Microsoft’s Build 2023 developer conference is underway and AI is going to dominate the event. One of the big announcements from Microsoft was Microsoft 365 Copilot plugins. Sticking to the plugin theme, the company also announced shared plugins for Bing Chat, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Starting with Microsoft 365 Copilot plugins, the extension of the service means Copilot will now directly connect with third-party services. Announced in March, Copilot combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with the data in the Microsoft Graph and the Microsoft 365 apps to turn natural language prompts into actions and outputs. It combines an integration of OpenAI’s GPT-4 with Microsoft’s own Bing Chat and Microsoft Graph.
With Microsoft 365 Copilot, the major Office apps on Microsoft’s productivity stack have natural language AI capabilities. Specifically, Microsoft introduced Word Copilot, Excel Copilot, PowerPoint Copilot, Teams Copilot, and Viva Copilot. There was also an announcement to launch the new Business Chat, which brings the Bing Chat chatbot into Microsoft 365.
Microsoft and OpenAI are once again leveraging their partnership to create and extend the AI plugin ecosystem. The companies say they are using open standards for the plugins, which will allow them to function across ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot AI, such as Bing Chat, Windows Copilot (announced today at Bing), Dynamics 365 Copilot, and Microsoft 365 Copilot.
“Developers can now integrate their apps and services into Microsoft 365 Copilot with plugins and reach hundreds of millions of people where they work every day. Plugins are tools that augment the capabilities of AI systems, enabling them to interact with APIs from other software and services to retrieve real-time information, incorporate company and other business data, and perform new types of computations.” – Rajesh Jha, executive vice president, Experiences & Devices at Microsoft”
Microsoft 365 Copilot Plugins Now Available
Three types of plugins are available in Microsoft 365 Copilot: message extensions for Microsoft Teams, Power Platform connectors, and ChatGPT plugins. There will be over 50 plugins available at launch for 365 Copilot Early Access Program customers. Those extensions come from major third-party partners such as Adobe, Atlassian, Thomson Reuters, and ServiceNow. Microsoft says it will introduce thousands of more plugins in the coming months.
Developers can access Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, CLI, and Teams Toolkit to create their Teams message extensions. To drive this, Microsoft has announced the ability to bring any API that matches the OpenAI specification to Microsoft 365 Copilot via the new plugin creation feature in Teams Toolkit. That tool is instanty available in preview from today.
Bing Chat Now Available in ChatGPT
Microsoft and OpenAI have used their partnership to dominate the mainstream AI industry in 2023. Microsoft uses OpenAI’s GPT-4 AI large language model in Bing Chat as well as Microsoft 365 Copilot, alongside the company’s own technology. GPT also underpins ChatGPT, the popular OpenAI chatbot, although it runs on GPT-3.5.
By introducing a Bing Chat plugin, ChatGPT will now have the AI search built into it. The AI can access web data and provide search results, informing the information ChatGPT can give. This new ability it is launching today as part of the ChatGPT Plus subscriber package. However, Microsoft says the new Bing integration is rolling out to ChatGPT Plus subscribers and will be available to free users soon through a plugin.
One AI Plugin Development Ecosystem
The integration is a part of Microsoft and OpenAI taking their commitment to a plugin ecosystem to the next level. Both companies envisage a development environment that provides a single platform for creating and launching plugins for consumers and enterprises across Microsoft and OpenAI services.
To highlight this commitment, Microsoft Bing is adding support for plugins including Kayak, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Redfin, Klarna, and more:
- “With Expedia, travelers will enjoy conversational trip planning for a seamless experience to facilitate memorable travel.
- With Instacart, you’ll soon be able to take the dinner menu Bing helped you plan, turn it into a shopping list, and place an order to get the ingredients delivered directly to your door from your favorite grocery retailer. You can adjust quantities and make other changes before placing the order—keeping you in control.
- Kayak’s plugin will act as a virtual travel assistant, bringing some of Kayak’s most popular features to life in new and more conversational ways.
- Klarna will offer a highly personalized and intuitive shopping experience by providing curated product recommendations to users who ask for shopping advice and inspiration, along with links to shop those products via Klarna’s search and compare tool.
- With Redfin, you will be able to describe your ideal home in everyday terms and Bing Chat will find listings that suit your needs, saving you from searching through endless listings.
- The TripAdvisor plugin will help hundreds of millions of people each month become better travelers by leveraging the world’s largest travel guidance platform.
- With Zillow, you’ll have a built-in real estate expert giving your Bing search a boost with additional housing and market information.”
