Ignite 2024 introduces new AI agents and more for Microsoft 365 Copilot

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It's announcement time for Microsoft Ignite 2024. Unlike the Redmond company's Build conference, which focuses mostly on developers, Ignite tends to be aimed at IT pros, decision-makers, and business leaders who are looking at enterprise, cloud, and IT management solutions.

This year, as in years past, Microsoft has lit the flame on Ignite with a truly massive number of announcements.

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I'll focus on some of Microsoft's workplace efficiency announcements. The company is looking at using its Microsoft 365 Copilot, along with AI agents, to boost collaboration and productivity.

We'll start by exploring some out-of-the-box AI agents that Microsoft is making available. Then we'll look at a broader view of the tools and updates Microsoft is offering for Microsoft 365 Copilot, including how AI can help improve automation and collaboration, and provide other organizational improvements.

With that, let's dive in.

Out-of-the-box agents

This year, Microsoft is announcing a series of task-oriented, proactive, context-aware, and at least mostly autonomous agents for some of its most popular business offerings.

Also: Microsoft makes it easier for users to create AI agents in Copilot Studio

Microsoft's classification of these agents as out-of-the-box implies that they are pre-configured and ready for use, without necessarily requiring a lot of customization and setup. This approach opens the door for businesses that don't have a stable of AI pros to help them deploy knowledge-based solutions.

Rather than making this an open-ended solution that might leave executives feeling confused about where to begin, the company has outlined five specific domains where agents can be immediately deployed:

SharePoint agents: These are agents designed to use the data stored in your SharePoint to increase productivity and enhance decision-making. While this is essentially an off-the-shelf solution, Microsoft provides the option to customize for more in-depth workflows.Facilitator agent: This is a robotic meeting assistant that is designed to add value to Teams meetings and chats. It can take notes in real-time, summarize meetings, highlight key points of discussion, and help you focus on action items. This agent seems like the fastest time-to-value offering being showcased today.Interpreter agent: The interpreter agent is a real-time translation tool, also for Teams meetings.Employee self-service agents: These agents free up HR and IT staff time by providing interactive internal support that can respond to frequently asked and easier questions posed by staff. These agents can help with quick benefits, payroll, and leave queries, help request equipment or troubleshoot basic IT problems, and answer company-related questions.Project management agents: I'm a little dubious about the idea of automatic plan creation, but I can see how AI project management agents can help with reminders and notifications, status reporting, task assignments, and progress tracking. These are all time-consuming tasks for a project manager that really could be -- and now are -- automated.

As you can see, many of these agents can be easily deployed right out of the box, so you can derive business value right away.

Microsoft 365 Copilot

Next, we'll kick off a lightning round of a dozen AI-enabled automation, collaboration, and organizational improvements made possible with Microsoft 365 Copilot.

1. Copilot actions

Think of this feature as smart scripting with AI. You can automate (Microsoft calls this "delegate") repetitive tasks like pulling together updates or generating reports. Customizable prompts help tune the actions for each situation.

2. Scrape screen-shared content in Teams

In addition to analyzing and summarizing text and voice-based content in Teams meetings, Copilot will be able to analyze anything presented on screen and provide insights and summaries.

3. Summarize files shared in Teams

If someone shares a file in Teams, Copilot will be able to summarize the contents. This feature is ideal for getting a quick real-time overview of substantial reports shared during meetings where you might not have time to read the whole thing.

4. Copilot features for PowerPoint

PowerPoint adds three interesting features using Copilot. Narrative Builder will essentially write your presentation if you give it a prompt and a starting file. Presentation translation does what its name suggests. Copilot will also now pull images from a shared corporate asset library, including those built in SharePoint.

5. New Excel start experience

By the end of the year, Excel users will be able to use a Copilot prompt to ask Excel to craft a spreadsheet for them. 

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It's not clear whether this is a true generative AI function or more of a smart wizard -- after telling Excel what you want, "Copilot will suggest and refine a template." That description implies that, if your needs are pretty standard, Copilot will give you a nice spreadsheet. But if you need something particularly unique, there may not be a template available.

6. Better Outlook meeting management

Outlook will offer a smart meeting scheduler using Copilot to coordinate schedules among participants. The tool will also draft agendas based on prompts provided to the AI.

7. Multimodal note organization in OneNote

Let's say you have a bunch of typed, handwritten, and voice notes in a section in OneNote. You can ask Copilot to organize those notes, interacting with the AI to produce a structured document based on those original concept assets.

8. Copilot features for Pages

Microsoft's business website builder is getting some new Copilot features. With rich artifacts, Pages will be able to support new content types, including code and interactive charts. With multi-page support, users will be able to add multiple pages at once or pull in multiple chat sessions to create a page. With Ground on Page, Copilot will tune its responses to the page itself, updating as the page is updated. Finally, users will be able to edit and share pages on mobile devices.

9. Microsoft Places general availability

This is a fascinating product aimed squarely at the new reality of hybrid work. The tool is designed to help optimize team scheduling, meetings, and even building resource allocation. The idea is to help large teams coordinate work from home and in-office time, along with their associated meeting places.

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The tool can recommend in-office days based on an analysis of everyone's calendars, manage room booking, allow team members to let other people know they're in the office, help find available meeting places, and even do occupancy analysis.

10. Copilot helps admin Microsoft 365

So, I have to show you this oh-so-Microsoft product title: Microsoft 365 Copilot in Microsoft 365 Administration Centers (Copilot in MAC). Seriously, that's the product title.

Separate from the wacky name, this Copilot tool is provided to admins to help them manage Microsoft 365, summarize updates, highlight trends, and troubleshoot problems.

11. Copilot Analytics helps measure AI impact

This tool is a dashboard that helps managers understand how their AI investment, particularly for Microsoft 365, is benefiting the organization. The tool tracks adoption rates and productivity improvements, among other metrics.

Also: Google's new AI tool transforms dense research papers into accessible conversations

Analytics produces reports, both out-of-the box analytics reviews and customizable reports to help explore AI's impact in specific segments of usage. If you want AI to have a solid ROI, this is the tool for discovering if it does.

12. Copilot Prompt Gallery

This is essentially a shared snippet library for Copilot AI prompts. The gallery enables users to share prompts that are particularly beneficial to the organization and tracks prompts that are effective. New features include agent prompt support and trending prompt lists.

More from Inspire 2024

We hope you've enjoyed this lightning round of updates from Inspire. Stay tuned to ZDNET for the latest up-to-the-minute coverage of Inspire 2024, including even more coverage of Microsoft's big announcements.

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