The features described seem of dubious general value, but don’t seem like things that would work without an LLM, especially the smart text area. (Smart ComboBox sounds like it might be more generally useful than the others.)
But the point of these seems to be more of a solution looking for a problem than attempt to find an efficient solution to an identified problem. Or, rather, they are one of Microsoft’s many efforts as part of looking for a solution to their problem of “how to do we monetize our investment into AI technology” not a solution to customer problems.
This isn't particular to Microsoft. The current profusion of reaching attempts to tack AI onto everything following the popularity of LLM-based products fits the familiar arc of any hyped next big thing in tech.
I encourage people to regularly browse HN stories and comments from N years ago to force yourself to confront the cultural obsessions of yesteryear that have faded from memory.
Readit News
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/introducing-dotnet-sma...
In general, I see the idea of semantic matching instead of textual matching as one of the great, pragmatic applications of the current technology.
Somewhat related fun application of this concept is this: https://neal.fun/infinite-craft/ (the combination outputs are generated by LLMs)
But the point of these seems to be more of a solution looking for a problem than attempt to find an efficient solution to an identified problem. Or, rather, they are one of Microsoft’s many efforts as part of looking for a solution to their problem of “how to do we monetize our investment into AI technology” not a solution to customer problems.
I encourage people to regularly browse HN stories and comments from N years ago to force yourself to confront the cultural obsessions of yesteryear that have faded from memory.