In the coming months Copilot for Microsoft 365, the paid service that adds an AI assistant to Office apps, will be updated with a new auto-complete feature that offers suggestions to improve AI prompts.
It’s easy to be enchanted by AI, but sometimes harder to see whether it can make an active, accurate contribution to company efficiency and — who knows? — perhaps even profits.
One of the most useful functions of Microsoft Copilot in Outlook, is its ability to quickly write first drafts of emails, so that you can focus on getting the tone right, rather than typing out all the pleasantries.
Microsoft is working hard to develop stories around AI and why organisations need to adopt it. This one, by Microsoft EVP and Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff, provides lots of links to customers who are putting AI to work
Unlike Copilot in other Microsoft 365 applications, like Word and Powerpoint, Copilot in Excel is designed to only work with data, rather than the entire document. You’ll need to select the cells you want it to work with before inputting your request.
The companies will jointly experiment with technology like Azure OpenAI Service to develop innovative generative AI use cases across various business functions. This includes testing how Copilot for Microsoft 365 could help improve workplace productivity.
To start creating new slides in Powerpoint using Copilot, all you need to do is ask it, giving it any information you feel it might need to be up to the task.
The company is also planning to add another handy feature to Copilot in Microsoft 365 next month in the form of allowing the use of weblinks to reference files in Word…
You might be surprised to learn that one of the best ways to save time with Copilot in Microsoft 365 is during Microsoft Teams meetings.
This strategy ensures Teams gets better integrations with Copilot – not that Teams is suddenly going to be abandoned.
Microsoft will remove limits on the number and length of conversations while increasing file uploads and bring expanded image generation capabilities in Microsoft Designer to users of Copilot for Microsoft 365.
Teams will combine spoken transcripts and written chats into a single view to make it easier to catch up on meetings you might have missed.
Microsoft is also unlocking Copilot Pro inside the Office web apps, so you don’t need a separate Microsoft 365 subscription to use the chatbot inside Word, Outlook, and other free web apps.
You can use Copilot’s AI skills to create a new presentation, organize your presentation, summarize a presentation, and answer questions about the content of a presentation.
“Teams users will be able to ask questions after the meeting ends, and for every Copilot statement, there will be a citation number, clicking on which reveals various details, including the speaker the citation is attributed to on a transcript viewer…”
Copilot for OneDrive will take on the role of a research assistant of sorts, being able to both find, summarize, and extract information from a wide range of files. These include text documents presentations, spreadsheets, HTML pages, PDF files…
Mark Pesce and Drew Smith have written a white paper that lays out the basic value proposition for organisations considering a pricey subscription to Microsoft’s Copilot Pro. Is it really worth it?
Copilot is now being positioned as the future of Microsoft’s AI efforts, which are leaning more into productivity and creation than just search.
The company said that businesses and organizations with both a Copilot for Microsoft 365 license and the Copilot generative AI assistant turned on in the Windows desktop should be able to see a new toggle on the Copilot sidebar: Work and W
“Microsoft’s document is called “New Future of Work” and emerged last month with the suggestion we should not be asking how AI will impact work, but how we want it to.”
“Copilot in Microsoft 365 is only starting to roll out, so it remains to be seen if that is more useful than simply asking Bing Chat to do X or Y and pasting the result into a program…”
Copilot for Microsoft 365 will generate AI summaries for users sharing Word documents with others on OneDrive, according to a new feature coming to Microsoft 365 in February 2024.
‘For those AI enthusiasts worried that there are too many Microsoft Copilots to keep up with, we have some good news for you: Windows Copilot will become the hub for all Microsoft Copilots out there, including Copilot for Microsoft 365.”
Subscribers to M365 Personal or Family can access the Pro service – for $20/month/user.
If you’re already a Microsoft 365 Personal or Home subscriber, then the extra $20 per month (per person) subscription will immediately unlock Copilot in Office apps on Mac, Windows, and iPad.
“Given the demand and interest we’ve heard from small and medium-sized businesses, we’re removing that 300 seat minimum,” says Microsoft “So now businesses of all sizes can get the USD $30 option and enable Copilot in Microsoft 365.”
Called “Draft by Copilot”, it seems to be the same function as “Sound Like Me”, and it will allow us compose a new message or respond to emails, but using Copilot’s artificial intelligence.
Microsoft has added some flexibility to the chatbot’s output, so users can tweak it with instructions to make its formatting and tone more to their personal liking. Word and PowerPoint will get the new personalization features to start.
Confused about the differences between Microsoft 365 Copilot (coming in November), Bing Chat Enterprise (out now) and Windows Copilot (coming tomorrow)? You’re not the only one.
Copilot in Windows is a bit less specific. Microsoft says its helper code “empowers you to create faster, complete tasks with ease and lessens your cognitive load – making once complicated tasks simple.”
This approach allows businesses to introduce the chatbot to a select group of users initially, gather feedback, and then expand its availability. As Microsoft mentioned, “To address this customer request, a Bing Chat Enterprise Service Plan can now choose to roll out Bing Chat Enterprise to a subset of users before deploying across the organization.”
Windows Copilot News 