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After more or less silent launches, Microsoft officially presented Copilot for Microsoft 365 in our country. It does so by bringing before a large audience not only the already seen possibilities of applying AI on the group’s platforms but by showing how some of its customers have already used generative AI to advance their business. “At the recent Cernobbio Forum, we gave one number above all: artificial intelligence, if applied broadly, can advance the Italian GDP substantially, with a figure greater than one and a half times the value of the Pnrr” he states Vincenzo Esposito, CEO of Microsoft Italy. “This would already be enough to justify the adoption of generative AI without too many second thoughts.”
Yet there may be some second thoughts, especially when it comes to copyright, a field in which the technology that has been talked about most in recent months speeds up the opportunities for content production by everyone, without clear underlying rules. . “And that’s why, since designing Copilot, Microsoft has been thinking about how to preserve the copyright of AI-generated content.” In September, Microsoft announced the Copilot Copyright Commitment, with which it assumes responsibility for any copyright issues raised against customers who have produced content with the group’s AI.
The transformative power of AI
Just a few months after its introduction, generative AI is transforming the global competitive landscape, accelerating technological change and opening up new scenarios of economic growth and social development. The business processes that are benefiting most, thanks to more efficient management of large quantities of data, are R&D, design and production and supply chain. Globally, McKinsey estimates the economic potential of generative AI to be worth between 2,600 billion and 4,400 billion dollars per year, equal to the GDP of a country like the United Kingdom. “Generative AI has an impact on many areas” underlines Federico Marafante, Partner McKinsey & Company. “If there is one aspect that is often overlooked when talking about artificial intelligence, it is its adoption rate. In just a few days, at the beginning of 2023, ChatGpt became the most used app, in reference to the timing of availability, in the entire history of technology“. McKinsey has analyzed how AI can create added value in the global economy, enabling new productivity. “What does this increase in value depend on? First of all by the acceleration of research. Then from automation, with many activities typically having a relative added value, they can be automated by moving hours worked to activities with a higher return. Finally, the so-called ‘augmentation’: we can become much more effective in our work by exploiting the power of Copilot”. According to the analyst, AI has anticipated innovation within companies by at least ten years. In general, 70% of people will be affected, not in a negative sense, by the adoption of artificial intelligence in their profession.
And almost used
There are already numerous companies around the world that have experimented with Copilot and are adopting it within their workflows. In the new edition of the Work Trend Index, Microsoft assessed the impact of AI on organizations, in terms of productivity, quality of work and time. It can be seen that 70% of Copilot users have increased their productivity while 68% said that Copilot has improved the quality of their work while 57% say they are able to be more creative. In general, the speed in carrying out specific tasks (research, writing and synthesis) has increased for 29% of those interviewed: 64% of users declared that thanks to this tool they save time in reading and disposing of emails, 75% optimize time spent searching for information and documents, 86% say they are able to recover what they have lost more quickly. 67% of users declare how Copilot has helped them invest the time saved in more strategic and higher value activities, and 77% finally no longer want to give it up. The first innovation projects linked to Microsoft 365 Copilot are also underway in Italy. During the presentation in Milan, A2A, CNH Industrial, Iveco Group, Maire, Nexi and Saipem demonstrated the introduction of Generative AI into their processes and workflows. For example, Nexi, the leading PayTech in Europe, has started a program internally to explore AI use cases, both traditional and generative, for effective implementation. This initiative is part of the strategic collaboration with Microsoft, which also sees Nexi’s involvement in the preview of Microsoft Office Copilot. In the adoption and expansion process, the role of Microsoft’s partners in the area is fundamental: 4wardPro, Reply and Avanade were among the first to support the integration of Copilot within Italian companies.