Microsoft is infusing AI tools into its suite of office software, including Word, Excel and Outlook email.
NEW YORK — Microsoft is infusing AI tools into its suite of office software, including Word, Excel and Outlook email.
The company said Thursday that the new feature, called Copilot, is a rendering engine that will allow users to do things like summarize long emails, compose stories in Word and animate slides in PowerPoint.
Microsoft 365 general manager Colette Stallbaumer said the new features are currently only available to 20 enterprise customers. It will roll out to more enterprise customers in the coming months.
Microsoft is marketing the feature as a tool that will enable workers to be more productive by freeing up time they typically spend in their inbox or allowing them to more easily analyze trends in Excel.
The Redmond, Washington-based tech giant will also add a chat feature called Business Chat, which resembles the popular ChatGPT. Takes commands and performs actions, such as summarizing an email about a particular project to coworkers, using user data.
“Today marks the next big step in the evolution of how we interact with computing, which will fundamentally change the way we work and unlock a new wave of productivity growth,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. it’s a statement.
Mattel, Instacart and other companies have also been integrating generative AI tools like ChatGPT and the Dall-E image generator to brainstorm ideas for new toy cars and answer customers’ food questions.
Microsoft rival Google said this week that it is integrating generative artificial intelligence tools into its own Workspace apps, such as Google Docs, Gmail and Slides. Google says it will roll out the features to its “trusted testers on an ongoing basis throughout the year.”
Microsoft’s announcement came two days after OpenAI, which powers the generative AI technology Microsoft relies on, released its latest artificial intelligence model, GPT-4.
