Generative AI: 2024, a Co-pilot for All?

In a series of announcements, tech giants have announced the integration of AI assistants into workspaces, marking a significant step forward in the adoption of generative AI across different sectors and functions. According to Microsoft WorkLab, 70% of Copilot users reported an increase in productivity, and 68% said it improved the quality of their work.

Microsoft has just launched the public trial version of "Microsoft Copilot for Finance", an AI-powered assistant designed specifically for finance professionals. This assistant aims to increase the efficiency of finance teams by automating data-related tasks and helping them to search for the right information in a growing set of financial data.

Built on Microsoft's existing Copilot technology released last year, Copilot for Finance can extract data from financial systems and provide suggestions in Microsoft 365 applications such as Excel and Outlook.

The tool focuses on three main financial scenarios:audits, collections, and variance analysis. For example, the "ask an expert" feature enables professionals to quickly navigate complex tasks, automate repetitive processes, and improve work efficiency using simple natural language queries.

Meanwhile, Salesforce is introducing "Einstein Copilot", a conversational AI assistant designed to appear in the right-hand pane of every Salesforce application. The Copilot Studio gives companies the ability to customize workflows, linking fields from the Data Cloud database and personalizing prompts based on their brand voice.

Sage, the accounting solutions specialist, joins forces with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to revolutionize accounting. Using Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Lex, Sage will develop an important language model (LLM) specific to the accounting and compliance domain. This model will power Sage's new AI-powered assistant, "Sage Copilot", serving as a foundation to help SMBs navigate local accounting and compliance use cases.

From the software development side, GitHub is getting a head start with the launch of "Copilot Enterprise". This AI assistant generates code suggestions, answers queries, and summarizes changes, transforming the way engineering teams operate. This assistant could well be every developer's indispensable tool.

What Doesn't Necessarily Mean?

The rise of AI assistants doesn't necessarily mean

The end of human work: AI assistants are augmentation tools, not replacements. They can automate repetitive and tedious tasks, freeing up time for humans to focus on more creative and strategic tasks.

No bias: Generative AI models can be biased, leading to discriminatory results. It is important to put measures in place to mitigate these biases.

Replacing human expertise: AI assistants cannot replace human judgment and expertise, particularly in complex or ambiguous situations.

The Distinction

Differences in the context of work:

Function: Traditional AI automates repetitive tasks, while generative AI helps with creative problem-solving and knowledge work.

Data dependency: Traditional AI relies on well-structured, labeled data, while generative AI thrives on massive amounts of unlabeled data to identify underlying patterns.

Output: Traditional AI provides specific answers (e.g. spam/not spam), while generative AI offers creative suggestions or generates new content (e.g. code snippets, data summaries).

The issues

Impact on jobs and skills: How will generative AI affect existing jobs and skills? What new skills will be needed?

Ethics and responsibility: How can we ensure that generative AI is used ethically and responsibly?

Governance and regulation: What policies and regulations are needed to govern the use of generative AI?

These announcements mark a significant step towards the seamless integration of generative AI into everyday activities, anticipating a paradigm shift in user experience and productivity.

The future of generative AI will depend on how we answer these and other questions.

The Trends 📈

Brand and product discovery: 5 customer journey charts

Social networks play an important role in product discovery, particularly among young consumers. But it's not the only channel of influence. Marketplaces, search engines and physical stores also influence how clients find items.

Gen Z and Y are turning to the public sector. Faced with layoffs at giants like Meta and Google, these young people are now looking for jobs that offer job security, benefits and the ability to pay off their student loans. TikTokers are encouraging this trend, highlighting the reliability of the public sector with a greatly reduced risk of redundancy.

Mindfulness at work would protect against stress and burnout. According to the latest findings of the University of Nottingham, practicing mindfulness in the digital workplace reduces stress, anxiety, and work overload. Participants were asked about the negative effects of digital work, including stress, overload, anxiety, and addiction, as well as their impact on health.

Turning boomers into gamers: Goodday is creating Malaysia’s 1st senior esports team

Goodday, a Malaysian milk brand, is launching a competition called Boomers2Gamers to form the first national senior e-sport team. The aim? Promote e-sport among seniors and bridge the generation gap.

Qatar Airways unveils first-ever AI-powered virtual flight attendant

Qatar Airways has just introduced Sama 2.0, its next-generation virtual flight attendant, featuring innovative conversational artificial intelligence. Sama 2.0 is capable of responding in real time to frequently asked questions about Qatar Airways, destinations served, assistance tips and more.

UK: the Minister for Industry launches his ground-breaking Industrial Innovation Accelerator initiative

The Accelerator brings together key UK digital and manufacturing players. , including technology giants such as Microsoft, Google Cloud, and IBM, as well as manufacturing powers such as GSK, Rolls-Royce, and BAE Systems. This unique collaboration aims to harness the full potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to transform the country's manufacturing industry.

Estonia: Skeleton Technologies in the running to become the next unicorn according to a poll

Estonia, already European champion in terms of the number of unicorns per capita, aims to add even more nuggets to its list of achievements. But which start-up will be the next to break the billion-dollar valuation barrier? According to a recent survey by FoundMe.io, Skeleton Technologies tops the list of future Estonian unicorns. 👉

Uzum, Uzbekistan's first unicorn: an e-commerce and fintech giant is born in Central Asia

Uzum, an innovative startup offering a unique combination of e-commerce, fintech and food delivery services to millions of customers in Uzbekistan, has just completed an exceptional $114 million fundraising round. This performance propels Uzum to the rank of the country's first unicorn, with an impressive valuation of $1.16 billion. 👉

Startmate launches Ladymates to support women in startups

Ladymates, an initiative created by Startmate, aims to encourage more women to work in, found and invest in startups. The aim is to achieve gender equality in the startup sector in the ANZ zone (Australia and New Zealand). 👉