Partnership between Avanade and Microsoft explores how AI can help nurture trees urban environments – Sitecore XM Cloud powers the garden's digital twin
4 minute read
Well, if you’re the world’s leading Microsoft expert, you call up your friends at Microsoft (coincidentally also celebrating their own milestone anniversary) and build something so spectacular, it wows audiences across the world.
In celebration of Avanade's 25th anniversary and Microsoft's 50th, the two partners collaborated to create the Avanade Intelligent Garden – a groundbreaking project that explored how AI can protect urban trees and natural environments against climate change and other hazards they face. The garden ingeniously featured discrete IoT sensors that fed data into an AI engine to deliver real-time insights as well as offering the ability to interact with – literally talk to – the trees.
We were extremely proud that Avanade and Microsoft chose Sitecore XM Cloud to give the garden its digital presence and extend the experience to audiences across the globe. Our close partnership with both organizations meant they could trust XM Cloud to deliver the flexibility and composability they needed to host the garden’s digital twin – helping it thrive not only during the Chelsea Flower Show, but into the future.
As Ashley Gatehouse, CMO at Avanade, commented: “The Avanade Intelligent Garden is an experiential showcase for how AI can help trees in urban environments survive and thrive in the climate of the future. Our intention was always to make the garden an immersive experience – engaging visitors not just physically (for those at the show) but also digitally. Sitecore XM Cloud has helped us truly deliver on that promise of a powerful, connected experience."
The Chelsea Flower Show is really just the start of this garden’s journey. In the coming months, the garden will be relocated to a challenging urban environment in Manchester, UK. This will prove to be the ultimate test of Avanade’s platform, where the tech will be reinstalled and used to better understand how intelligent use of resources like water can be used with real-time alerts to help manage the hazards urban trees face.
The garden’s core long-term mission is to support urban trees – vital allies in the fight against climate change, but which often face inhospitable living conditions and unsuitable maintenance processes. Urban trees filter air pollution, cool cities, support wildlife, and boost community wellbeing. Yet, they face immense challenges – from climate stress to under-resourced maintenance teams – resulting in 50% not surviving beyond 10 years and up to 30% dying in their first year.
We’re honored to collaborate with Avanade on this groundbreaking initiative at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The Avanade Intelligent Garden is a powerful example of how technology can deepen our understanding of the natural world. By powering this experience with Sitecore XM Cloud, we’re helping bring to life a more connected, sustainable future, where digital experiences inspire real-world impact.
The Avanade Intelligent Garden is equipped with sensors that track tree health, monitoring growth, sap flow, soil conditions, air quality, and weather patterns. AI from Microsoft analyzes this data, spotting trends and predicting future conditions to provide simple, actionable advice.
A highlight is the ability to “talk” to the trees, with visitors able to have conversational interactions on the XM Cloud-powered web experience. Through the Azure-powered small language model, users can have one-on-one conversations with individual trees, learning what specific care they need and how they are faring. Trees will even alert their custodians if they anticipate issues like over- or under-watering.
Rather than relying on automated irrigation systems or robotic gardeners, trees are empowered to provide insights that enable human custodians to make sustainable, resource-efficient decisions.
After the Chelsea Flower Show, the Avanade Intelligent Garden will be relocated to Mayfield Park in the heart of Manchester, the city center’s first new public park in 100 years.
