As AI innovation accelerates rapidly, Microsoft is bringing the local tech community up to speed over two events in Sydney this February: the Microsoft AI Tour and the startup-focused AI Deep Dive event with Startup Daily.
We spoke to Andrew Boyd, General Manager, Digital Natives and Startups, about how startups can leverage Microsoft’s latest AI tools to keep apace.
From generative AI tools to boost developer productivity and happiness (GitHub Copilot) to AI assistants built into every work application (Copilot for Microsoft 365), the possibilities for startups to harness AI to move faster and smarter – and not break too many things – are top of the tech giant’s agenda.
“It’s a seismic shift,” says Boyd. “Events like these are really important because they’re grounded in the reality of what AI can do today. What are the practical use cases? How you can leverage it to drive those productivity gains, to build that new consumer experience, to have the impact you’re trying to drive from it? And what can it do in terms of transforming business, individual experiences, the economy, the way we work?”
A deep dive into AI for startups
The large-scale Microsoft AI Tour on 7 February will feature headline speakers including US special guests Scott Guthrie, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President, Cloud and AI and Alysa Taylor, Corporate Vice President, Azure and Industry, and locally, Steven Worrall, Managing Director, Microsoft Australia and New Zealand.
The next day, the more intimate AI Deep Dive event will plunge into the practical ways startups are tackling the challenges of implementing and deploying AI, machine learning and data analytics tools right now.
From Boyd’s perspective, those challenges are best met by adopting the “copilot mentality” – a way of thinking fused throughout Microsoft Copilot’s suite of AI-powered products for productivity and creativity, which started rolling out a year ago.
“What we’re seeing is the emergence of copilots for everything,” Boyd tells Startup Daily. “The AI assistant working alongside you in a practical, meaningful way to deliver business productivity and customer experience. That is across every software platform and every consumer experience.”
Moving at speed and scale
Copilot’s technology – which uses the Microsoft Prometheus model built upon Bing and OpenAI’s GPT-4 – is now integrated throughout Microsoft 365 applications, from your emails to your presentations. That’s going to change how we all work in the long term.
Zooming in on specific areas where startups are making gains, the most impactful changes are coming from tools like GitHub Copilot.
Known as ‘the world’s most widely adopted AI developer tool’ and already used by one in three Fortune 500 companies in the US, the programming platform is helping developers code 55 per cent faster and enabling significantly faster software development.
“I’ve worked in startups, I’ve worked in big corporates and there’s always a backlog,” Boyd says. “If you bring in GitHub Copilot, you’re looking at how you can burn through those opportunities faster. How can I develop, code and deploy faster? How can I do that more seamlessly and drive that productivity?”
AI Deep Dive will explore the ‘how’ with GitHub’s Damian Brady, Senior Manager of Developer Advocacy. There will also be demonstrations of tools like Azure AI Studio, Microsoft’s platform for developing generative AI solutions and custom copilots, and Fabric, the new AI-powered data analytics platform.
“We’re really diving into how to take the next step of building your Azure OpenAI copilot for your business,” adds Boyd.
Thinking about customer experience with AI
How startups go about building generative AI solutions to truly benefit customers is a major focus for Boyd and founders he’s been working with.
“The value of the AI experience is often down to the data that it’s grounded in and the prompt engineering of your teams,” Boyd explains. “So knowing your unique context that goes into the copilot and the way that your customers interact with it – that’s another important area that people are focusing on.”
From spending time with founders across Australia, New Zealand, Asia and further afield, Boyd says our local startups are some of the earliest adopters – and therefore some of the best to learn from. Boyd cites an example of a healthcare business he’s currently working with to use generative AI to accelerate and scale its offering.
“We’re looking at a unique problem set, which is that there are an increasing number of people that need to access psychiatric services. But there is a massive over-demand compared to supply in that ecosystem,” Boyd explains. “But actually, what they are seeing in the market is often people are not getting interventions early enough in their healthcare journey to divert them away, and they end up in an acute experience.”
The ‘copilot’ approach solves a problem for psychiatrists – the ability to reduce overheads and spend more time with patients – as well as the patients themselves, who can receive earlier intervention through generative AI chatbots assisting with meditation and counselling.
“It’s using AI to deliver the right experience and driving productivity at both ends of that supply chain,” says Boyd.
Ethical and responsible AI
Building copilots that adhere to specific ethical, regulatory and customer requirements is the challenge all startups will need to address head on.
It’s an especially hot topic given the Federal Government’s recent announcement of its plans to address high-risk AI and establish an expert advisory group to ensure the safe and responsible use of AI.
“We’re really of the belief that you’ve got to share in the responsibility of the way you are using AI,” Boyd concludes. “Be it transparency, be it working with regulators, be it working with government.”
There’s more to come at the Microsoft AI Tour and AI Deep Dive events:
- MICROSOFT AI TOUR SYDNEY at the International Convention Centre Sydney on February 7, 8am-5.15pm. *UPDATE: Registration closed*
- AI DEEP DIVE, presented by Startup Daily in partnership with Microsoft, at the Microsoft Reactor, Sydney Startup Hub on February 8, 10.30am-3.30pm. *UPDATE: Waitlist only*
This article is brought to you by Startup Daily in partnership with Microsoft Australia.
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