Understanding that most users rely on a core set of functionality day in and day out, Microsoft has harnessed artificial intelligence to improve the user experience with Office 365, included in Microsoft 365, by reducing redundancy and repetitive tasks. The result is a dramatic drop in the time it takes to create or revise documents.
“No matter what the role is, we all have to-do lists that have no bottom,” notes Brad Anderson, Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Enterprise Experiences and Management. “We’re able to leverage what we’ve learned in the cloud on a global scale to help users get their work done faster” through AI-driven automation and personalization.
For example, for PowerPoint presentations, instead of agonizing over slide layout and composition, the new PowerPoint Designer feature automatically serves up a set of recommended slides based on the slide content. Similarly, Excel in Office 365 will recognize patterns and fill in subsequent cells, while Word can scan documents to ensure that inclusive language is being used in all correspondence.
Office 365 also addresses the expectation that the modern workforce can be productive from anywhere. Cloud-based deployment enables employees to access Office tools on a range of mobile devices while delivering a seamless and consistent experience as users move between smartphones, tablets, or desktops as part of their daily workflows. Integration with file-sharing and cloud storage services means documents are easily accessible from anywhere and ready for collaboration. For example, a list of recent documents is accessible from whatever device is in use at the moment, allowing employees to pick up right where they left off whether working in the office, from home, on the commuter train, or at a customer’s site.
“In today’s world, users want to work anywhere using any device,” Anderson says. “Having a consistent set of productivity tools working across any device unleashes users to be more creative.”
Also key to boosting productivity is the ability to securely and easily collaborate with colleagues and partners. To this end, Office 365 serves up myriad tools, including Microsoft Teams, a collaboration hub that brings together a variety of capabilities such as chat, video calling, and apps into a shared workspace. In addition, real-time co-authoring capabilities ensure that authorized users can work on a file simultaneously with everyone privy to the changes as they are working.
While Microsoft 365’s features aid productivity, they also create a seamless user experience that fits with the modern workplace. The ability to offer employees an always connected, work-from-wherever experience can go a long way in helping enterprises recruit and retain the hard-to-find talent that is proving to be so elusive in today’s competitive marketplace.
Learn more to plan your shift to Microsoft 365.