Microsoft's corporate users get AI for reading and writing emails

SAN FRANCISCO: Too lazy to write your own emails? Struggling to find the right words? Swamped by the inbox influx, the drafting deluge?

If you use Microsoft Outlook at work, the workload may soon fall, as the Seattle-based tech giant has announced that corporate subscribers to its Office platform will soon have access to Copilot, an AI bot that can do your emailing for you.

“Microsoft 365 Copilot will be generally available for enterprise customers on November 1, 2023, along with Microsoft 365 Chat, a new AI assistant that will completely transform the way you work,” the company announced recently.

The Copilot bot works by trying to mimic a user’s writing styles. The email tool reads your messages and knocks out replies (em-AI-ls, as it were) designed to look like the real thing – a development that could further fuel concerns about AI getting out of its lane and taking over jobs and aspects of human interaction.

The roll-out follows testing with corporate clients of Microsoft’s such as Visa and KPMG, and comes after rival Google added AI enhancers to its so-called productivity tools, such as Gmail, Sheets and Docs, and after Microsoft offered ChatGPT-style add-ons to Bing.

“We are entering a new era of AI, one that is fundamentally changing how we relate to and benefit from technology,” said Yusuf Mehfi, Microsoft’s consumer chief marketing officer, announcing Windows 11 and Microsoft 365 updates.

“With over 150 new features, the next Windows 11 update is one of our most ambitious yet, bringing the power of Copilot and new AI-powered experiences to apps like Paint, Photos, Clipchamp and more right to your Windows PC,” Microsoft said. – dpa