousand
across Devon and Cornwall,
which is really good outreach for us.
- Ultimately, what that means is,
communities are more
informed about flood risk
and they're also better
prepared for when events occur.
- As we work a lot
with local governments
and local authorities,
seeing the Azure badge and
knowing that we're working
through the Azure in
Microsoft suite of tools
really gives them confidence.
- Microsoft has really
enabled us to graduate
our technical capabilities
with the Azure platform.
We currently live in three continents,
working with a multitude
of countries and sectors.
It's underpinning a lot
of the user experience
and enabling more AI capabilities,
but more so as we get
hundreds of thousands
of interactions happening.
We want to help every community
in every corner of the world,
bring places and people closer together.
(upbeat music)