Although everyone considers 2023 as the year of artificial intelligence and often portrays it as a harbinger of radical changes, the truth is that artificial intelligence has been around for years, providing minor yet significant improvements to the tools and services you use daily at work.
Google’s Journey with Artificial Intelligence
Google quietly began integrating artificial intelligence into its platforms years ago and continues to roll out new AI-based features across its product suite every year.
Google Search
The integration of artificial intelligence into Google Search has been a long journey, starting back in 2001 with machine learning for spell checking. Over the years, this integration has evolved significantly, making Google Search an intuitive assistant for navigating the vast web. Here are some ways AI has been implemented in search over the years:
– 2001: “Did you mean?” and Google Images – The addition of “Did you mean?” represents one of the first uses of machine learning in Google Search, providing spelling corrections and enhancing search accuracy. That same year, the launch of Google Images transformed the world of visual search.
– 2004: Autocomplete – This was an achievement in applying artificial intelligence at Google, predicting search queries as you begin typing, reducing the time taken to complete searches.
– 2006: Google Translate – Initially supported translation between Arabic and English, and after four years of development, Google Translate expanded to include over 100 languages.
– 2012: Knowledge Graph – This represented a major step in using artificial intelligence to organize information about millions of topics, providing quick snapshots of data on various subjects through knowledge panels that appear to the right of search results.
– 2018: BERT – The addition of BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) was a significant advancement in understanding the context of words used in search queries, leading to more relevant search results.
– 2023: Productive Search Experience – Google is experimenting with productive AI in search. Experimental tool displays show generative results at the top of searches using data from sites that will rank high in the results, raising many questions about how reliance on generated content will be incorporated and how it will affect the sources Google uses. While it is uncertain how this will significantly impact how users search for information, it is clear that Google sees artificial intelligence as an important part of its future plans.
Gmail
Features for predictive text in Gmail, such as Smart Reply and Smart Compose, were launched in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The platform has continued to evolve, helping with AI-driven grammar suggestions for more accurately drafting emails. The nudging feature reminds you to follow up or respond to important messages. AI in Gmail also filters spam, with the company stating last year that it blocks “more than 99.9 percent of spam, phishing, and malware from reaching users’ inboxes.”
Google Docs: Advanced AI Features
In 2019, Google launched an update for Google Docs that uses artificial intelligence to provide grammar suggestions. It also employs Smart Reply in comments to automatically suggest relevant replies and includes automatic summaries to give a quick overview of key information.
Google Meet: Enhancing Virtual Interactions
The capabilities of Google Meet in artificial intelligence go beyond basic video enhancements. Features such as background blurring, automatic noise reduction, and intelligent framing improve overall video quality, making meetings more immersive and distraction-free. AI also improves “issues caused by low lighting or low-quality webcams or poor network connectivity,” which happens in the cloud, so your device performance is not affected.
Application
Duet AI in Google’s Workspace
Earlier this year, Google announced new AI-powered features, including Duet AI, which acts as a collaborative partner and offers features like “Help me write” in Docs and Gmail, “Help me visualize” in Slides, and “Help me organize” in Sheets. Google also plans to integrate it into Google Meet for automatically taking notes during your meetings – or even attending on your behalf so you don’t miss important discussions when other commitments arise.
Shortly after its founding in 2003 as a social networking site for job seekers, LinkedIn began using artificial intelligence to enhance the user experience. Its first AI integration was 16 years ago, in 2007, with the “People you may know” feature.
“AI is not new to LinkedIn,” said Rohan Rajiv, LinkedIn’s product development director, to Mashable. “We have been an AI company for some time now. This technology is now the foundation of our products and has been a key part of how we deliver value to our members and clients and build trust in our systems.”
LinkedIn announced in early November that it is expanding its AI offerings for paid subscribers, who can now receive personalized insights and suggestions from AI, including everything from mock interview preparation to optimizing their profile to give them the best chance of landing a job. AI at LinkedIn has been trained using all the data collected over the years and utilizes “data from Bing because, of course, we have our friends at Microsoft, so we can get search data from the internet,” Rajiv said.
Microsoft
Since 2016, Microsoft has been rapidly integrating AI into many of its core products, starting with PowerPoint. Its efforts increased in 2017, as AI tools became more widely available in the Office suite. Now, the AI productivity tool Copilot is used to streamline your work.
PowerPoint
In 2016, Microsoft introduced the pen and inking feature for PowerPoint, a tool that uses AI to convert handwritten notes into text – by 2019, a billion slides had been created using pen and inking. In 2017, Microsoft expanded AI integration in PowerPoint presentations, where it automatically generates layouts and design ideas to simplify the slide creation process.
Word
Microsoft’s word processor received AI enhancements in 2017 when the company rolled out the Editor and Researcher features. The Editor uses AI to suggest improvements in spelling, grammar, and style, while Researcher helps you find references you can use in your work without leaving your document.
Outlook
The pandemic year was significant for Microsoft’s email platform, as two major AI integrations were added in 2020. The Editor for grammar and spelling was introduced in Outlook alongside text predictions to save time by completing your sentences.
Excel
Excel is an ideal program for utilizing AI, as it helps you be more efficient and makes your data easier to use. It features AI-based tools like data analysis, recommended charts, spreadsheet recommendations, and automatic data type detection that help streamline your data entry process and present your data effectively.
Teams
Microsoft’s video conferencing platform, Teams, has benefited from AI enhancements starting in 2020. These features included background noise reduction and video filtering like Together Mode, which makes everyone look like they are gathered in one place by placing them in a shared background. Microsoft has also started using AI to improve audio and video quality through features like lighting enhancement and echo cancellation.
Copilot
For Microsoft 365
In March of this year, Microsoft announced that the productivity AI tool Copilot would become part of Microsoft 365 – the online version of the Office suite. Stallbaumer stated that Copilot builds on the AI foundation Microsoft has used for years, “allowing us to accelerate innovation using next-generation AI. Now, just by saying the words, you can design presentations, analyze data, and manage your inbox in a fraction of the time.”
Source: https://me.mashable.com/tech/35683/ai-has-been-quietly-enhancing-your-work-life-for-years
Leave a Reply