Image: Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET.
Since the launch of Copilot (formerly Bing Chat) in February last year, Microsoft has thrown itself fully into the artificial intelligence race. The company has integrated AI into every level of its technology stack – enterprise, security, cloud, hardware – and it appears to be paying off.
Indeed, the Redmond firm revealed very positive results for its second fiscal quarter on Tuesday: not only were its turnover and profits higher than forecasts, but they also exceeded the results of the previous year. And AI is no stranger to this success.
“We have moved from talking about AI to applying this technology on a large scale,” said Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. “By integrating AI into every level of our technology stack, we have won new customers, while helping to drive new benefits and productivity gains across all industries. »
Microsoft Cloud growing thanks to AI
For the final quarter of 2023, Microsoft reported revenue of $62 billion – an 18% increase over the previous fiscal year’s result. Its net profit is $21.9 billion, a 33% increase.
Microsoft Cloud revenue increased significantly (24%) since last year, reaching $33.7 billion. As for Azure and other cloud services, they recorded growth of 30%. And according to Satya Nadella, AI has a lot to do with it.
“Azure gained further share this quarter thanks to the lead we took in AI,” he said during the presentation of the results, according to the New York Times.
Office also benefits from AI
Furthermore, Office products also saw their turnover increase by 15%, notably thanks to the growth in Office 365 results, which was 17%.
These results follow the release of Copilot for Microsoft 365 – an AI-powered assistant for office suite applications – on 1er November 2023.
Of course, we do not yet have the necessary perspective to analyze the exact reasons for this success. But Copilot could well have contributed to this, as the solution is marketed at a relatively high price – 28 euros per user per month.
Microsoft shows no signs of slowing down on the AI front. This month, it unveiled Copilot Pro, a subscription at 22 euros per month that could compete with ChatGPT Plus. It could also be that Microsoft and OpenAI are considering investing in a start-up manufacturing android robots, if Bloomberg is to be believed.
Source: ZDNet.com