Microsoft will expand its artificial intelligence offering in 365 Copilot Wave 2 this fall, the company announced during demonstrations on Sept. 16.
Jared Spataro, corporate vice president of AI at work at Microsoft, said that “Copilot is the new user interface for AI.” The presentation emphasized the ability to use natural language to control an app from anywhere on the page rather than just focusing on a single new capability.
Copilot now uses OpenAI's GPT-4o large language model. Microsoft plans to add the new OpenAI o1 model in the future, Spataro said.
Microsoft said 400 million people are currently using Copilot and the number of daily users is doubling quarter over quarter, the fastest adoption rate in the Microsoft 365 suite.
Copilot takes center stage in Word and expands to Excel, PowerPoint and more
New features and capabilities coming in Copilot Wave 2 include:
- Copilot Pages, a bridge between the browser version of Copilot search and an online canvas.
- Copilot in Excel, including XLOOKUP and pivot tables.
- Copilot in Excel with Python coding.
- PowerPoint narrative generator that creates presentation drafts from prompts.
- Brand Manager in PowerPoint, allowing Copilot to work within branded templates.
- Copilot in Teams, with access to meeting chats in addition to audio.
- “Prioritize my inbox” with Copilot in Outlook.
- Copilot improvements in Word, allowing AI to extract information from external files and place a floating notification box in the Word document.
- Copilot in OneDrive to answer document queries and compare files.
- Copilot agents, built in Microsoft Business Chat or SharePoint, can connect to multiple business processes and perform tasks automatically.
Copilot Pages will be available in late September, including to free Microsoft Copilot users who sign in with a Microsoft Sign In account. Copilot in Excel with Python is in public preview, while Copilot in Teams is available now. Both the “Prioritize my inbox” feature with Copilot in Outlook and Copilot in OneDrive will be released later this month.
An agent builder will be rolling out to Business Chat “in the coming weeks,” and agents and the agent builder will debut in SharePoint in preview in early October.
SEE: Copilot has become deeply intertwined with Microsoft's Bing search engine.
During the presentation, Hadley Griffin, Microsoft Office AI product manager, stressed that business users should treat AI-generated PowerPoint presentations as drafts or starting points. Copilot can help with tasks like adding speaker notes and animations, but Griffin highlighted generative features as a tool to complement, rather than replace, human work.
“Now you are ready to iterate with Copilot as your partner,” he said.
'AI UI' could change the way users interact with apps
Spataro's comments are vividly illustrated in a demonstration of new ways to activate Copilot in Microsoft Word.
Microsoft demonstrated how graphics can be added to a document using an AI prompt, with a pop-up dialog box that now scrolls within the document. This improves flexibility and allows users to seamlessly insert images, graphics, and text. The AI agent automates the process of reading file information and navigating menus.
However, adopting generative AI is not always as straightforward as Microsoft suggests, and some companies struggle to identify clear goals or achieve ROI from their AI initiatives.
