At Microsoft Ignite 2024, Copilot is the word on everyone’s lips. This became apparent to me as I sat down for the first talk of the show — the keynote — which kicked off bright and early Tuesday morning. The room was buzzing with excitement as Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, took the stage to deliver the latest and greatest in the company’s updates and roadmap for the near future.

He jumped, almost immediately, into discussing Microsoft Copilot. Copilot is Microsoft’s AI assistant that integrates quite easily with just about every existing Microsoft application and function. It should come as no surprise that the company is focusing heavily on this right now. Nearly every company is leaning on AI to try to solve problems and simplify processes (at the very least). I would like to remind you that at Zoomtopia, the keynote’s focus was also almost entirely on AI.

I will admit that these updates packed a punch. Microsoft seems very gung ho on trying to find that line between humanity and technology, with Nadella noting that the problem with AI, and often with technology, is that “computers don’t give a damn.” (A quote famously from philosopher John Haugeland.)

Nadella agreed with this but said, “Computers don’t give a damn. But we do.”

I think that was the strongest point in his entire talk. Threading humanity with artificial intelligence is the most intricate and complicated thing a company could ever try to do, in my opinion. And from everything Nadella touched on, it’s very clear that Microsoft is going to try.

“Copilot is the UI for AI,” he said, explaining that every employee who uses the Microsoft suite should have a Copilot that will very quickly get to know them and their work. This will take some of the menial tasks away from the worker, thus opening them up to more time to be creative and saving them some of that very valuable time.

He showed multiple testimonial videos, showcasing real-world examples of how everyone, from call center workers to students to the people who work for Toyota support, are utilizing Copilot in all that they do.

If you know me and/or have read anything I’ve written before, you know I’m not exactly a believer that AI is our savior. But at the same time, I am a believer that really good AI integration can save you time and valuable brain space if you use it as a resource. And that also seemed to be a very big point of this keynote.

Here are a few of the rollouts:

• New Copilot extensions with “Agents,” basically custom Copilots you can create based on you and your company’s needs. These are basically extending and refining the type of work you might need.
• Lots of new Copilot functionality in Microsoft Excel — Nadella mentioned this would be huge for data analysts. This new functionality can build a strategic analysis plan in minutes, something that previously took the average worker hours.
• Copilot Actions — these basically reduce the time spent on repetitive everyday tasks like scheduling emails and providing feedback on documents. You can build out one of these actions one time, and it will do the rest of them for you in the future. You can basically build a custom project manager or self-service agent, and it will help you organize and complete your daily tasks and remove the clutter from your workload.
• Copilot Studio — this is where you can build those custom Copilot Agents I mentioned above. Based on Nadella’s walkthrough, they seem pretty easy to build. You tell it what you want using natural language, and it just builds it. These agents can also be autonomous — McKinsey & Company built one to help with client onboarding. Dow Shipping uses one too.
• Copilot Analytics — this helps you examine all the Agents you’ve built and really delve into usage and then tailor that Agent to your business KPIs.
• Copilot Devices — Microsoft announced a new class of Windows PCs and Copilot+ PCs (PCs basically designed for AI).

Here is a 90-second version of the keynote from Microsoft:

Alright. That is just me scratching the SURFACE of this 2.5-hour keynote. Yes, you read that right. You’d be here for a very long time if I wrote about every single thing announced, but this is just enough for now. Stick around, and make sure to check out ravepubs.com/ignite for the rest of my coverage while I’m here!