Today is the first day of Microsoft's Ignite 2018 conference, which means that there's a bunch of new Office 365 features in tow, along with features for the rest of Microsoft 365. The firm announced things like Microsoft Search, new security features, Windows Virtual Desktop, and OneDrive Files On-Demand coming to the Mac, but there's more.
There are a bunch of new AI features that Microsoft noted, aside from Search. The new data types for Excel that were announced last year are finally generally available, and what's also interesting is that there's an Insert Data from Picture feature. This allows you to take a picture of a table and extract the data into a spreadsheet. It's available in preview on Android now.
Office 365 is getting more LinkedIn integration; don't get too excited. You'll be able to send emails and share files with first-degree LinkedIn connections from the core Office apps, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Later on this year, you'll be able to see information from someone's LinkedIn profile on meeting invitations.
There's also a new feature in Office called Ideas. You can use these to launch "intelligent recommendations" in Office apps. The feature is coming first to Excel and PowerPoint, and to try it, just click on the lightning bolt.
Then there are new AI features for Teams, such as background blur, which can use facial recognition to blur your background. Microsoft says that if the infamous BBC interview where the subject's child walked in had this feature, it wouldn't have been an issue. There's also a meeting recording that will provide transcription, and will provide a searchable transcript. These features will roll out later this year.
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