Microsoft Ignite 2023: Copilot Updates Part 2

As we mentioned in our first article, Microsoft Ignite 2023: Copilot Updates Part 1, Microsoft is the Copilot company. Forging ahead, Microsoft is realizing its vision of providing everyone their own Copilot – their own AI assistant. This article is the second part that delves into the many new features and announcements for Copilot for Microsoft 365. Our previous article, Microsoft Ignite 2023: Copilot Updates Part 1, reviewed the announcements for Copilot in Sales, Service, the Dynamics 365 suite, Edge for Business, and Microsoft Cloud.

Let’s jump right into the exciting world of Copilot for Microsoft 365!

Microsoft Copilot Studio

This is very exciting as Microsoft Copilot Studio is a low-code tool for customizing Copilot for Microsoft 365 and for building standalone copilots. Microsoft Copilot Studio brings custom GPTs, manual topics, and generative AI plugins to create powerful conversational capabilities where it can be customized for specific scenarios for an enterprise. From building, testing, and publishing to customizing GPTs to securing and managing customizations and standalone copilots to assigning proper access, user controls, data, and analytics, Microsoft Copilot Studio provides the platform to achieve all this, and all from within the same windows experience. Additionally, Copilot Studio can be connected to other data sources, including custom or pre-built plugins and GPTS, system of record from Workday, SAP and ServiceNow or a proprietary business solution.

Copilot for Microsoft 365

Copilot for Microsoft 365 will have the foundational abilities, web grounding, and commercial data protection. Copilot for Microsoft 365 will inherit the existing Microsoft 365 identity, security, privacy, and compliance policies across an enterprise. Data is protected within the Microsoft 365 tenant, which translates to total data control for admins. For individual users, Copilot acts on their behalf which means users cannot access or see information that they have not been granted permission to. Data handling and data residency is not affected by Copilot for Microsoft 365. Copilot for Microsoft 365 has a far reach with its integration into the Microsoft 365 apps and its access to Microsoft Graph. Copilot for Microsoft 365 is accessible in Windows and Bing.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 will expand the skills and knowledge of Copilot with Microsoft Graph connectors and plugins by allowing users to install and enable plugins with internal and third-party applications that they use daily. These plugins can be installed via the app store in Teams, Microsoft365.com, and Outlook while IT can install Graph connectors from the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Copilot in Microsoft 365 bring the following additional features:

1. New Controls in Microsoft 365 Admin Center provide the ability for admins to manage and discover plugins for Microsoft Copilot.
   
2. Developers can build plugins for Microsoft Copilot by Teams message extension, thereby extending Copilot for Microsoft 365.
   
3. Developer sandbox for Copilot Microsoft 365 is a space for developers to build and test plugins, as well as Graph connectors, in a non-production tenant environment.
   
4. Independent software vendors (ISVs) can submit apps, including plugins for Copilot and Graph connectors for Outlook, Teams, and more for the new Microsoft 365 and Copilot program.
   

The many new capabilities for Copilots include:

Microsoft Copilot Dashboard

Powered by Microsoft Viva, Microsoft Copilot Dashboard will provide managers and leaders insights on how Copilot is affecting their organization and how it is changing the way their people work. With these insights, leaders and managers can ensure that their people are leveraging AI and associated tools to their full potential.

Copilot in Microsoft Teams

Combining the power of Copilot in Whiteboard and Copilot in Teams, meeting discussions can be visualized to meeting participants. Copilot in Microsoft Teams will be able to:

1. Provide live summarization during the Teams meeting.
   
2. Provide live notes during the Teams meeting.
   
3. Visualize spoken points of a discussion.
   
4. Organize these points in Whiteboard.
   
5. Gather spoken ideas and topics from meeting participants and turn these into a visual collaboration space in Whiteboard which can then be shared across all participants of the meeting.
   
6. Suggest more ideas to add to the Whiteboard whilst the meeting conversation takes place.
   
7. Save captured content on Whiteboard as a Microsoft Whiteboard file. This file is accessible via Teams, Whiteboard app, and OneDrive for Business.
   
8. Generate a summary of the Whiteboard that is shared as a Loop component in Word, Teams, Outlook, and more. This is only available for Copilot licensed users.
   
9. Take minutes of the meeting and share with all meeting participants during the meeting.
   
10. Add shared agenda items and meeting notes by users in Collaborative Notes. Collaborative Notes are Loop components, which means they will stay synced across all the places they have been shared.
    
11. Take live notes within Collaborative Notes, allowing attendees to focus on the meeting. This feature must be enabled before the start of the meeting.
    
12. Share these notes with attendees. Attendees will be able to ask for more specific notes, such as asking Copilot to “Capture what Beth said as a quote.”

