42 employees. The bank is currently building a new solution on Azure to share data easily between several of its business units. It will include a collaborative engineering environment, security, AI and machine learning capabilities. Responsible AI As generative AI helps to lead the way for the future of work, it’s important to ensure it is used in an accurate, equitable and privacy-preserving way. Natasha Crampton, chief responsible AI officer at Microsoft, says responsibility must be a key part of AI design, rather than an afterthought. “In the summer of 2022, we received an exciting new model from OpenAI,” she says. “Straightaway we assembled a group of testers and had people probe the raw model to understand what its capabilities and its limitations were. “The insights generated from this research helped Microsoft think about what the right mitigations will be when we combine this model with the power of web search. It also helped OpenAI, who are constantly developing their model, to try to bake more safety into them. “We built new testing pipelines where we thought about the potential harms of the model in a web search context. We then developed systematic approaches to measurement so we could better understand what challenges we could have with this type of technology – one example being what is known as ‘hallucination’, where the model may make up facts that are not actually true. “By November we’d figured out how we can measure them and then better mitigate them over time. We designed this product with responsible AI controls at its core, so they’re an inherent part of the product.” With IDC predicting that a total of $6.8 trillion will be invested across digital transformation strategies between 2020 and the end of 2023, AI technology and other cloud-based technologies are empowering organisations to better provide for their employees, and in turn, their customers. “Never before has there been such an opportunity to actively shape the future of work,” concludes Teevan in the New Future of Work 2022 Report. “With research and careful study, we can create a new future of work that is meaningful, productive and equitable.” COVER STORY We asked Microsoft partners about how they are using Microsoft’s cloud-based and AI technologies to help businesses increase operational efficiency, drive employee productivity, and enable their remote and hybrid working strategies Partner perspectives “With our integrations for Dynamics 365, Avalara is enabling businesses to increase efficiency and productivity by automating the onerous process of managing tax compliance. Whether it’s registering with a new tax jurisdiction, calculating tax on transactions, or preparing and filing tax returns, businesses can spend less time and resources with automation than they would manually managing tax. Finance and tax teams play a critical role managing highly regulated business requirements and providing financial data for business decision-making. With Avalara and Dynamics 365, these teams can spend less time on tax and more time providing value to their companies.” Frank Hanzlik Vice President and General Manager, Global Partner Development, Avalara
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