Microsoft kicked off its annual event, Microsoft Inspire, with a focus on collaboration and the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI). Microsoft Inspire serves as a platform to acknowledge partner contributions to customer success and to unveil new opportunities and ways to engage with Microsoft products.
At this year’s Microsoft Inspire, the focus remains on making AI a transformative tool for both customers and partners. Microsoft unveiled a range of AI-powered solutions aimed at empowering organizations to harness the potential of AI across their operations.
Among the significant announcements at the event are:
Bing Chat Enterprise
Bing Chat Enterprise is now available in preview for organizations licensed for Microsoft 365 E5, E3, Business Premium, and Business Standard at no additional cost. In the future, it will also be offered as a stand-alone subscription for $5 per user per month.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Pricing
The pricing for Microsoft 365 Copilot is set at $30 per user per month for Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard, and Business Premium customers once it becomes generally available.
Expanding comprehensive security with product innovations
Microsoft introduced several product innovations aimed at enhancing comprehensive security for customers. These include updates to Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR, Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence, Microsoft Purview eDiscovery, Microsoft Purview Information Protection, Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention, and Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management. These updates provide customers with improved security management, threat response guidance, and enhanced data protection.
Empowering sellers and customer service agents with AI
Microsoft unveiled additional functionality for Microsoft Sales Copilot within Dynamics 365 Sales. These enhancements include AI-generated opportunity summaries, contextualized email drafts, and meeting preparations. By leveraging AI capabilities, sellers can boost productivity, gain real-time insights, and personalize customer interactions at scale. Additionally, Microsoft showcased how businesses like Virgin Money are utilizing AI-powered chatbots built with Copilot in Power Virtual Agents to enhance their customer service capabilities.
Process Mining in Power Automate
To help organizations optimize their workflows, Microsoft announced the general availability of next-generation AI features within Power Automate Process Mining. This AI-powered solution offers valuable insights to optimize existing processes, drive efficiencies, and enable low-code automation. Users gain a comprehensive understanding of their business operations and can leverage AI-generated insights to build effective solutions using Power Platform.
New Azure capabilities and investments
Microsoft revealed its plans to invest significantly in increasing the scale and availability of Azure Migrate & Modernize. Additionally, the company announced Azure Innovate, a dedicated investment aimed at meeting the growing demand for analytics and AI. These new offerings provide expanded scenario coverage, richer incentives, and enhanced support for tasks ranging from seamless migrations to the development of AI-powered applications.
General availability of Windows 365 Frontline
Microsoft also announced the general availability of Windows 365 Frontline, a breakthrough solution aimed at meeting the needs of today’s flexible workforce. With Windows 365 Frontline, companies can now extend the power of Windows in the cloud to their shift and part-time workers. This innovative solution is designed to be secure by design, making it easy to deploy and manage while ensuring the highest levels of security, productivity, and resource efficiency. Windows 365 Frontline empowers organizations to embrace new ways of working without compromising on critical aspects such as security, productivity, or IT resources.
Collaboration with Epic Systems
Microsoft highlighted its strategic collaboration with Epic Systems, a leading healthcare software company. By integrating Azure OpenAI Service into Epic’s electronic health record (EHR) software, Microsoft and Epic aim to reduce administrative burdens on healthcare providers and improve patient care. The collaboration focuses on leveraging AI capabilities to streamline clinical workflows, enable intuitive data exploration, and enhance the efficiency of healthcare providers.
Microsoft’s New AI Cloud Partner Program
Microsoft announced the launch of the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, the next generation of its partner program. This program empowers partners to deliver customer value by leveraging Microsoft AI and the Microsoft Cloud. The Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program offers partners a comprehensive portfolio of investments, covering all partner business models at every stage of maturity. Existing partners have seamlessly transitioned into the new program, retaining their benefits and designations.
