Artificial intelligence is advancing by leaps and bounds, being more and more capable of being able to communicate in a natural way and even through images as we have seen with GPT-4. The big tech companies are aware of the attention this technology has received and two of the largest, Google and Microsoft, are trying to compete to better integrate it into their services.
A few days ago we saw Google present how it was going to integrate AI into its Gsuite suite of applications. But today it is Microsoft’s turn with ChatGPT as the absolute protagonist of its entire network of office and productivity applications after landing on Bing relatively recently.
Microsoft surprises with an AI capable of doing everything in it’s apps
Microsoft has announced Copilot today, which, as its name indicates, will serve us as a true co-pilot or assistant in what are the usual tasks we do with office suites. During the presentation we have been able to verify that it will be integrated into the Microsoft 365 package with Word, Excel or PowerPoint. But it will also help us when writing emails in Outlook or summarizing endless meetings through Teams.
Copilot will combine the power of LLM language models with data from Microsoft Graph and the brand’s entire suite of applications to turn users’ words into original presentations, spreadsheets or emails. All this with a completely natural language, and that will always be present to help us in those moments where we have more difficulty without having to leave the application in which we are working.
And it is that together with Copilot, Business Chat has also been presented that works with LLM and all your personal data. This smart chat can be given a simple introduction like “Tell my team how we will update the product strategy” and it will automatically update the next meeting agenda, send emails, and edit chat threads. All this from a simple order that will make all the work of a work group adapt to the moment.
How ChatGPT can help in office programs
One of the big questions when seeing these news from Microsoft regarding artificial intelligence is the real utility that it can have. And the truth is that throughout the presentation we have seen very interesting applications for the world of work in terms of office software. In the case of Word, the example that has been given is the possibility of combining two totally different files in the same editable document, and all with a single instruction in which both sources of information are selected.
But in addition to this, you will also have the ability to create a document from scratch. In the previews that have been seen in the presentation, the description of a job position, a list of ideas, a resume or a press release were used as examples of creation. All this starting from a simple phrase that as users we introduce and from which the rest of the text will be developed.
Something similar happens in the case of PowerPoint, since a new tab called “Copilot” is going to be integrated and at any time you can use it to create a slide with a certain style, and even have the AI make the entire presentation at from the text that is entered and as users we limit ourselves to editing it. And this is something that also applies to Excel where you will be able to analyze trends or generate data visualizations in seconds and without headaches.
Emails are also tedious to write repeatedly, and that is why the arrival of ChatGPT in Outlook will save a lot of time. Through a sentence, the body of a new email is going to be written in the tone that you see most appropriate and with the content that you think may be relevant. In this way, Outlook becomes a really powerful option as a manager of all our emails without opting for other programs.
Finally, something that has attracted a lot of attention is the integration of ChatGPT with Teams. This conversational bot will have a dedicated space with which you can chat comfortably. In the demo we have seen how he has been able to create a SWOT matrix in a perfect way, and later indicate a PowerPoint presentation to integrate it. All in a really fast and efficient way.
But we have also seen some uses that we have not liked. For example, it has been shown how it has been requested to write a speech for the graduation of a son. And we think that these are already extreme uses and that they interfere in the personal sphere. But what is clear is that in the field of work and education they can end up saving a lot of time.
Microsoft is currently testing Copilot on a small group of users to verify its operation. In this way, we still do not know a date on which we will be able to use it openly, although they have detailed that they hope that more can be expanded soon.
