Microsoft's Office Suite to Get AI Upgrade with OpenAI's GPT-4

Microsoft is set to implement OpenAI technology into its Office apps, including Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Word. The apps will use OpenAI's latest GPT-4 artificial intelligence platform to generate whole documents, emails, and slide decks from knowledge the software has gained by scanning corporate files and listening to conference calls. The technology will launch in the coming months and is currently being tested with 20 companies, including eight in the Fortune 500, which have not been named. Microsoft's new technology will help people create “great content, great documents, great PowerPoints, art,” and do sophisticated analysis using natural language queries.

OpenAI, which is backed by Microsoft, has fueled the frenzy of companies adding AI chatbot features to their technology with its ChatGPT tool, which demonstrated the power and potential pitfalls of chatbot technology. Microsoft has already been using OpenAI's technology in its Bing search preview for several weeks, but after several reports that the chatbot was generating freewheeling conversations that some found strange or belligerent, the company began restricting its responses.

Microsoft has invested over $10 billion in OpenAI and has already released Copilot software for sales and customer applications, as well as a product from its GitHub unit for writing programming code. Meanwhile, Alphabet Inc.'s Google announced its own plans this week to use AI tools for creating presentations, taking notes during meetings, and drafting emails.

Microsoft has a long history of developing assistants for office work, but its latest technology's advantage is its ability to handle natural language requests. The software includes an app called Business Chat, which acts as a combination chatbot and personal assistant for office workers. Using plain English queries, it can summarize a recent meeting, find upcoming milestones for a project, list risks for a planned strategy, and suggest ways to mitigate those hazards.

The new technology is being demonstrated in a webcast event, and some customers will have access to Business Chat on Thursday inside of Microsoft's Teams conferencing software. The technology also provides transparency about where it found the information it uses, embedding links to relevant files so workers can see more clearly how the Copilot arrived at its conclusions. One criticism of AI chatbots has been that they serve up information that can't be easily verified.