Microsoft Non-public Capital and World Impartial Software program Vendor Groups, in collaboration with Madrona Ventures, just lately organized a GenAI hackathon for portfolio corporations, hosted on the Redmond campus. 33 members from Amperity, Clari, Highspot, and SeekOut, shaped seven groups, to discover generative AI options. Previous to the Hackathon, members crafted distinctive downside statements and strategized with Microsoft coaches on tips on how to leverage Generative AI’s potential to handle enterprise or finish buyer challenges, improve product options, or propel product/function improvement. The aim was to finish the two-day hackathon with proof of ideas, AI-enabled, and a path ahead to take these options to manufacturing.
The groups had been judged throughout three key themes: 1) the use case and innovation, 2) putting people on the core with a deal with the answer’s worth to people, and three) the incorporation of Accountable AI practices.
Let’s see what they got here up with:
Amperity
Amperity, a Buyer Information Platform, empowers manufacturers to develop by gaining a deep understanding of their prospects. It gives an information basis for buyer acquisition, retention, personalised experiences, and privateness administration.
The Amperity workforce determined to leverage AI to make it simpler for advertising management and no-code enterprise determination makers to work together with information from disparate, unstructured information unfold throughout emails, social media, and transactions, to higher plan and serve their prospects.
The undertaking centered on utilizing GPT-4 by Azure Open AI Service to develop a conversational assistant to research buyer information and allow all workforce members to make data-driven choices. They reworked conversations on to SQL queries executed in opposition to buyer profiles databases and displayed in tables. This course of simplifies information interpretation, making it accessible to all staff.
Amperity then used OpenAI’s code interpreter to Generate graphical representations.
The result’s a unified, 360-degree view of a buyer that was beforehand scattered throughout a number of touchpoints. This holistic perspective permits entrepreneurs, buyer expertise groups, and decision-makers to know their prospects on a deeper degree.
One other means Amperity creatively used AI is showcased by icons from question outcomes:
The crown icon is chosen by the AI mannequin based mostly on the generated output “PLATINUM_CUSTOMERS”.
The format, icons, and total presentation can now be dynamically generated. This multifaceted method, the place the side is chosen by AI, represents a brand new period in UI design, opening a world of prospects for startups to create extra adaptive and user-friendly interfaces.
A significant spotlight of the undertaking addressed potential points with SQL by passing any SQL errors again to GPT for auto-correction. This saved time and improved the system’s effectivity and reliability. Amplified demonstrated a degree of automated problem-solving, which is a game-changer for startups trying to develop rapidly.
Highspot
Highspot is a gross sales enablement platform that equips gross sales groups with the instruments, content material, and insights wanted to enhance efficiency and drive income.
They introduced three approaches to growing gross sales productiveness by AI.
Highspot Workforce 1
Showcased their revolutionary use of AI to enhance consumer expertise and increase productiveness.
Highspot Workforce 1 targeted on three main themes: automation recommendation, co-creation, and a function they’re tentatively calling, “Ask Something”. The corporate has carried out AI in its product to generate descriptions for content material, create assembly summaries, and compose messages, amongst different options.
‘Ask Something’ surfaces paperwork and content material based mostly on questions posed by the consumer. This function could possibly be particularly helpful for customers in enablement and advertising to generate descriptions for content material.
They demonstrated that whereas trying to find a doc they’ll present solutions to a consumer’s particular questions concerning the doc itself. They even automated follow-ups, the place the system can ship follow-up emails that embrace particular particulars mentioned within the rep’s buyer assembly.
Highspot is engaged on integrating these functionalities into their extensions for Slack and Microsoft Groups. This might allow customers to ask questions inside these purchasers and obtain direct solutions concerning the product or another associated question.
Their implementation works significantly effectively for big paperwork the place the search can recall particulars deep inside the textual content.
For recordings in Microsoft Groups Highspot can ask, “What did they speak about once they talked about matter X?” or “What did particular person XYZ say a few sure matter?”
In essence, making it simpler for gross sales groups to entry vital data rapidly.
The Highspot workforce utilized gpt-35-turbo-16k from OpenAI, mixed with Microsoft applied sciences, to reinforce their pure language understanding and era capabilities. Utilizing Azure OpenAI’s sturdy infrastructure and complete toolset enabled Highspot to develop, take a look at, and deploy their AI options swiftly and effectively.
The important thing constructing blocks of Highspot’s structure embrace OpenAI Perform routing for question classification and information binding, and dynamic UI rendering based mostly on question intent. These parts work in tandem to create a seamless consumer expertise, the place the system can perceive consumer queries, classify them, and render acceptable responses dynamically.
Highspot Workforce 2
Highspot Workforce 2 targeted their efforts on integrating gross sales enablement capabilities extending Copilot for Gross sales. The undertaking goals to reinforce the productiveness of gross sales groups by streamlining entry to related information, lowering the necessity for context switching between totally different instruments and by offering related insights and automating duties all inside Outlook.
