Microsoft Enhances Copilot Capabilities Across Outlook, Teams, and Word

Microsoft announced today several new capabilities to enhance the Copilot AI assistant in its Microsoft 365 apps. The first big change is that Copilot in Outlook has added a new prioritize my inbox feature to help users tackle email overload more efficiently.

Copilot in Outlook reviews emails by analyzing their content and the user’s role, then generates concise summaries that highlight the importance of each message. Later this year, users will be able to ask Copilot in Outlook to prioritize emails based on specific topics, keywords, or people.

Copilot in Word

In Microsoft Word, Copilot for Microsoft 365 will soon be able to quickly reference multiple data sources, including web data, Word documents, PowerPoint files, PDFs, encrypted documents, as well as content from emails and meeting notes. This feature will be available to customers later this month.

Microsoft has also announced the general availability of a new on-canvas startup experience with suggested prompts. Additionally, the inline collaboration feature allows users to work with Copilot directly within specific sections of a document.

Copilot in Excel

Microsoft has introduced several new features for Copilot in Excel, including support for unformatted data, text data, formulas like XLOOKUP and SUMIF, as well as conditional formatting. Users can also collaborate with Copilot to refine visualizations like charts and PivotTables.

Additionally, Copilot in Excel with Python lets customers use natural language commands to perform advanced analysis such as machine learning, forecasting, risk analysis, and visualizing complex data. This feature is currently available in public preview.

Copilot in PowerPoint

Microsoft has released a couple of updates to improve the Copilot in PowerPoint experience this month. The Narrator builder feature allows users to work together with Copilot to quickly draft presentations. Users will soon be able to add files to the outline to better support and structure their topics.

The Brand Manager feature allows the Copilot AI assistant to use the company’s branded templates. Copilot will soon be able to pull images that have been approved by the company from their SharePoint Organization Asset Library.

Updates for Copilot in Teams and more

Copilot in Teams is getting a new feature to help participants keep track of key discussion points during meetings. The AI-powered Copilot assistant can now analyze both the meeting transcript and chat to provide a comprehensive summary of the discussion.

Last but not least, Microsoft says the new Copilot in OneDrive experience will become generally available for customers. It allows users to find, summarize, and extract information from a wide range of files. These include text documents, presentations, HTML pages, spreadsheets, PDF files, and more.