Artificial Intelligence, commonly known as AI, represents a significant leap forward in the realm of technology, profoundly impacting our daily lives and day-to-day. The swift integration of AI into our lives has spurred a diverse range of reactions. While some approach this recent technological phenomenon with caution and scepticism, all harbour a profound curiosity, recognizing AI’s potential utility as a relatively promising asset.

This rapidly developing field presents a vast array of possibilities, empowering users to enhance efficiency and streamline various facets of their lives. Generative AI, in particular, has emerged as a formidable force within technological and business communities, standing as a distinct and ground-breaking advancement in the broader landscape of AI.

Generative AI is like the wizard of artificial intelligence, conjuring up fresh content—text, images, tunes, even videos. Imagine it learning from the web’s vast tapestry, then spinning out something similar, but totally new!

Realistically, Generative AI isn’t just a bystander; it’s the star of our digital realm. Picture custom playlists and awe-inspiring visuals on our screens—essentially, it’s the technological wizardry we can’t imagine living without!

It has become deeply integrated in our everyday lives; from the apps we use to the products we buy. It powers Google’s search results, Microsoft’s office applications, Amazon’s recommendations, Netflix’s suggestions, and Spotify’s playlists. AI is making our lives easier and more efficient, and it is only going to become more important in the future.

To understand the full impact of generative AI, we must examine its most popular forms, which are used in both our professional and personal lives:

• ChatGPT: Generates text, translates languages, creates content, answers questions.
• Bard: Creates diverse creative text formats (poems, code, music, etc.).
• DALL-E: Generates realistic images from text.
• Midjourney: Creates surreal images from text.
• AlphaFold: Predicts protein 3D structures from amino acid sequence.

Generative AI has the potential to revolutionize many aspects of our lives especially how it impacts our workplace culture, from the way we work to the way we interact with the world around us. It is already being used to develop new products and services in a wide range of industries, including healthcare, finance, and entertainment.

Generative AI is poised to revolutionize professional environments, with transformative applications emerging all the time. It is an exciting time to be alive, with generative AI at the forefront of many technological advances.

Generative AI is already having a significant impact on the modern workplace. It is being used to automate tasks, improve productivity, and create new products and services. Human resources departments can automate tasks and personalize employee experiences with generative AI. It can be used to create personalized marketing campaigns, generate leads, and qualify prospects.

Generative AI can also be employed by professionals in the workplace to create customer profiles, predict customer behavior and generate new product ideas. It can also be employed to design prototypes, and test products, reduce development costs, create chatbots that can answer customer questions and provide support and generate personalized customer service experiences.

In addition to these specific examples, generative AI is also being used to improve the efficiency and productivity of many other tasks in the workplace, such as;

• Generate reports and presentations
• Write emails and letters
• Translate languages
• Code and debug software
• Generate creative content, such as poems, stories, and musical pieces

Businesses that are looking to implement generative AI in the workplace can do so by identify the tasks that can be automated with generative AI, choosing solutions that are appropriate for your needs, pilot the generative AI solution on a small scale before deploying it across the organization, train your employees on how to use the generative AI, monitor the performance of the solution and make adjustments as needed.

Generative AI is rapidly advancing, and its impact on the workplace is poised to grow even greater. Businesses that start planning for how to use generative AI to improve their operations and gain a competitive advantage today will be well-positioned to succeed in the future.

In a highly competitive world where markets contend against each other on a race to attain maximum productivity, with herculean tools such as AI rising from the horizon, it becomes a matter of who stands the test of time and catches up to the never-ending race on the road to success. 

As the technological wave continues to shape industries, one tool stands tall and promises to revolutionize productivity like never before: AI as a Service!

Artificial Intelligence as a Service is a powerful force emerging on the horizon, that has the potential to propel businesses towards unparalleled success. By using this innovative technology, businesses can unlock a diverse range of competitive advantages differentiating from the competition.

In today’s fiercely competitive business landscape, market leaders are constantly seeking ways to sharpen their edge and maximize productivity. However, the key to sustained success lies in embracing innovative solutions that can revolutionize the way businesses operate. Enter AIAAS, or Artificial Intelligence as a Service, the paradigm shifter that is transforming the strategies of market leaders across industries.

Imagine a pizza restaurant that can predict your perfect pizza, just for you. With the power of AI as a Service, the restaurant can offer personalized pizza recommendations for each customer based on data. The restaurant collects data on customer orders, such as the type of crust, sauce, cheese, and toppings they prefer. It also collects data on customer demographics, such as age, location, and order history.

All this data is combined to train a model that learns the customer’s pizza preferences perfectly. Once the model is trained, the restaurant can recommend pizzas that are ideally suited to each customer’s taste!

