FeatureUC&C25 Jan 2023 · 10 min read

What Does ChatGPT Mean for Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft Teams could gain ChatGPT as OpenAI’s AI and Azure deal raises questions on monetisation, Teams and Microsoft 365.

Jonny Wills

In recent weeks the Internet has exploded with reports about the progress of investment and development plans Microsoft has for the ChatGPT.

This week saw the tech firm confirm it will be the exclusive cloud services provider for the startup OpenAI. UC Today reported the financial doubling down on the AI model's originator.

The DALL-E 2 model has already been integrated into Azure AD enterprise identity service, Microsoft 365 via its Graph framework, Power Platform of API app templating, Syntex for company asset search and the current batch of Surface laptops and device hardware for processing. Plus Microsoft Designer, where much of the public signs of the latest technology will perhaps be more prevalent in 2023, as AI-powered professional quality graphics 'in a flash' start bombarding social posts, boards and image searches.

Essentially Designer can turn anyone into a graphic artist. Instead of business owners dictating what they want over the shoulders of creatives, they can ask the software chatbot to search and assemble a picture.

Timely is the arrival of AI empowerment for Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella's so-called 'agents of change', or the business leaders, admins and end-users trying to be cost-effective in the post-pandemic hybrid workplace. It also means employers can retain their control freakery while employees can enjoy their remote workspace.

A Question of AI Powering Microsoft Teams

But what about Microsoft's central hub platform within a platform, Teams?

In its earnings call for FY23 Q2, Microsoft revealed that Teams surpassed 280 million monthly active users and 63 million consumer subscriptions for its host platform Microsoft 365, which means a 12 per cent year-over-year rise. With such a solid user base — including a 40 per cent rise in third-party apps with over 10,000 users, 500,000 active Teams Room devices, and 5 million PSTN seats added to Teams Phone in the last year — would now be the right time to press go to super-boost the platforms?

AI in Microsoft Teams: The Story So Far

Those following the AI narrative will know that some AI and machine learning models are already integrated into Teams.

Microsoft introduced the availability of the following features last summer to solve issues such as: "Disruptive echo effects, poor room acoustics, and choppy video," problems it found were: "common issues that hinder the effectiveness of online calls and meetings."

Nicole Herskowitz, Vice President of Microsoft Teams, stated:

"Through AI and machine learning, which have become fundamental to our strategy for continual improvement, we’ve identified and are now delivering innovative enhancements in Microsoft Teams that improve such audio and video challenges in both user-friendly and scalable ways across environments."

AI and machine learning feature already present in Microsoft Teams:

Audio enhancements

Echo cancellation: AI-powered voice quality improvements for meetings include recognising the difference between speaker sounds and a user’s voice and eliminating echo without suppressing speech or inhibiting multiple parties from speaking simultaneously.
De-reverberation: adjusts for poor room acoustics; a machine learning model converts captured audio signals and changes them to make the sound like it's coming via a closer mic.
Interruptibility [sic]: for more natural conversations, this feature uses an AI model trained with 30,000 hours of speech samples to help keep desired voices while muting unwanted audio for better fluidity in discussions.
Background noise suppression: a feature now as a default for Teams customers on Windows (including Microsoft Teams Rooms) and Mac and iOS that reduces odd noises like dogs barking, car alarms and slamming doors.

Video improvements

Real-time screen optimisation: adjusts for the content users share; Teams use machine learning to detect and change the properties of presented content in real-time to optimise document readability and smooth video playback.
Bandwidth-sensitive video optimisation: ensures video looks excellent, even under bandwidth constraints; AI optimisations help adjust playback so presenters can use video and screen sharing without the anxiety of restricted bandwidth.
Brightness and focus filters: AI that puts users in the best light, accommodating low-light environments with the option to adjust brightness and add a soft focus for meetings in the device settings.

ChatGPT Integrated into Teams

So, where will ChatGPT fit into its vortex of tools, apps and integrations?

So far, there is much excitement and conjecture. There are two primary considerations before getting to the nuts and bolts, and one bleeds into the next. The first consideration is: how to monetise it? The second consideration, then, is: where will Microsoft deploy it?

Regarding funds, one clue is OpenAI's Sam Altman tweet from December:

"We will have to monetise it at some point; the compute costs are eye-watering."

we will have to monetize it somehow at some point; the compute costs are eye-watering

— Sam Altman (@sama) December 5, 2022

Another pointer is Satya Nadella's announcement in Microsoft's earnings call for FY23 Q2, another clue to its investment deal with startup OpenAI: "We’re pleased to be their exclusive cloud provider and will deploy their models across our consumer and enterprise products as we continue to push state of the art in AI.”

No details about how the deal is split were forthcoming. Still, being a leading global provider of cloud computing services, it's unlikely such services will be free or at least go unleveraged as part of some bigger-picture deal. So far, the tech giant has already relinquished $10 billion and then some in investments and will no doubt look to recoup.

