You may have already used ChatGPT in your personal life, whether to write a song, create a joke, or even learn how to clean your piranha’s fish tank. You’ve likely also heard about how businesses are leveraging ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, to automate customer responses, build websites, or rapidly summarize thousands of product reviews. These activities illustrate the power of generative AI, which learns from various forms of data—such as programming code, text, video, or images—and applies this knowledge to create new digital content.
We view generative AI as the next major shift in computing, on par with the introduction of personal computers, the internet, mobile devices, and the cloud. This shift presents significant opportunities for individuals and organizations, including new ways of working, connecting with customers, partners, and suppliers, and developing innovative business models at scale.
Looking back at previous technological revolutions, we recognize a consistent pattern. Each one has empowered people and organizations to achieve extraordinary outcomes. The personal computer provided computing power to billions, the internet connected us with global knowledge and information, and mobile devices allowed us to stay connected from virtually anywhere.
In retrospect, the organizations that embraced these shifts often became the greatest beneficiaries of transformative change. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, companies that utilized the internet to revolutionize their sales, customer service, and operations typically outperformed those that merely added a URL to their TV ads or uploaded a brochure to their website.
Generative AI marks a similar evolution in technology but goes a step further. It allows users to communicate with computers in natural language, eliminating the need to predict every possible question or scenario in advance.
The Era of the AI “Copilot”
Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. In the context of AI, we view it as a copilot—an expert assistant that helps individuals accomplish complex tasks. For instance, Bing Chat acts as a copilot for search, enabling users to ask questions, generate images from text, summarize articles, and provide citations for answers.
Similarly, thousands of software developers use GitHub Copilot, an AI service from Microsoft subsidiary GitHub, to write basic programming code using plain language. On average, Copilot generates 46% of the code written by developers, allowing them to work 55% faster by handling repetitive and time-consuming tasks. This efficiency boost enables developers to focus on more valuable and engaging work, with three out of four reporting greater job satisfaction.
This is just one example of how AI copilots can enhance productivity. Rapid advancements in large language models are not only expanding our creative horizons but also unlocking new possibilities across search, productivity, creativity, and fields such as healthcare and security. We envision a future where people will have multiple AI copilots to assist with various aspects of both their professional and personal lives.
A Framework for Responsible AI
As our Vice Chair and President, Brad Smith, states, "We recognize that the stakes are high. AI may well represent the most consequential technological advancement of our lifetime." This is why Microsoft has spent over six years investing in a cross-company initiative to ensure that our AI systems are responsibly designed. Our efforts are driven by core AI principles: fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability. Additionally, we are developing industry standards to promote safer outcomes. OpenAI’s pioneering research on AI alignment, alongside Microsoft's Responsible AI Standard, provides a leading framework for the secure deployment of AI technologies and guides the broader industry toward more responsible practices.
We recognize that the stakes are high. AI may well represent the most consequential technology advance of our lifetime.
Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President, Microsoft
Given the current challenges of a contracting global workforce and stagnant productivity, now is the ideal time to rethink how people and technology can collaborate. As Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella highlighted at the March 2023 Future of Work with AI event, "Looking ahead, we believe this next generation of AI will unlock a new wave of productivity growth, with powerful copilots designed to remove the drudgery from our daily tasks and jobs, allowing us to rediscover the joy of creation."
This is the first of a three-part special report on AI in the enterprise. We invite you to join us for the second and third parts, where companies at various stages of their AI journey will share insights on how to thrive in this new era of technology.
Learn more here.