Microsoft previews AI-based email authoring for Viva Sales using Azure OpenAI Service and GPT

Microsoft will preview the use of Azure OpenAI Service and its GPT-3.5 language model with Viva Sales, the company's sales enablement platform. The technology will be used to help sales reps draft emails on a range of topics from Outlook, calling on Microsoft 365 Graph and CRM data  to tailor individual communications.

"Viva Sales can remind sellers when it’s time to follow up with a prospect or customer and then auto-generate a preformatted email response with personalized text and next best actions, along with details such as product descriptions, proposals, and deadlines," wrote Microsoft CVP Lori Lamkin in announcing the preview.

Viva Sales currently supports integration with Dynamics 365 Customer Experience apps and Salesforce.

According to a demo, the new service will take input from a user in Outlook on what type of email to draft, including prompts on particular sales-related business data like an opportunity or order, and suggest the email body text. The user can then choose to copy and paste that text and make any adjustments before sending. The user can also ignore the AI-generated text and draft their own message.