My Microsoft Ignite Roundup
Sheeew, I’ve finally caught my breath after a giddy few time in Seattle for Microsoft Ignite. It was a great installment – possibly one of the best I’ve been to – and I came away feeling not only inspired, but also reassured that Autopilot is firmly in step with Microsoft’s vision, and the broader movement of the sector at large.
It’s a good feeling.
Tickets to Ignite were like hen’s teeth this year (I only managed to scoop a last-minute ticket with some serious wrangling), so I’ve put together a few of my key takeaways below.
Microsoft is all in (and I mean ALL in) on AI
I think one of the biggest takeaways for the week was a clear sense of the sheer scope and scale of Microsoft’s AI ambitions. They’re looking to solidify their lead in the field, and there’s a lot of really exciting stuff in the works. The philosophy seems to center around a democratization of AI through a suite of powerful yet hyper-accessible tools, both on the user and dev ends. So we’ve got a load of new toys in our Christmas stockings this year. Thanks, Microsoft!
Copilot was certainly the star of the show. As Satya Nadella said in his keynote, “the age of copilots” is upon us, and – if Microsoft has anything to do with it – we’re moving swiftly toward a world where everyone has a copilot on hand to help them with their work, wherever they are, whatever they’re doing.
Bing Chat is no more. It’s now, simply, Copilot. They also announced four new Copilot additions, including Copilot for Azure, Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides, Copilot Studio and Copilot for Service – all of which look like they’re going to be incredibly useful across the verticals for which they’re designed.
Microsoft Fabric is now fully available
After announcing the preview earlier this year, Fabric is now fully available for purchase. AI is, of course, only as good as the data it’s running on, and Fabric is Microsoft’s answer to the increasing data complexity and quality problem plaguing (as far as I’ve seen) most organizations who have patchworked data architectures to keep up with exponentially increasing data volumes and demands. It’s AI-powered, lake-centric, and open, and it combines the best bits of Power BI, Azure Synapse Analytics and Azure Data Factory into a single unified 7-core SaaS platform. Exciting stuff.
Azure AI Studio
For the devs, Microsoft announced the public preview of Azure AI Studio, a platform geared at simplifying Gen AI application development. It leverages OpenAI models like GPT4 (amongst other industry-leading tools) to empower developers to build and train their own models, custom applications, bots and more faster and more efficiently than ever before. I’m seriously looking forward to exploring this one, and I’m really interested to see what it’s going to generate.
They’re building the AI infrastructure of the future
“From silicone to service”, Microsoft is moving to build an infrastructure fully optimized to support and accelerate AI innovation, at every level of the stack. To this end, the new Maia 100 AI Accelerator was announced – a chip built in-house specifically to handle AI tasks and train large language models on the Azure infrastructure. It was built with feedback from OpenAI, and I’d imagine that Microsoft’s insight into how OpenAI’s massive models are running on their current infrastructure has given them a major edge here.
Speaking of which…
The last day of Ignite played out against the backdrop of the drama at OpenAI, which was interesting in and of itself, but I think it also gave Nadella an opportunity to walk his talk. We all know how it’s played out since, but I think Microsoft’s quick offer to hire not only Altman and Brockman, but up to 500 additional OpenAI employees, no caveats, tells you everything you need to know about where the company is heading.
Forward >>>
We at Autopilot are super excited to be on this journey, Accounts Payable App is live with the Teams and Copilot version coming soon. Forward >>>
Director, Dac Systems
9moThanks for the insightful post Adam - and congratulations on getting your Accounts Payable AI App in the store.
SMB Area Lead - Microsoft Canada
9moGreat post Adam and so excited to see Autopilot right at the cutting edge