A new feature is coming to Microsoft Word for people who use Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365. It will soon allow users to add an AI-generated summary to their documents when they share them via OneDrive.
Microsoft's file hosting service is widely used by businesses and consumers to allow people to share documents, large files, and presentations directly from the Microsoft 365 software suite. According to MSPowerser, the feature will be available exclusively to users with Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365, for which you need a specific paid license (unlike OneDrive itself).
While this may be disappointing for those who want to try the feature without having to pay for it, there is some hope that we could see it come to Microsoft's free Office for Web suite (previously known as Office Online), which Microsoft includes. Word and 5 GB of OneDrive storage.
quick and easy
It may seem like a pretty basic addition to Copilot's nifty set of AI-powered skills, but the new feature can be very useful. If you work in an industry where you're bombarded with new documents every day from different people, for different tasks or projects, it can be difficult to not only keep track but also remember what it's all about.
With this in mind, having a quick automatic summary for each document means you can understand what the document is about at a glance. It also saves time for the person sending you the Word documents, as they won't have to write a summary themselves – Copilot will do it for them. The summary will be part of the notification email you receive when the document is shared, so you can immediately get the gist of what you're seeing before opening the document.
While it's a bit disappointing to see this feature locked behind licensing, it's not surprising: Microsoft has been developing Copilot's capabilities gradually, giving 365 pro users the first taste of each new feature. Regardless, it offers a bright look into the future of Microsoft's continued implementation of AI tools, and we hope to see more that prove to be as simple and useful as this one.
