Microsoft announced the integration of new artificial intelligence tools into its office software such as Word, Excel, and Outlook emails on Thursday, March 16.
The tech giant unveiled a new feature called Microsoft 365 Copilot, which combines the power of large language models with business data and Microsoft 365 apps to unleash creativity, unlock productivity, and upskill workers. It is currently in testing with select commercial customers.
Copilot and Business Chat
According to Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President, Modern Work and Business Applications at Microsoft, Copilot will not only help users perform tasks in a better way but will also enable an entirely new way of working.
The tool will work alongside Microsoft 365 customers in two ways: it will be embedded in the Microsoft 365 apps people use every day, and it will offer an entirely new experience called Business Chat.
Business Chat works across large language models, the Microsoft 365 apps, and a customer's calendar, emails, chats, documents, meetings, and contacts to do tasks that were previously not possible.
With natural language prompts like "tell my team how we updated the product strategy," Business Chat will generate a status update based on the morning's meetings, emails, and chat threads. This feature is similar to the highly popular ChatGPT.
The customer will always be in control when using Copilot. They will decide what to keep, modify, or discard, according to Microsoft.
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How Copilot Works
Copilot in Word writes, edits, summarizes and creates alongside people as they work. Copilot in PowerPoint enables the creation process by turning ideas into a designed presentation through natural language commands.
In Excel, Copilot enables users to quickly uncover insights, spot trends, or produce visually appealing data visualizations. Copilot in Outlook can assist organize and manage the inbox so that more time can be dedicated to speaking with people.
Copilot in Teams improves the effectiveness of meetings by providing real-time summaries and action items that are relevant to the conversation at hand.
In Power Platform, the feature will also enable two new features within Power Apps and Power Virtual Agents, enabling developers of all skill levels to expedite and streamline development with low-code tools.
Business Chat brings together data from across documents, presentations, emails, calendars, notes, and contacts to help summarize chats, write emails, find key dates, or even write a plan based on other project files.
Microsoft introduced Dynamics 365 Copilot earlier this month as the first AI Copilot in both CRM and ERP, bringing next-generation AI to every business sector.
All of the Microsoft productivity products, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, Microsoft Viva, Power Platform, and more, will now support Copilot.
Information on costs and licenses will be released soon. A small number of users are already using Microsoft 365 Copilot to get the crucial feedback needed to enhance these models as they scale.
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