Which Microsoft Ignite announcements caught your eye and why?
George Schoenstein, CMO at Fusion Connect
Copilot Studio stands out; it simplifies the creation of custom GPTs that can be targeted at specific data sources like websites, SharePoint sites and other corporate systems. It allows businesses to create highly customized, secure, and reliable tools for use by customers and employees.
It will help to streamline the way people interact with company data, while providing 24-hour availability.
For example, customers will be able to interact custom GPTs that gather information from the company’s customer support documentation, FAQs, past chat logs, and product information, and deliver an immediate response with information relevant to the customer. Over time the model will learn to provide more consistent and complete answers, further enhancing the customer experience. These can all be built by virtually any employee in either no-code, or low-code environments.
As expected, the event was very GenAI/Copilot heavy – what demand are you seeing in the market and where do you expect it to be most prominent at this early stage?
Garth Landers, Director of Global Product Marketing, Theta Lake
Financial services firms have taken divergent approaches to the use of generative AI platforms with some touting the development of new, innovative applications and others blocking them outright.
We’re seeing GAI used to generate meeting summaries and power other features in platforms like Zoom IQ and Microsoft Teams. As these use cases develop, Theta Lake is working in lock-step with our unified communications partners to provide supporting capture, retention, and analysis of this dynamic data in an effort to make these features widely available in financial services.
Theta Lake is taking an open and flexible approach to the evaluation and use of GAI tools. As clear security and compliance uses emerge, we are committed to incorporating new functionalities to support innovative features to promote more effective and efficient use of unified communications applications.
Wesley Budd, Strategic Partner Manager, Microsoft & MTR Vendors, Symity
The demand for Microsoft 365 Copilot has been extraordinary. Every conversation we are having with clients either starts or ends with Microsoft 365 Copilot. The market is very aware of its availability but want and need guidance on what they need or should do to get started.
Yes, it’s very important to ensure your cloud environment is secure and employee permissions are correct but what a lot of clients and partners are forgetting is employee training. This is such an important aspect for organisations investing in Microsoft 365 Copilot. It’s one thing giving them the tools but it’s quite another to ensure they are using it correctly and with confidence. Microsoft 365 Copilot is literally like your own Personal Assistant where you have to ask the right questions to get the results or outcomes you need. All in all, this is going to be a game-changer for all organisations.
Immersive Spaces are coming to Teams in next month – do you think this is the start of VR becoming mainstream in collaboration?
Wesley Budd, Strategic Partner Manager, Microsoft & MTR Vendors, Symity
Immersive spaces is an interesting one. Some think it’s fantastic whereas others are not sure what the point of it is. At Symity, we believe it will be great for large conferences. Meaning, if you can’t attend a conference in person then you could join the virtual immersive space which matches the physical space.
It certainly won’t replace the usual meeting experience especially as there are many people that still do not like using their camera- when meeting. However, with the inclusion of avatars this gives the end user another option to appear on screen. Which may also lead to them using their avatar more in general meetings.
The other aspect of this to consider though is that avatars are not seen as a professional way of meeting. It may be good for internal meetings but would be seen as unprofessional in customer facing meetings. To answer the question though, no, we don’t think it will become mainstream.
George Schoenstein, CMO at Fusion Connect
Compared to advancements like Teams Rooms, adopting VR for collaboration might not hit mainstream status immediately across all industries. These advancements will likely be adopted more quickly in education, mechanical engineering, and possibly bioengineering.
The Microsoft Mesh, coupled with Teams and VR Goggles, will take those industries to new heights due to their immersive collaboration capabilities. Mainly, it could lead to enhanced productivity, innovation, and new ways of working that were previously limited by conventional tools and approaches.
For the average front-line information worker and the flexible workforce, I don’t see VR being widely adopted in the near term. The scenarios and workflows of front-line workers might not necessitate the depth of immersive collaboration that VR facilitates. Their tasks often involve more immediate and practical interactions, which may be adequately served by existing tools without requiring the extra complexity of VR.
Which Teams announcements do you think were the most significant?
Garth Landers, Director of Global Product Marketing, Theta Lake
The insertion of Copilot into Teams meetings and whiteboards is very interesting. Copilot can now turn meeting participants’ spoken ideas and topics into a visual collaboration space in Whiteboard, shared across all meeting participants.
At Theta Lake, we have seen rapid adoption of whiteboard usage and concern about compliance and security implications. With this announcement, it’s likely that user adoption of Teams whiteboards will accelerate , using generative AI to “fill in the blanks” and generate discussion and collaboration.
George Schoenstein, CMO at Fusion Connect
The integration potential of Copilot Studio within Teams is substantial due to its ability to streamline the creation and deployment of custom language models directly in the collaborative workspace.
By enabling seamless access to tailored AI models within the familiar Teams environment, it empowers users to leverage sophisticated AI capabilities effortlessly, fostering productivity and efficiency in various tasks, from automating responses to enhancing decision-making processes. This integration bridges the gap between AI development and everyday workflows, facilitating quick adoption and utilization of AI-powered solutions within the Teams ecosystem.
What demand are you seeing in the market for GenAI/Copilot, and where is it most prominent at this early stage?
George Schoenstein, CMO at Fusion Connect
Businesses are moving away from using separate tools that are integrated together, to embracing platforms like Microsoft. This is driven by a need to be more efficient in how they manage their IT estate, but also in how they need to manage AI in their current and future environment. Microsoft provides a framework and platform that will enable companies to comply with emerging AI regulations more easily, and with less investment and risk.
Like anything else related to technology, the early adopters will quickly recognize the productivity benefits and the competitive edge they will gain by leveraging AI and Copilot in their daily workflows.
This will change how teams “do work” and how they think about work. Across all industries, we’ll see the most demand for AI-generated responses for company-specific data as well as for AI modules that automate mundane workflows.
