Microsoft 365 apps will receive new AI features

Microsoft announced Thursday it’s bringing generative artificial intelligence to its Microsoft 365 apps including Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

The tech giant said the new AI features, dubbed Copilot, will do things like automatically generate first drafts, create presentations based on prompts and summarize long email threads.

Copilot, powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4, is more than just having the popular ChatGPT chatbot embedded into Microsoft 365, the company said.

“Today marks the next major step in the evolution of how we interact with computing, which will fundamentally change the way we work and unlock a new wave of productivity growth,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement. “With our new copilot for work, we’re giving people more agency and making technology more accessible through the most universal interface — natural language.”

The announcement comes just days after rival Google unveiled a set of AI tools for its various Workspace apps, as tech companies race to launch AI features after the arrival of ChatGPT last year.

What is Microsoft Copilot?

Copilot is embedded in Microsoft 365 apps, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. It handles different tasks depending on the app you’re using, and you decide what to keep, modify or discard.

Here are some tasks Microsoft said Copilot can do for users:

⬤ Copilot in Word: Creates a first draft based on prompts. Adds content to existing documents, summarizes text and rewrites portions or the entire document. Suggests tones.

⬤ Copilot in Excel: Users can ask questions about their data set in natural language instead of formulas.

⬤ Copilot in PowerPoint: Transforms existing documents into decks or creates a new presentation based on a simple prompt or outline.

⬤ Copilot in Outlook: Summarizes email threads and responds to emails with prompts.

⬤ Copilot in Teams: Answers specific questions or catches users up on anything they’ve missed.