The AI capabilities you need to power your AI transformation

In every industry and around the world, over the past year we have seen organizations embrace generative AI to transform their businesses. From Canada to Finland to Hong Kong—and everywhere in between—leaders are seeing the potential and possibility made possible by this transformative technology, and they’re beginning to realize the benefits. According to IDC, for every $1 an organization invests in AI technology, they’re realizing an average return of $3.50 on that investment.¹

Looking ahead to 2024, the question facing business leaders is this: How will you seize the opportunity to lead in this new era of AI? Microsoft is continuing to innovate with AI so that we can empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more—and it starts when “I can’t” becomes “Watch me.” Take a look.

As your organization charts its journey into this era of AI, we are excited to be your partner—whether you’re just starting to explore AI or looking to build on what you’ve already achieved. To learn more about how the Microsoft Cloud can help power your transformation journey, I’d like to invite you to watch our 20-minute webinar.

Unlock productivity across your business with Microsoft Copilot

Becoming an AI-powered organization starts with bringing AI right into the flow of work for any employee. And that’s what we’ve enabled with Microsoft Copilot.

Imagine a tool that makes your work so much more productive you don’t want to give it up. A tool that helps you sell more effectively, code more efficiently, respond to customers more accurately—and so much more.

“Copilot use cases are growing. In Microsoft 365, easily getting data from Excel files, creating a first draft in Word, or creating a PowerPoint presentation are some of the top examples,” said Sarah Lewandowski, Global Technology & Innovation Lead at Bayer.

We are seeing incredible results from early adopters of Microsoft Copilot. Our recent Work Trends Index study found that 70% of Copilot users said they were more productive, and 68% said it improved the quality of their work. And in fact, 77% of people using Microsoft Copilot said once they used it, they didn’t want to give it up.

Identifying how Microsoft Copilot can unlock productivity across business roles and functions should be a key element of your AI transformation.

Build unique, transformational experiences to suit your needs

Deploying generative AI solutions like Microsoft Copilot is one part of your AI transformation journey. But you should also be thinking about the ways generative AI can support your business in a more tailored way.

This may mean extending Microsoft Copilot with Copilot Studio, as we are seeing at organizations like dentsu. The creative agency’s IT team are working on how to create customized prompts for key business functions or roles, as well as how they can connect Copilot with the in-house or third-party apps that already support their business.

“I have a lot of ideas, including using it for our onboarding employee experience with prompts that could help new employees find content. HR or Finance’s systems could have custom prompts in those applications,” says Julie Duvillier, Head of Unified Communications Platforms for Global Technology, at dentsu.

But you can also explore creating your own copilot solution that leverages the full power of Azure AI, the same platform that powers Microsoft Copilot. KPMG Australia, for example, created its own conversational AI assistant called KymChat, which leverages not just the generative AI capabilities of Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service but also the vector search capabilities of Azure Cosmos DB to help the solution deliver faster results at scale.

“Let’s say an employee is about to interview a candidate for an open senior tax advisor role, and they want to know what questions to ask,” says Robert Finlayson: Senior Product Manager at KPMG Australia. “In the past, this employee might have had to liaise with HR or conduct a time-consuming web search of multiple sources to obtain viable questions. Now they simply ask KymChat to create a list of 10 role-specific interview questions, and they have their interview prep finished in seconds.”

Scenarios like this, which are highly unique to your own organization, are crying out for a custom copilot that takes advantage of the full Azure AI portfolio. You can develop these solutions in-house, or work with a Microsoft partner bringing their own expertise to the table.

Rely on a trusted, responsible AI partner

AI innovation is nothing without trust. Trust must be built into the AI apps you deploy and the AI solutions you create from the very beginning—and that’s why Microsoft commitment to Responsible AI is so important.

Our approach to Responsible AI is grounded in a set of principles that guide everything we do. These principles are brought to life through our corporate standards, the implementation and tooling we create, and the oversight and governance we have in place.

We’ve also seen the new importance of safeguarding your business and your data in this era of AI—especially as security becomes a defining challenge of our time. Microsoft’s approach to security can level the playing field for defenders, helping you protect your organization with AI-powered, end-to-end security.  

“One of the benefits of being able to use Copilot through Microsoft is that security’s already built in. And so the logged in user only has access to things they have access to, through the bigger security enterprise that you have set up, and it follows all your policies in your Microsoft landscape,” said Coşkun Çavuşoğlu, EY Americas Financial Services Tax AI Go-to-Market Leader.

Shape the next step of your AI journey today

Wherever you are in your AI journey, whether you’re just getting started or pushing the edge, you can take that next step today. Your AI journey should be multifaceted, encompassing the AI-powered apps you can use to unlock productivity across your business, the AI solutions you’ll build to serve your unique business needs, and a trusted and responsible foundation for AI innovation.

To dig into some real-world examples that can help you visualize your own AI success, check out the 20-minute webinar.

If you’re interested in learning more about Microsoft Copilot or building your own AI capability with Microsoft Azure AI, check out Microsoft AI for the latest news and information.

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¹SOURCE: IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Microsoft, The Business Opportunity of AI, IDC #US51364223, November 2023.