Synology updates Office Suite with advanced AI for private clouds
Synology has introduced a significant update to its Office Suite, offering advanced artificial intelligence features aimed at improving productivity and security for private cloud environments.
The update brings enhanced AI capabilities to Synology MailPlus, Synology Office, and the newly launched Synology AI Console, targeting organisations that are seeking to streamline daily workflows while maintaining data privacy and control.
Focus on data privacy
As businesses increasingly turn to generative AI for productivity gains, concerns over data privacy and compliance have risen.
Addressing these issues, Rex Huang, Director of Enterprise Application Group at Synology, said:
"Generative AI is rapidly transforming business workflow, but data privacy and compliance remain key concerns for adoption. Synology's AI-powered productivity solutions are engineered to help organisations confidently boost productivity and employee efficiency while giving IT teams the flexibility to deploy authorised models, control usage and costs, and prevent shadow AI, ensuring full data ownership."
Synology's strategy involves integrating AI tools within its private cloud infrastructure, allowing organisations to retain ownership of their data while making use of new productivity features.
MailPlus AI capabilities
With the update, Synology MailPlus now leverages generative AI to help users manage large email volumes more efficiently.
New functionalities include summarising long email threads, suggesting actionable follow-ups, and offering one-click smart replies based on the email context.
Additionally, MailPlus AI can reference earlier communications or utilise templates, assisting users in composing accurate and professional responses more quickly.
Enhancements to Synology Office
The upgraded Synology Office introduces AI support for document creation and editing. Users can draft, proofread, and polish text with AI-driven assistance, and search for spreadsheet formulas using natural language queries.
One-click translation for entire documents and slides further supports collaboration across language barriers. The AI Assistant can also reference files stored in Synology Drive, offering context-aware suggestions that align with an organisation's unique requirements to improve the relevance and accuracy of AI outputs.
Centralised AI management
Synology AI Console acts as a central platform for managing multiple AI provider integrations.
The service enables enterprises to select preferred AI models without extra integration costs, and grants administrators the tools to manage resources on a granular level through token usage limits and role-based access permissions.
Addressing the risks associated with unauthorised AI use, the AI Console includes built-in de-identification features that automatically redact sensitive information compliant with company policy before any data is sent to third-party AI services. All AI-related activities are tracked and recorded, providing comprehensive transaction and administration logs for audit purposes.
Governance and compliance
By combining private cloud infrastructure with configurable AI deployment and governance mechanisms, companies can roll out generative AI features without relinquishing control over sensitive organisational data or risking the emergence of unregulated 'shadow AI'.
The new AI-powered Synology Office Suite is currently available for organisations looking to enhance private cloud productivity while holding firm control over their data, permissions, and privacy standards.
