Microsoft Corp. has introduced Team Copilot, an enhanced version of its Copilot assistant designed to improve group collaboration, as part of its broader effort to integrate artificial intelligence across its products.
Announced on Tuesday at Build, Microsoft’s annual developer conference, Team Copilot will serve as a meeting assistant capable of note-taking, summarizing key points, and tracking deadlines. This AI tool is expected to be available to corporate customers later this year.
Microsoft, renowned for its generative AI capabilities in text and image processing, has bolstered its portfolio with the Copilot brand, which includes products ranging from a coding assistant to an embedded search engine in Windows. This move follows Microsoft's $13 billion investment in OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, aimed at integrating similar AI capabilities into its productivity software.
In addition to Team Copilot, Microsoft provided an update on its own processor development efforts. The Azure Cobalt 100, Microsoft’s first in-house central processing unit (CPU), is now available in preview for Azure cloud-computing service customers.
While Azure Cobalt 100 CPUs are not yet considered advanced chips for AI tasks, their release marks a significant step in Microsoft's strategy to compete with industry leaders like Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, which also produce their own chips. This approach allows these companies to offer specialized devices at lower costs compared to traditional manufacturers such as Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Cloud service providers, including Microsoft, are increasingly interested in leveraging proprietary chips for tasks like AI system training. Microsoft’s Maia 100 AI accelerator, currently undergoing testing in one of the company’s data centers, is not yet available to Azure customers, according to CEO Satya Nadella in a recent interview with Bloomberg Television.
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