Microsoft's Envision Series with Cognizant

Microsoft’s Envision series is a great opportunity for leaders to learn about new technology in business apps, and all the latest and greatest tools that can help you stand out in your industry.

With the rise of AI touching every industry, it’s not surprising that it’s become the focus of Envision. The value of AI is becoming impossible to refute. We’ve found that business leaders fall into two categories when it comes to AI; they either have a plan for integration that they’re in the process of implementing, or they're not sure what role AI will play in their business and need to hit the ground running quickly with guidance and solutions.

Envision is a great opportunity to get business leaders together in a room and aligned on what AI is (and what it isn’t). Coders want to know if it can help them code faster. Information workers want to know if it will help them be more efficient. Sales wants to know how it can support them. AI can be all of these things and is certainly more. Microsoft’s growing range of AI tools support a huge range of industries. Sharing different applications, and use cases at Envision has been a great way to push the conversation forward and give business leaders some ideas to start implementing those plans now.

One of the biggest topics of conversation at Envision has been around Large Language Models (or LLMs). There are a lot of questions about generative AI, security, privacy, safety, and how Microsoft customers, who have trusted Microsoft’s security for many years, can continue to have that trust as technology moves forward with Copilot applications.

Microsoft’s LLM is a way of synthetizing data your organization is holding in internal systems to boost efficiencies. Your data stays within your organization; it’s the only place data is pulled from for Copilot. It can be very powerful; imagine you’re writing an RFP, or a deck and the content is similar to projects that your organization has already undertaken. Copilot can pull that information instantaneously in and stop you from duplicating work that’s already been done. For sales, imagine being able to access historical call information from clients instantly, on the call. It’s a collaboration; you still need human eyes on it, still need that person to make the call, but it’s saving searching and collating time; time your organization has already paid someone for. Depending on the application the time savings may not be huge, but a number of 30-minute time savings across a month? A year? It adds up.

For this to be efficient, organizations need to make sure their data governance is well-organized, and that the right people who need the data, and can benefit from AI have access. Organizations that silo data will struggle to harness the real value in LLMs. AI will necessitate many organizations moving their data to the cloud, or reimagining what governance looks like.

Cognizant is sponsoring two Envision events this year. AI is moving quickly and Envision is a great opportunity for business leaders to learn where things are, and where they’re going. AI isn’t a flash in the pan; it will be a valuable tool in every business, and we’re just starting to explore its potential for efficiency, time saving, and the range of contributions it will have for Microsoft customers in the future.