Understanding the Microsoft Generative AI Ecosystem

I spend a great deal of my day talking to customers about Microsoft's AI capabilities. In those interactions I've seen themes emerge and I'm creating this post to get customers to think bigger about AI and how Microsoft is infusing generative AI within our vast solution set.

Generative AI is a type of AI that can create new content or data from existing information, such as text, images, code, or music. It can help us unleash our creativity, unlock our productivity, and uplevel our skills.?We are just starting on our journey with generative AI but customers are often confused about how we are exposing the technologies within our broad portfolio of cloud services.??

Microsoft has been a pioneer in generative AI, powering some of the most innovative and popular applications in the world, such as ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and DALL·E 2. These applications use large language models (LLMs) that can understand and generate natural language at scale, enabling new categories of digital experiences that were not possible before.

One of the first Enterprise Microsoft offers we announced was Azure OpenAI Service, which gives customers advanced language AI with OpenAI GPT-4, GPT-3, Codex, and DALL-E models with the security and enterprise promise of Azure. Azure OpenAI Service empowers developers to build cutting-edge AI applications through direct access to OpenAI models backed by Azure’s trusted, enterprise-grade capabilities and AI-optimized infrastructure and tools. Most developers or CTO's comprehend this approach, What about Business Leaders?

Did you know however that in addition to Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft also integrates generative AI into our Dynamics, Microsoft Viva and Microsoft 365 products to enable intelligent automation, insights and actions across different domains. For example, Dynamics 365 Copilot leverages Azure OpenAI’s state-of-the-art conversational AI model to create engaging and natural chat experiences for your customers and your employees. Additionally, Microsoft 365 Copilot works alongside you, embedded in the Microsoft 365 apps you use every day. Apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and more. The focus here is unleash creativity, unlock productivity and uplevel skills. Finally, Viva Copilot is a new generative AI experience found within the Microsoft Viva Suite that helps leaders and employees to boost engagement and performance.?Whether you are a leader, manager or individual contributor, Viva Copilot is a suite of powerful AI-boosted applications that can help you to be more efficient, productive, and effective. It does so by providing personalized insights, automating routine tasks, and helping you to prioritize your efforts, Viva Copilot can help you to achieve your goals and grow your career.

With all that said I want to acknowledge use of fear, uncertainty and doubt surrounding these advanced technologies; we do need to pause and be thoughtful about their application.?Microsoft cares deeply about these concerns and thoughtfully considers them in our contracts as well as the development of specific products.?Specifically, when you leverage the aforementioned capabilities via the Microsoft cloud, you can trust that your company data will not be leveraged beyond your own tenant. Microsoft has a strong commitment to data security and privacy in the enterprise. Not only do we use encryption, anonymization, and differential privacy techniques to protect your data and ensure that it is only used for the purposes you consent to. We also adhere to the highest ethical standards and principles for responsible AI development and deployment.?As per the Microsoft’s privacy policy - Microsoft values, protects, and defends customer data privacy. Microsoft guarantees that customer data belongs to the customer and will not be used without their agreement. Microsoft also complies with privacy laws such as the GDPR and privacy standards such as ISO/IEC 2701812. Microsoft only processes customer data based on the agreement and does not share it with advertiser-supported services or mine it for any purposes.?The introduction of generative AI within capabilities within all our services have not disrupted or changed our contractual obligations.?Our commitment remains.?As you can continue to trust us as your data processor and leverage these advanced AI capabilities today.

I hope this post helps you think beyond what we have all come to understand as ChatGPT and clarifies how we have broadly infused generative AI within our offers. I invite you to explore how Microsoft can help transform your work and business. If you want to learn more about Microsoft’s products and services, please visit our website or contact your Microsoft team today.