• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, September 21, 2023

Microsoft Advertising has announced the addition of Copilot to its advertising platform, and a conversational experience that will help brands and agencies create ads based on data and generative artificial intelligence (GAI).  

The features combine the technology to simplify the creation of ads and provide content recommendations for text and images based on the business’ key selling points and search trends.

Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform also can generate new images using Microsoft’s asset library by describing the images wanted for the ads. The platform takes the prompts and returns suggestions to choose from.

Microsoft’s vision for Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform is to provide real-time intelligent assistant to reach advertising goals. From creating faster to completing tasks and getting critical insights and recommendations.

Microsoft has also introduced Compare & Decide Ads, a suite of conversational chat experience that will arrive in closed beta in early 2024.

The first ad format, Conversational Ads, is designed specifically for Chat. On Thursday, Microsoft announced the first of its Conversational Ad experiences, which it calls Compare & Decide Ads.

People often ask chatbots is to summarize options and contrast the pros and cons of something. For example, a user may look to buy a new car and consider several manufacturers and models.

Compare & Decide Ads would pull relevant data of various car models into a succinct table so the user can easily evaluate different options based on the criteria they find most important. This experience is intended to run across all verticals where Microsoft has relevant feed data including retail, travel and auto.

The format represents one of many areas that Microsoft is working on to tailor advertising formats to ways users experience search in Chat.

Snapchat, which reaches on average more than 750 million people every month, and the publisher Axel Springer have become the first partners to use the API, embedding the technology into Snapchat’s My AI chatbot and Axel Springer’s Hey_ (hey.bild.de).

Snapchat’s My AI chatbot, per Microsoft, is among the largest consumer chatbots available, as more than 150 million people across 11 countries have sent more than 10 billion messages in it.

Axel Springer’s product Hey_ (hey.bild.de) on BILD.de, powered by Microsoft Azure Open AI Services, lets advertisers reach BILD.de users who engage in a total of approximately 16-17 million visits per day.

Since February, Microsoft has launched Text Ads, Shopping Campaigns, Multimedia Ads, Hotel Price Ads, Property Promotion Ads, Tours & Activities Ads, Cruise Ads, Credit Card Ads and Automotive Inventory Ads in the Chat experience.