Microsoft recently released a range of Artificial Intelligence (AI) improvements, as well as updates to its search engine Bing and cloud services, in an effort to close the gap on Google. These changes include introducing Bing’s live search results to ChatGPT, the OpenAI-affiliated chatbot. Subscribers of the chatbot will now have access to the paid Bing results, and free users will soon have access as well.
The company has showcased plug-ins for Bing, following the standard set by OpenAI and allowing for easier consumer transactions in the search engine. One such tool can help with dinner-related queries by offering up dish ideas and relevant ingredients. After the user finds one they like, they are able to purchase the ingredients directly from Instacart with a single click. Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, spoke about this “profound change” and noted that the company has yet to discuss ad placements in relation to the plug-ins.
Microsoft is hoping to use these updates to take a larger slice of the worldwide search engine advertising market, estimated to be worth around $286 billion. Google has also been making strides in the AI front, deploying its own assistant Bard to take on ChatGPT, while the search engine gains the advantage of responding to open-ended queries.
In addition to the updates to Bing, Microsoft will also be previewing its AI assistant, Copilot, for Windows users this June. The company has also announced a way for users to determine if an image or video was AI-generated.
Microsoft is one of the biggest technology companies in the world. Established in 1975, the company has a formidable presence across many industries, from gaming to cloud computing and even surface devices. By expanding on their AI capabilities, Microsoft is hoping to position themselves as a contender against tech giant Google.
Yusuf Mehdi is the Consumer Chief Marketing Officer at Microsoft. He has been in the role since late 2009, in which he has been responsible for the design and execution of marketing plans for all of the company’s consumer products, services and platforms. He previously held a variety of executive roles at Microsoft and is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School.