Hypothesize a world where you can access any software you need, over the internet, from a third-party vendor, with minimal customization required. That is the true power of Everything as a Service (XaaS).

With XaaS, businesses can quickly and easily deploy software solutions to solve a wide range of challenges, from improving customer service to boosting sales to streamlining operations.

And because XaaS is cloud-based, businesses can access their software from anywhere, at any time. This makes it the perfect solution for businesses of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 500 companies.

If you’re looking for a way to transform your business, XaaS is a great option to consider. With XaaS, you can get the software you need to succeed, without breaking the bank. AIaaS to the rescue! Innovative tech saves the day again.

AIaaS offers a number of advantages for modern businesses. It can help businesses to save money, be more scalable and agile, access the latest AI technologies and innovations, and benefit from the expertise of AIaaS providers. Overall, it is a reliable method of staying ahead of the curve.

Businesses can use AIaaS to enhance the experience of their customers by developing chatbots and other virtual assistants that can provide 24/7 customer support. Other functions that could supplement include:

Increased sales and marketing effectiveness: AIaaS can be used to personalize marketing campaigns, target customers more effectively, and predict customer demand.

New product and service development: AIaaS can be used to develop new products and services that are more innovative and meet the needs of customers better.

Improved operational efficiency: AIaaS can be used to automate tasks, streamline processes, and optimize decision-making.

There are several AIaaS vendors empowering everyday businesses and helping them grow to their full potential. Popular AIaaS providers include Looka, an AIaaS vendor that helps businesses create and manage professional-looking visuals and Microsoft Azure AI, which is one of the leading AIaaS providers in the world. Azure offers a wide range of AI services that businesses can utilize, such as Azure Cognitive Services.

Azure Cognitive Services is a powerful tool that can help developers to create more intelligent and engaging applications. It is also a great way for businesses to get started with AI, without having to invest in a lot of resources or expertise.

A manufacturing app can use Azure Cognitive Services to inspect products for defects and identify areas where production can be improved and similarly, a customer service app can use Azure Cognitive Services to analyze customer feedback and identify common trends and issues. If you are looking for a way to add AI to your applications, Azure Cognitive Services is a great option to consider.

ITCS has the expertise and experience to help you choose and implement the right AIaaS solutions for your business needs. We can also help you to integrate AIaaS with your existing systems and processes.

If you are looking for a way to improve your business performance, AI as a Service can help you achieve your business goals. And ITCS is the perfect partner to help you on your AIaaS journey.

Image by Freepik

1. Create a folder on your hard drive and name it ODT. For this example, we’ll create it on the c:\ drive, like so: c:\ODT.
2. Download the Microsoft 365 Deployment Tool from the Microsoft Download Center. Select Save As and save it to your downloads folder.
3. In your downloads folder, double-click the Office Deployment Tool exe file to install it.
4. If you see the User Account Control prompt that says, Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?, click Yes.
5. Accept the Microsoft Software License Terms, and then click Continue.
6. In the Browse for Folder dialog, select the ODT folder you created in earlier, and then click OK.

Visit to https://config.office.com/deploymentsettings 

• Select version of windows 32/64 bit which you want to deploy

• Select which products and apps you want to deploy (Choose office Application e.g Office Apps / Visio / Project or any other application option).
  
• Select Current Channel & Latest Version.
  
• Select Desired Applications and click Next.
  
• Choose your language and click Next.
  
• Do not make any changes in Installation option and click Next.
  
• Do not make any changes in Update and upgrade option and click Next.
  
• Do not make any changes in License & Activation option and click Next.
  
• Provide your organization name in General Field and click Next.
  
  
• Do not make any changes in Application Preferences option and click Finish.
  
• Click Export and download Configuration in XML format.
  
  
• After downloading Configuration.xml file replace this file in ODT folder.

T

Thunderbird is a free email application that’s easy to set up and customize – and it’s loaded with great features. Thunderbird will need to be updated to version 77.0.b1 or higher in order to work with Office 365. You can download the latest version of Thunderbird here.

Pre-requisites

You need to ensure that you have already configured app registration in Azure Active Directory and granted users access to use the application. If not please follow steps in our earlier blog here.