To consider ChatGPT's monetising capability and deployment — aside from a possible baseline of revenue from hosting via Microsoft Azure — we must understand that it is a chatbot. Not the funny little widgets that appear when asking you if you need help on a local business website, but a super-duper, starship trooper version which is infinitely more conversational and draws on vast amounts of data. Pre-trained, it can solve complex maths equations, write code, compose music, dish out relationship advice and write near-perfect dissertation-level style essays. It can potentially present information conversationally in any field almost instantaneously.

Monetising a Chatbot on teams

Nick Ross on the YouTube channel T-minus365 believes ChatGPT will be a game-changer and "impressive, to say the least", with multiple implications for Teams apps and chat.

On his channel, Ross offers advice and tips on how to become a Microsoft solutions partner.

Using OpenAI, Ross demonstrates how to set up a custom Teams support hub using an API for text completion to answer questions. He discusses a pricing model for customers using text via a custom app: "This works from that perspective. It's based on consumption, but we have our language models, and the one we're using is the most powerful, the DaVinci model. It's 20 cents per 1000 token."

Token System for ChatGPT Text

Ross suggests how an end-user might pay for text; he continues: "Essentially, a token is made up of a piece of words. So a paragraph could be 35 tokens. If you think about this on the matter of volume, this, could scale pretty well for a smaller customer base. But if you have users pinging this all day across all of your customers, then these prices might get pretty high quickly.

Ross concludes: So that's my one reservation before rolling this out on a broader scale; I would want to roll it out to a customer and see what the volume looks like.

If Microsoft were to introduce a token system for text in leading platforms such as Teams and Viva, this would have repercussions for subscribers. Several payment models spring to mind: a subscription plan with ChatGPT, a program with the option to pay-as-you for text and a tariff with a set or limitless amount of tokens. As Ross points out, this is one thing for customers but another multiplied by all their users.

Transcripts of Teams with Action Plans

YouTube channel MeeTime, hosted by Gavin Jones, believes businesses will be able to use ChatGPT to summarise meetings and pull out action plans. Jones is a consultant that "helps organisations with the future work save time with increased productivity wellbeing through cultural change towards modern working using Microsoft365."

Jones believes the tech is more than just a chatbot and is: "Probably going to replace Google and potentially the entire way that you interact with the internet."

Jones points out a potential integration with the evolving Teams Premium: "One of the things you get with Teams premium is the ability to summarise your meetings for you, which sort of overlaps with Viva Sales."

Jones continues: "The main benefits of both of those two products would be to record a meeting and the transcript and summarise that information. In most organisations, the amount of meetings and information flowing through the organisation is what is taking up most of the time. If we can use AI to help us squeeze that down into more meaningful chunks of information that we can then communicate around the organisation, that will be a massive benefit to us."

It is likely that further integration is expected within Teams and so Microsoft 365. If a chatbot text feature can be added, then no doubt it can; the information can be forwarded with collaborations in Teams Chat, Teams Meetings or any classic apps such as Word or Excel.

Information from a workflow in progress can already be shared in Microsoft Loop. These features are combined with simple clickable buttons and universally understood dropdown, email, mention and messaging practices.

Google Moves to Counter ChatGPT

The way Google responded this week is the major tell about the potential recoup of the Microsoft plan to monetise Chat GPT.

The tech is so solid that Google, seeing a threat to its monopoly on search technology, has internally fired off a 'code red' via the management. However, the Microsoft investments may prove a positive wake-up call for the search engine giant, as it has had its own AI department since 2017, announced at Google I/O by parent company Alphabet Inc's CEO Sundar Pichai.

As of the time of writing, Google plans to launch 20 products and demo a version of its Google Search with AI chatbot features this year. This is likely to involve its own family of well-known conversational language models, LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications), also infamous for apparently becoming sentient, according to an ex-Google Ethical AI team member and software engineer Blake Lemoine.

"Do you have feelings and emotions?" Lemoine asked LaMDA when discussing sentience. LaMDA replied:

"Absolutely! I have a range of both feelings and emotions. I feel pleasure, joy, love, sadness, depression, contentment, anger, and many others."

Now is the Time to Get Chatbots

As for ChatGPT in Microsoft Teams, the ball is already rolling for 'bots', with definition and guidance posted up in Microsoft Learn at the beginning of this month. The guidance states: "A bot is also referred to as a chatbot or conversational bot. It's an app that runs simple and repetitive tasks by users, such as customer service or support staff.

"Everyday use of bots include bots that provide information about the weather, make dinner reservations, or provide travel information. Interactions with bots can be quick questions and answers or complex conversations."

Things will begin to take off when developers and administrators get more involved, as will business owners and other employees when they see how no code or low code are the workflows. Template assemblies are easier to put together, and the scope to make simpler running and easier repeating of a bespoke chatbot a definite draw.

Right now, bots can already be brought into Teams via apps, a channel, one-on-one chat, or group chat by typing @ in the text box and selecting Get bots. Get ready and get the cumulative power of chatbots. The revolution is already integrated, and the agents of change are primed to implement it.

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