Colin Baumgart, Microsoft South Africa and Nick Clegg, Meta

In recent months, Microsoft has rolled out its Copilot generative AI to multiple services, from Bing to Office365 to Windows 11. This move is not surprising, considering AI is currently the coal firing up big tech’s engines, serving as a differentiator in what’s become a competitive yet plateauing market. These rollouts also reveal the next significant flank of AI services for enterprises: vertical AI.

Horizontal AI can cover multiple sectors and use cases. Vertical AIs are artificially intelligent services that focus on specific industries, parts of a business such as finance or security, or niche use cases. Microsoft has launched several of these AIs, such as Copilot for Security, Copilot for Finance, Copilot for Service, and Copilot for Sales. These are vertical-focused AI, made more accessible with large language models and other generative AI features. What is vertical AI? How does a vertical AI differ from a horizontal or general AI? We can see the difference by comparing the general Copilot AI to Copilot for Security.