Collaboration is all the rage this month, and it shows no signs of slowing down, Microsoft keeping fairly busy with tens of thousands of new users on board. We’ve even introduced millions of new individuals into the remote workforce due to coronavirus, and Microsoft has pretty much taken the lead in terms of giving away its software to help prevent the likely further spread of COVID-19.
Other companies such as Avaya, Cisco, Zoom, and more, followed suit.
Microsoft also recently made a few seismic announcements that could transform the trajectory of several of its business tools, starting with Cortana. Microsoft’s AI assistant might soon gain a new set of superpowers, according to the company.
Cortana to Shift Focus to Productivity
Fancy letting Cortana send files, start chats, and more in via Teams? Well, that could soon become a reality, as Microsoft is reportedly working on a Cortana integration that would make the assistant focus more on workplace productivity.
The collaboration giant’s pushing to make Cortana less of a general AI assistant and hoping to transform it into a productivity assistant powerhouse. As such, Microsoft will reportedly expand the ‘Play My Emails’ feature with the use of Cortana through Teams. The closer integration is said to create chats, present content during meetings, and more.
Surface Earbuds On Track for Spring Delivery
Soon to make a spring-time debut, Microsoft’s Surface Earbuds are on track for delivery, Brad Sams reported. The collaboration giant had delayed the launch of the earbuds but is said to be on track to release the new earbuds on time. Teams and Cortana will work in unison with the earbuds and play emails from within the collaboration app.
Teams users can soon also gain daily insights by having Cortana read calendars and make schedule adjustments, another massive bump to workplace productivity.
This is a real game-changer and a significant upgrade over other headsets, as the feature takes productivity to the next level. If an email has visual content such as a presentation or a PDF, Cortana will notify you so you can pull out your device to view the full scope of the email with images as context.
Can Microsoft Handle an Uptick in Teams Traffic?
The answer to this question remains to be revealed, but it seems, at least for now, Microsoft is struggling to hold its weight at the moment.
Throughout the week, Teams users have experienced outages while trying to send messages, sign in, etc. Paid users have grown upset this week as well, understanding the issue likely comes to higher-than-usual volumes of individuals using the workplace collaboration tool.
Other collaboration companies including Zoom and Google’s Hangouts offering have too, seen outages, while others have excelled and seen traffic boosts as a result. Cisco reported its users spent more than 5.5 billion minutes meeting since it made its software available for free.
Collaboration tool Wire said it had a tenfold increase in the use of its technology. So far, the company told me, it’s seen its software used for training and more. More recently, ‘Workplace from Facebook’ announced its platform would be free for emergency services and government organizations for one year.
