November 2023

Since the birth of the 8 a.m. meeting – heck, since the invention of Mondays – many people have dreaded, avoided or bellyached about work. Most valiantly slogged through the grind (while daydreaming of the weekend) and got the job done.   

Well, hold onto your sticky notes: Better days are here, 9-to-5ers. As AI becomes a trusted tool, more folks are rethinking how they work – where to find that creative spark, how to skip the drudgery, how to use the time they save.   

This month, we dig into that shift. We’ll explore a slate of new Microsoft AI products that simplify your tasks and look at some of the AI lingo infusing today’s workplace.   

For example, you might hear a colleague say: “Did you know we can use natural language to prompt Bing Image Creator to produce an AI-generated picture of a dog wearing a Windows Ugly Sweater?”  

Check out this good boy!  

From frontline heroes to keyboard warriors, AI advancements are helping workers of all stripes churn through chores at record speed.   

Case in point: Service industry professionals can don a HoloLens 2 then use gestures and natural language as they interact with AI-generated guidance – content and holograms – that’s overlaid on the equipment in front of them.   

That hands-free tool, called Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides, is one of several new copilots (or AI assistants) announced this month at Microsoft Ignite, our annual conference for developers and IT pros.   

Also new is Microsoft Copilot Studio, a low-code tool that taps into an organization’s unique data and workflows. It helps organizations build custom copilots for internal or external use.    

Meanwhile, customer service agents can rapidly resolve client issues with Microsoft Copilot for Service. During customer interactions, agents use natural language to ask the tool questions, plucking immediate insights from the company’s knowledge repository.   

And with Microsoft Copilot for Azure, IT administrators can more easily design, operate and troubleshoot apps and infrastructure.   

The promise of copilots to save time by cutting the grunt work (and the related grumbling) was borne out in a recent survey.  

Microsoft’s latest Work Trend Index asked people about their experiences with Microsoft 365 Copilot, which was introduced in March. Among early users, 87% said the tool made it easier to start a first draft, 75% of users said it slashed the time needed to comb their files for key datapoints and 64% reported spending fewer minutes processing email.   

Microsoft Ignite delivered other news, including: the general availability of Microsoft Fabric, an end-to-end analytics solution; the launch of the industry’s first unified security operations platform; and two new Microsoft-designed chips to enhance our datacenter fleet, driving down customer costs.  

This is your copilot speaking: Can you talk AI? 

As artificial intelligence reshapes how we work, it’s simultaneously seasoning our work convos with new buzzwords: plugins, prompts and hallucinations, oh my.  

An easy-to-read glossary explains 10 common AI terms to help you better understand the tech so you can comfortably chat with colleagues about machine learning or multimodal models without, you know, asking AI. 

Pop quiz today, class!

At this point in the newsletter, your AI IQ is surely soaring. But there’s always more to learn! 

Do you know, for example, if AI was born before or after the 1956 invention of the hard drive? Or have you heard which mystery was recently cracked via some AI-powered sleuthing?   

Take a short quiz – developed by humans in collaboration with Copilot – to test your intelligence about artificial intelligence.  

Off duty – and on track

After work, it’s time to game. Want to race? 

Zipping around a simulated racetrack while negotiating tight turns and other cars is tricky enough. But now, gamers who are blind or who have low vision can finish ahead of the pack. 

The new Forza Motorsport offers blind driving assists – audio cues that help drivers with visual impairments zoom down straightaways and steer through turns, knowing the precise moments to tap the brakes or stomp on the gas.  

Other accessibility features enable players with limited mobility to compete as well. Forza Motorsport is available on Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Series X|S consoles, Windows PC and Steam, and Cloud Gaming (beta).  

We hope “The Monthly Tech-In” feeds your digital appetite. Between issues, keep current with the latest Microsoft innovations by following us on LinkedIn or by visiting us at Microsoft Source. 

##