Microsoft Ignite October 2022 Highlights

Microsoft

Posted by Akari Solutions

And that's a wrap! Another year another #MSIgnite. In this blog, we will cover a few of the highlights, big announcements coming up, and what Akari is most looking forward to!

It's safe to say Microsoft yet again did not disappoint us all with their new announcements - from the Microsoft Teams Premium to Power Pages. Below, are some of the biggest highlights which Akari is most looking forward to implementing with our customers!

 

1. Microsoft Teams PremiumSee the source image

An all-in-one collaboration experience within Microsoft Teams! With hybrid working being a new reality, Microsoft is upping its technology to improve communication and connections within the workplace - there is no going back to 2019. Some new exciting features include:

  • New meeting guides that automatically set up the right meeting options for you and your colleagues, to make booking meetings easier.
  • Live translations for captions, with real-time translation, 40 languages available.
  • Microsoft Teams intelligent recap, this feature assigns tasks taken from meetings by using the recording, and of course with the power of AI. 

2. Microsoft Metaverse 

See the source imageWhen you think Teams cannot get any better, they go and prove you wrong! Microsoft is on a mission to push towards a more metaverse environment, this is why they have created 3D Avatars which will be soon available for you to design and match your identity in Microsoft Teams. This makes Teams meeting's more fun!  

“We are able to interpret your vocal cues to animate that avatar, so it does feel present, and it does feel like it’s there with you,” says Katie Kelly (Principal product manager for Microsoft Mesh).

3. Power Pages is now available!

The Power Platform family has welcomed another member! From a professional developer to a new start-up business Power pages is a low-code platform that allows you to create, design, and publish web pages with a few easy steps. With a range of new features:

Design Hub.  Simple steps to create and design, using four aspects called 'Workspaces'; Pages workspace, Styling workspace, Data workspace, and Set up workspace.

Learn Hub. Built to guide you step by step to design your website. Offering tutorial guides, documents, and other resources to help you create the website you want.

Templates Hub. Website patterns to help you customise the features in the templates, in order to fit your company's brand. 

To learn more about Power Pages, check out our blog Here!

4. Azure Cognitive Service for Speech

 New accessibility features! To enable users to 'transcribe speech-to-text with high accuracy, produce natural-sounding text-to-speech voices, translate spoken audio, and use speaker recognition during conversations.' This feature helps businesses break the language barriers, to have the ability to translate text and/or speech with over 100 languages. With new features added:
New languages and emotions added into Neural Text to Speech. This helps improve voice assistants.

Synthetic voice training, with Custom Neural Voice. This includes multi-style tones such as cheerful or sad which allows businesses to create voicemails etc.

 

Embedded Speech. This feature allows companies to use Azure speech services on any devices.

 

Customisation features. Such as lexicons - to help improve the accuracy of speech recognition.

 

5. Power Automate Al-based co-pilot

 

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Saving the best till last! This amazing new feature enables companies to create automation by just describing to the co-pilot - no searching or sketching needed! The AI will do all the hard work.

 

A job well done to our Power Platform Developer and MVP Charlie Phipps, who was part of the speakers at the UK Spotlight session - where they discussed why you should move your business should shift to a unified cloud! Agree? ... check out his blog HERE 

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Are you making the most of your Microsoft licences?

 

At Akari, we ensure that businesses make the most of their Microsoft 365 licence. With the FY23 Microsoft Financial year just kicking off we have even more ways to support organisations with our Microsoft funded workshops.  If you want to make the most of Teams why not book one of our Microsoft funded workshops.  These workshops help you realise the value of Microsoft technologies in your business, gain real value from your investment and transform the way you work using the latest technologies.

 

To find out if you are eligible, fill out our Request Form or get in touch now!

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