I once read that Sonny Mehta, the late literary savant who led Alfred A. Knopf for many years, did not like to write. Revered as an “almost ideal editor” at the publishing house, Mehta found the act of writing, starting from a blank screen, rather daunting. Browsing through the description of Microsoft’s GPT-4 integration with MS Word and other productivity tools, I wonder how people like Mehta (though much less talented than him) would take to MS Word or Google Docs integrated with generative AI. Microsoft, the patron of OpenAI and ChatGPT, says, “You can jump-start the creative process so you never start with a blank slate again. Copilot gives you a first draft to edit and iterate on.” Businesses in India can’t have enough of such promises as Microsoft brings GPT-4 to its cloud offerings. Microsoft, requests for GPT-4 demonstrations and proofs of concept (PoCs) from clients are surpassing the number of trained personnel who can adequately address these inquiries. The company has mandated its sales teams to reach out to as many clients as possible. Behind AWS and at #2 in the cloud business in India, Microsoft seems to have a headstart with GPT-4, even though the tool is at an early stage and will take months to start generating contextual insights for its customers. From big guns of Indian commerce—Reliance Industries, Adani Group, Tata Group, and Aditya Birla Group—to startups like Cred, everyone is vying for a piece of the action. Some are already undertaking PoCs to gain an edge. The furthest ahead, the Indian pharma major Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, testing out the tool to generate dossiers for different markets that it needs to file by the dozens every year. All three cloud computing providers are laying off, scrimping on costs, but counting on generative AI to grow their business in India. With KPMG and Jaipur-based Celebal Technologies as its implementation partners, Microsoft has managed a lead.