The context {that a} vendor must reply an e-mail is pulled from the Highspot’s platform into Copilot. This consists of views, downloads, recipients from Highspot in addition to CRM information from Salesforce.
Leveraging Salesforce information permits the Copilot to offer predictive content material suggestions. By analyzing the CRM information, Highspot can determine tendencies and patterns in buyer conduct and supply gross sales reps with probably the most related content material and alternatives for every distinctive buyer interplay.
This permits the sellers to make choices, streamline their workflows, and in the end shut offers sooner.
The workforce utilized Microsoft Copilot for Gross sales with Highspot Connector to create a dynamic Copilot UI that adjusts based mostly on the Highspot context. This integration allowed for a seamless transition between Highspot and Copilot, enhancing the consumer expertise and boosting productiveness.
Highspot Workforce 3
Highspot Workforce 3 targeted on teaching gross sales representatives and showcased why it’s so important for sellers. Drawing from tutorial analysis, they highlighted the numerous enchancment in efficiency when college students obtain one-on-one mentorship or teaching. In a company context, the identical precept applies. Actually, gross sales reps who obtain two hours or extra of teaching per week have 56% or larger win charges.
Teaching usually falls by the wayside in lots of organizations resulting from time constraints and a scarcity of formalized teaching strategies. Workforce 2 aimed to offer gross sales reps suggestions on their abilities demonstrated in real-world conferences and help managers in offering personalised teaching.
To realize this, they utilized Microsoft Groups’ transcription and recording API, together with rubrics, query context, reply guides from Highspot, and Azure’s OpenAI GPT-3.5 Turbo mannequin. They staged a gross sales discovery name between Contoso (the vendor) and Fabrikam (the prospect) and used GPT to create a transcript. This supplied the idea for his or her suggestions system.
Gross sales reps submit a recorded assembly for suggestions. The suggestions relies on predefined rubrics and gives detailed insights into their efficiency. Gross sales reps can then submit their conferences, together with the AI-Generated suggestions, to their managers for additional overview. Managers even have the choice to Generate AI-assisted suggestions, which they’ll then personalize earlier than submitting it to the rep.
The primary constructing blocks of their structure included a React entrance finish, Highspot’s assembly ingestion leveraging MS Groups APIs, and Azure OpenAI APIs. Nevertheless, the implementation was not with out its challenges. Figuring out the assessed topic within the immediate proved tough, necessitating numerous methods to research the transcription to make it practical.
SeekOut
SeekOut is a people-first, AI-assisted expertise acquisition and administration platform that gives complete information, uncovers unnoticed candidates, and helps worker progress.
SeekOutTeam 1
SeekOut Workforce 1 showcased a prevalent problem within the job market – private profession teaching. The workforce highlighted the inequitable distribution of profession teaching providers and the prohibitive prices related to them.
Their resolution? “Yoda,” an AI-driven profession coach, set to democratize profession teaching by making it accessible to everybody.
Profession teaching is commonly out of attain for many staff resulting from its excessive price. Human coaches require an in depth understanding of their consumer or mentee’s background, pursuits, values, and profession aspirations, which frequently requires a big quantity of effort and time. Yoda, makes use of generative AI to know a person’s background, abilities, pursuits, and objectives, offering personalised suggestions.
The AI-driven profession coach, Yoda, was designed to know the nuances of a number of industries, a process that might be difficult for a human. It additionally scales throughout all staff inside a corporation, making it an economical resolution for HR groups.
Yoda makes use of Microsoft Groups app and integrates with Profession Compass, which pulls in information from numerous inside and exterior sources to create a complete profile for every consumer. They used GPT 3.5 turbo to generate and parse the chats, analyze jobs, and profile data to offer customers with custom-made suggestions.
It solves two particular use instances: 1) personalised profession pathing and scanning your entire group for brand new alternatives, and a pair of) solutions of inside networking contacts and potential mentors. Yoda considers the consumer’s profile, transition information, and job positions to counsel potential roles that the consumer would possibly excel in.
Think about the consumer persona, Jeanne, a methods engineer trying to transition into software program engineering.
The chatbot integrates with studying methods and inside job boards, offering customers with quite a lot of assets to help their profession development. As well as, it suggests connections inside the group that customers can attain out to for insights and recommendation.
AI drafts introductory messages for customers to ship to potential connections. This function helps customers break the ice and provoke conversations, which might usually be a frightening process.
The workforce didn’t cease at offering suggestions. Yoda repeatedly scans the group for brand new alternatives that match the consumer’s profession objectives. When an appropriate alternative arises, the chatbot sends a personalised message to the consumer, summarizing the place and explaining why it is likely to be a great match.
A consumer can save their profession selection by the chat utilizing pure language, integrating actions along with pure content material era and suggestion.
