The "battle" between Microsoft and Google around AI has escalated again, and after the new version of Bing opened the search war, the battlefield of the two tech giants turned to the office field. In less than 48 hours, Google and Microsoft have successively released the latest AI office tools.
On the evening of March 16, Beijing time, less than 24 hours after OpenAI's blockbuster release of the GPT-4 model, Microsoft released the Microsoft 365 Copilot system. In fact, just a day ago, Google also announced the integration of its AI tools into the office system Workspace.
Last year, Microsoft (MSFT, $276.2, $2.06 trillion) took the lead in the ChatGPT wave by joining forces with OpenAI, and its stock price has also been soaring, and the company's stock price has risen more than 15% so far this year. By comparison, while Google (total market capitalization: $1.29 trillion) is also up more than 13% this year. But since the overturn of the online demo Bard in February, Google's stock price has generally shown a downward trend (about -7%).
Although Microsoft and Google have not yet decided in the new round of office battles, Wall Street has given some predictions. Some analysts believe that Microsoft's Copilot is expected to reverse the slowdown in revenue growth and widen the gap with Google. But a relatively conservative analysis predicts that for Microsoft, integrating AI tools into Office tools now means transforming Office again, and the original advantages may no longer exist.
Microsoft Copilot VS Google Workspace
On March 16, at an AI-themed press conference, Microsoft unveiled Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft's latest move to embed AI into its suite of productivity and enterprise applications.
In the early morning of March 15, on the day of the release of GPT-4, Google also integrated its own AI technology into the office "family bucket" Workspace, mainly targeting Microsoft Office office software. In addition, Google has also opened up the PaLM API & MakerSuite of the big language model, the Vertex AI platform for generative AI support, and the new platform Generative AI App Builder, which is enough to see the panic in Google under the majesty of GPT-4.
Every reporter who compared Microsoft's Copilot with Google's Workspace found that many of the features were similar, including the ability to generate email and document drafts, analyze spreadsheets and extract information from them, and prioritize emails to respond.
1. Microsoft Word VS Google Docs
Take Microsoft Word as an example, in the past, you may have to stay up all night to catch up on papers, plan plans, and do legal contracts, but now you can write it with just an instruction to Copilot. Copilot can call up the files stored on OneDirve and write the required content based on the information provided by the user.
Google's Docs functionality is very similar to Word, and in the document presentation, a very detailed job description outline is created directly based on a very brief prompt - "Write a job description for me".
Image source: Google
Moreover, in the generated document, users can also choose the appropriate tone and style. For example, when you're applying for a new job and need a more formal tone in your email, you can choose your style directly in Gmail. In Docs, users can collaborate, brainstorm, proofread, write, and rewrite content.
Image source: Google
2. Microsoft Excel VS Google Sheets
On the Excel side, users can ask Copilot to help analyze trends in the data with a single indication and directly generate visual charts.
In Google's Workspace, users enter a command to generate personalized customer information in a table. There are autocomplete, formula generation, and contextual classification features in tables to provide insights and analysis of raw data.
Image source: Google
3. Microsoft PPT VS Google Slides
In Microsoft's Copilot, users only need to enter the information they need to demonstrate and the style they want, and they can generate a beautifully typeset and animated PPT with one click. Amazingly, it can also turn Word documents directly into presentations at the command of the command. "The average person uses less than 10 percent of PowerPoint features," Sumit Chauhan, vice president of Microsoft's Office Products Group, said in a presentation. ”
Of course, Google also has a benchmark Slides function, which can also generate a very beautiful presentation document with instructions.
Image source: Google
4. Microsoft Outlook VS Google Gmail
In terms of mail function, Microsoft's new version of Outlook can help manage the inbox and save communication costs. For example, when you want to write an email inviting friends and family to a party, through instructions, it can not only write the invitation email, but also find the agreed place according to the historical email and add it to the invitation.
In Google's latest Gmail email service, Gmail can also automatically author emails by reading instructions, and can summarize long messages with key points.
Image source: Google
5. Microsoft Teams VS Google Meet
Copilot is also useful in team collaboration. Teams is equivalent to a meeting assistant that can organize key discussion points, summarize meeting conclusions, and guide the meeting process at any time. Notably, Microsoft also announced a new experience: Business Chat, which generates status updates based on morning meetings, emails, and chat threads through language prompts such as "Tell my team how we're updating our product strategy."
In Google's team feature, Meet can help users synchronize the main points of the meeting when they are in a meeting. Google also has a feature similar to Microsoft Business Chat: Chat. In this feature, users can simultaneously enable workflows to complete work tasks.
Image source: Google
At present, the latest office tools of the two giants have not been officially opened to users, although the functional difference between the two cannot be specifically felt, but from the demonstration video, it can be observed that the details of Microsoft's demonstration are more detailed and more specific.
