From Pilot to Platform in Two Weeks
LBS' Chief Digital and Information Officer, Danny Attias, first engaged with Cloudforce in December 2024 after an introduction from UCLA's Anderson School of Management, which had recently launched the platform on its own campus. Danny's forward-thinking ideas on AI led quickly to an in-person meeting and demo at their London campus, which sparked immediate excitement from the broader LBS team.
At the time, LBS was actively exploring a range of Generative AI solutions, including a pilot of ChatGPT EDU licenses through OpenAI EDU. As part of this broader strategy, internal stakeholders also expressed interest in accessing a wider variety of models, greater flexibility, and institution-level control. Cloudforce's nebulaONE platform complemented these goals, offering a secure, cost-effective solution capable of scaling to the entire campus community. Within just two weeks, LBS moved from pilot to full deployment, launching "LBS AI," its custom-branded GenAI platform hosted in the School's own Microsoft Azure cloud — ensuring privacy, security, and ownership of its AI environment.
Nicos Savva, Professor of Management Science and Operations at LBS, agreed that "Cloudforce showed agility and a willingness to collaborate. They worked closely with us to shape a platform that supports how LBS learns, teaches and innovates."
LBS AI now provides every student, faculty and staff member with secure access to various Large Language Models (LLMs) including OpenAI's GPT models, Claude and DeepSeek. Additional models and capabilities like Mistral and Llama are available and new features including Google Gemini, research data integration and agentic automation, are already in motion.
Equitable AI Access, Right From the Start
From the outset, the focus was on ease of access to ensure the entire campus could get started from day one. Students, faculty and staff gained access immediately, with no complex onboarding or training required. The platform also supports simple creation of personal AI agents, for use cases ranging from teaching and learning to research, to internal operations.
Danny Attias, LBS' Chief Digital and Information Officer, said "Security and privacy were non-negotiables for us. The fact that everything operates within Microsoft's secure cloud ecosystem gave us the confidence to move quickly and responsibly.
"Unlike public tools such as ChatGPT or Claude, nebulaONE gives universities a value-based pricing model and deep customisation options. It allows us to meet students where they are with tools designed for how they learn and work."
In April, Cloudforce's Husein Sharaf and Joey Poole delivered an in-person Promptathon at LBS, equipping staff with hands-on experience in prompt engineering and building AI agents tailored to real institutional needs. The first session, which was oversubscribed, helped jumpstart early experimentation and build internal excitement across departments.
Building on that momentum, LBS entered into a Development Partnership with Cloudforce, giving the institution a seat at the table to help shape the nebulaONE platform's roadmap and upcoming features.
A Growing Global Community of Responsible AI Leaders
The announcement marks another milestone in Cloudforce's growing collaboration with leading institutions advancing responsible, equitable AI in education.
This work was recently highlighted in a co-authored AI Innovation Guide by Microsoft and Cloudforce, featuring the London Business School, UCLA Anderson, and several other institutions at the forefront of AI adoption in higher education.
Many more UK universities are now turning to Microsoft, Cloudforce, and the nebulaONE platform to deliver secure, flexible, institution-ready AI capabilities tailored to modern learning environments. LBS AI was implemented with robust support from the UK-based Microsoft Education team, including ongoing training and adoption resources aimed at supporting users of all skill levels.
For more information, visit nebulaone.ai or follow London Business School and Cloudforce on LinkedIn.
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SOURCE Cloudforce
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