Copilot for Microsoft 365: Major Updates and New Features Unveiled

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is a set of AI-powered features designed to enhance productivity across various Microsoft 365 applications such as Teams, Outlook, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and more. In May, new features rolling out include:

• Graph-grounded chat with Microsoft Copilot in Outlook, allowing users to interact with Copilot directly within Outlook to generate responses based on file context and enterprise content.
• Restricted SharePoint Search in public preview, which enables organizations to limit Copilot to selected SharePoint sites for better content security.
• Call Copilot in Teams chat to assist with message composition.
• Draft by Copilot in Outlook Classic for drafting new email messages.
• Advanced features in Excel, where Copilot can handle complex formulas and create multiple formula columns from a single prompt.

To use Graph-grounded chat with Microsoft Copilot in Outlook, follow these steps:

1. Open the Outlook application (new Outlook for Windows or Outlook on the web).
2. Click on the Copilot icon at the top of the Outlook window.
3. A panel will open where you can type your prompts and questions.
4. Copilot will generate responses using the context from the file you are working on (email, document, spreadsheet, page) and enterprise content that you have access to.

The responses adhere to organizational policies, ensuring results are limited to content the user has permission to view.

Restricted SharePoint Search is a feature that allows organizations to control the scope of content that Microsoft Search and Copilot can access. It works by requiring organizations to whitelist SharePoint sites that Copilot is allowed to search, rather than blocking sites. This feature is particularly useful for organizations concerned about unintentional oversharing of sensitive content. It is considered a temporary measure to allow time for reviewing and auditing site permissions and implementing more robust data security and content lifecycle management.

The Copilot Roadmap for May and June 2024 includes several exciting features:

For May 2024:

• File reference: Ground prompts in local files using an 'Upload' link or paste file links from OneDrive and SharePoint.
• Summarise in OneDrive: Summarize content across multiple file formats without opening them.
• Copilot in SharePoint: Generate custom sites and pages with a brief prompt.
• Copilot and Azure OpenAI features in preview: Transform and analyze data, generate insights, and create visualizations and reports in Microsoft Fabric and Power BI.

For June 2024:

• Outlook - Schedule from email with Copilot: Transition email conversations to meetings with scheduling assistance.
• Copilot integration with Designer: Find images or create banners in Word.
• Copilot for Sales plugin: Connect with Sales and Dynamics 365 data during Teams Meetings for insights.