Copilot, Microsoft's generative AI technology brand, promises to be a major revenue generator for the company. One analyst predicts it will generate $10 billion in annual revenue by 2026. Despite a confusing and confusing launch, 40% of Fortune companies say Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has 100 people testing Copilot by fall Meanwhile, Forrester estimates that 6.9 million U.S. knowledge workers will use some form of Copilot by 2024.

So Microsoft's mission to advance technology continues.

During Microsoft Ignite 2023, the company closed three new Copilot offerings across its software and services portfolio: Copilot for Azure, Copilot for Service, and Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides. The company also launched Copilot Studio, a new platform that provides tools for Connect Copilot for Microsoft 365, which is Copilot in apps like Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, and Microsoft Edge and Windows browsers, to third-party data.

Pilot for Azure Copilot for Azure, now in preview, is Microsoft's answer to the recently announced Duet AI in Google Cloud. Like Google's AI, Copilot for Azure takes the form of a chat-powered assistant for Cloud Client Recommended configurations for apps and environments and assist in troubleshooting by identifying potential problems - and solutions.

“Microsoft Copilot for Azure is integrated into the Azure platform into the Azure portal where IT teams work,” Erin Chapple, Azure's vice president of core product and design, told TechCrunch in an email interview. "With a fully integrated chat experience They can ask questions. Get insights into your workload. Infrastructure and cloud functionality easily and can be carried out"

Copilot for Azure can answer questions like “Copilot, how many cloud resources do I have?” in addition to more complex queries and requests like “Copilot, what storage should I use for my application?” and “Copilot Create a command-line interface to do this” (imagine OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but for Azure-related tasks) Copilot for Azure leverages a combination of common AI models, especially large language models (LLMs). ) by extracting knowledge from technical documents Including user settings and privacy policies.

"Using the power of LLM, Copilot has logic over the customer data that we have in Azure ... which determines everything that's been deployed and used for that customer and all of its features," Chapple said. "We're Give reasons beyond things like metrics and data validation. So that customers can ask questions and understand patterns in their data.”

But because generative AI is prone to making mistakes, can Copilot in Azure be trusted? Maybe -- at least it depends on your risk tolerance. Chapple says users can always ask Copilot in Azure if they've received a word. How do you recommend or explain the reasons?

“Currently,” Chapple said, “we predict customers will use Copilot for Azure in four activities: design (configure the right services for the application and environment), operations (answer questions, compose… words). order and act on behalf of the customer) troubleshooting (organizing data in Azure services for insights) and optimization (Improve costs Scalability, security, and reliability through recommendations for the environment)

Chapple claims Copilot for Azure is used by more than 15,000 internal users and “a number” of private preview customers. “We will continue to add skills as we learn through the preview. This will expand the ways in which they can help,” she added.

pilot for service Copilot for Service is a different animal. Designed for customer service use cases It integrates with customer relationship management (CRM) software, including Microsoft's Dynamics 365, Salesforce, SAP, Workday, and ServiceNow, to answer sales-related questions and offer next-step recommendations.

Copilot for Service, which can be embedded at the Windows desktop level or deployed through Microsoft Teams, can answer frequently asked questions from customer service representatives by drawing on the company's website. Knowledge articles Offline databases and more These same agents can ask Copilot for Service to provide account and case information from the CRM system when and in theory they need it.

The functionality appears to be a little limited at launch, but Microsoft likely has more to come as the service evolves. Soon, the company says, Copilot for Service will be able to provide proactive recommendations for builds or updates. Existing "knowledge assets" (such as articles) based on email customer service cases, team chat, and more, and will augment email summaries and drafts in Outlook and meeting summaries in Teams with data from CRM, giving users the ability to view and update CRM records directly in Outlook and Teams and automate tasks like case summaries. Schedule meetings, track task-ups, and add new contacts.

Readers may recall that Microsoft launched the customer service-focused Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service in March with a comparable feature set. So what are the differences between the two? Little except that Copilot for Service comes bundled with Copilot for Microsoft 365 and can be customized through the new Copilot Studio (more on Copilot Studio below).

Copilot for Service will be available in public preview in early December, Microsoft said, and will be priced at $50 per user per month. (This is higher than Microsoft's price for Microsoft 365 Copilot, which starts at $30 per user per month. (This likely reflects the steep costs of running AI models at scale.) The company is targeting Q1 2024 for general availability.

