Microsoft Build 2024: All highlights

At the Microsoft Build 2024 keynote, the tech giant discussed numerous advancements in Windows and AI, briefly touching on custom emoji as well. The company is fervently embedding AI across its platforms, similar to other industry leaders. This initiative includes features like a digital assistant that observes your activities to aid in tasks such as project management or offering AI-driven collaboration tools.

What’s announced at Microsoft Build 2024?

Below, you’ll find a comprehensive overview of all the key highlights from Microsoft Build 2024.

• Microsoft introduces AI agents for tasks like email monitoring, workflow automation, employee onboarding, and data entry.
• New compact, multimodal AI model that can read text and analyze images, optimized for mobile devices.
• Edge browser will soon feature AI-powered real-time video translation for platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, and Coursera.
• Users can add personalized emoji in Teams, with admin control over additions, launching in July.
• Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Dev Kit for Windows, featuring a Snapdragon X Elite chip, 32GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD.
• File Explorer will integrate Git, allowing developers to manage projects and track file status directly within the app.
• New Advanced Paste feature in PowerToys for Windows 11, enabling clipboard content conversion and text modification, requiring an OpenAI API key.

Let’s dive in!

Everything announced at Microsoft Surface Event 2024

Microsoft’s compact multimodal AI: Phi-3-vision

Introducing Phi-3-vision, Microsoft’s latest iteration of the Phi-3 AI model, initially revealed in April. This version is multimodal, capable of interpreting both text and images, yet it’s small enough to function on mobile devices. Image analysis stands out as a key application that AI firms are championing, with smartphones being an optimal platform. Phi-3-vision is part of the Phi-3 model family and is currently available in preview.

AI agents in the workplace

At Microsoft Build 2024 the company showed that it envisions AI agents taking on supportive roles within businesses, akin to virtual assistants, to handle repetitive tasks such as email monitoring, automating workflows, assisting with employee onboarding, and performing data entry—all without requiring specific commands. These new capabilities, according to Microsoft, aim to alleviate mundane tasks rather than replace jobs (though one might argue that data entry constitutes a full job for many). The enhanced Copilot features are set to be available for preview in Copilot Studio later this year.

Microsoft envisions AI agents taking on supportive roles within businesses (Image credit) Compact Snapdragon PC

Qualcomm is introducing a small, Mac Mini-like Snapdragon Dev Kit for Windows, priced at $899. It features a Snapdragon X Elite chip, 32GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a variety of ports. However, availability for general consumers remains unclear.

AI-enhanced clipboard in Windows PowerToys

At Microsoft Build 2024, the company has introduced the Advanced Paste feature in the PowerToys suite for Windows 11, enhancing the clipboard’s functionality. By pressing Windows Key + Shift + V, users can convert clipboard contents to formats like plaintext, markdown, or JSON. The prompt box also offers capabilities such as text modification or summarization before pasting. To utilize the AI features, an OpenAI API key and credits in your OpenAI account are required.

Git integration in Microsoft File Explorer

Soon, developers will be able to manage their coding projects directly within Microsoft’s File Explorer, thanks to its integration with Git. Users will be able to monitor file statuses, commit messages, and branches. Additionally, File Explorer now natively supports 7-zip and TAR compression.

Developers will be able to manage their coding projects directly within Microsoft’s File Explorer (Image credit) Personalized emoji for Microsoft Teams

Prepare for some creative fun in Microsoft Teams with the upcoming feature that allows users to create custom emoji. Similar to Slack, administrators can control who can add new emojis, which will only be visible within your organization. This feature is set to launch in July.

Real-time video translation with Microsoft Edge

The Microsoft Edge browser will soon feature an AI-driven real-time video translation capability, allowing users to dub videos from platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, Reuters, and Coursera. Initially supporting translations between Spanish and English, as well as from English to German, Hindi, Italian, and Russian, this feature is expected to expand to more languages and video platforms in the future. Microsoft states that this functionality is “coming soon.”

Featured image credit: Microsoft