Dive Brief:
- Microsoft is applying the latest generation of AI to enhance and personalize the web experience across its customer-facing platforms. These include AI-assisted messages for recruiters on LinkedIn, personalized answers on Bing and tailored recommendations on Shopping, CEO Satya Nadella said last week during the company’s Q1 2024 earnings call.
- Growth on these platforms contributed to an overall strong quarter for the period ending Sept. 30. Total revenue grew 13% to $56.5 billion in Q1, with LinkedIn revenue up 8%. Search and news advertising revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs, rose 10%.
- AI is expected to play a prominent role at Microsoft’s upcoming Ignite conference, an event dedicated to its latest technology developments. The company plans to release more than 100 new products and capabilities; Nadella confirmed these will include new innovations in AI on the earnings call.
Dive Insight:
Microsoft’s embrace of generative AI has produced noticeable returns across its platforms. LinkedIn members continued to accelerate, building on a two-year trend that has led the networking platform to reach 985 million users today.
The recent addition of an AI-powered coaching tool to LinkedIn Learning enables users to engage with a chatbot that offers personalized content based on factors including job title and career goals.
LinkedIn’s corporate customers have also embraced AI. Microsoft introduced AI-assisted messages for recruiters in August, and 75% of users say the solution has saved them time, according to Nadella.
In general, interest in AI is on the rise, leading to a nearly 80% increase in LinkedIn members watching courses related to AI during the quarter.
Microsoft is leaning on generative AI to help personalize its search and advertising operations. The company launched Copilot, an AI-powered virtual assistant, in September as a free update to Windows 11, building on a larger push to add features to a range of Microsoft products, from Edge to Paint.
One significant enhancement was making DALL-E 3, OpenAI’s text-to-image model, available for free through Bing. With the tool, users have created more than 1.8 billion images since its launch on Oct. 3, according to Nadella.
“With our Copilot and Shopping, people can find more tailored recommendations and better deals,” said Nadella. “We're also expanding to new endpoints, bringing Bing to Meta's AI chat experience in order to provide more up-to-date answers, as well as access to real-time search information."
"Finally, we are integrating this new generation of AI directly into our ad platforms to more effectively connect marketeers to customer intent in chat experiences, both from us as well as customers like Axel Springer and Snap,” he said.
Engagement with Bing and Edge continued to climb, too, according to Microsoft CFO Amy Hood. Hood expects the team to “continue to deliver healthy growth in the year ahead, driven by our leadership in commercial cloud and our commitment to lead the AI platform wave.”
