Microsoft 365 TechTalk
This blog is about Microsoft technologies and solutions. The focus is on Microsoft 365, Office 365, Azure, Collaboration, Security and Compliance topics.
Freitag, 17. Oktober 2025
Using AI without IT
Sonntag, 15. September 2024
Fake it till you make it - how good are AI detectors really?
The fact is, you have to make it clear when something was created by AI. But who wants to control that and how?
It's the same age-old game as counterfeiting banknotes, counterfeiting products and so on. As soon as one side gains a new level, the other side has to follow suit or at least pretend to have caught up.
In the case of AI, we have the EU AI Act or, in Germany, the KI-Verordnung, which set out the legal framework. This states in Article 50, quote: ...shall disclose that the content has been artificially generated or manipulated: https://www.euaiact.com/article/50
ATTENTION: This is in no way a legal advice!
If the person publishing the content does not do this, however, numerous app providers are now advertising that they can do this for you:
How do these checking apps work?
- Machine learning: classifiers learn from sample texts, but need to be trained for many text types, which is expensive.
- Digital watermarks: Invisible watermarks in text that can be recognized by algorithms. Providers of AI tools would have to insert these watermarks, which is very unlikely.
- Statistical parameters: Requires access to probability values of the texts, which is difficult without API access.
- AI-generated texts often are not very original or varied and contain many repetitions, while human authors vary more when writing.
- A style with many keywords strung together could also indicate an AI as the author.
- AI tools often make mistakes with acronyms, technical terms and conjunctions.
How well do the AI detectors work?
- Best AI Detector | Free & Premium Tools Compared: https://www.scribbr.com/ai-tools/best-ai-detector/
- The best AI content detectors in 2024: https://zapier.com/blog/ai-content-detector/
The next version of AI apps
- https://studytexter.de/: Quote from the homepage - Your entire term paper at the touch of a button in under 4 hours. Innovative AI text synthesis - especially for German academic papers. 1000x better than ChatGPT.
- https://neuroflash.com/de/: Quote from the homepage - Strengthen your marketing with personalized AI content. The all-in-one solution for brand-compliant content with AI, from ideation to content creation and optimization. neuroflash helps marketing teams save time, ensure a consistent message and improve creative processes.
- https://thezimmwriter.com/: ZimmWriter is the world's first AI content writing software for Microsoft Windows. It allows you to use the AI provided by OpenAI directly on your desktop! -> Note: The app advertises 10 features that are supposed to be entered and many details that are supposed to make generated text unique.
Conclusion
Sonntag, 8. September 2024
AI and the productivity and quality of consultants work
The study Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality examines the impact of artificial intelligence on the productivity and quality of life of knowledge workers. This is a field study conducted by the Harvard Business School in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group.
Key statements:
- Experimental conditions: The study included 758 counselors who were divided into three groups: without AI access, with GPT-4 AI access, and with GPT-4 AI access plus an introduction to prompt engineering.
- Increase in productivity: Consultants who used AI were significantly more productive. On average, they completed 12.2% more tasks and required 25.1% less time.
- Quality improvement: The quality of the tasks supported by AI was more than 40% higher compared to the control group.
- Different effects: Consultants with below-average performance benefited more from AI support (43% increase in performance) than those with above-average performance (17% increase in performance).
- Limitations of AI: For tasks that were outside the capabilities of AI, consultants with AI support were 19 percentage points less successful in providing correct answers.
- Use of AI: Two main patterns of successful AI use were identified: “Centaurs”, who divide tasks between humans and AI, and “Cyborgs”, who fully integrate their workflows with AI.
The study highlights that AI can offer significant benefits for the productivity and quality of life of knowledge workers, but also names challenges and risks, especially for tasks that are outside the current capabilities of AI.
A detailed summary can be downloaded here:
Zusammenfassung über KI und die Produktivität und Qualität von Wissensarbeitern.pdfMittwoch, 28. August 2024
Copilot in M365 & PowerPoint had some couples-therapy
- Tip 1: Create presentations using brand templates
- Tip 2: Create presentations from Word & PDF documents
- Tip 3: Add images to your presentations
Montag, 26. August 2024
#genAI - has pushed business to the limit even further!
We simply took a system that was already at its limit and added another layer to it!
The Great Acceleration (Die Große Beschleunigung)
- Technological disruption: Progress in technologies such as generative AI is driving change. Companies must continuously integrate new technologies in order to remain competitive.
