6 key announcements from Microsoft’s Ignite 2023 event

It goes without saying but Microsoft’s annual Ignite event was full of existing new AI related product reveals as well as expansions which formed part of the key messaging at the event. 

In our latest blog article, we will provide you with 6 of the key announcements that came out of Microsoft’s Ignite 2023 event. 

1 - Bing Chat has now been rebranded to Copilot 

You will find that it was announced that Microsoft will be changing the name of Bing Chat to Copilot in Bing. With Bing Chat enterprise being rebranded as Copilot. 

This change was made largely as a result of the fact that Bing Chat made little or no impact for Bing. It is widely believed that the main purpose of this change is to help it to better compete with ChatGPT as well as other well-known chatbots. 

2 - Microsoft launches new AI related tools 

Microsoft also announced its latest AI tools for Copilot which includes Copilot for Azure, Copilot for Service, Copilot Studio and Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides. 

Copilot for Azure 

This tool has been launched to compete with Google’s Duet AI tool which will help to form part of a chat-driven assistant for cloud customers. This is currently available in preview. 

Copilot for Service 

This tool has been launched to help provide answers to commonly asked questions from the customer service team of your business by making use of websites, knowledge articles and much, much more. 

Copilot Studio 

This tool is available to be used to build a custom copilot – like a chatbot for expense management. You will find that this tool is in preview mode for those that are currently using Copilot for Microsoft 365. 

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides 

This tool will make use of generative AI to provide a summary of information that could prove vital to frontline workers and overlays them on the equipment they are maintaining. 

3 – Microsoft Teams sees some useful AI driven changes 

It was announced that Microsoft Teams will be getting a new ‘decorate your background’ feature thus allowing you to not have to clean up your home office ever again. This feature will analyse your room, clean up clutter and add plants and even decorations to your background. 

As well as this, Microsoft also announced that a new AI-driven noise reduction feature will be added to Teams that can eliminate background noise in addition to other voices.  

The noise reduction feature will start to be rolled out now and become available in 2024 with the decorate your background change being available later next year for Teams Premium users. 

4 – Gain generative AI copyright protections for customers 

Microsoft has also revealed its plans for more and more customers to be protected and compensated for any unfair judgements if they are sued for copyright infringement following outputs used from Azure’s OpenAI Service. 

It is important to note that this will not apply to every Azure OpenAI Service customer by default. In order to use it, subscribers must look to start the process by implementing ‘technical measures’ and fully comply with risk mitigation documents to be considered for this. 

5 – Microsoft will be combining To Do, Planner and Project products into one 

Microsoft has announced that it will be simplifying its project management tools. It was revealed that it will be bringing together Microsoft To Do, Microsoft Planner and Microsoft Project into a single product. 

As well as this, there will be a copilot in Planner which will enable users to plan and suggest new tasks. 

The new project management product will be available in Teams next Spring with the web version launched further into 2024. 

6 – Windows AI Studio to become more accessible 

In order to promote generative AI experiences from the cloud to Windows, Microsoft has revealed the newest product in their toolkit, Windows AI Studio. You will find that this toolkit combines all AI tools as well as a whole host of generative AI models that developers can tweak, edit and implement for both local as well as offline users in their Windows applications. 

Next Steps? 

If you are a business that is looking to take advantage of the new features contained within Microsoft Copilot or looking to transform your business through Microsoft Teams then please speak to our IT experts now to discuss your specific requirements. 

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