Microsoft Readies to Revolutionise the Workplace with ChatGPT

With reports of a $10 billion investment and riding high in the UC space the tech giant looks poised to refurb Microsoft 365 and the online workplace

https://officetoday.com/office-apps/hello-dall-e-welcoming-ai-to-microsoft-365/

Unified Communications Latest News

Published: January 19, 2023

Jonny Wills

Senior Editor

With the recent reports that Microsoft intends to increase its investment in OpenAI and, subsequently, ChatGPT, and with current AI integrations, it looks inevitable it will incorporate the much-touted language chatbot into the mix of Microsoft 365 and Teams.

Microsoft poured a ton of money into OpenAI in 2019, reportedly investing $1 billion in a small San Francisco-based company and adding another $2 billion over the next two years.

At the 2023 World Economic Forum in Davos this week, Microsoft CEO and Chairman Satya Nadella spoke about how the company is giving access to OpenAI tools and the coding capabilities of ChatGPT. Allaying fears about the new technology, he said;

“One of the things that we think a lot about is how to deploy this technology to empower human beings to do more.”

To support this, Nadella offered an anecdote and related: “For example, on New Year’s Day, I saw this tweet by the ex-founder of the group, Tesla, an AI developer. The most significant product that made a difference in his life in the last 12 months was the co-pilot we launched last year. A co-pilot is now generating 85% of his code.

Nadella explained: “That does not mean it is not generating new code and being at the creative best; it just means that now has 80% leveraged doing what he’s doing. He is still the pilot. He just has a co-pilot. That is why even the branding of what we did there helps to put the pilot in charge and have the co-pilot helping the pilot.

Adaption and Platform Shifts

The irony in Nadella’s keynote motif of “doing with more with less”, heralded to unveil its AI integrations at Ignite last October, may not be lost on the 10,000 Microsoft employees who found out this week they’re being let go. But this seems to be more of a historical standpoint on financial duties taken by the firm, as Nadella confirmed in a message its employees released this week when he said: “These are the kinds of hard choices we have made throughout our 47-year history to remain a consequential company in this industry that is unforgiving to anyone who doesn’t adapt to platform shifts.”

Speaking of platform shifts, in an interview hosted by the Wall Street Journal at the 2023 World Economic Forum, Nadella followed up his Ignite pronouncements regarding AI integration and stated: “Every product of Microsoft will have some of the same AI capabilities to transform the product completely.”

Already Microsoft has included AI in its host of software and hardware products, from Power Platform for easier administration to Surface for faster processing speed.

Access to DALL-E and ChatGPT

On Monday, it announced that it would give more access to its customers to the DALL-E 2 and ChatGPT models.

In a tweet, Nadella announced: “ChatGPT is coming soon to the Azure OpenAI Service, which is now generally available, as we help customers apply the world’s most advanced AI models to their business imperatives.”

This means that the tech firm is ready to monetise its developments, a key question since OpenAI, the start-up it has invested heavily in, is still a non-profit. It will do this by integrating AI tech into its cloud computing platform Azure and intends to avail it to end users and business users. Nadella advises that there will need to be a rethink and said in Davos:

“The workload requires a complete rethink of the computing infrastructure. We did the hard work and retrained these models.”

“When you look at what is coming, these are non-linear developments showing merchant capability. I’m not saying this is the last model; they will be more to come. But these are becoming platforms that I can truly make a difference.”

Cloudflare Partnership with Azure AD

For the last year, the tech giant has been especially quick to reiterate how security conscious it is, notably at Ignite and with it being the focus of its Windows 11 big update. It’s as if it is seeking to reassure that the future flow of data will be secure. To this end, Microsoft announced a partnership with IT service management firm Cloudflare and the Azure Active Directory to make zero trust security easier to deploy.

The new integration means businesses can install zero trust security without changing code.

Joy Chik, President of Identity and Network Access Microsoft, stated:

“A cloud-native zero trust security model has become an absolute necessity as enterprises continue to adopt a cloud-first strategy.”

Chik added: “Cloudflare has developed robust product integrations with Microsoft to help security and IT leaders prevent attacks proactively, dynamically control policy and risk, and increase automation in alignment with zero trust best practices.”

Matthew Prince, CEO and co-founder at Cloudflare, agreed and said: “When I speak with CIOs, I continue to hear that their number one concern remains security, closely followed by adapting to the new hybrid world.”

What Can Azure and Cloudflare Customers Do Now?

Deploy Zero Trust security without changing a single line of code:- Joint customers can now choose to define specific rules in either Azure AD or Cloudflare Access. and determine who can access particular applications based on various factors such as user risk level, device platform, location, and apply them to both products without changing a line of code.
Automatically isolate high-risk users using industry-leading browser isolation technology:- Integrating Cloudflare’s remote browser isolation with Azure AD for high-risk users such as temporary employees who are proactively locked into remote browser sessions for added security.
Save the IT team a fortnight of manual work:- Cloudflare Access integrates directly with Azure AD using a Cross-Domain Identity Management (SCIM) system. Groups are automatically synced between Cloudflare and Azure Active Directory platforms and groups, saving the IT team hundreds of manual hours.
Keep sensitive government data off the public internet:- By connecting the Azure Government Cloud to Cloudflare’s global network via the Secure Hybrid Access (SHA) program, government customers (GCC) can protect sensitive traffic away from the public internet. In addition, GCC users can define and enforce granular rules that determine who can access what using joint solutions from their dashboards without any code changes.

Prince remarked on safety and concluded: “We want to make it easier than ever for IT leaders to deploy zero trust security across the enterprise and keep users safe wherever they are working from. I’m thrilled that we are deepening our integration with Microsoft to help our joint customers easily deploy zero trust security across some of the most used applications in the workplace.”

The Language of Change

In its development and preparation of the integration of AI models across Microsoft 365 — now in an app version for smartphones and devices — Microsoft has chosen excited language to present itself as a leader of innovation and difference-makers, with its customers the agents of that change. This was typified in his statement to employees when Nadella declared: “When I think about this moment in time, the start of 2023, it’s showtime – for our industry and Microsoft.

He concluded: “As a company, our success must be aligned with the world’s success. That means everyone and every team across the company must raise the bar and perform better than the competition to deliver meaningful innovation that customers, communities, and countries can truly benefit from. If we deliver on this, we will emerge stronger and thrive long into the future; it’s as simple as that.”

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