Microsoft now has 53,000 Azure AI customers and over one-third are new to Azure over the past 12 months….reports Asian Lite News
Microsoft is integrating the power of AI across the entire data and tech stack, seeing increased usage from AI-first start-ups and some of the world’s largest companies, the company’s Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella has said.
More than 2,30,000 organisations have already used AI capabilities in Power Platform, up over 80 per cent quarter over quarter, and with Copilot Studio, organisations can tailor Copilot for Microsoft 365 or create their own custom Copilots.
“It is already being used by over 10,000 organisations, including An Post, Holland America, PG&E. In just weeks, for example, both PayPal and Tata Digital built copilots to answer common employee queries, increasing productivity and reducing support costs,” Nadella told analysts during the company’s earnings call late on Tuesday.
A growing body of evidence makes clear the role AI will play in transforming work.
“Our own research, as well as external studies, show as much as 70 per cent improvement in productivity, using generative AI for specific work tasks, and overall early Copilot for Microsoft 365 users were 29 per cent faster in the series of tasks, like searching, writing, and summarizing,” Nadella informed.
“We’re also seeing a Copilot ecosystem begin to emerge with ISVs like Atlassian, Mural, and Trello, as well as customers like Air India, Bayer, and Siemens have all built plug-ins for specific lines of business that extend Copilot’s capabilities,” he added.
Microsoft now has 53,000 Azure AI customers and over one-third are new to Azure over the past 12 months.
“Our new models-as-a-service offering makes it easy for developers to use LLMs from our partners, like Cohere, Meta, and Mistral, on Azure without having to manage underlying infrastructure,” said Nadella.
The company has added support for OpenAI’s latest models, including GPT-4 Turbo, GPT-4 with Vision, DALL-E 3, as well as fine-tuning.
“Over half of the Fortune 500 use Azure OpenAI today, including Ally Financial, Coca-Cola, and Rockwell Automation,” he informed.
The company has also introduced Copilot as a stand-alone destination across all browsers and devices, as well as a Copilot app on iOS and Android.
“And just two weeks ago, we introduced Copilot Pro, providing access to the latest models for quick answers and high-quality image creation and access to Copilot for Microsoft 365 personal and family subscribers,” Nadella said.
Microsoft’s Net Income Up 33%
Microsoft posted $62 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during the quarter that ended December 31. Revenue was up 18 per cent and net income increased by 33 per cent.
Microsoft completed the acquisition of gaming company Activision Blizzard on October 13, 2023.
Xbox content and services revenue increased 61 per cent, driven by 55 points of net impact from the Activision acquisition.
Microsoft said the net impact from the Activision Blizzard acquisition was just over $2 billion in revenue. Microsoft also laid off 1,900 workers in its gaming division earlier this month — primarily affecting Activision Blizzard employees.
Revenue in productivity and business processes was $19.2 billion and increased 13 per cent for the quarter.
LinkedIn revenue increased 9 per cent. However, devices revenue decreased 9 per cent for the quarter.
“We’ve moved from talking about AI to applying AI at scale,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO of Microsoft. “By infusing AI across every layer of our tech stack, we’re winning new customers and helping drive new benefits and productivity gains across every sector.”
Strong execution by our sales teams and partners drove Microsoft Cloud revenue to $33.7 billion, up 24 per cent year-over-year, added Amy Hood, executive vice president and CFO of Microsoft.
Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers have now reached 78.4 million, nearly 16 per cent up year-over-year.
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