Microsoft announced it is testing Microsoft 365 Copilot, its workplace productivity tool powered by next-generation artificial intelligence (AI).
The Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft has started the testing of Microsoft 365 Copilot with 20 business customers. Copilot combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with business data and the Microsoft 365 apps for better productivity and skills.
Copilot is embedded in the Microsoft 365 apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and more.
Microsoft, which made significant investment in OpenAI, also announced Business Chat that works across the LLM, the Microsoft 365 apps, and a customer’s calendar, emails, chats, documents, meetings and contacts to do things.
With natural language prompts like “tell my team how we updated the product strategy,” Business Chat will generate a status update based on the morning’s meetings, emails and chat threads.
With Copilot, customers can decide what to keep, modify or discard. With these new tools, people can be more creative in Word, more analytical in Excel, more expressive in PowerPoint, more productive in Outlook and more collaborative in Teams.
“Copilot combines the power of large language models with your data and apps to turn your words into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet,” said Jared Spataro, corporate vice president, Modern Work and Business Applications, Microsoft.
Copilot in Word writes, edits, summarizes and creates right alongside people as they work.
Copilot in PowerPoint enables the creation process by turning ideas into a designed presentation through natural language commands.
Copilot in Excel helps unlock insights, identify trends or create professional-looking data visualizations in a fraction of the time.
Copilot in Outlook can help synthesize and manage the inbox to allow more time to be spent on actually communicating.
Copilot in Teams makes meetings more productive with real-time summaries and action items directly in the context of the conversation.
Copilot in Power Platform will help developers of all skill levels accelerate and streamline development with low-code tools with the introduction of two new capabilities within Power Apps and Power Virtual Agents.
Business Chat brings together data from across documents, presentations, email, calendar, notes and contacts to help summarize chats, write emails, find key dates or even write a plan based on other project files.
Microsoft has built Microsoft 365 Copilot with its existing commitments to data security and privacy in the enterprise. Copilot’s large language models are not trained on customer content or on individual prompts. Microsoft 365 Copilot will deliver enterprise-ready AI at scale.
Earlier this month Microsoft announced Dynamics 365 Copilot as the world’s first AI Copilot in both CRM and ERP to bring the next-generation AI to every line of business.
Google-owner Alphabet on Tuesday touted AI features for Gmail and a “magic wand” to draft prose in its own word processor. The capabilities that Microsoft and Google showcased are similar.
