Microsoft is putting artificial intelligence to work in its Office 365 suite

By Brad Jones Published September 27, 2016

microsoft shutting down docs com document sharing service ifa 2015 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Artificial intelligence has long been heralded as a new technology with the power to change the world, but typically it is its demonstrative applications, like composing music or beating human players at board games, that make the headlines. Now, Microsoft has announced plans to unleash the power of AI in a manner that’s more likely to benefit the average user, via new Office 365 functionality.

“We have reached a point in our industry where the collective power of technology exceeds that of the individual,” reads a blog post by Microsoft’s executive vice president of worldwide business, Judson Althoff. “Where, in a matter of hours, a person can generate insights that previously would have taken days.”

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Microsoft is looking to help individuals put this power to good use. One example is a new piece of functionality dubbed Tap for Word and Outlook, which mines the Microsoft Graph for relevant content previously created by the user’s organization, and presents it for inclusion in an email of a Word document.

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Meanwhile, the company’s Dynamics 365 business suite will soon gain an AI-enhanced relationships assistant. This tool use the Cortana Intelligence Suite to bring together pertinent pieces of information about particular clients.

The Cortana Intelligence Suite is already being used to great effect by major businesses. Lowe’s uses the service to track customer preferences in relation to its mixed-reality kitchen design experience, while Uber uses Microsoft Cognitive Services to check driver credentials in real-time.

More new features are set to be added to Office 365 in the near future. PowerPoint and Sway will soon offer QuickStarter functionality that prepares a curated outline in response to a topic chosen by the user, according to a report from Engadget. Excel is also set to receive the ability to turn raw geographic data into maps powered by Microsoft’s Bing service.

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Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…

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How much is Microsoft Office? 

The Microsoft Office app on PC.

Microsoft Office, or Microsoft 365 as it's known today, is the full suite of Microsoft work-related applications. It includes iconic programs like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, as well as more modern additions like Teams and OneDrive. You can use a number of these for free in their web versions, or you can pay a monthly subscription to use their downloaded, local versions.

There is no single price for Microsoft 365, as it's only available on the software as a service (SAAS) model, but the monthly cost differs depending on whether you're a home user or business user, and whether you're looking to subscribe for just yourself, or an entire team.

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Microsoft is already reinventing Copilot

The keyboard and trackpad on the new Surface Laptop.

Microsoft has posted a new event on LinkedIn for September 16 titled "Microsoft 365 Copilot: Wave 2," and it will be hosted by CEO Satya Nadella and vice president of AI at Work Jared Spataro. According to the short description of the event, it will cover the "next phase of Copilot innovation," and The Verge's Tom Warren expects it to focus on business offerings rather than consumer products.

As its title hints, the event will also introduce a rebranding of Copilot to "Microsoft 365 Copilot" -- a fairly minor change, but one that likely aims to merge the two products and encourage businesses to see Copilot as an integral part of any Microsoft 365 subscription.

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Microsoft is axing unlicensed accounts for this popular service

Microsoft OneDrive files can sync between a PC and a phone.

Microsoft will soon eliminate OneDrive Business accounts that have remained unlicensed for over 90 days because, as mentioned in a Microsoft Learn blog post, the tech giant feels they pose a significant security threat by leading to confusion and duplication in enterprise environments.

The archiving process will begin in January 2025, and users will not have access to their accounts once they are archived. Those affected accounts will have a $0.60/GB activation fee and a monthly fee of $0.05 per GB for storage in the Microsoft 365 Archive. Once the user pays, the activation process can take as long as 24 hours, but only after following the necessary steps in the Microsoft 365 admin center.