Pilot in Dynamics 365 Guide Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides may be one of Microsoft's more ambitious Copilot releases.

Designed to work best on the company's HoloLens 2 headset, with support for mobile devices to track multiple preview sessions, Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides taps AI generated to summarize information that might be useful to frontline workers. and translate those summaries into overlays on the devices they are on. Maintenance.

Using Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides, operators can point or view components and ask questions such as “What is the torque limit for these bolts?” “What orientation does this part fit in?” and “Can you help me explain the steps?” The Copilot recognizes what is being referenced or pointed at and provides an answer, projecting instructions on a screen onto the HoloLens 2's front glass.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides can access additional information (such as technical documentation, Internet of Things sensors, service logs, etc.) Performance information, records, academic transcripts The more domain- and company-specific questions you can answer, the more training content, etc.) you can answer. Microsoft says OpenAI's next-generation AI model supports the service decoding what's inside the HoloLens 2's camera and displaying diagrams. or even read the summary aloud To explain the steps and how to solve a specific problem.

This is all very interesting in the sci-fi "Minority Report" genre, but I doubt the new Copilot will work quite as well as Microsoft promises. Understanding images and text is hard enough for creative AI. There is no need to deal with imperfect viewing conditions (such as a dimly lit smokey factory) and specialized machinery.

Microsoft's decision to release Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides first in private preview as well. The "limited customer pool and capabilities" show that there are still some shortcomings that need to be addressed. It amazes me, though. I want to know where this Copilot went. and will measure the results of efforts from various startups. in the field service area?

Copilot Studio Copilot Studio, the latest Copilot-related announcement today, is Microsoft's attempt to make the Copilot product more extensible for business customers. Microsoft has sent Copilot customizations via Telegram, which is a key feature of Copilot Studio when not A long time ago But the emergence of countless AI-powered chatbot creators Many of which can connect LLM to proprietary company data. There is no doubt that this causes pressure.

With Copilot Studio on the web, now available in public preview for existing Copilot for Microsoft 365 subscribers, Organizations can give Copilot for Microsoft 365 and Copilot for Service access to data in CRM, their enterprise resource management system. and other databases and store data using pre-built connectors or custom-built connectors (Microsoft plans to extend Copilot Studio controls to additional Copilots at some point. (We'll start with just a few.) Customers can also rest assured that Copilots will always respond to certain questions in some way (such as onboarding questions) and -- perhaps more significantly. -- Create and publish your own customized "copilots"

“Copilot Studio plays a key role in Microsoft's Copilot strategy,” Omar Aftab, vice president of conversational AI at Microsoft, told TechCrunch in an email. “What Microsoft is hearing from customers is that they want to customize and expand copilots with their business processes and specific data. For enterprise-specific situations, now with Copilot Studio, they can easily do so. In the same way Customers who want to create their own custom standalone designs Copilot experiences can now be taken and distributed to the channels of their choice.”

Users with a valid license can tap Copilot Studio to create custom Copilot -- such as a chatbot for managing expenses. Described in natural language, Copilot Studio provides a starting point and sends Copilot to a “canvas” UI with collaboration tools. Includes comment system and side-by-side coding view. which can be used to customize

Customers can create Copilot that filters to specific datasets for specific teams or users. Or pilots can be connected to automation systems, plug-ins, or third-party services to initiate actions or workflows.

Once you're done in Copilot Studio, you can deploy Copilot in a variety of ways. This includes websites and social media platforms. The dashboard shows the status of Copilot running. and who builds and customizes Copilot, along with controls for securing Copilot data using access policies and managing the deployment environment.

“Copilot Studio reveals the end-to-end lifecycle for Copilots in a single pane. You can create, deploy, analyze, and manage Copilots all from within the same web experience,” Aftab said. “And because it's software-as-a-service, Everything you create is immediately available.”

One wonders if Microsoft has the data center capabilities to host countless custom copilots. Considering the company's recent problems in this area. But if you're not convinced, Microsoft isn't convinced - it's offering Copilot Studio as a purchasable capacity-based license. The goal is to drive acceptance not only of Not only in the Copilot ecosystem, but also in the ever-growing Azure portfolio.

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