Make Machines Smarter with Physical AI
Microsoft positions 'physical AI' as the action layer above IoT telemetry and industrial AI reasoning
“IoT helped us get telemetry and visibility into the physical world around us. Industrial AI helps us to reason over that data that we've collected, and physical AI helps us to take action against that data.”
Microsoft VP Michael McKenzie introduced a three-tier framework at Build: IoT for visibility, industrial AI for reasoning, and 'physical AI' for taking action on physical-world data. Azure IoT Hub, Azure IoT Operations, and Azure Device Registry are positioned as the connective tissue bridging IT and OT environments to enable this stack. The framing is notable for coining 'physical AI' as a distinct category, though the announcement is more architectural positioning than a net-new product launch.