Microsoft launches Azure AI Studio to create their own AI ‘copilots’

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft has launched Azure AI Studio, a new capability within the Azure OpenAI Service that allows customers to combine OpenAI chatbots with their own data -- either text or images, so they can build a chat assistant or another type of app.

"We're excited to share our new Azure AI Studio. With just a few clicks, developers can now ground powerful conversational AI models, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and GPT-4, on their own data," Microsoft said in a blogpost on Tuesday.

According to Microsoft, a "copilot" is an AI-powered chatbot that generates text or images to help with tasks like writing a sales pitch or generating presentation slides.

Bing Chat is one of several such apps developed by the company.

The copilot-building process in Azure AI Studio begins with the selection of a generative AI model such as GPT-4.

The copilot is then given a "meta-prompt," which is a basic description of the copilot's role and how it should function.

Moreover, with Azure OpenAI Service on your data, coming to public preview, and Azure Cognitive Search, the company said employees, customers, and partners can discover information buried in the volumes of data, text, and images using natural language-based app interfaces.

The tech giant mentioned that the Azure OpenAI Service is already benefitting more than 4,500 companies, including Coursera, Grammarly, Volvo and IKEA.