M365 Changelog: Microsoft Outlook: Graph-grounded chat with Microsoft Copilot in Outlook

MC788979 – Coming soon for tenants with Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 licenses: Chat with Copilot in Microsoft Outlook. In this version, Microsoft Copilot in Outlook will be graph grounded, meaning that it will have the ability to respond based on find information and documents inside your organization that are stored in the Microsoft cloud. This rollout applies to new Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 388495.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide): Microsoft will begin rolling out late April 2024 and expects to complete by mid-May 2024.

How this will affect your organization:

Enterprise graph grounding will be enabled by default for all requests to Copilot, and a request will use the file context (document, spreadsheet, page) as well as Enterprise content. The search will perform the same request that happens in Microsoft 365 Chat and adhere to all of the same policies, such as excluding sites and only presenting results for what the user has access to.

Graph search will adhere to your organization’s current search policies and only has access to what users have access to. For more information see Ignite 2023 – A look ahead for Microsoft 365 admins – Microsoft Community Hub. For more information about Microsoft Copilot, please visit Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 documentation | Microsoft Learn.

After rollout, users will select the Copilot icon at the top of the Outlook window to open the Copilot panel on the right of the screen where they can type questions and receive responses from Copilot. For more details, refer users to Frequently asked questions about Copilot in Outlook – Microsoft Support

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What you need to do to prepare:

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. Chat with Copilot in Outlook is on by default and cannot be turned off at the admin or user level. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.