Meeting notes will be viewable and editable as long as there is one participant who has the license to Copilot. Only one participant is required to have the license for all attendees to have access to view and edit meeting notes.

In instances where it is not necessary or undesired to have Copilot in Teams retaining a transcription of the meeting, the admin can assign a policy in the Teams admin center to either enable or disable transcription. With this policy, meeting organizers will have the ability to set their preferences prior to the start of a meeting.

Even with Copilot disabled for transcription during a meeting, meeting attendees can still ask Copilot questions during the meeting. The difference is that at the end of the meeting, there will be no intelligent recap, and no transcript, and Copilot will not be available after the meeting has ended.

Copilot in Microsoft Teams channels will provide users the ability to synthesize key discussion points from past conversations in an organized summary, including citations.

In Teams Chat and Channels, the Copilot compose box acts as a writing assistant where it can help edit messages, re-write messages, modify the length of the message, and adapt the tone of the message to the writer. This can all be completed before the message is sent.

Users who make calls with Teams Phone will now receive real-time summarizations and insights during calls thanks to Copilot in Teams Phone. From the Calls apps in Teams, users can request a post-call summary of the conversation, generate action items, or pose specific questions about the call. Post-call experiences with Copilot will be supported for both PSTN and VoIP calls.

Copilot in Microsoft Outlook

Copilot in Microsoft Outlook will assist users to do more in less time while staying on top of important tasks. Copilot in Microsoft Outlook will have features that will:

1. Prepare for Meetings: based on related emails, invites, and attached files, Copilot will generate a detailed summary of upcoming meetings.
   
2. Schedule Meetings: scheduling a meeting, whether a new meeting or a follow-up meeting, is simple with Copilot. There are two methods to scheduling a meeting. From the email summary, simply click the suggested action or chat with Copilot to schedule a meeting. From there, Copilot can create the meeting agenda, a title for the meeting, provide the context of the meeting, and generate a list of attendees. Best of all, it can find the best available times for all attendees.
   

Copilot in Microsoft Loop

Copilot in Microsoft Loop can generate even more relevant responses by using information from a document linked in the prompt. Copilot in Microsoft Loop intelligently adapts Loop pages from previous models to new projects, resulting in the creation of new custom templates.

Copilot in Microsoft Word

Copilot in Microsoft Word will provide users with the ability to ask questions to gain a better understanding of what was revised in the document by all users who accessed it with the catchup and comments. Copilot in Microsoft Word will leverage information from Microsoft Graph which in turn provides a more personalized experience based on user interests, preferences, and other information. Copilot in Microsoft Word can:

1. analyze a document for specific details
2. generate a new understanding by using new prompts on an existing file
3. polish writing with high-level editing
4. surface key insights by summarizing a document
5. generate a client brief with a simple prompt

Copilot in PowerPoint

Leveraging Microsoft Designer, users can ask Copilot in PowerPoint to reimagine brand assets and library images. Embracing AI intelligence, the generated visuals are newly designed and composed without the need for a photo shoot. Copilot in PowerPoint can:

1. identify key takeaway points from a presentation deck
2. maximize storytelling impact by organizing the presentation into sections
3. create, in seconds, a new presentation that is based on your inputs and files
4. produce consistency across your entire deck, whether it be a font or an image.

Copilot in Excel

With simple prompts, Copilot in Excel can instantly review, edit, filter, format, and sort data. With a single prompt, conditional formatting and sheet-wide updates can be attained. From a large data set, visualize key insights by adding them to a grid. Using data from an existing file, produce engaging and professional charts.

Copilot for Microsoft 365: Enhanced with Microsoft Viva

Copilot will enhance the Microsoft Viva suite:

1. Copilot in Microsoft Viva Insights: using natural language prompts, leaders and delegates can have dynamic, personalized reports generated that provide answers to questions regarding their teams and organization.
   
2. Copilot in Microsoft Viva Goals: leveraging conversational AI and procuring relevant information from existing strategy documents, users can easily generate and refine their goals whilst summarizing their goal progression that can be shared with their teams.
   
3. Copilot in Microsoft Viva Engage: engaging users and leaders, AI-created prompts and images will create conversation starters. By doing so, it will prompt leaders and users to post their responses. Through engagement, trust can be built between users and leaders and provide a thermometer reading concerning employee sentiments.
   
4. Copilot in Microsoft Viva Learning: leveraging conversational AI, users can find the appropriate learning resources, summarize learning content, and create structured learning collections.
   
5. Copilot in Microsoft Viva Glint: using natural language to ask questions in employee engagement surveys, leaders will be able to analyze thousands of comments and then summarize the findings.
   

Our journey will continue with our third article, Microsoft Ignite 2023: Copilot Updates Part 3 where we will review Power Platform including Power Automate and Power Apps, and how Security Copilot will assist compliance admins with their heavy workflows.