World of Business 
World of Digital 
World of Media 
World of Sport 
UA92 welcomed senior leaders from across Greater Manchester to our Old Trafford campus for the Big AI Breakfast.
Speakers included Jonathan Rowley (Head of Digital at Microsoft), Dr Mollie Ward (Head of Digital Evolution at UA92) and Aaron Saxton (Director of Disruptive Learning at UA92).
The event provide valuable insight into how AI is transforming the future of the workplace and how it can be used to add value to organisations and support workforces.
Jonathan Rowley also gave an exciting first look at Microsoft’s new AI tool, Copilot. Having launched little over a month ago, Copilot is currently available to Microsoft’s Enterprise customers. The new AI features span across the Microsoft 365 suite, giving users the ability to automate time-intensive tasks with simple commands. The demo showcased how Microsoft Copilot can easily produce a PowerPoint presentation from a set of meeting notes or produce data visualisation insights from a spreadsheet.
Guest speakers included senior leaders from The Hut Group, CompTIA, Microsoft and UA92. The panel shared how they are introducing AI into the workplace and highlighted some of the key challenges they’ve faced.
Here’s some of the key takeaways from the event:
- The main driver for most organisations is to use AI to improve productivity, reduce costs, make better decisions, and provide enhanced customer experiences, not to cut headcount or replace jobs.
- AI has accelerated rapidly in the last 12 months, with new technologies like generative AI reaching 100 million users in just 3 months. To put this into context, it took Facebook 4 1/2 years to reach the same number of users.
- Microsoft shared their AI imperatives: 1. Use it to unlock productivity 2. Build your own AI capabilities 3. Safeguard your business and your data.
- Challenges of AI include generating enough processing power without significant environmental impact, using AI technologies in an ethical way and bridging the digital poverty gap.
The future of AI in Higher Education
Sara Prowse, CEO of UA92, discussed how academics and students are embracing AI in the classroom.
“Today’s learners are tomorrow’s leaders so it’s crucial that we educate our students on the ethical use of AI in education and everyday life. We encourage students to use AI in a positive way to support their learning and show them how to apply human elements that demonstrate their creativity, critical analysis and evaluation skills. Our practical assessment methods are key to assessing a student’s level of understanding and prevent academic misconduct.”
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