Microsoft is trying to solve the hassle of coordinating everyone's office hours with co-workers. This is an issue that has come to the fore as employees spend less time in the office with the rise of hybrid and flexible working arrangements following the recent coronavirus pandemic. Microsoft Places is an AI-powered app starting in preview today that helps businesses that rely on Outlook and Microsoft Teams better coordinate their time in the office.
“When employees get to the office, they don't want to find a bunch of empty desks. They want to FaceTime with their managers and the colleagues they collaborate with most often,” says Microsoft's head of AI at work. said the Corporate Vice President. , Jared Spataro, in a blog post. “Places makes it easier to coordinate between colleagues and spaces within your office.”
Microsoft Places includes a dedicated Location Plans section where you can set and share the days you want to use your office, and see the days your co-workers are proposing to work. Managers can set priority dates for in-office plans, so there are important events and team days that everyone knows about. This location data is entered into your Outlook calendar so you know when events are happening at your office and when you choose to head to the office.
Microsoft plans to integrate this entire experience into Microsoft Copilot later this year. You can ask your AI assistant, “What day should I go this week?” You'll also see a list of in-person meetings, times your colleagues are scheduled to attend, and suggestions based on team days and events. “Based on this information, he can ask Copilot to adjust his schedule, such as changing his work location to the office on the recommended date or rescheduling an in-person meeting.” Spataro says.
Microsoft Places also includes a Finder feature that makes it easy to book meeting rooms and shared desks, all of which will also be accessible from Outlook. If you forget to reserve a room or desk for your workday, you'll also receive a reminder on your calendar. Later this year, this end-to-end booking experience will also be available on his Copilot, where the AI assistant will automatically find and book meeting spaces for your meetings.
Location data from Microsoft Places also feeds into other Microsoft 365 apps. If you're working in Teams, colleagues will be marked as nearby if they're also in the office, and you can type @nearby to notify someone in the office about an impromptu conversation or arrange lunch. can do.
Microsoft also plans to give real estate and facilities management employees later this year access to Microsoft Place's Space Analytics feature, which shows how widely used a building is and which days are most popular with employees. . IT administrators can also better manage and coordinate spaces and improve conference rooms and shared huddle rooms. This dashboard seems to be focused on building and room analysis rather than giving managers another way to track individual employees.
Microsoft Places will eventually become part of Microsoft Teams Premium, but it's currently being offered for an additional $7 per user per month thanks to promotional pricing. (Typically an additional $10 fee.) Teams Premium also includes intelligent AI-powered summarization, leak-proof watermarking, and many other extra features. You can sign up for the Microsoft Places preview program here.
