November 2024

It seems that generative AI is here, there and everywhere these days, sparking new ideas about how to organize our lives, get more creative or run our businesses more efficiently.

For a growing number of people and organizations worldwide, Microsoft 365 Copilot has become part of achieving those goals. Just a year after its release, the AI assistant is now being used by almost 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies to accomplish a range of tasks. 

Our investment in Copilot is paying off for our customers. Organizations are using generative AI to enhance patient care and expand employment opportunities, to better serve customers and advance scientific discovery. Employees are turning to Copilot to help with routine tasks so they can focus on more meaningful work.  

We’re inspired every day by the many ways people and companies are finding value in AI – and excited about what’s to come.    

Microsoft developers have been hard at work on new products and updates designed to simplify work and advance innovation. This month, we’ll tell you about new capabilities for Copilot and the Copilot + AI stack announced at Microsoft Ignite, our annual conference for IT pros and partners.  

We’ll detail a new platform that gives users access to Microsoft’s AI services and tooling in one place. And we’ll look at the first in a new class of devices specifically built to securely connect to Windows 365 and keep data protected in the Microsoft Cloud.

Repetitive tasks can be a drag, we know. But tackling that nagging to-do list is about to get a little easier.  

Copilot Actions, announced at Microsoft Ignite, allows anyone to automate routine tasks, from compiling weekly reports to getting summaries of Teams meetings. Now in private preview, Copilot Actions allows users to delegate tasks with easy, customizable fill-in-the-blank prompts.

To further empower employees and streamline business processes, we’re introducing new AI agents in Microsoft 365 to help with a range of jobs. Every SharePoint site now has an agent tailored to your organization’s content, enabling you to quickly find the information you need. The Employee Self-Service Agent can answer questions about HR and IT issues, while other new agents can handle project management items and take real-time notes in meetings and chats.

Wondering how you’d sound in a different language? Interpreter in Teams, slated for public preview in 2025, can provide real-time speech translation during meetings and simulate your speaking voice. Muy bueno, ¿no? 

Developers, meanwhile, will be able to create the next generation of AI apps and agents in one place with Azure AI Foundry. The platform brings together existing Azure AI tooling with new capabilities including a unified toolchain for customizing, testing, deploying and managing AI apps and agents, and the ability to use multiple AI tools to build agents. The platform portal, formerly Azure AI Studio, can help developers discover new AI models and tools.  

Also new is Windows 365 Link, the first Cloud PC device that lets users connect directly and securely to Windows 365. The device has a locked-down operating system with no local data, apps or admin users, significantly reducing possible attack points for hackers. Now in preview, Windows 365 Link will be available for purchase in April 2025. 

Around 80 new products and features overall were unveiled at Ignite.

Security remains our top priority, and at Ignite we announced the Zero Day Quest, a hacking event combined with a research challenge offering $4 million in awards for identifying vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s AI and cloud systems. The research challenge, open to anyone, runs through Jan. 19, 2025. 

Ignite also showcased companies invested in AI, including global asset management firm BlackRock, which detailed how it reshaped its business with AI. Four years ago, BlackRock formed a strategic partnership with Microsoft, moved its Aladdin investment platform to Azure and created its Aladdin Copilot to provide generative AI tools to its global clients. Today, around 60% of the firm’s Copilot users are leveraging the tool on a weekly basis. 

AI for our furry friends 

You think herding cats is a challenge? For the U.K.’s biggest pet care company, bringing together its wide-ranging operations with a digital strategy was no small task. 

Pets at Home – which has a retail website, loyalty program, grooming services and hundreds of stores and veterinary practices – started by uniting data from its various operations in Azure.  

Then, using Copilot Studio’s new AI agent-building features, it created an autonomous agent to help its retail fraud team. The agent can, for example, quickly identify if a photo is being used multiple times to try to get a refund or redelivery.  

The company plans to create additional agents to assist employees and is exploring how AI can reduce administrative tasks to give clinicians more time to spend with pets.   

“It’s what they love and what they want to do,” says William Hewish, Pets at Home’s chief information officer. “They want to save pets. They don’t want to sit at a screen.”

An AI tool for fighting malnutrition 

In Kenya, malnutrition stunts the growth of 18% of children under age 5. AI could help provide a solution – and potentially save lives. 

Nonprofit organization Amref Health Africa is working with partners including Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab to develop an AI-powered dashboard that shows where malnutrition is impacting communities across the country. The tool can quickly filter data from satellite imagery of crops and other sources, zoom in on impacted locations and provide immediate and long-term malnutrition forecasts.   

With that information, Amref can quickly identify risks to food security and mobilize resources to prevent malnutrition, a significant cause of child mortality in Kenya.  

“When we prevent that malnutrition,” says Kenyan nutritionist Kimeu Mbesa, “we are able to save the life of the child.”  

A taste of tradition 

Rosalinda and Elizabeth Mendoza grew up working in the fields of Washington’s Yakima Valley with their parents, immigrant farmworkers from Michoacán, Mexico.  

The sisters grew up and pursued careers – Rosalinda in tech sales, Elizabeth as an AI and tech privacy attorney – and then returned to their roots. They launched Mocel Mezcal, an award-winning artisanal brand that draws on their heritage and culture. 

Michoacán’s long tradition of making mezcal, and a deep appreciation of what it takes to make authentic food and beverages, inspired the sisters in their venture. 

“We noticed that there wasn’t a lot of Michoacán mezcal in the U.S., so there weren’t many people from our community telling our stories,” Rosalinda says. “We wanted to share a new perspective of Mexico that is less known and yet so beautiful.” 

To that – and to the Mendozas and the other Hispanic and Latinx entrepreneurs in our Los Changemakers video series – we say, “Salud!”  

Between issues, follow the Microsoft News and Stories LinkedIn page for the latest company news, or visit us at Microsoft Source to learn about people doing extraordinary things with technology.