Microsoft CEO unveils new 'deep research' tools for Copilot in Seoul

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella introduced the Copilot Researcher and Analyst AI agents in Seoul, where he hailed the expansion of AI in various industries by local firms.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks during the Microsoft AI Tour event in southern Seoul on March 26. [CHO YONG-JUN]

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella introduced two new research-focused AI agents for the first time in Korea during a visit on Wednesday, capable of analyzing convoluted Excel documents and generating reports from complex data.

The two tools, dubbed Analyst and Researcher, rely on OpenAI's o3-mini and deep research tools, respectively, and will augment the company's Copilot AI assistant.

“The most beautiful thing is, you can give it two Excel spreadsheets [and] you just say, go analyze and come back with all the insights,” the Microsoft CEO said as he unveiled the Researcher and Analyst agents at the Microsoft AI Tour Seoul keynote on Wednesday in southern Seoul.

Analyst will be able to produce spreadsheets out of raw data. If needed, the Analyst will use Python to generate applicable codes to act like "a skilled data scientist" to analyze the data, according to Microsoft’s product marketing director, Callie August.

The Researcher agent uses ChatGPT’s deep research model. While it has been offered by OpenAI since February, the Copilot integration means that users can pull data from other applications in Microsoft’s suite. The service will be able to look through emails, work files and even chats to help produce more relevant research results.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during the Microsoft AI Tour event in southern Seoul on March 26 [CHO YONG-JUN]

The demonstration from Microsoft onstage had the Researcher agent produce a product strategy document, while the Analyst agent produced spreadsheets and visualized the data — both in English.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during the Microsoft AI Tour event in southern Seoul on March 26 [CHO YONG-JUN]

Throughout the keynote, Nadella, Microsoft Korea CEO Willy Cho and GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke all emphasized the importance of the Korean market and the usage of Microsoft’s tools in the country.

Nadella mentioned Galaxy Corporation — best known as singer-songwriter G-Dragon’s agency — as well as Hanwha Qcells, LG Electronics, Seegene and Amorepacific as some notable Korean firms utilizing Microsoft’s AI tools.

“That they were using Sora to create videos for K-pop artists is just wonderful to see,” the Microsoft chief said. Sora is OpenAI’s test-to-video model.

Amorepacific's AI Beauty Counselor was also highlighted onstage, which uses a chatbot to talk to customers about what skincare products would suit them, based on personalized information.

Microsoft did not specify a Korean release date for the tools.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]