And, in addition to similar features mentioned above, Microsoft also showed something unique compared to Google's Worksapce. For example, in the Power Platform, Copilot uses low-code tools such as Power Apps and Power Virtual Agents to allow programmers to develop applications.
In addition, in Copilot, Microsoft's Microsoft Graph is able to read email, calendars, files, usage patterns, and other information stored in the Microsoft cloud, such as Outlook, OneDrive, Office 365, Teams.
Image source: Microsoft
In contrast, Microsoft seems to be slightly superior.
From search to office, Microsoft Google has escalated
Last year, because of the alliance with OpenAI, Microsoft seized the opportunity of ChatGPT, and the AI business is riding the east wind of ChatGPT. The launch of a new version of Bing this year kicks off a search battle with Google, exposing Google's core product, online search, to the most significant threat in years.
Seeing that the fire of ChatGPT is getting stronger and stronger, and it is unwilling to be seized by competitors, Google has also begun the road of "counterattack". Google has been trying to catch up for months, first issuing a "red warning" within the company, revealing a $300 million investment in Anthropic, a self-supporting company at OpenAI research vice president, and then urgently launching the Bard chatbot that was not released two years ago out of caution.
In early February, it was even reported that Google co-founder Sergey Brin had made a strong comeback, submitting his first code request in years. This has also been interpreted by the media as fully showing Google's imminent enemy and eager to fight back.
Previously, Jie Wang, a professor of computer science at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, said in a previous interview with reporters that large companies like Microsoft and Google will have certain advantages because they have human, technical and financial resources. No single model can excel at everything, though. Therefore, all companies have plenty of space in the market. It will be a new game, especially in terms of depth and correctness.
However, in recent months, despite the emergence of many contestants in the wave of AI led by ChatGPT, including large companies such as Meta and some Silicon Valley startups, the spotlight has always been aimed at Microsoft and Google. And, with OpenAI, Microsoft is always slightly ahead.
Microsoft's stock price has also risen by more than 15% this year, due to its leadership in the ChatGPT wave. In contrast, while Google also gained more than 13%, Google's stock price has generally shown a downward trend since the online demo Bard rollover in February.
On the occasion of the release of GPT-4, Google preempted Microsoft and released its own new progress in the office field, demonstrating the Work Space function that integrates its AI functions, but unfortunately, it was still eclipsed under the aura of GPT-4 that day.
Microsoft's side naturally will not fall behind, less than 24 hours, Microsoft released Microsoft 365 Copilot, the function is fully benchmarked with Google, and there are more unique features. The standoff between Google and Microsoft is heating up.
In the new round of fighting, who wins and who loses?
In less than 48 hours, Google and Microsoft released the latest AI office tools, which also means that the two giants have turned to another new AI battlefield - seeking changes in the way humans work. Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, said in a blog post that generative AI is a generational shift in technology, similar to the shift from desktop computing to mobile devices.
As Microsoft CEO Nadella said in a statement: "Today marks the next important step in the evolution of how we interact with computing, which will fundamentally change the way we work and usher in a new wave of productivity growth." ”
"Just as we can't imagine computing today without a keyboard, mouse, or multi-touch, we won't be able to imagine computing in the future without Copilot and natural language cues that intuitively help us with continuation, summarization, chained reasoning, review, modification, and so on." Nadella said.
At the day's conference, Microsoft said specific details about Copilot's pricing and licensing would be announced soon. According to the Financial Times, Credit Suisse estimates that if 10% of Microsoft's 370 million Office 365 business users upgrade to AI-enhanced software bundles, this will generate $14.9 billion in revenue over the next five years. If Microsoft were to also charge a scaled-down version of the new feature across the board, that could generate an additional $18.7 billion in revenue.
Google plans to bring more AI features to Workspace later this year, including generating formulas in worksheets, automatically generating images in slides, and taking notes in Meet. Google says its chatbot Bard will also be released as an experimental demo "in the coming weeks." Like Copilot, the Workspace feature is only available to "trusted testers" and has not yet been priced.
Although Microsoft and Google have only just begun a new round of office battles and are far from victorious or defeated, Wall Street has already given some predictions.
RBC analyst Rishi Jaluria believes Microsoft's Copilot is poised to reverse slowing revenue growth and increase the gap with competitors.
However, there are also relatively conservative views. Some analysts believe that for Microsoft, integrating AI into production tools is far riskier than search. In fiscal 2022, Microsoft Office and related cloud services brought in more than $67 billion in revenue, accounting for more than one-third of the company's revenue. Now, however, by integrating AI tools into Office tools, it means that Microsoft will reinvent Office again, and the original advantages may not exist.
Per reporter: Wen Qiao Per editor: Tan Yuhan