Microsoft Outlook set for major AI transformation led by Gaurav Sareen
Microsoft is planning a major AI-driven overhaul of Outlook, aiming to transform it from a traditional email client into a smart digital assistant. Under new leader Gaurav Sareen, the team will focus on rapid prototyping and embedding AI across the product.
New Delhi: Microsoft is in the process of making a significant reinvention of its email client, the Outlook, where it reinvents the platform to incorporate artificial intelligence rather than merely attach it to it. After several updates that shifted Outlook to a web-based model, the company currently focuses on reconstructing the product for the AI era. It is led by Gaurav Sareen, the Corporate Vice President of Global Experiences and Platform, who replaced Lynn Ayres, who is on sabbatical, and visited the Outlook team.
Sareen wrote in an internal memo that Microsoft is trying to make Outlook more than an email client and that the company hopes to make it a digital body double, with functionality that allows users to manage their time and communications more effectively. This proposal entails reading email messages, composing responses and arrangingautomatically through Outlook. Although the schedule will be accelerated with a weekly feature test and rapid prototyping, the purpose of the team is to make this vision a reality.
Rebuilding outlook for the AI era
Sareen noted that AI would not only improve Outlook but also change the approach to how Microsoft develops and delivers it. The team will aim at integrating AI throughout the product development, abandoning the old systems. Sareen wrote about it, as the AI will not only be in our product, but it will also shape our culture, and the employees should consider letting go of old work methods.
A high-stakes experiment
This restructuring follows additional AI-based restructurings of its Office and 365 units at Microsoft. The move of Outlook is one of the company-wide changes organised by LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky, who currently leads teams of Office and Copilot apps. Sareen admitted that it is difficult to introduce AI into a product that is used by millions of people every day but is not discouraged. He said, 'Every product will say it is AI native; we will be the team that makes it a reality.'