Big Tech ups the ante on AI for enterprise with generative data storytelling

The news: Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce stuff productivity tools with generative AI.

• At its virtual Future of Work event Friday, Microsoft demoed its GPT-4-infused Microsoft 365 and Office apps, per The Washington Post.
• Microsoft also announced the launch of Copilot—an AI chatbot assistant in a sidebar across all of its products to build solutions, refine ideas through dialogue with users, and analyze and visualize data.
• Salesforce is enhancing its data analytics platform, Tableau, with an AI Data Stories feature that provides narratives for the meaning behind data and allows users to ask questions.
• The announcements follow Google’s launch of generative AI features in Workspace.

Factual or fictional data storytelling? Generative AI—enterprise AI’s creative cousin—is rapidly permeating tech tools with promises of productivity superpowers.

• Generative AI’s prowess is seductive. For example, Microsoft’s Copilot allows users to ask questions in plain language about company data sets and get automated insights.
• Salesforce’s Data Stories is like a data visualization-to-text tool that could potentially cut report writing time.
• Yet generative AI’s accuracy shortcomings raise the question of whether AI will weave fictional accounts from data or stick to the facts.
• Likely for that reason, Microsoft’s features come with a disclaimer that they’re experimental previews not meant for production use. Given that OpenAI made similar comments about ChatGPT, the qualifier might get ignored.

Automation inundation: We seem to be heading toward a generative-everything tech economy that’s reshaping the industry and how we work. Tech companies are aware of generative AI’s issues, but in their zeal to beat each other, they’re treating the commercial market like a giant R&D lab.

• The rapid influx of generative tools means companies have to scramble to figure out the who, what, when, and where of adopting them.
• Meanwhile, the need for and lack of regulation of the technology is sending lawmakers back to school to make sense of it.
• We can expect policy debates about accuracy standards, risk disclosure, and labeling requirements for the technology and its end-use products.

This article originally appeared in Insider Intelligence's Connectivity & Tech Briefing—a daily recap of top stories reshaping the technology industry. Subscribe to have more hard-hitting takeaways delivered to your inbox daily.

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