M365 Changelog: (Updated) Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365: New Scheduled prompts feature – Dec 3, 2024

MC816217 – Updated November 27, 2024: Microsoft has the timeline below. Please note that customers who are interested in joining the preview must opt-in. To join the preview, customers should file a support ticket requesting to join the Scheduled prompts preview. Thank you for your feedback.

Coming soon for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365: A new Scheduled prompts feature that allows users to automate Copilot prompts to run at set times and frequencies in Copilot in Microsoft Teams, Office.com/chat, and Microsoft Outlook for the web and Desktop. A Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 license and a Standard Microsoft Power Automate license are required to use this feature.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 401124.

When this will happen:

Public Preview: Microsoft will begin rolling out mid-December 2024 (previously mid-November) and expects to complete by late December 2024 (previously late November).

How this will affect your organization:

Before this rollout: Users are unable to schedule Copilot for Microsoft 365 prompts to run at a specific time and frequency.

After the rollout: Users can find the Scheduled prompts feature by hovering over a prompt they have submitted to Copilot. When a user selects the Save and activate button to confirm the scheduled prompt, a user’s prompt information will be sent to the Power Automate and Power Platform system, and the Power Automate terms of service and privacy policy apply:

What you need to do to prepare:

Managing the Scheduled prompts feature as an admin: To continue having the Scheduled prompts feature available in your organization, no action is required. The feature is automatically included as part of the Optional Connected Experiences admin setting, which is on by default.

Admins can access the Optional connected experiences setting at config.office.com

If you prefer not to have this feature available to your organization, you can disable the optional connected experiences setting at config.office.com. For more information: Admin controls for optional connected experiences. If you turn off the Optional connected experiences setting, this action will prevent anyone in your organization from seeing the Scheduled prompts feature in Copilot. If you choose to make these optional connected experiences available to your users, your users will also have the option to turn them by going to the privacy settings dialog box. 

To prevent exposing organizational data, you should also create a data policy in the Power Platform admin center. Creating a data policy in the center allows administrators to control access to these connectors in various ways to help reduce risk in your organization. Learn more here: Data policies – Power Platform | Microsoft Learn

If you disable this feature after someone in your organization has already used the feature:

• Users will no longer be able to manage previously scheduled prompts.
• Sessions for previously run scheduled prompts will continue to exist.
• Users will no longer see the Scheduled prompts feature or the prompt management pane.

Relevant articles

• Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn
• Security in Microsoft Power Platform – Power Platform | Microsoft Learn
• Admin controls for optional connected experiences in Overview of optional connected experiences in Office – Deploy Office | Microsoft Learn

Before rollout, Microsoft will update this post with revised documentation.

To learn more about Microsoft’s own review of this product with its works councils, please consider reading: https://aka.ms/Copilot/MSWorksCouncilsArticle