For a few years now Microsoft has offered both on-prem and Office 365 subscriptions versions of their Office suite. Some time ago they promised to deliver updates to their subscription customers first. In the December update, Microsoft has really hit the accelerator on the differences in capability between the two offerings.
Office 365 will soon leverage AI to improve the capabilities and productivity of its subscription users. In previous updates there certainly was a widening gap, but this update shows a clear line in the sand being crossed, where the capability of users of Office 365 products can achieve different tasks than those using on-premesis versions of the applications.
Live captions and subtitles
A new feature, powered by Microsoft AI, enables presenters to reach and engage all audiences with live presentation captions and subtitles that automatically appear in real-time. With live captions & subtitles in PowerPoint, you can ensure your presentations are understood by everyone, across languages and hearing access needs. This feature will support presenters across 12 spoken languages and display on-screen captions or subtitles in one of 60+ languages. Starting in January 2019, this feature will start rolling out to Office 365 subscribers worldwide for PowerPoint on Windows 10, PowerPoint for Mac, and PowerPoint Online.
Acronym definitions automatically in Microsoft Word
Using the Microsoft Graph, Microsoft AI makes suggestions for acronym definitions specific to you and your organisation while you read documents. This makes it easier for you to read documents with clarity in the flow of your work. To get started, click the Acronyms button on the Review tab to launch the Acronyms pane and see suggested definitions for acronyms. This feature is now available for all Office 365 subscribers.
Reuse existing slides in new PowerPoint presentations
Instead of recreating slides from scratch, quickly find and reuse slides from your files or from others in your organisation with the help of Microsoft AI in PowerPoint. Simply click the Reuse Slides button on the Home tab to surface existing PowerPoint decks in the sidebar to browse through recommended PowerPoint decks that you have access to, view the slides in each presentation, and insert them into the deck you are creating. This feature will be available in January for all Office 365 subscribers.