Truly intelligent document management

1. Intelligent video transcriptions

2. Improved image searchability

3. Distribute meeting documentation efficiently

It’s no secret that Microsoft is ramping up its efforts in the artificial intelligence (AI) space. AI dominates many of the functionalities in Dynamics 365 and powers intelligent business applications Flow and Power BI. It even forms part of Office 365’s Advanced Threat Protection to keep your precious business data safe and sorts your emails in Outlook.

AI will soon play a part in all Office 365 applications with the news that advanced AI capabilities are coming to the enterprise-level document management systems SharePoint and OneDrive. The new functionalities will be added later this year and include video transcriptions, a new files view and much more.

Intelligent video transcriptions

Transcriptions of any video saved in your OneDrive or SharePoint, a feature already available in the native Office 365 video application Stream, are set to save businesses thousands of hours of time. As someone who’s transcribed video and audio clips a thousand times over, I can’t articulate how useful this feature will be. A 45-minute feature can take hours to transcribe, because no matter how good my touch-typing is, I just can’t keep up. Your videos might need a little reviewing, however, as evidenced by Microsoft’s translation of our Applications Partner Manager Steven Osprey’s Glaswegian twang…

Even with a human review, video transcriptions are set to save huge amounts of time. And it’s key to note that with its machine learning, it’ll only get better. I distinctly remember Siri’s difficulty understanding Geordie and Scouse accents back in her infancy…

Improved image searchability

In another step that goes beyond standard electronic document management, SharePoint – and by default, OneDrive, will use artificial intelligence to scan images, recognising where they were taken and identifying objects and text. It’ll intelligently apply metadata to those images, allowing you to search based on the image content. No need to remember DCSC_376 anymore!

Some of the new AI features put collaboration at the heart of Office 365. Whilst SharePoint has long been recognised as a standout collaboration tool, collaborative features like securely sharing files externally have been drip-fed into OneDrive. As part of the new files view that will be introduced to OneDrive and the Office.com homepage, you’ll see documents that are recommended to you. Using Microsoft Graph intelligence, Office 365 will look at how you work, who you work with and what documents you work on to suggest the most relevant files to you.

In addition to this, ‘file insights’ are being introduced into OneDrive and SharePoint, allowing you to see who has accessed or interacted with your files, with Microsoft stating it “helps you decide your next action.”

Distribute meeting documentation efficiently

Have you ever presented in a meeting with a lot of people and had to share your PowerPoint presentation with them all afterwards? Or perhaps you were an attendee of that meeting rather than a presenter and you took some photos of key slides that your fellow attendees could find useful. Soon, you’ll be prompted to share your presentations or photos taken during a meeting with your colleagues in attendance. This feature is exclusive to OneDrive and SharePoint.

Like all new features that Microsoft introduces into its key suite of products – Office 365, Dynamics 365, Dynamics NAV and so on – these functionalities are designed to increase your productivity and allow you to work smarter and faster. These features in particular allow for better collaboration using OneDrive and SharePoint document management, all thanks to AI and machine learning.

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