MISO announced it will partner with Microsoft’s AI technologies to operate its markets and plan its system.
MISO said it would create a “unified data platform designed to transform how the grid is planned, operated and optimized” with Microsoft’s help. The grid operator said it will incorporate cloud computing platform Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Foundry’s generative AI technologies.
“Partnering with Microsoft allows us to harness the full power of advanced analytics, AI and cloud platforms to improve forecasting, enhance decision-making and build resilience into our operations. Ultimately, these advancements benefit our members and stakeholders,” MISO CIO and Vice President Nirav Shah said in a Jan. 6 press release.
MISO said it should be able to better predict and detect grid conditions and make faster, data-driven decisions by integrating these versions of machine learning and insights from massive datasets on the cloud. It said the move will help it make more proactive decisions during disruptions like extreme weather events and improve real-time reliability.
The RTO said it would use Microsoft Foundry to devise better grid forecasts and long-range transmission planning. MISO’s engineers and operators would use tools like Microsoft Power BI’s interactive data visuals and AI chatbot Microsoft 365 Copilot to assist in their work, it added.
MISO began using AI to influence decisions in the control room in 2024, but said over fall 2025, its AI-based risk prediction model failed to foresee the highest risk days of the season. (See “Risk Predictor not Quite There Yet,” MISO Usage, Outages Up in Fall 2025.)
MISO said the data platform should cut some of its work from “weeks to minutes” and would allow MISO to pinpoint and avoid transmission congestion before it occurs.
“Such acceleration is critical because of the increasing diversity of energy mix, electrification, rising demand and the growth of data centers,” Shah said, adding that “now is the time to partner with organizations that share a common interest in modernizing the grid operations of the future.”
Darryl Willis, Microsoft corporate vice president of energy and resources industry, said the partnership is a “bold step forward in modernizing one of North America’s most complex and critical electricity markets.” Willis said Microsoft’s AI capabilities and cloud-based analytics can build a “future-ready, more resilient and sustainable grid that can anticipate challenges, optimize performance and deliver reliable power as electrification and demand grow.”
MISO said the new partnership is its way of “taking a leadership role in ensuring that digital transformation benefits are shared across the grid.”
