Today Microsoft unveiled a wave of advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and developer tools at its annual Microsoft Build conference. The company is committed to empowering developers with cutting-edge AI solutions to build the next generation of intelligent applications.
“Groundbreaking advances in AI are having a profound impact on Microsoft and on the developers who are using our technology,” said Frank X. Shaw, Chief Communications Officer, Microsoft. “At Build, we are announcing further branches of this technology revolution, and in total about 60 new products and solutions.”
Microsoft Build Key highlights:
- The Evolution of Copilot: Microsoft Copilot Studio introduces new agent capabilities for developers to build proactive copilots; Copilot extensions allow for enhanced functionality by connecting to new data sources and applications.
- Real-Time Intelligence: This new offer within Microsoft Fabric provides end-to-end Software as a Service (SaaS) solution for ingesting, analyzing, and organizing high-volume, time-sensitive data.
- GitHub Copilot Extensions: The first set of GitHub Copilot extensions are now in private preview, allowing developers to customize their experience with preferred services.
- Microsoft Fabric Real-Time Intelligence: It empowers businesses to analyze and act on high-volume data in real-time, enabling faster and more informed decisions.
- Microsoft Fabric Workload Development Kit: It allows independent software vendors (ISVs) and developers to extend applications within Fabric.
- New Frontier Models and Multimodal Capabilities in Azure AI: GPT-4o, OpenAI’s newest flagship model, is now available in Azure AI Studio and as an API for generative and conversational AI experiences; Phi-3-vision, a new multimodal model from Microsoft, also available in Azure, offers the ability to input images and text and receive text responses.
- New partnership with Cognition AI: Microsoft partners with Cognition to offer Devin, an Azure-powered AI agent that tackles complex tasks like code migration for developers.
- Powerful New Virtual Machines: Microsoft is the first cloud provider to bring AMD’s MI300X AI accelerator chip to Azure; New Cobalt 100 Arm-based virtual machines are in preview, offering up to 40% improved performance compared to comparable Azure VMs.
- Copilot+ PCs: Introducing a new category of Windows PCs designed for AI, Copilot+ PCs, the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever built.
A CLOSER LOOK:
The Evolution of Copilot
Since its launch, Microsoft Copilot has transformed the development landscape. There were more than 150 updates to it over the past year, and the Copilot stack, which takes everything learned so far and lets developers build their own copilots, was developed.
Microsoft Copilot Studio is introducing new agent capabilities, enabling developers to build proactive AI assistants for specific tasks. These AI assistants can manage complex processes, learn from user feedback, and request help when needed. Additionally Copilot extensions, including plugins and connectors, allow customers to enhance Microsoft Copilot by connecting it to new data sources and applications, expanding its functionality.
Introducing Real-Time Intelligence for Faster Decision Making
Microsoft Fabric’s new Real-Time Intelligence empowers businesses to analyze and act on high-volume data in real-time, enabling faster and more informed decisions. Now in preview, it can be helpful for analysts with simple low/no-code experiences, and it also can benefit pro developers with code-rich user interfaces.
Microsoft Fabric Workload Development Kit
The new Microsoft Fabric Workload Development Kit makes this possible by enabling independent software vendors (ISVs) and developers to extend applications within Fabric, creating unified user experience.
GitHub Copilot Gains Extensibility with New Extensions
Over the past two years, GitHub Copilot has become the most widely adopted AI developer tool, with 1.8 million paid subscribers. The first set of GitHub Copilot extensions are now in private preview. These additions allow developers to customize their Copilot experience with services like Azure, Docker, and Sentry directly within GitHub Copilot Chat.
GitHub Copilot for Azure, one of the extensions from Microsoft, showcases how building in natural language with a broader range of capabilities can propel development velocity. Using the extension through Copilot Chat, developers can explore and manage Azure resources, while also troubleshooting issues and locating relevant logs and code.
New Frontier Models and Multimodal Capabilities in Azure AI
GPT-4o, OpenAI’s newest flagship model, is now available in Azure AI Studio and as an API. These models integrate text, image, and audio processing, setting a new standard for AI experiences.
Phi-3-vision offers the ability to input images and text and receive text responses. For example, users can ask questions about a chart or ask an open-ended question about specific images.
New partnership with Cognition AI:
Microsoft and Cognition will bring Cognition’s autonomous AI software agent, Devin, to customers to help them with complex tasks such as code migration and modernization projects. As part of the agreement, Devin will be powered by Azure. Cognition AI is an applied AI lab building end-to-end software agents to help developers achieve more.
Powerful New Virtual Machines Accelerate AI Adoption
Microsoft has a unique systems approach to AI infrastructure, which includes hardware and software from Microsoft and its partners, all optimized to run AI workloads at scale and fine-tuned for customer needs. It is the first cloud provider to offer AMD’s MI300X AI accelerator chip and unveil new Cobalt 100 Arm-based VMs, delivering significant performance improvements (up to 40%) for AI workloads.
Introducing Copilot+ PCs
Microsoft also introduced a new category of Windows PCs designed for AI, Copilot+ PCs, the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever built. With powerful new silicon capable of an incredible 40+ TOPS (trillion operations per second), all-day battery life and access to the most advanced AI models, Copilot+ PCs enable doing things impossible on any other PC: generate and refine AI images in near real-time directly on the device using Cocreator, and bridge language barriers with Live Captions, translating audio from 40+ languages into English. These experiences come to life on different devices from Microsoft Surface to Microsoft OEM partners Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung.
About 200,000 people have registered for the event, which features three days of technical learning and community connection. Of these, 4,000 will attend Microsoft Build in person in Seattle. Attendees can choose from over 300 sessions, demos, and expert-led labs from Microsoft and its partners. For those unable to attend live, most content will be available on demand. In total, Microsoft is announcing around 60 new products and solutions at this event.