Xbox developer Microsoft is testing an artificial intelligence tool that can help resolve customers’ support issues, serving as a virtual tech support agent.
First reported by The Verge on Tuesday, Microsoft is tapping generative AI to respond to user prompts, testing an internal prototype of an animated character that uses voice or text to parse support topics and provide answers.
Drawing imagery from its extension video game library, the new AI prototype is Microsoft’s latest attempt at a digital assistant after it discontinued the Halo-inspired Cortana in 2023.
“We are testing an Xbox Support Virtual Agent, an internal prototype of an animated character that can query Xbox Support topics with voice or text,” confirmed Haiyan Zhang, Xbox's general manager of gaming AI, in an email to Decrypt. “The prototype makes it easier and quicker for players to get help with support topics using natural language, taking information from existing Xbox Support pages.”
The chatbot will begin customer interactions by asking, “How can I help you today?” From there, The Verge reports, users can have a discussion with the AI agent about the issue they want resolved.
The Xbox prototype is the latest AI-powered project coming from a Microsoft-owned company. On Monday, IGN interviewed a Blizzard Entertainment executive who detailed how the company uses artificial intelligence to help its artists with game design.
“The fitting of armor on characters—you see how many different characters we have—our artists used to have to go through and they'd build it for human form and then they'd have to go and retrofit all these things for all the various body shapes and horns and big snouts and tails and all of that,” Warcraft franchise director John Hight told IGN. “That is just not particularly fun work for them.”
In January, Call of Duty publisher Activision released initial data for its ToxMod AI-powered monitoring tool that the company launched in August. Activision uses ToxMod to identify "disruptive" comments across 14 languages in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Modern Warfare III, and Call of Duty: Warzone.
“Call of Duty saw an 8% reduction of repeat offenders since the rollout of in-game voice chat moderation,” Activision reported. “Anyone detected to have violated the Code of Conduct will receive actions such as globally muting from voice and text chat and/or restricting other social features.”
Along with its AI-gaming initiatives, Microsoft is also bringing generative AI to its suite of Office tools, Windows, and even an AI-enabled keyboard key.
In September, Microsoft revealed its new Copilot AI that replaced Cortana in Windows 11 and Microsoft 365. Through its partnership with ChatGPT developer OpenAI, Microsoft also integrated OpenAI’s Dall-E 3 image-generating AI model.
"We believe Microsoft is the place where useful AI experiences come together simply, securely, and responsibly into the products you use most," Microsoft previously said in an announcement.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.