The current period is ripe with developer conferences, with Microsoft being the latest to take the stage following Google I/O, which was held on May 10. Microsoft Build is an annual event tailor-made for developers worldwide to stay updated about the latest Microsoft technologies.
Build 2023 promises to offer participants digital and in-person interactive experiences in Seattle, Washington, from May 23 to May 25, 2023. The conference will feature many sessions, interactive workshops, and hands-on labs. Additionally, Microsoft executives will deliver keynote speeches, and attendees will have the opportunity to network with other developers. You can register for free and follow along virtually, and even collect some digital swag.
The commencement of the conference features a keynote session led by Satya Nadella, the CEO and Chairman of Microsoft, and Yusuf Mehdi, the CVP and Consumer CMO of Microsoft. The initial presentation is followed by an informative session entitled “The Era of the AI Copilot,” introducing novel AI-assisted tools catering to enterprises and individuals.
AI announcements recap at Build 2023
Microsoft and OpenAI have made a joint commitment to grow the AI plugin ecosystem by embracing an open standard for plugins that integrates across various platforms. This includes ChatGPT and Copilot offerings such as Bing Chat, Dynamics 365 Copilot, Windows Copilot for Windows 11, and Microsoft 365 Copilot.
With the new extensibility model for Microsoft 365 Copilot, developers can integrate their apps and services into the platform with plugins. These plugins augment the capabilities of AI systems and enable them to interact with APIs from other software and services. There are three types of plugins available for Microsoft 365 Copilot: ChatGPT plugins, Teams message extensions, and Power Platform connectors.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Early Access Program customers can access over 50 plugins from partners including Atlassian, Adobe, ServiceNow, Thomson Reuters, Moveworks, and Mural. In the coming months, thousands of additional line-of-business and third-party plugins will become available as existing Teams message extensions and Power Platform connectors integrate with Microsoft 365 Copilot.
The extensive ecosystem of plugins used in everyday work will bring unprecedented value to customers, transforming how work gets done. Developers can create Teams message extensions today using Teams Toolkit for Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, and CLI, which will function as plugins for Microsoft 365 Copilot.
The technology giant introduced new features to Teams Toolkit, aimed at making it easier for developers to create and test plugins. One such feature allows developers to integrate any API specified by the OpenAPI specification into Microsoft 365 Copilot. This feature is currently available in private preview. Another new feature allows developers to control and customize the user experience through adaptive cards, while Teams Toolkit provides a plugin containing manifest and declarative adaptive cards that define the Copilot user experience.
These features can be further customized by developers to fit their specific scenarios, such as configuring authentication settings before testing their plugin in Copilot.
Microsoft has announced the Semantic Index for Copilot, which is a mapping tool of user and company data. It uses vector embeddings to capture semantics and similarities around content and users, enabling fast semantic search across billions of items. With Graph connectors, developers can bring their data to Microsoft Graph and take advantage of the Semantic Index for Copilot for more personalized and actionable responses.
Also, Microsoft 365 Copilot can now access structured data from Dynamics 365 and Power Platform stored in Microsoft Dataverse, allowing copilot responses to be grounded in business data. This feature is available to customers in the Microsoft 365 Copilot Early Access Program.
Furthermore, the business software solution, Microsoft 365 Copilot, is currently undergoing a private preview phase and will be integrated into the Microsoft Edge browser. In addition, the company will start affixing a watermark on any AI-generated content produced by Bing’s Image Creator and Designer tool.
Via Microsoft
