Vasyl Grygoriev
Lizard Soft GM

One of the largest technological events in the world – Microsoft Ignite 2023, a showcase of Microsoft's latest achievements – is over. This time, for many Clients, Partners, Developers who work with Microsoft technologies, it has probably become a starting point in the process of rethinking approaches to performing usual processes, from communication to doing business.

Looking to 2024, we're seeing almost every industry undergo a transformation, opening up entirely new ways of working thanks to advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI). At Microsoft Ignite, it was demonstrated how powerful the potential of these technologies is.

The striking success of Copilot: survey

According to the impressive results of the Work Trend Index, Copilot Artificial Intelligence for Microsoft 365, introduced eight months ago, helped 70% of Users «to get more productive». Another 68% of respondents noted an improvement in the quality of their work. Certain tasks, such as searching for information, writing a first draft, and summarizing a meeting, are being completed 29% faster. And if the meeting was missed, the Employee dives into the topic of discussion at this meeting four times faster with the help of AI.

In the wake of such success in demand, the Corporation even started the production of its own chips: Microsoft Azure Maia for AI workload and Microsoft Azure Cobalt for general loads.

Expanding the Copilot AI usage

As I wrote in a previous blog, Copilot is increasingly integrated into Microsoft apps. In particular, Outlook and Microsoft Teams. «Working» in them, AI at least helps Users prepare for meetings, takes minutes, or performs whiteboarding for synchronized work of the entire team.

Now the Corporation also presented new tools with Copilot, in particular:

• Microsoft Copilot Studio: to enable IT teams to integrate unique company data and workflows with Copilot and create personalized AI solutions for internal or external use.
• Copilot for Service: for the most efficient call center service to Clients. Call center agents ask AI in natural language and quickly receive intelligible answers based on available data.
• Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides: exactly what we've seen in many sci-fi movies: when thanks to AR glasses (HoloLens 2 in this case), the digital image is superimposed on the real one. And so, the very sophisticated machine in the eyes of the User is being «decomposed» into the smallest joints if it is necessary to look inside the mechanism. Thus, AI provides interactive support to the User with voice, answering questions asked in natural language, and with a holographic video.

• Microsoft Copilot for Azure: a chat service to simplify daily IT administration. «Understanding» the team role and the User's goals, AI improves the processes of designing, operating, and troubleshooting apps and infrastructure.

In addition, the Corporation said, the Artificial Intelligence of Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise now becomes Copilot. At the same time, Copilot users in Bing, Edge, and Windows will enjoy commercial data protection, as soon as they log in with Microsoft Entra ID.

Seamless data integration with AI

In the era of digital transformation, the efficiency and functionality of Artificial Intelligence directly depend on the quality of the data it «consumes». So, at Microsoft Ignite 2023, innovative approaches to integrating data and AI were presented and new opportunities for businesses of all industries were promised.

These include Microsoft Fabric – a complete analytics platform with a full set of features and capabilities such as data movement, data lakes, data engineering, data integration, data processing and analysis, real-time analytics, and business intelligence.

Microsoft says that all these features and capabilities are available within a common platform that ensures reliable data protection, data management, and policy compliance. So, organizations no longer have to combine separate analytics services from different vendors. Instead, an optimized solution is offered, which is easy to connect and implement, and which is convenient to work with.

Of course, Copilot in Microsoft Fabric integrates with Microsoft Office and Teams. The Corporation notes that more than 100 functional updates have been implemented since the last Microsoft Build Conference (May 2023), and the ecosystem has significantly expanded due to partnerships with leading players in the industry. And this, as the Corporation says, already includes more than 25k Clients, such as Milliman, Zeiss, London Stock Exchange, EY, etc.

Availability of neural networks

The list of generative AI models available to developers is expanding.

• The new GPT-3.5 Turbo with a prompt length limit of 16k tokens will become publicly available.
• GPT-4 Turbo is already available in a preview version in Azure OpenAI Service. This model will make it possible to form up to 120k tokens prompt length.
• GPT-4 Turbo with Vision will soon be available in preview.\
• DALL-E 3 is also already available in Azure OpenAI Service.

AI: safety and responsibility

Considering the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence, Microsoft presented its own initiatives and tools that ensure security and trust in AI at all stages of its usage.

First and foremost is the Copilot Copyright Commitment (CCC), which protects and indemnifies commercial Customers from lawsuits for copyright infringement. At the same time, the Corporation provided documentary recommendations, the implementation of which will reduce the risks of creating content that violates copyright. Clients who follow these recommendations can benefit from CCC protection.

Conclusions

The transformation we're witnessing today is not limited to technological innovation. It affects every aspect of our lives, changing approaches to work tasks, learning, and communication. Microsoft Ignite 2023 provided a glimpse into a future where AI is not just a tool, but a partner that can empower us and help us achieve our goals.

At Lizard Soft, we don't just observe these technological transformations – we actively participate in shaping this future. Using our deep expertise and advanced experience in the field of AI, we have already integrated these technologies into our products: SafeDox Adaptive Case Management, UniBot Personal Assistant & Corporate Chatbot, and LS Intranet Internal Corporate Portal.

We're happy to share our knowledge and experience to help your business use the full potential of AI, optimize your processes, and ensure continuous advancement. Our AI-based solutions not only simplify everyday tasks but also open up new opportunities for your business development.

Contact us to find out how Lizard Soft can help your business turn today's challenges into tomorrow's opportunities with the help of Artificial Intelligence!

According to Microsoft.com