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Microsoft has unveiled an improved artificial intelligence-based assistant that can work without direct commands while supporting the work of entire corporate departments, as the tech giant intensifies its rivalry with Google in developing AI products for businesses.
The world’s most valuable listed company said its “copilot” feature can now serve entire teams within an organization, not just individuals. For example, it could create and assign tasks to specific people and manage the agenda for a group meeting.
The Seattle-based group said business customers could also create custom “agents” that can be configured to work without having to wait for human instructions. The company said the digital assistant can respond to an incoming email by automatically suggesting or sending replies or immediately processing a customer order.
The expanded features are part of a series of product updates unveiled at Microsoft’s annual developer conference, which begins Tuesday. In doing so, Copilot becomes the flagship product that the company hopes will generate future profits.
Copilot was “a game changer” by “taking the drudgery out of work,” said Rajesh Jha, executive vice president of Experiences and Devices at Microsoft.
Thanks to its $13 billion investment in OpenAI, Microsoft took an early leadership role in developing generative AI products while competing with companies like Google and Amazon to launch competing services.
Tuesday’s updates come days after Google unveiled a series of “multimodal” AI features, with digital agents that can answer questions via video, audio and text. There have previously been similar product launches and upgrades from companies like Meta and OpenAI.
The announcements are part of a push by tech companies including Google, Apple and OpenAI to develop AI-powered intelligent assistants that can take initiative in completing tasks for humans.
Hardware companies also hope that consumers drawn to new AI features will be pushed to replace their old devices. Apple this month launched a new range of iPads equipped with the next generation of M4 chips.
On Monday, Microsoft unveiled a new line of AI-powered PCs and tablets in a bid to challenge Apple’s prominence. Certain devices from companies like Dell, HP and Samsung would be equipped with Copilot features that could, for example, be made to “recall” a user’s previous actions.
As part of Tuesday’s announcements, Microsoft said customers using its AI services can now use OpenAI’s latest model, GPT-4o, as well as its family of small language models called Phi-3, which includes a new multimodal model, Phi -, heard. 3-Vision.
The company also said a new way to connect Copilot for Microsoft 365 to a wide range of data sources and applications – such as: B. Legal records and customer records – would allow the intelligent assistant to “think” about a wider range of inputs.
When asked how the more autonomous Copilot agents would be monitored, Charles Lamanna, corporate vice president of business applications and platforms at Microsoft, said that users could request that a human approve the AI’s suggested actions, such as allowing people to do so to check an AI. generated email before it was sent. Users could also review in real time the steps an agent went through to reach a result.
“We don’t say autopilot; we say co-pilot for a reason,” Jha said. “We don’t believe the co-pilot can be independent of human intervention.”
The updated Copilot tools will be available in preview to business customers later this year.
Investors are eager for evidence that the hugely expensive technology will produce healthy returns, and although Microsoft has said its new AI tools have helped boost revenue, the company hasn’t disclosed Copilot user numbers.
Copilot was “central to [Microsoft’s] AI narrative,” but “the broader adoption curve remains flatter than many (including us) originally expected a quarter or two ago, particularly among office workers,” Deutsche Bank analysts wrote in April.