The SeekOut Workforce 1 believes Yoda affords a singular resolution for hyper-personalized profession teaching and scalability. Their presentation included the potential for this device to offer high-level insights to HR and organizational leaders, equivalent to frequent profession progressions, desired abilities, and developmental wants.
They plan to additional combine the Profession Compass app inside groups, gamify abilities improvement, and add Yoda to the supervisor’s expertise to assist managers in serving to staff develop and develop.
SeekOutTeam 2
SeekOut Workforce 2 showcased a game-changing resolution to allow expertise leaders to reply important questions like, “What abilities does my group have and the way can I successfully discover folks with these abilities and set up them higher?” The workforce launched a dynamic abilities platform that leverages Microsoft 365 and OpenAI to offer insights into the skillsets of staff, providing a brand new degree of understanding for expertise leaders.
Understanding Worker Abilities
Workforce 2’s resolution targeted on serving to organizations perceive the expertise they’ve and tips on how to develop it. They developed a abilities intelligence platform that ingests information from numerous sources, together with resumes, GitHub, and different skilled paperwork.
The platform makes use of this information to construct relationships between abilities and the way they relate to the bigger organizational image. It additionally gives proof of how totally different staff have demonstrated their abilities.
The dynamic abilities platform seeks to know what the worker has executed and how much abilities they’ve demonstrated of their productiveness instruments and resumes. The platform is designed to adapt to real-time context when somebody is utilizing it, permitting for extra particular queries. For instance, as an alternative of asking which individuals have machine studying as a talent, a expertise chief can ask, “How is machine studying utilized by information scientists at my firm?”
The platform’s integration with Microsoft 365 utilizing Microsoft Graph API provides extra depth to the talents platform. It takes paperwork from Microsoft 365, feeds them into Azure OpenAI to generate data on the talents, after which provides this to the talents database. This data is then accessible by the Abilities Explorer utility.
The workforce demonstrated how a hiring supervisor at Firm X may use the platform to know the talents of a program supervisor. The platform breaks down the talents profile for the position, displaying practical, technical, and management abilities. The supervisor can then delve deeper into every talent, seeing proof from resumes, job postings, and Microsoft 365 recordsdata.
The platform additionally gives a means for the supervisor to see how particular abilities, like undertaking administration, are utilized by program managers at Firm X. The supervisor can see paperwork linked to the talent and the main points of those paperwork. This data may also help the supervisor perceive what abilities they want for a brand new position or craft a job description for an open place.
Privateness and Subsequent Steps
The SeekOut workforce took privateness under consideration, making certain all information ingestion runs within the buyer’s atmosphere. There’s a layer of information separation to guard consumer information, and buyer information by no means involves the SeekOut workforce.
Tech stack
The workforce utilized the gpt-3.5-turbo mannequin with Microsoft Graph API, Azure OpenAI, and Azure SQL for his or her dynamic abilities platform. The structure of their resolution comprised a number of key constructing blocks. These included the Graph API to obtain workforce content material from Microsoft 365, an offline OpenAI information pipeline to find out the talents demonstrated by the authors of the One Drive paperwork, and a SQL database backend to retailer the connection between abilities and staff.
The workforce’s resolution concerned pulling information from Google Drive and embedding it into Azure’s Cognitive Search. This allowed them to course of the information and make it searchable for the engineering workforce.
The workforce showcased their resolution by asking it questions on particular incidents or points. The system recognized related paperwork and supplied hyperlinks to the unique runbooks or incident reviews and any technical documentation concerning the instruments they’re utilizing.
The workforce’s undertaking was an enchanting demonstration of how AI and cloud applied sciences will be leveraged to streamline inside processes and enhance effectivity. They used GPT 3.5 Turbo, out there by Azure OpenAI Service. The structure was based mostly on an ordinary RAG sample carried out utilizing Azure Cognitive Seek for the Vector Database.
The answer concerned a number of elements, equivalent to Google Drive integration for doc ingestion, LlamaIndex for doc processing and orchestration, Azure Cognitive Seek for storing embedded chunks, and Streamlit for a easy chat interface.
Regardless of some challenges, they demonstrated how startups can leverage these to reinforce their inside processes. The workforce’s dedication to bettering their system, equivalent to their plans to handle the difficulty with acronyms and codes in semantic search and to assemble consumer suggestions, underscores the continual evolution and potential of AI options within the enterprise world.
And the winner was….
Highspot Workforce 2! Highspot Workforce 2’s resolution not solely aligned with the hackathon’s objectives but in addition demonstrated a sensible and impactful method. In consequence, the work of their better workforce was included in Satya Nadella’s keynote presentation at Microsoft Ignite.
To our winners, you’ve rocked this together with your unimaginable abilities and innovation. And to all our members, your vitality and creativity really lit up this occasion.
Each one in every of you is a star in our tech galaxy. Maintain shining and see you on the subsequent hackathon! 🚀
