Microsoft Inspire 2023: Key Announcements!
Microsoft Inspire 2023 commenced last night with some very exciting announcements!
In this blog post, we’ll dive deep into the transformative updates across Power Platform and Dynamics 365, the game-changing introduction of Bing Chat for enterprise and Copilot, as well as the releases of Microsoft 365 Backup and Microsoft 365 Archive.
Bing Chat for Enterprise
One of the biggest announcements from this years’ event was the reveal of Bing Chat for Enterprise.
Bing Chat Enterprise is built upon a foundation of web data, ensuring comprehensive and reliable answers supported by verifiable citations.
Additionally, it goes beyond text-based responses by incorporating visual elements such as graphs, charts, and images, enriching the user experience.
No chat data will be stored on this interface. This means that no one will be able to view any of your chat data, not even Microsoft themselves have access to anything you submit or generate into Bing Chat.
Compare Microsoft AI Features
Microsoft now have three AI products available, ranging from personal use to advanced workplace use.
Compare the features of all three products below:
Microsoft Copilot for Sales
Copilot for Sales was another exciting announcement during the Inspire 2023 event, tailored specifically for sellers.
This innovative tool is designed to streamline sales workflows, automate CRM tasks, and save valuable time.
By harnessing the power of AI, Sales Copilot provides real-time insights to identify top sales opportunities, empowering sellers to focus on high-value activities and eliminate administrative burdens.
The integration of Sales Copilot into popular tools like Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales ensures seamless access and connectivity.
Furthermore, Sales Copilot is not limited to Microsoft ecosystems and can also connect with other CRM systems, including Salesforce.
Read more about the capabilities of Microsoft Copilot here.
Power Platform
There were many exciting announcements for the Power Platform including Power Automate Mining.
What is Power Automate mining?
It was first released as a public preview in November 2022, and now Microsoft have announced that it will become generally available on August 1, 2023.
Copilot integration within the Power Platform also means that it is making strides within Power Pages to enhance the maker experience when building websites. Managed environments now include Power Pages capabilities, facilitating seamless onboarding and usage.
Copilot within Power Apps is transforming to provide AI-assisted experiences, boosting developer productivity, enabling natural language capabilities for all users, and delivering valuable insights to administrators.
Microsoft have created a release planner for your convenience, to keep track of all the latest and upcoming Power Platform releases.
New features in Dynamics 365
Copilot continues to make improvements to the Dynamics 365 interface.
Some of these improvements include Copilot features in Dynamics 365 Marketing and Sales.
There will be new experiences for rapid creation and unparalleled personalisation of email content, images, and layouts.
These enhancements also include B2B dashboards and streamlined lead assignment, fostering alignment between marketers and sellers as a unified team throughout the buying journey.
Users will enjoy improved lead assignment capabilities, including recommendations, data summarisation, information retrieval, and contextual actions within their workflow.
Microsoft have also created a release planner for all things Dynamics 365 for your convenience.
Microsoft 365 Backup Tool
Microsoft have expanded their backup capabilities with the newly announced Microsoft 365 Backup.
Experience lightning-fast recovery of your valuable OneDrive, SharePoint, and Exchange data with Microsoft 365 Backup.
This advanced solution ensures rapid restoration of large data volumes, all while maintaining the highest level of security within the Microsoft 365 environment.
Rest easy knowing that your data is protected and recoverable, backed by a reliable service level agreement (SLA).
This means that your content will be able to be securely backed up and restorable within hours rather than months.
You’ll be able to access Microsoft 365 Backup directly in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Microsoft 365 Backup will be available for public preview in Q4 of this year.
Microsoft 365 Archive
Microsoft 365 Archive was another announcement made during Inspire. It is a game-changing solution that offers a cold data storage tier within SharePoint.
It allows you to preserve inactive or aging data at a cost-effective price, aligning with the value of the data’s lifecycle stage.
By archiving the content in its original location, you retain the robust security, compliance, search capabilities, and rich metadata provided by Microsoft 365.
Archiving and reactivating content becomes effortless through the SharePoint user interface, while PowerShell scripts and SharePoint Advanced Management’s site lifecycle management feature allow for automated mass archiving at scale.
This feature includes built-in workflows to confirm the activity status of sites before archiving, ensuring careful consideration.
While the initial release focuses on site-level archiving, next year’s update will introduce file-level archiving along with powerful integration of retention policy workflows.
Microsoft 365 Archive will be available as a public preview in Q4 of this year.
