Microsoft is using artificial intelligence (AI) to help its sales team provide better customer service through AI-generated emails.
Key Details
- Clients reaching out to Microsoft’s Viva Sales will soon receive responses from ChatGPT, allowing workers to focus on more complex customer issues.
- OpenAI’s new product will have access to customer records and data, allowing it to respond to customer queries.
- Viva Sales app is a recent addition to Microsoft’s Dynamics customer management program. Users with a premium Dynamics account have free access to Viva Sales.
- Last month, Microsoft and OpenAI reportedly made a $10 billion deal that allows Microsoft to include AI systems in its existing offerings, Bloomberg reports.
- Microsoft also reportedly plans to use ChatGPT in its search engine Bing.
Why it’s news
Since ChatGPT went viral at the end of November, businesses have been working to find potential uses for this powerful new AI tool. Microsoft, an early investor in OpenAI, has been one of the first major companies to implement the new technology into its products.
Microsoft’s $10-billion deal with OpenAI gives the tech company access to a wide variety of AI applications. Already, Microsoft has incorporated OpenAI technology into computer programming software and the cloud. Microsoft executives are still discussing potential applications.
Microsoft’s search engine Bing has struggled to gain traction compared to Google, but adding ChatGPT to the search engine could give Microsoft a significant advantage.
Backing up a bit
OpenAI’s breakthrough technology could reshape the way internet users search for information. Microsoft has already incorporated AI tech into its existing platforms. Just last year, the company added another OpenAI product, Dall-E 2, to the Bing Image Creator tool and a Designer app.
Introducing AI to search engines could change the way users conduct research. Rather than producing a page of links users are currently familiar with, an AI-powered search engine could answer the posed question directly in paragraph form.
In addition to changing how users collect information, this could also mean significant changes in advertising. Currently, search engines sell paid search results that guarantee a listing at the top of the search results page.
Google has reportedly been working to develop its own AI technology similar to OpenAI, but the company hasn’t made much information publicly available.
The chatbot has clearly caused concern at Google headquarters as CEO Sundar Pichai stated that ChatGPT signaled a “code red” for the company, The New York Times reports.