Microsoft brings AI and AR to Dynamics 365 to reinvent sales, customer service, marketing | Artificial intelligence

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Microsoft is bringing artificial intelligence (AI) and mixed reality to Dynamics 365, according to a Tuesday blog post from Alysa Taylor, corporate vice president of Microsoft business applications and industry. Both additions aim to accelerate the functionality of business applications, the post said.

Dynamics 365 was introduced two years ago, with the mission of eliminating silos within customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) processes, said the post. Bringing AI and mixed reality to the Dynamics 365 platform will create even more intelligent, detailed insights for business users.

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The Dynamics 365 AI will be able to deliver intelligent, concise data to better guide business decisions, said the post. In sales, for example, AI will help employees prioritize their time effectively, offer answers to questions about sales performances, provide analyses of the sales pipeline, and help foster better coaching of sales teams, according to the post.

In the customer service realm, Microsoft’s AI will provide automated insights that help employees improve customer experiences, said the post. The tech will even be able to lower support costs by using virtual agents—all while eliminating in-house AI experts and writing code, added the post.

Additionally, Dynamics 365 AI will help market research teams make better decisions through marketing and social insights. Marketers will be able to stay up-to-date on trends and customer needs, engaging in more relevant conversations and improving customer relationships, said the post.

The second major announcement was how Microsoft is pairing Dynamics 365 with mixed reality. After releasing HoloLens more than two years ago, Microsoft recognized customers’ needs to have information and data immediately, and in context, said the post.

With the new Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and Dynamics 365 Layout, employees can use HoloLens for remote collaboration and assistance, connecting users with remote experts in virtual reality, said the post. This would cut down on travel time and costs, and also helps companies operate more safely, as they’ll be able to experiment in mixed reality rather than on site, added the post.

These additions to Dynamics 365 will be available October 2018.

The big takeaways for tech leaders:

• Dynamics 365 AI will help employees conduct operations more efficiently, using detailed business insights and analytics.
• Dynamics 365 will use mixed reality to help manufacturers conduct business processes in a safer manner, and forge better collaboration with remote workers.

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