24-7newsallround

Bringing Embrace, Extend, Extinguish to a business workforce near you.  Microsoft has dosed its Dynamics 365 business apps with "AI capabilities" to help human workers delegate tedious tasks to machines. Redmond's automation tools come in a preview form in a release called Dynamics 365 Copilot, a nod to the success of its GitHub subsidiary's controversial Copilot assistive code service. Microsoft sees automated content creation and algorithmically-driven behavior as a way to help employees using customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems avoid rote work. "Copilot brings the power of next-generation AI capabilities and natural language processing to Dynamics 365, working alongside business professionals to help them create ideas and content faster, complete time-consuming tasks, and get insights and next best actions – just by describing what’s needed," explained Emily He, corporate VP of business applica...

People have been given more time to plug gaps in their National Insurance record - to ensure they can maximise their state pension entitlement. Initially, people had until 5 April to make voluntary adjustments for gaps between 2006 and 2016, but the cut off has been extended to the end of July. The original deadline had led to blocked phone lines. In general, people need 35 years of qualifying contributions to get the full state pension. 'Surge' in calls Some people may have spaces in their National Insurance record, for example if they have lived abroad or taken time off for caring responsibilities. Top-ups have been permitted, as part of the transition to the flat-rate state pension which was introduced in 2016. But blocked phone lines to HM Revenue and Customs left some worried they would miss the April deadline, and led to the latest extension which the government said was to ensure nobody would miss out. "HMRC [HM Revenue and Customs] and DWP [the Departme...