Eight months ago, Microsoft introduced Copilot for Microsoft 365 to help people focus on uniquely human work. Eight months down the line, a combination of surveys and experiments are already showing that the productivity gains promised by Copilot are real.
- 70% of Copilot users said they were more productive and 68% said it improved the quality of their work;
- 68% say it helped jumpstart the creative process.
- Overall, users were 29% faster at specific tasks (searching, writing and summarizing).
- Users caught up on a missed meeting nearly 4x faster.
- 64% of users said Copilot helps them spend less time processing email.
- 87% of users said Copilot makes it easier to get started on a first draft.
- 75% of users said Copilot “saves me time by finding whatever I need in my files.”
- 77% of users said once they use Copilot, they don’t want to give it up.
Against this background, Microsoft Ignite 2023 has now presented Microsoft’s new wave of AI: a showcase of 100 new advances that touch on multiple layers of an AI-forward strategy, from adoption to productivity to security to help customers, partners and developers achieve the total value of Microsoft’s technology.
Microsoft is making significant advancements in its cloud infrastructure, focusing on AI optimization. This includes the introduction of custom chips like Microsoft Azure Maia and Azure Cobalt, designed for AI workloads and general-purpose tasks, respectively. Partnerships with AMD and NVIDIA bring accelerated virtual machines to Azure, enhancing AI processing capabilities.
The expansion of Microsoft Copilot aims to transform productivity for various roles, offering features like personalization, whiteboarding in Microsoft Teams, and AI support for customer service. Copilot Studio allows organizations to customize Copilot for internal use. Microsoft is integrating Copilot into Dynamics 365 Guides for frontline workers and Azure for IT administration.
Microsoft Fabric, an AI-powered platform, unifies data estates and fosters a data culture, connecting seamlessly with Microsoft Office and Teams. Over 25,000 customers, including Milliman and EY, are using Microsoft Fabric.
Azure AI offers Model-as-a-Service, simplifying the integration of AI models into applications while Azure AI Studio provides a unified platform for exploring, building, testing, and deploying AI apps. GPT-4 Turbo models, with extended prompt length and enhanced control, are introduced, including GPT-4 Turbo with Vision for advanced image and video understanding.
Microsoft emphasizes responsible AI deployment, extending the Copilot Copyright Commitment to Azure OpenAI Service users and introducing Azure AI Content Safety to detect and mitigate harmful content.
New Windows experiences in Windows 11 and Windows 365 aim to make AI more accessible, introducing Windows AI Studio and various productivity tools for developers.
NVIDIA collaborates with Microsoft to launch the AI foundry service on Azure, providing enterprises with end-to-end solutions for creating custom AI models.
In security, Microsoft combines Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender XDR to create the Unified Security Operations Platform, integrating Security Copilot experiences. Security Copilot is in fact embedded in Intune, Purview, and Entra, simplifying complex scenarios for IT administrators and identity teams.
Microsoft’s commitment to responsible AI continues to be reinforced with initiatives like the Customer Copyright Commitment and Azure AI Content Safety. Overall, Microsoft’s announcements at Ignite 2023 showcase a comprehensive approach to advancing AI capabilities, extending Copilot functionalities, and strengthening security measures.
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