- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella opens Ignite 2024
- Unveils a host of new Copilot announcements and upgrades
- Reaffirms Microsoft mission to empower the world using AI
The CEO of Microsoft has highlighted how the company’s Copilot AI platform is set to transform how people at all levels can work effectively and productively, particularly when it comes to AI agents.
Speaking in his opening keynote at Microsoft Ignite, Satya Nadella declared “Copilot is the UI for AI, it's rapidly becoming an organising layer for work, and how work gets done…every employee will have a copilot that knows them, knows how they work.”
“Major platform shifts are in the air,” he added, “I live for these.”
Copilot AI boosts across the board
In a wide-ranging keynote, covering a huge range of new announcements and updates, Nadella introduces a number of Copilot-powered features for top Windows tools such as Microsoft Teams, Outlook, PowerPoint and more.
Copilot will be, “the end to end system for business transformation”, Nadella declared, also unveiling upgrades to Copilot Agent Studio, which will allow users to create a new agent “in seconds” and integrate it into Copilot.
“Sometimes we mysticize these agents as things that take a lot of effort to build,” Nadella said, highlighting how a range of customers had already built third-party agents, “but our vision is that it should be as simple as creating a word document.”
Looking to the future of AI, Nadella, quoting US philosophy professor, John Haugland, noted, “the trouble with artificial intelligence is that computers don't give a damn - but we do.”
“That's what really grounds us,” he stated, “amid all this rapid change, we remain grounded in our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, using this technology to make a difference for themselves, for their teams, and the world.”
"It's not about tech for tech's sake, but it's about translating it into real outcomes," Nadella added, “its transformational power as it drives growth in business, it improves efficiency and operational leverage.”
"As we enter this middle innings of AI, it's up to us to empower human achievement, " he added, "learning these skills will change people's lives - and in fact, it already has."