Setting up Thunderbird

• Launch Thunderbird. Select +New, Existing Email Account from the ‘hamburger’ menu.
• Enter your name and e-mail address. You can leave the password empty. Press Continue to have Thunderbird figure out where your mailbox is hosted. This should discover your account in Office 365.
  The settings you see should be:

Username: username@domain.com
Password: Office 365 password
Protocol: IMAP
Incoming (IMAP): outlook.office365.com SSL
Outgoing (SMTP): smtp.office365.com STARTTLS

• Click Done to confirm the creation of your account. If you are prompted for your password, hit Cancel.
• Navigate to Account Settings -> Server Settings.
• Under Authentication method, select OAuth2.
• Navigate to Account Settings -> Outgoing Server.
• Under Authentication method, select OAuth2.
• Close the Account Settings. Select your Inbox, and you should be prompted with the Office 365 login page.

Manual Server Information

Username: username@domain.com
Password: Office 365 password

Incoming: IMAP
Server: outlook.office365.com
Port: 993
SSL Enabled: Yes
Authentication: OAuth2

Outgoing: SMTP
Server: smtp.office365.com
Port: 587
SSL Enabled: STARTTLS
Authentication: OAuth2

Microsoft has disabled Basic authentication for most Exchange Online protocols. Microsoft has documented the requirements and configuration steps to use OAuth with POP/IMAP in Microsoft 365 in this article: Authenticate an IMAP, POP or SMTP connection using OAuth | Microsoft Docs. You’ll see details about the registration of the required Azure AD applications and the permissions required for the access token to give Exchange Online the authorization of the mailbox access request.

OAuth 2.0 Authentication

Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) supports two kinds of OAuth 2.0 authentication:

• Delegated authentication is suitable for desktop, mobile or web applications with signed-in user present.
  This mode is described in detail in another article.
• App-only authentication is suitable for services or daemons with no user present. Instead, these unattended applications authenticate using client secrets (application credentials) to receive an access token, which is then used to gain access to a mailbox using IMAP, POP3 or EWS protocols.

Register your application

In Azure Portal ⇒ expand the left menu ⇒ select Azure Active Directory ⇒ select App registrations ⇒ click + New registration. (Azure Portal is constantly evolving, so if you cannot find this page, use the search bar.)

Name your application, choose which kind of accounts are going to use it, and click Register.

Once you successfully register your application you can view its associated IDs. Some of them will be needed later to obtain an OAuth 2.0 token.

Set up client secret (application password)

In the left menu, select Certificates & secrets ⇒ click + New client secret.

Provide some description for this secret, choose expiration period, and click Add.

Immediately copy and save the newly created client secret’s Value (not Secret ID). You will not be able to view the Value later anymore.

Add app permissions

In the left menu, select API permissions ⇒ click + Add a permission.

Navigate to APIs my organization uses tab ⇒ type Office 365 Exchange in the search bar ⇒ click Office 365 Exchange Online entry.

Click Application permissions ⇒ type AccessAsApp ⇒ check IMAP.AccessAsApp and/or POP.AccessAsApp ⇒ click Add permissions.

The newly-added IMAP.AccessAsApp and POP.AccessAsApp permissions have to be approved by your organization’s administrator. Ask them to grant consent to your application by clicking Grant admin consent for [organization].

Add mailbox access permissions

Before you proceed, make sure you have AzureAD and ExchangeOnlineManagement PowerShell modules installed. If not then run the commands below to install them.

Install-Module -Name AzureAD
Install-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement

Next we need to fetch the principal ID for the application we just created using the Azure Portal. Fill in the App ID and Tenant Id and run the following:

$AppId = "YOUR_APP_ID_HERE"
$TenantId = "YOUR_TENANT_ID_HERE"
Import-module AzureAD
Connect-AzureAd -Tenant $TenantId
($Principal = Get-AzureADServicePrincipal -filter "AppId eq '$AppId'")
$PrincipalId = $Principal.ObjectId

Now we need to register the service principal for your application

$DisplayName = "Service Principal for IMAP/POP3"
Import-module ExchangeOnlineManagement
Connect-ExchangeOnline -Organization $TenantId
New-ServicePrincipal -AppId $AppId -ServiceId $PrincipalId -DisplayName $DisplayName

Add FullAccess mailbox permissions to all mailboxes you want to access from your application using:

Add-MailboxPermission -User $PrincipalId -AccessRights FullAccess -Identity "mailbox.1@domain.org"
Add-MailboxPermission -User $PrincipalId -AccessRights FullAccess -Identity "mailbox.2@domain.org"
Add-MailboxPermission -User $PrincipalId -AccessRights FullAccess -Identity "mailbox.3@domain.org"

At this point you have registered an application for accessing Office 365 mailboxes via IMAP or POP3 protocol and received its Application (client) ID, Client secret and Directory (tenant) ID.

These strings are going to be used by your application to authenticate to Microsoft 365 via OAuth 2.0 and receive an OAuth token. This token is then used to authenticate to Exchange Online using IMAP or POP3 protocols.