Big Focus on Generative AI at Microsoft Build 2023

By Melody Brue, Patrick Moorhead - May 29, 2023

At Microsoft Build 2023, Microsoft’s annual developer event, there was a big focus on the opportunity for developers to leverage generative AI plugins to enhance their systems. Microsoft showcased the broader strategy of generative AI as a copilot, with applications ranging from Bing Chat, GitHub Copilot, and Microsoft 365 Copilot. Generative AI can act as a copilot in software development by assisting developers with code generation and completion.

Generative AI and AI, in general, have the potential to serve as “copilots” for professionals across various fields, providing support, automating tasks, and enhancing productivity. This technology can also generate code snippets or complete partially written code.

Microsoft was careful to stress that building a successful AI copilot needs to happen with safety and responsibility top of mind. With the ubiquity of AI solutions in the workforce, safety, security, explainability, and lack of bias will continue to be crucial considerations.

The advent of generative AI plugins signifies a significant breakthrough in enabling developers to harness this technology. ChatGPT was specifically designed based on an open standard, so I think there’s great potential for widespread adoption and collaboration in the developer community. Particularly as the industry faces a developer shortage, the benefits of increased productivity, reduced repetitive tasks, improved code quality, enhanced debugging capabilities, accelerated development cycles, and better utilization of developer expertise are apparent.

Melody Brue

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Mel Brue is vice president and principal analyst covering modern work and financial services. Mel has more than 25 years of real tech industry experience in marketing, business development, and communications across various disciplines, both in-house and at agencies, with companies ranging from start-ups to global brands. She has built a unique specialty working in technology and highly regulated spaces, such as mobile payments and finance, gaming, automotive, wine and spirits, and mobile content, ensuring initiatives address the needs of customers, employees, lobbyists and legislators, as well as shareholders.

Patrick Moorhead

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Patrick founded the firm based on his real-world world technology experiences with the understanding of what he wasn’t getting from analysts and consultants. Ten years later, Patrick is ranked #1 among technology industry analysts in terms of “power” (ARInsights) in “press citations” (Apollo Research). Moorhead is a contributor at Forbes and frequently appears on CNBC. He is a broad-based analyst covering a wide variety of topics including the cloud, enterprise SaaS, collaboration, client computing, and semiconductors. He has 30 years of experience including 15 years of executive experience at high tech companies (NCR, AT&T, Compaq, now HP, and AMD) leading strategy, product management, product marketing, and corporate marketing, including three industry board appointments.