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Copilot is coming to OneDrive in May. Microsoft revealed its AI-driven plans for OneDrive in the Microsoft 365 roadmap. With Copilot in OneDrive, users will be able to ask questions and seek information in their online files.
"Copilot in OneDrive, available on OneDrive for Web, will allow you to ask questions and get information from files in your OneDrive without having to open the files," stated the roadmap. "It will also summarize one or multiple files. Copilot in OneDrive will work on the following file types: DOC, DOCX, FLUID, LOOP, PPT, PPTX, XLSX, PDF, ODT, ODP, RTF, ASPX, RTF, TXT, HTM, and HTML. Copilot in OneDrive requires a Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 license."
Released in limited general availability last November and more broadly in January, Copilot for Microsoft 365 uses AI to help users analyze and work with files in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Microsoft Teams and soon, OneDrive. A Copilot for Microsoft 365 subscription costs $30 per user/per month.
In contrast, Microsoft's Copilot Pro plan can help you write and edit text, summarize documents in Word, generate formulas and analyze data in Excel, create presentations in PowerPoint, compose text in OneNote, and draft replies in Outlook. The Pro version does not include AI-driven access to Microsoft Teams and will not let you work directly with your OneDrive files on the web. However, it is cheaper at $20 per user/per month.
The basic version of Copilot is also freely available with access via a dedicated website, a taskbar icon in Windows 10 and 11, and iPhone and Android apps. But only the Pro and Copilot for Microsoft 365 versions let users work directly with Microsoft Office apps and files.
As for OneDrive, Microsoft has been revamping its file-sharing and syncing service since last October to make it easier to access files.
Zoom Upgrades Meeting Experience With Vision Pro
It's only a week since the launch of Apple’s Vision Pro, and while a big question mark still hangs over targeting Vision Pro at the digital workplace given its $3500 price tag, a number of companies have announced plans to build apps for the headset. Zoom however was one of the first to release an app on launch day.
Zoom is marketing its app as something to “make hybrid collaboration more immersive.” A statement about the release claims Zoom’s app for Apple Vision Pro will offer superior video conferencing to what is currently available on the market and give remote workers a better sense of belonging in off-site meetings.
Four features will enable that including:
- Spatial Zoom experience: An immersive environment that can be scaled to suit the size of the meeting.
- 3D object sharing: 3D object sharing gives users a better sense of 3D files when viewed through Apple Pro.
- Team Chat: Integrated with Zoom meetings, team chat allows colleagues to share information and collaborate easily.
- Real-world pinning: Users will be able to pin up to five Zoom Meeting participants anywhere in their physical space.
The Zoom app will also support Apple’s Persona feature. Apple describes the Persona feature as follows: “Users are represented by an authentic spatial representation of themselves in Apple Vision Pro, allowing other meeting participants to see their facial and hand movements.” The question of whether you want that or not is up for grabs. So-called "Zoom-fatigue" is real and the persona feature seems like it might add to it.
Zoom for Vision Pro is available for download from the visionOS App Store so all you have to do is download it and fork out $3500 for a Vision Pro headset.
Cisco Pulls Webex Into Vision Pro
Cisco also jumped into the Vision Pro workplace arena with the announcement that it is bringing its Webex video conferencing for businesses to the headset.
In a statement about the release, Jeetu Patel, EVP and GM for security and collaboration wrote: “Two weeks ago marked the 40th anniversary of the Mac. Consider how the launch of the original Mac not only reinvented how we work with computers, but changed how software was written.
Patel views the launch of Apple Vision Pro as a comparable event, believing it will "reinvent" personal electronics and wrote, "I was impressed by its potential to disrupt how we work."
Javed Khan SVP and GM at Cisco explained that the new Webex experience would use capabilities built natively into Vision Pro to make the entire experience better. After joining a Webex meeting, users can set up individual participant videos and a separate shared content window that scales to life-size with intuitive pinch and drag gestures. Against the backdrop of Apple’s infinite canvas, it will be easier to collaborate and multitask.
Webex will also use Apple’s visionOS Persona feature, so others can see a digital representation of users in Webex while wearing Vision Pro.
The app will also include the usual Webex features like background noise removal, real-time translations, closed captions and live polling while meetings can be transferred between the Vision Pro and a Mac or iPhone.
All of this sounds great and clearly has applications for the workplace. Ultimately though, the $3500 price tag will remain an obstacle for many organizations.
Bard Chatbot Becomes Gemini
Google announced a rebrand of its Bard chatbot to Gemini this week.
According to the company, the Gemini chatbot is a smartphone app that behaves like a talking digital assistant as well as a conversational chatbot.
It can offer users responses to voice or text questions and can tackle many projects including writing poetry. If your workplace doesn't have a high demand for poetry, then its ability to generate images, draft emails, analyze photos and make phone calls might prove more useful.
Gemini is already available for English speakers and is underpinned by Google’s artificial intelligence.
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If this all sounds familiar, it should be. Gemini was introduced in December. Google explained at the time it was its most capable general model it had ever built.
Built from the ground up to be multimodal, it can operate across and combine different types of information including text, code, audio, image and video to formulate responses to queries. The mobile app upgrades will launch alongside a new subscription-based service called Gemini Advanced, which uses Google’s Ultra 1.0 AI model. Ultra can take on more complex tasks, including coding and “logical reasoning," according to the company.
Kore.ai Raises $150M
Kore.ai, developer of an AI-driven enterprise conversational platform, announced a new funding round of $150 million led by FTC Capital and other investors including Nvidia. This brings the company’s total funding to $223 million.
Kore is not a newbie to the AI world. It was founded in 2013 and provides enterprises with a number of AI-related offerings that include virtual assistants, workflows and app building tools.
However, in light of the rapid development of artificial intelligence, Kore's new funding will go towards accelerating its expansion into new markets, updating its capabilities with emerging AI technology and expanding its workforce.
Founder Raj Koneru explained the company's approach in a statement about the funding. “Sitting above the infrastructure layer and LLM chaos, our open approach grants businesses freedom of choice with built-in guardrails for effective AI implementation. [We are looking] to enhance our Gen AI-powered innovations and drive wider adoption across a variety of market segments.”
Kore.ai clearly wasn’t developing generative AI products in 2013, but its previous work in text-generating and text-analyzing models laid the foundations for the generative AI products to come.
Workfellow Closes for Business
As a final note, Finnish start-up Workfellow ceased operations this week and filed for bankruptcy.
Founded in late 2019, the task and process intelligence company landed $3 million in seed funding in late 2021 led by OpenOcean, according to Tech.eu. The process mining market was valued at $1.03 billion in 2022, but despite positive feedback from early customers, the fact that it entered a relatively small field, and its recognition by Gartner, Deep Analysis and other consultancies, the company announced the closure on Feb. 7.
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