Microsoft introduces AI-powered 'Copilot' for Word, Outlook and more — here’s what it means

• Microsoft launched Microsoft 365 Copilot, an AI tool that works with its suite of applications.
• Copilot can generate a first draft, summarize text, rewrite portions of a document, create presentations, respond to emails, and answer questions, all with prompts and natural language processing.
• Microsoft is currently testing Copilot with 20 partners, and plans to expand the preview to a wider audience in the near future.

Microsoft has launched a new AI tool called Microsoft 365 Copilot, which is designed to work with its suite of office applications such as Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. According to a blog post by Microsoft on Thursday, the tool is aimed at increasing productivity and creativity.

This comes just a month after it said it was integrating AI into its search engine Bing and browser Edge.

Copilot will provide users with a first draft, which they can then edit and iterate on, saving them time in the writing, sourcing and editing. Jared Spataro, an executive vice president at Microsoft, explained that while Copilot may not always be correct, it will always move users forward.

According to Jared Spataro, the new AI-powered tool, Microsoft 365 Copilot, is not only capable of generating first drafts for Word documents but can also create PowerPoint presentations and Excel data visualizations. In addition, the tool can draft email responses and summarize long email threads in Outlook, increasing productivity.

The tech giant is currently testing the tool with 20 partners and plans to make it available to a wider audience in the coming months.

Microsoft also announced Business Chat, which aggregates information across Microsoft apps using AI to provide users with quick responses to written prompts.

Here are some tasks Microsoft said Copilot can do for users

Copilot in Word
With Copilot in Word, users can generate an initial draft by providing prompts, and the tool will automatically add content to the document. It can also summarize text and rewrite specific portions of the entire document. Furthermore, Copilot provides suggestions for the appropriate tone to convey the intended message.

Copilot in Excel
Instead of using complex formulas, users can ask natural language questions about their data set.

Copilot in PowerPoint
Copilot can either convert existing documents into presentation decks or create new ones based on a simple prompt or outline.

Copilot in Outlook
Copilot can summarize lengthy email threads and respond to emails using prompts.

Copilot in Teams
Copilot is capable of answering specific questions and catching users up on anything they may have missed.

When can you use Copilot?

Microsoft has revealed that it is currently testing Microsoft 365 Copilot with 20 customers and plans to expand the preview to a wider audience in the coming months. The company also indicated that it will be sharing more information about pricing and other details in the near future.

The introduction of these AI-enabled tools is part of Microsoft's larger strategy of integrating AI into more of its products. Other tech giants such as Google and Facebook's Meta are also investing heavily in developing new AI capabilities for their services, such as generative writing features and AI-powered chatbots. Even Grammarly is launching an AI feature to assist users in crafting email messages and social media posts.

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