The arrival of GPT-4 to Microsoft 365 programs will allow a series of activities such as generating texts, creating email threads and more.
Microsoft continues to bet big on artificial intelligence and, capitalizing on its heavy investment in OpenAI , has announced Microsoft 365 Copilot , a GPT-4- powered assistant that will help users with a wide variety of tasks such as generating text, converting Word documents into PowerPoint presentations quickly, and more.
According to what the company indicated through a post on its official blog , Copilot works in a very similar way to the AI that Google announced a few days ago for its services such as Gmail and Google Docs. However, in the case of Microsoft , the technology will be integrated into Word , Excel , PowerPoint , Outlook , Teams and other software from the firm, serving different tasks in each of these.
Microsoft 365 will adopt GPT-4 through Copilot
Some of the functions that Copilot can perform thanks to the implementation of the new version of the ChatGPT AI are quite new and, above all, useful for users. For example, in PowerPoint you can generate a slideshow based on a Word document . To do this, the user only has to submit the request to the AI and choose the file. As if that weren’t enough, the system can even look it up for the user if the name of this document is added to the request.
On the other hand, in Word you can ask Copilot to generate a text based on any other document, such as a PowerPoint presentation, and this can be edited or modified later. In Excel, the AI can analyze data or create tables using information it gets from other files like a Word document, while in Teams , Copilot will be able to create summaries or transcribe meetings.
In the case of Outlook , GPT-4 will be able to summarize email threads or generate drafts with personalized responses. However, Microsoft points out that the AI is far from perfect and does not always achieve accurate results. “Sometimes Copilot will be right, other times it will be usefully wrong, giving you an idea that isn’t perfect, but still gives you an advantage ,” says Jared Spataro , head of Office 365 .
A promising proposition for Microsoft 365
At the moment, the integration of GPT-4 in Microsoft Office 365 through the Copilot assistant is only available in the testing phase for 20 clients of the suite, an extremely limited number. However, the company indicates that the functions will begin to expand to more people in the coming months. In addition, it seems that the AI will only be included in an additional plan since the company assures that it will “share more about prices and details in the coming months” .
It’s important to remember that Microsoft also plans to use GPT-4 in the new Bing search engine , which is already available worldwide. With the integration of AI, Bing will become more capable “as OpenAI makes updates to GPT-4 and later ,” according to Yusuf Mehdi , director of Search and Devices at Microsoft.