Microsoft has announced the first five Australian companies that will be able to access Microsoft 365 (M365) Copilot, its latest AI service technology, through its invitation-only global Early Access Program – and insurers are among the mix.

The financial service organisations are: AGL, Data#3, Bupa, National Australia Bank (NAB), Powerlink Queensland, Rest Super and Suncorp.

The M365 Copilot is an AI service that combine the power of large language models (LLMs) with organisational data from Microsoft 365. The Early Access Program will allow the organisations to access generative AI technology which can work across applications such as Microsoft Teams, Word, Powerpoint, and Excel.

“This is such an exciting opportunity to see how Australian companies will use this incredible new tool to fundamentally change how we work,” said Lucy Debono, modern work business group director, Microsoft Australia and New Zealand.

The program will also include technical support from Microsoft modern work experts as well as the extensibility model which will allow developers to integrate certain applications and services to the program. It will include plugins from partners like Atlassian, Adobe, Servicenow, Thomson Reuters, Moveworks, and Mural.

“We really want these early adopters to work closely with Microsoft to use this technology, test it within their teams, help us to improve it further and drive great employee experiences,” said Debono.

Most of the companies that will be a part of the program are intending to utilise the generative AI to boost their workforce productivity as well as improve on the services they offer their customers.

“We see a great opportunity to improve how our people access relevant content, such as our insurance product disclosure statements, in a more intuitive way so they can support customers quickly when they need us most.” said Craig Price, head of data science, AI & insights at Suncorp Group.