With a decade of experience in pharmaceutical cold chain logistics, Swiss firm SkyCell is collaborating with Microsoft to integrate SkyMind, its AI-powered supply chain offering, with Teams and Copilot based on the Azure OpenAI service.

Every year, more than $35bn of pharmaceutical products are lost in global supply chains, with millions of person-hours spent by freight forwarders, pharma companies and other stakeholders coordinating recovery efforts.

This collaboration aims to help pharmaceutical supply-chain professionals seamlessly access real-time shipment data, predictive insights and automated alerts within their existing Microsoft ecosystem, enhancing efficiency, compliance and decision-making.

With this collaboration, SkyCell leverages Microsoft’s ecosystem to enhance pharmaceutical monitoring, helping pharmaceutical companies gain full visibility and control over their supply chain using Azure AI Foundry.

To eliminate endless email chains, SkyCell’s approach leverages Microsoft Teams, as well as KAI, SkyCell’s intelligent chatbot built on Azure AI Foundry.

KAI continuously monitors shipments, assesses risks and suggests options in real time to all the relevant users. All stakeholders can quickly access the data they need and critical insights can be shared with the relevant parties easily, avoiding long email chains and data siloes. This approach makes communication seamless and eliminates the waiting for information problem, empowering teams to act faster and more efficiently.

Unavailable or slow-moving information is one of the main causes of product loss in pharma shipments and, with the rise of personalised medicine and the increase in ecommerce for pharma, that risk is growing.

“SkyCell’s intelligent chatbot, KAI, along with Microsoft’s Teams and Copilot, are revolutionising the pharmaceutical logistics industry by ensuring real-time monitoring, risk assessment and seamless communication,” said Richard Ettl, CEO of SkyCell. “This collaboration is crucial for transforming data into actionable insights, thus preventing product loss and enhancing efficiency in the supply chain.”

The integration of SkyMind within Microsoft’s ecosystem allows users to monitor shipments in real time, receive AI-powered alerts and recommendations on how to resolve potential risks, and streamline product release through automated reporting and ERP integration.

Combined with SkyCell’s round-the-clock AI-enabled control tower and dedicated support team, this partnership enables proactive intervention to safeguard product integrity. With KAI identifying risks before they escalate, pharmaceutical companies can massively speed up decision-making, reducing disruptions, cutting waste and ensuring life-changing treatments reach patients safely and on time.

“Pharma companies already have established platforms and workflows that they use to manage their operations efficiently,” said Nico Ros, CTO of SkyCell. “We understand this, which is why our collaboration with Microsoft ensures that pharma companies and supply chain teams can leverage SkyMind’s power directly within Microsoft Teams and Copilot.”

Elena González-Blanco García, technical director at Microsoft (www.microsoft.com), added: “By harnessing the transformative power of AI through Microsoft Azure OpenAI, SkyCell is advancing pharmaceutical logistics to create safer, more efficient supply chains. This approach will ensure that vital treatments reach patients swiftly and securely, ultimately driving impactful progress in the industry.”

SkyCell (www.skycell.ch) is already monitoring five million shipments per year and now continues to drive innovation in pharma logistics. This collaboration with Microsoft is accelerating the digitalisation of the pharma industry and supporting pharma companies in building more resilient, intelligent and sustainable supply chains.