automate (almost) everything in the company

Redmond’s innovations involve the creation of “virtual employees” who perform tasks in an automated manner.

Microsoft dedicated last Monday to introducing us to a new stage in the development of our computers. He announced the Copilot+ PC and AI features like Recall, but he still had a lot to talk about, although this time it was about business.

In fact, the first conference of his event Build 2024 for developers was completely focused on them and the company. Satya Nadella spoke about a number of components in which AI and co-pilot are absolute pillars. The goal: to automate many processes in which artificial intelligence can provide promising assistance.

Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure is certainly preparing for this boom in the use of these processes in the company. Redmond residents have poured billions of dollars into reaching agreements around the world in recent months, and Nadella has talked about how they have increased their supercomputing capacity 30-fold.

He also took the opportunity to announce the launch of the so-called Windows Copilot runtime, which allows you to create all types of applications and artificial intelligence models. This is the component on which features such as Recall, CoCreator or automatic translation are based, for example, and it provides a number of elements for creating all these new tools.

GitHub Copilot also plays an important role here, which is now complemented by so-called GitHub Copilot Extensions. With them, you can develop and deploy applications in the cloud using natural language, without leaving the integrated development environment (IDE).

According to Nadella, this brings us closer than ever to a future in which “anyone can go from idea to code in an instant.” This has already been pointed out by Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, who also expressed the idea that very soon AI will program for us.

But the technology that’s really taking off is Copilot. With Copilot Studio and the recently announced Copilot Connectors, Microsoft is offering companies and developers the ability to create personalized assistants that can become… virtual employees performing tasks automatically. The idea is somewhat unsettling – we’re returning to debates about AI and the future of work – but, at least for Microsoft, it’s inevitable.

Robots have already taken some jobs from us, now they will take others from us.

With these tools, Copilot will be able to, for example, monitor email inboxes and automate a number of tasks based on them. The purpose of the co-pilot is to offer such a future.”AI agents

“What we talked about is that applications are not passive, but active, and this is exactly the approach that the original Rabbit R1 offered when it launched.

Microsoft has made this clear by stating that “copilots are moving from copilots who work with you to copilots who work for you.” For the Redmond-based company, it’s just getting started, and

“We are optimistic about the potential of these co-pilots to drive efficiencies and cost savings across all functions. For example, a co-pilot taking orders can manage the entire order fulfillment process, from receiving the order to processing and making reasonable recommendations and substitutions. for goods that are out of stock, to be sent to the buyer.”

Microsoft’s approach here may be clumsy, but it certainly seems inevitable that the automation that once took place on the assembly lines of large factories will now be applied to other repetitive tasks that these “AI agents” will be able to solve.

The impact this may have on the world of work is unknown, but it also raises doubts about these generative AI models, which are not particularly accurate: they make mistakes and invent data, so we will have to be very careful. to the implementation and use of these AI agents.

It is very likely that the initial impact will be quite small for this reason: Only very limited tasks can be automated. in which these agents can guarantee ideal behavior. Here, Microsoft clearly offers the tools to get you started. We will have to see how they are ultimately implemented in companies and whether they actually achieve their goal.

In Hatak | Copilot is no longer just a personal assistant. It is now integrated into Microsoft Teams to be part of the team.