Microsoft is bringing Microsoft 365 Copilot to
more customers and releasing new research that shows how AI will
change the way we work
REDMOND,
Wash., May 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Earlier this
year, Microsoft Corp. introduced Microsoft 365 Copilot, which will
bring powerful new generative AI capabilities to apps millions of
people use every day like Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
Outlook, Microsoft Teams and more.
On Tuesday, the company announced it is expanding access to the
Microsoft 365 Copilot preview and introducing new features. The
company also released new data and insights from its 2023 Work
Trend Index report: "Will AI Fix Work?"
The data shows that the pace of work has accelerated faster than
humans can keep up, and it's impacting innovation. Next-generation
AI will lift the weight of work. Organizations that move first to
embrace AI will break the cycle — increasing creativity and
productivity for everyone.
"This new generation of AI will remove the drudgery of work and
unleash creativity," said Satya
Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft. "There's an enormous
opportunity for AI-powered tools to help alleviate digital debt,
build AI aptitude and empower employees."
The report shares three key insights for business leaders as
they look to understand and responsibly adopt AI for their
organization:
- Digital debt is costing us innovation: We're all
carrying digital debt: The volume of data, emails and chats has
outpaced our ability to process it all. There is an opportunity to
make our existing communications more productive. Every minute
spent managing this digital debt is a minute not spent on creative
work. Sixty-four percent of employees don't have enough time and
energy to get their work done and those employees are 3.5x more
likely to say they struggle with being innovative or thinking
strategically. Of time spent in Microsoft 365, the average person
spends 57% communicating and only 43% creating.
- There's a new AI-employee alliance: For employees, the
promise of relief outweighs job loss fears and managers are looking
to empower employees with AI, not replace. Forty-nine percent of
people say they're worried AI will replace their jobs, but even
more — 70% — would delegate as much work as possible to AI in order
to lessen their workloads. In fact, leaders are 2x more likely to
say that AI would be most valuable in their workplace by boosting
productivity rather than cutting headcount.
- Every employee needs AI aptitude: Every employee, not
just AI experts, will need new core competencies such as prompt
engineering in their day to day. Eighty-two percent of leaders
anticipate employees will need new skills in the AI era, and as of
March 2023, jobs on LinkedIn in the
U.S. mentioning GPT have increased by 79% year over year. This new,
in-demand and AI-centric skillset will have ripple effects across
everything from resumes to job postings.
"The pace and volume of work have increased exponentially and
are outpacing humans' ability to keep up," said Jared Spataro,
CVP, Modern Work and Business Applications. "In a world where
creativity is the new productivity, digital debt is more than an
inconvenience — it's a threat to innovation. Next-generation AI
will lift the weight of work and free us all to focus on the work
that matters."
To empower businesses in the AI era, Microsoft is introducing
the Microsoft 365 Copilot Early Access Program with an initial wave
of 600 enterprise customers worldwide in an invitation-only paid
preview program. In addition, the following new capabilities will
be added to Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Viva:
- Copilot in Whiteboard will make Microsoft Teams meetings
and brainstorms more creative and effective. Using natural
language, you can ask Copilot to generate ideas, organize ideas
into themes, create designs that bring ideas to life, and summarize
Whiteboard content.
- By integrating DALL-E, OpenAI's image generator, into
Copilot in PowerPoint, users will be able to ask Copilot to
create custom images to support their content.
- Copilot in Outlook will offer coaching tips and
suggestions on clarity, sentiment and tone to help users write more
effective emails and communicate more confidently.
- Copilot in OneNote will use prompts to draft plans,
generate ideas, create lists and organize information to help
customers find what they need easily.
- Copilot in Viva Learning will use a natural language
chat interface to help users create a personalized learning journey
including designing upskilling paths, discovering relevant learning
resources and scheduling time for assigned trainings.
To help every customer get AI-ready, Microsoft is also
introducing the Semantic Index for Copilot, a new capability
we're starting to roll out to all Microsoft 365 E3 and E5
customers.
To learn more, visit the Official Microsoft Blog, Microsoft 365
Blog and the new Work Trend Index.
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) enables digital
transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an
intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every
organization on the planet to achieve more.
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SOURCE Microsoft Corp.