Microsoft announced the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into its apps, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. The Copilot is powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 technology and will appear as a chatbot in the sidebar of Microsoft 365 apps.
Customers can use Microsoft 365 Copilot in two ways, according to Microsoft: as an embed in Microsoft 365 apps or as a business chat that works across the language model and Microsoft 365 apps.
“Business Chat will generate a status update based on the morning’s meetings, emails, and chat threads,” Microsoft said. It will assist users in gathering data from documents, presentations, and emails to summarise conversations and write emails.
Copilot in Word can write, edit, and summarise; Copilot in PowerPoint can transform ideas into a designed presentation using natural language commands; and Copilot in Excel can support data visualization.
Copilot appears in Office apps as a helpful AI chatbot in the sidebar, but it is much more. You could be in the middle of a Word document, and it will appear gently when you highlight an entire paragraph — similar to how Word has UI prompts that highlight spelling errors. You can rewrite your paragraphs with 10 new text suggestions to flick through and freely edit, or you can have Copilot generate entire documents for you.
This adaptability distinguishes it from Microsoft simply slapping ChatGPT into a sidebar in Office. Copilot is more than just a chatbot interface; it can also control Office apps like Excel and PowerPoint. Instead of digging into PowerPoint features, if you’re looking at a slide deck and wish every title was orange instead of blue, simply ask Copilot.
In Teams, Copilot will provide real-time summaries and action items 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, according to Microsoft, with the addition of two new capabilities within Power Apps and Power Virtual Agents.
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