Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella outlined the company's vision for a "new era of artificial intelligence (AI)" and its potential to reshape the industry and empower individuals in a letter to shareholders released on Friday (October 20th).
In the ongoing global challenges, Nadella emphasized Microsoft's commitment to democratizing artificial intelligence technology and promoting innovation in various fields. Nadella also emphasized the driving role and significant impact of Microsoft in this new era of artificial intelligence.
Two major breakthroughs
Nadella acknowledged the historic challenges facing the world while emphasizing the enormous opportunities brought by the new era of artificial intelligence.
He stated that artificial intelligence, driven by natural language interfaces and powerful inference engines, will completely change every software category and business. He also stated that artificial intelligence will enable individuals, organizations, and industries to increase productivity and address urgent global challenges.
The first breakthrough is in the most versatile field: natural language. In many ways, the development trajectory of computers is shaped by the pursuit of increasingly intuitive human-machine interfaces, including keyboards, mice, and touch screens. Nadella wrote, "We have now taken a big step forward in natural language and will soon surpass it to see, hear, explain, and understand our intentions and the world around us
The second breakthrough lies in the emergence of powerful inference engines that can process and understand the vast amount of data available today. Nadella believes that this generation of artificial intelligence will enhance data interaction, text, anomaly detection, and image recognition, allowing users to recognize patterns and gain insights faster than before.
Copilot: Artificial Intelligence Daily Partner
In addition, Nadella announced Microsoft's vision for Copilot, an artificial intelligence assistant integrated into the company's most commonly used products and available as a standalone application.
Copilot aims to help users complete various tasks, from shopping, coding to analysis and learning. Nadella stated that the future goal is to make Copilot an indispensable part of the user experience, just like an operating system or web browser.
We are building Copilot into all of our most commonly used products and experiences, allowing people to function as a standalone application. Just like launching an operating system to access an application or using a browser to access a website, we believe you will call Copilot to complete all of these activities, and even more
Microsoft's Commitment
Nadella also discussed three key commitments that drive Microsoft's strategy in the new era of artificial intelligence.
In terms of innovation, Microsoft intends to maintain its leadership position in the business cloud field while innovating in the consumer sector. Its goal is to inject artificial intelligence technology into all levels of the technology stack.
In terms of financial performance, Microsoft will continue to focus on driving operational leverage by adjusting its cost structure and revenue growth. In the fiscal year 2023, Microsoft's revenue was $211 billion, with operating revenue exceeding $88 billion.
In addition, Nadella emphasized the importance of responsibly building artificial intelligence technology to ensure that it prioritizes security while empowering communities.