- Lack of skilled workers: The demand for qualified employees is increasing, particularly in areas such as IT and data analysis.
- New business models and processes: Digitalization often requires a complete realignment of business models and internal processes. This can lead to an increased workload and the need for constant reorientation.
- Regulatory requirements: New laws and regulations, such as the AI Regulation, the EU AI Act, pose challenges. Companies must ensure that they meet these requirements.
- Cultural change: The changes brought about by artificial intelligence / GenAI also require an adaptation of the corporate culture. Flexibility, a willingness to innovate and a new form of employee management are becoming increasingly important.
Gartner, where do we stand?
- Innovation trigger: A technological breakthrough arouses interest and generates media attention. Often there are no usable products yet and the commercial feasibility is unproven.
- Peak of Inflated Expectations: Early successes and exaggerated expectations lead to hype. Many companies show interest, but there are also many disappointments.
- Trough of Disillusionment: Interest declines as the technology fails to meet high expectations. Some providers fail or withdraw.
- Slope of Enlightenment: The benefits of the technology become clearer and better understood. Second and third generations of products appear and more companies begin to fund pilot projects.
- Plateau of Productivity: The technology is widely adopted and its market relevance becomes clear. It is now widely used and brings measurable benefits.
- Poor data quality: Many projects fail due to inadequate and incorrect data.
- Escalating costs: The development and implementation of GenAI models is expensive.
- Unclear business value: Companies have challenges proving the business value of GenAI projects.
- Suppliers should be regularly evaluated by an AI with regard to their quality. The AI should analyze relevant complaints and take them into account in a summarized evaluation. In doing so, the AI should be guided by the supplier's previous assessments and automatically inform the supplier of any changes to its status.
- The AI should evaluate and analyze commodity index data available online in order to make forecasts about the current and future price and supply situation.
- An AI application that comprehensively checks applications for guidelines and evaluation criteria and decides whether the application should be approved. The AI also creates a detailed and legally binding justification.
GenAI as an enabling technology
- GenAI supports the automation of routine tasks, the creation of content and the analysis of large amounts of data.
- Content creation: Automated generation of texts and graphics for marketing campaigns, for example.
- Personalization: Optimization of advertisements and customer segmentation for targeted marketing measures.
- Chatbots and digital assistants: Support in customer service and internal processes.
- Program code generation: Automated creation and improvement of software code.
Reality check
- A guide to the length of the documents you provide to Copilot
- Approximately 80,000 words is the limit for Microsoft Copilot to summarize a document.
- Rewriting with Copilot works best with a document of less than 18,000 words.
- Using your organization's branding with Copilot in PowerPoint - minimum requirements for templates.
- Follow the instructions below to get the best results with Copilot...
- It is recommended to use a single slide master and rename it. If you need to use a template that contains multiple slide masters, you should ensure that each slide master complies with the guidelines in this article.
But - and there is almost always a “but”
- Employees expect AI in the workplace because they already know and use the apps from their private lives.
- AI raises the bar for employees and breaks down career barriers.
- A type of AI power user is emerging that will play a special role in the future.
The key point is...
- AI can help to minimize less demanding tasks so that employees can focus on more important and essential activities.
Companies and IT departments are lagging behind the trend
When users take IT into their own hands and how to deal with it
Samstag, 24. August 2024
Chat with a Video
Step by step
- Summarize the video
- List the action items
- Fasse zusammen, was über Donald Trump gesagt wird (eng: Summarize what is said about Donald Trump)
Dienstag, 20. August 2024
Retrieval-Augmented Generation - The metasearch engine in the age of AI
What is Retrieval Augmented Generation / RAG?
Copilot in Microsoft 365 uses RAG - this cannot be customized
- Word: Generate text with and without formatting in new or existing documents.
- Excel: Suggestions for formulas, chart types and insights for data in Excel sheets.
- PowerPoint: Create a presentation from a prompt or a Word file.
Now we have GraphRAG - that can be customized
- Information extraction: GraphRAG can be used to extract specific information from large document collections or databases.
- Content generation: GraphRAG helps to create content that requires in-depth contextual knowledge.
- Customer support: GraphRAG can improve customer support by accessing a knowledge base and providing accurate answers to customer queries.
- Knowledge management: In large organizations, GraphRAG can help to make efficient use of existing knowledge by retrieving and consolidating relevant information from different departments and documents.
Quickstart
- Azure Blob Storage
- Cosmos DB
- Azure OpenAI
- Azure AI Search / Vectorstore
- Container Registry
- Application Insights