Microsoft Inspire 2023 brought together a diverse audience of professionals, developers, and IT experts from across the globe, both digitally, and in person. Held with great anticipation, this year’s event showcased Microsoft’s latest innovations and future-focused strategies that are set to reshape the technology landscape.

During the conference, Microsoft unveiled groundbreaking advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud computing, that demonstrated their commitment to driving digital transformation across industries. Key highlights included the integration of AI into core products and services, thereby enhancing productivity and efficiency for businesses. Additionally, Microsoft’s comprehensive approach to security, leveraging AI-driven insights and automation, was a major talking point, empowering organizations to stay ahead of evolving cyber threats.

Overall, Microsoft Inspire this year served as a catalyst for driving collaboration, innovation, and progress within the technology community. The event’s forward-thinking approach reaffirmed Microsoft’s role as a leader in the industry, providing valuable insights and cutting-edge solutions to address the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly evolving digital world.

In this blog, you’ll find a summary of the pivotal announcements that took place during Inspire, keeping you well-informed and updated without the need to navigate through a sea of information.

Introducing Bing Chat Enterprise, Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing, and Microsoft Sales Copilot

During the Microsoft Inspire Day 1 Keynote, and an associated blog post, Yusuf Mehdi unveiled Bing Chat Enterprise which brings several advantages for customers seeking a comprehensive collaboration tool within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Unlike the public version of Bing Chat, launched earlier this year, Bing Chat Enterprise offers key enhancements tailored specifically to meet the needs of businesses and organizations.

• Integration with the Microsoft 365 suite ensures seamless compatibility with other Microsoft productivity tools, enabling customers to enjoy a unified experience across their workflow.
• Bing Chat Enterprise leverages Bing’s advanced search capabilities to deliver a more robust information discovery process. Users can efficiently search for relevant content, knowledge, and expertise within the organization, leading to faster decision-making and problem-solving.
• Another significant advantage of Bing Chat Enterprise is its enhanced security and privacy features. As businesses handle sensitive data and confidential communications, security remains a top priority. Bing Chat Enterprise ensures that customer data is safeguarded with advanced encryption and access controls, providing peace of mind and reducing the risk of data breaches. Additionally, customers can enjoy greater administrative control, allowing them to manage user permissions, access levels, and compliance settings effectively.

Bing Chat Enterprise is rolling out now in preview and will be included at no additional cost in Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard and Business Premium. In the future, it is planned to be available as a stand-alone offering for $5 per user, per month.

In addition to Bing Chat Enterprise, Yusuf also announced further details about pricing for Microsoft’s highly anticipated Microsoft 365 Copilot at $30 per user, per month for Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard and Business Premium customers, with features including real-time transcription and copywriting, and integration into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more.

Further afield, Microsoft Sales Copilot was announced. Building on the success of Dynamics 365 Copilot, Sales Copilot is designed for sellers, enabling them to personalize each customer interaction and close more opportunities. Sales Copilot is integrated into the tools that sellers use each day – Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and Dynamics 365 Sales, as well as offering connections in to other CRM systems, such as Salesforce. This role-based copilot saves time with task automation, generation of AI-assisted content like contextual emails, customer opportunity summaries, and summarizing meetings to pull out the most important items. Sales Copilot is generally available now, as both a standalone subscription, and as part of existing Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise and Premium licenses at no additional cost.

Preparing for the future of security with AI

In the “Springboard customers into the era of AI with end-to-end security” and associated blog, Microsoft unveiled its ambitious plans to empower its customers with advanced AI capabilities to tackle future security challenges. The announcements, covering new and updated products and services, showcase Microsoft’s commitment to revolutionize the security landscape.

• The core focus of the announcements lies in harnessing the potential of AI to bolster security measures. Microsoft aims to integrate AI technology into various aspects of security, including threat detection and prevention. By utilizing AI-driven insights, customers can identify and address security vulnerabilities before they escalate into full-fledged breaches. Moreover, the adoption of a “Zero Trust” approach emphasizes continuous verification, ensuring the utmost security at every level of access. This comprehensive integration of AI is set to provide customers with a robust security framework that mitigates emerging cyber risks effectively.
• One of the standout highlights was the introduction of “Security Copilot“. This cutting-edge AI-powered security assistant is designed to collaborate seamlessly with security teams, automating repetitive tasks and delivering real-time threat insights. The Security Copilot empowers organizations to streamline their security operations, enabling them to focus on critical tasks while the AI system handles routine activities.

With new features such as the Security Copilot, Microsoft is demonstrating its unwavering commitment to enhancing the capabilities of its customers and partners. These AI-driven solutions will enable security teams to proactively protect against potential threats, ensuring a higher level of defense in the face of ever-evolving cyber risks.

What’s New in Microsoft Teams

Microsoft introduced and discussed several exciting features and updates for Microsoft Teams integrating with Microsoft 365 Copilot in the “Accelerating business growth with Microsoft Teams” and “Enable AI-powered flexible workplaces with Teams (Phone, Rooms, & Premium)” sessions. The enhancements aim to empower organizations with intelligent and seamless collaboration capabilities within the Teams platform.

• Teams Phone and Teams Chat integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot is currently available as part of an invitation only Early Access Program (EAP); keep checking the Microsoft 365 Copilot microsite for announcements on public previews and general availability. Microsoft has expanded the capabilities of Copilot by integrating it with both Teams Phone and Teams Chat. This integration allows Copilot to deliver AI-driven insights and recommendations directly within these communication channels, enabling users to access real-time guidance and support during their interactions, and marks a significant advancement in Microsoft 365 Copilot’s capabilities, transforming traditional communication channels into intelligent and productivity boosting platforms.
• Collaborative Notes is now available in Public Preview, allowing meeting attendees to collaborate on notes, agendas, and follow-up tasks. Collaborative Notes are a Loop component, integrated across Teams, Planner, To Do, Office.com, and OneDrive for Business. They stay in sync across all services, so when a meeting attendee is assigned a task, an email notification will be sent, and the task seamlessly synchronized across To Do and Planner, and all attendees’ devices. By introducing Collaborative Notes, Microsoft aims to optimize the meeting experience within Teams, making it more interactive and productive. This feature not only simplifies the process of capturing and sharing meeting notes but also promotes better engagement and participation among team members, ultimately fostering a more effective and collaborative work environment.

Reach out to us today at [email protected] to find out how Olive + Goose can help your company take advantage of all the latest features like Bing Chat Enterprise, and Microsoft 365 Copilot. By understanding the unique challenges faced by businesses, we can support you throughout the entire process from initial strategy development, deployment, and adoption that will enhance productivity, streamline workflows, and improve your customer interactions.