• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, March 16, 2023

Microsoft will integrate the technology behind ChatGPT into its workplace software, upgrading PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook with new capabilities in its latest move to win the race toward automation and artificial intelligence across business products and advertising.

The company on Thursday debuted Microsoft 365 Copilot generative AI capabilities for its suite of Office tools, as well as related updates for its Power Platform low code/no code strategy.

Copilot will be embedded in the Microsoft 365 suite. Through natural-language inputs, it will allow users to generate documents, presentations and original text. It will integrate through an API called Microsoft Graph that personalizes outcomes by creating an intelligent personal digital assistant, as well as a useful generative content tool.

While Microsoft 365 software is the foundation of the company’s business tools, its also pushing hard to build out its advertising services and compete with Google.

Microsoft Advertising in a separate virtual announcement demonstrated how automation and a network of companies will change its position in the market, viewing Google as its only real competitor -- a distant competitor.

In fiscal-year 2022, the company generated a mere $12 billion in revenue from search advertising. Google ad revenue for Q4 in 2022 totaled $59 billion globally. 

Microsoft’s network of companies that enable advertisers to reach more consumers includes partnerships with Ask Media Group, AOL, DuckDuckGo, Forbes, Paramount, Rise, Media.net, WebMD, and Yahoo, among others.

Microsoft Advertising has touted the benefits of automation. It reported that on average clients are seeing a 7% lift in conversions by transitioning from Expanded Text Ads to Responsive Search Ads.

Those embracing enhanced cost per click enable a 20% increase in search return on investment vs. manual bidding on search. And advertisers that expanded into broad match and Dynamic Search Ads saw more than 25% additional unique queries.

Microsoft Advertising moved into 130 markets in 2022, adding 12 billion additional searches and 9% more volume on Bing.

Through the Bing search engine and the Edge browsers, advertisers have access to 600 million searchers globally who make 15 billion searches monthly and a global PC market share of 18%.

Xandr, in part, provides access to more than 600 million people in 130 markets on more than 80 demand-side platforms (DSPs) and 1,550 direct publishers across the open web.

PromoteIQ, which supports retail media, generates advertising revenue from onsite page views natively with an average 6x-to-8x return on as spend.

Microsoft plans to make additional announcements soon around its exclusive advertising partner Netflix and analytics partner Roku, which supports video and connected television (CTV).