As all observers had anticipated, Microsoft's Ignite 2023 conference is largely focused on artificial intelligence.
At the Ignite 2023 conference, which it is organizing not far from its own premises in Seattle, Microsoft has already made a splash by making official the first chips designed in its own R&D centers, the Maia 100 and Cobalt 100. However, there is no question of contenting itself with hardware announcements, however revolutionary they may be for a company that has always been first and foremost a software publisher. Indeed, Microsoft took advantage of the early hours ofIgnite 2023 to announce the end of Bing Chat, launched only a few months ago, last February.
In fact, it's not really the end of this tool, which aimed to integrate an AI chatbot into the Bing search engine. At a time when everyone is talking about artificial intelligence, such a move would have been surprising. No, Microsoft has decided to rename Bing Chat Microsoft Copilot. The idea here is to streamline the various services offered around artificial intelligence, while Copilot looks set to bring most of Microsoft's proposals under a single "umbrella".
Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise both carry the Copilot name, but companies - logically Microsoft's first target - will be able to create their own "copilots" using the Copilot Studio tool. Of course, Microsoft will also be offering its own AI-powered chatbot service with Copilot, in a free version. However, there will also be a Copilot for Microsoft 365, which, as you'd expect, will be a service with a pay-as-you-go option to take the possibilities even further.
This detachment from the Bing search engine, the association of Copilot with Windows, and the existence of a dedicated website (copilot.microsoft.com) are all signs of the importance that artificial intelligence is set to take at Microsoft, which has no intention of missing out on this revolution in the same way that it missed out on the explosion of smartphones. It's a safe bet that Microsoft will soon be introducing even more innovations.
