Your New Coworker Might Be Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft is rolling out the second wave of its Microsoft 365 Copilot, which should bring improvements to AI collaboration and productivity tools. The update will include the introduction of Copilot Pages, which are AI chat pages that let you add other team members.

Copilot Pages focuses on collaboration with an AI. Basically, AI-generated content can be edited, added to, and shared with other people in real time. Teams can collaborate within a page, working with Copilot as a partner and adding content where needed. It's almost as if Copilot is an employee alongside you. Tell it what to do, and it will work with everyone else on the same Copilot Page.

Microsoft

Another interesting addition is Copilot Agents, designed to automate business processes. These are now generally available to anyone with a business account. These AI assistants, ranging from simple prompt-and-response to fully autonomous agents, work within the Microsoft 365 trust boundary and are easily manageable with Agent Builder. Copilot Pages and Agents are part of a push toward a future where AI is integrated into daily work processes.

Copilot is also expanding across the Microsoft 365 suite, like Outlook. Excel users will benefit from the general availability of Copilot, improved formula support, and the integration of Python for advanced data analysis. PowerPoint introduces Narrative Builder and Brand Manager to streamline presentation creation. Copilot will also help with team meetings by creating and reasoning over meeting transcripts and chat conversations. Outlook users will experience email prioritization based on content and context, while Word integrates web data, work data, emails, and meetings directly into the writing flow. OneDrive integrates Copilot to summarize and compare up to five files quickly.

Adoption of Copilot has grown significantly, with a 60% quarter-over-quarter increase and doubled daily active users. Organizations like Vodafone, Amgen, Teladoc, Finastra, and Honeywell were named in the announcement as companies using Copilot. According to the announcement, there should be more updates in the coming months to improve Copilot.

These updates are currently exclusive to businesses and organizations that pay for Copilot access, not regular people with individual Copilot Pro subscriptions. It's not clear when, if ever, any of these features will roll out to personal Microsoft accounts.

Source: Microsoft