Microsoft has introduced artificial intelligence (AI) integrated new chatbot tool called Microsoft 365 Copilot to assist users in writing documents, making presentations, composing emails, and more. The Copilot, powered by GPT-4 from OpenAI, is made for Microsoft 365 applications, including Word, Office, Excel, and others.
Discover a new way of working with Microsoft 365 Copilot—next-generation AI capabilities embedded in the Microsoft 365 apps you use every day. Learn more: https://t.co/fqTtN1tRVQ pic.twitter.com/gNjCQfGkdz
— Microsoft 365 (@Microsoft365) March 16, 2023
The release happened soon after Google revealed that it would be integrating AI capabilities into Gmail, Docs, and other Workspace apps.
According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, this technology will radically alter the way we interact with computers and unleash a new surge in productivity. “With our new copilot for work, we are giving people more agency and making technology more accessible through a universal interface – natural language.”
With Microsoft 365 Copilot, we're giving people more agency and making technology more accessible with advanced AI and the most universal user interface: natural language. https://t.co/SNNMWcecgx
— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) March 16, 2023
Users of Microsoft 365 will notice the Copilot tool as an assistant in their sidebar. The new tool lets PowerPoint users create presentations and Microsoft Word users make drafts. In addition, excel users can quickly analyze trends and make data visualizations.
The head of Microsoft 365, Jared Spataro, mentioned in a blog post, “It works alongside you, embedded in the apps millions of people use daily: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more. Copilot is an entirely new method of working.
While Copilot in Teams will help every meeting be effective by assisting with tasks like summarising key conversation points and proposing action items in real-time during a meeting, Copilot in Outlook can quickly help organise the inbox. According to Microsoft, Copilot on the Power Platform will enable users to automate repetitive tasks, build chatbots, and much more.
Copilot, which acts as a chatbot, can aid offices by handling content-related tasks, but Spataro advises using the tool with caution because it may not always be accurate. “Copilot will sometimes be usefully right, sometimes wrong, but it will always pull you further ahead,” he writes.
The company further revealed that Microsoft 365 Copilot is currently under testing with eight Fortune 500 enterprises. In the coming months, the company will extend these broadly to users.
