Microsoft has introduced an AI-powered Copilot for Microsoft 365, which will assist users in generating documents, emails, presentations, and other tasks.
Copilot, powered by GPT-4 from OpenAI, will function as a chatbot, sitting alongside Microsoft 365 apps in the sidebar and offering its services to users as they work. The feature can be used to create PowerPoint presentations based on Word documents, generate text in documents, and help users with PivotTables in Excel.
It will also provide users with information on upcoming Microsoft Teams meetings, prepare them with updates on related projects, and offer updates on coworkers. Copilot will work across Microsoft’s Office apps and can transcribe meetings, remind users of any missed details, or summarise action items throughout a session.
However, Microsoft 365 head Jared Spataro has noted that Copilot won’t always be correct, stating that “sometimes Copilot will get it right, other times it will be usefully wrong, giving you an idea that’s not perfect but still gives you a head start.” Copilot will also exist in Outlook and can be used to summarize email threads and create draft responses with toggles to adapt the tone or length of an email.
Copilot will use a system that combines Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint with the Microsoft Graph of data and intelligence and GPT-4 to generate responses.
It uses grounding to improve the quality of the prompts it provides. When a user asks Word to create a document based on data, Copilot will send that prompt to the Microsoft Graph to retrieve context and data before modifying the prompt and sending it to the GPT-4 large language model.
The response is sent to the Microsoft Graph for additional grounding, security, and compliance checks before sending the response and commands back to Microsoft 365 apps.Microsoft also plans to launch a Business Chat feature that works across all Microsoft 365 data and apps, generating summaries, planning overviews, and more.
While Microsoft is moving quickly with its AI-powered vision for Office apps, there will certainly be concerns around this speed of innovation and the accuracy of its AI models, particularly when
Microsoft 365 users may use them with business data in the months ahead. Nonetheless, Microsoft has assured users that it is tackling the long-term implications and risks, stating that it will make mistakes but address them quickly when it does.
Microsoft has said it is testing Copilot with 20 customers and will expand the preview in the coming months. “We will share more about pricing and details in the coming months,” says Microsoft in a blog post today. The announcement comes just days after Google announced similar AI features for Google Workspace, including AI-assisted text generation in Gmail, Docs, and more.
Microsoft has announced the launch of Copilot, an AI-powered tool designed to help Microsoft 365 users generate documents, emails, presentations, and much more.
The tool is powered by GPT-4 from OpenAI and will sit alongside Microsoft 365 apps in the form of a chatbot that users can summon to generate text in documents, create PowerPoint presentations based on Word documents, or even help use features like PivotTables in Excel.Copilot can also be summoned throughout Microsoft’s Office apps and be used in Word to draft documents based on other files. The AI-generated text can then be freely edited and adapted.
Copilot also exists in Outlook, where it can be used to summarize email threads and create draft responses with toggles to adapt the tone or length of an email. Additionally, the Copilot feature can transcribe meetings, remind users of things they might have missed if they joined late, or even summarize action items throughout a meeting.
“To build Copilot, we didn’t just connect ChatGPT to Microsoft 365,” says Jared Spataro, the head of Microsoft 365. “Microsoft 365 Copilot is powered by what we call the Copilot system.” This system combines Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint with the Microsoft Graph of data and intelligence and GPT-4.
Microsoft also plans to launch a Business Chat feature that works across all Microsoft 365 data and apps. It uses the Microsoft Graph to combine documents, presentations, emails, notes, and contacts into a single chat interface in Microsoft Teams that can generate summaries, planning overviews, and more.
While Microsoft is moving quickly with its AI-powered vision for Office apps, there will certainly be concerns around this speed of innovation and the accuracy of its AI models, mainly when Microsoft 365 users may be using them with business data in the months ahead.
“We make it clear how the system makes decisions by noting limitations, linking to sources, and prompting users to review, fact-check and adjust content based on subject-matter expertise,” says Spataro in a blog post today, noting the company’s AI principles.
Microsoft recently laid off its ethics and society team within the artificial intelligence organization. The team had been working to identify risks posed by Microsoft’s adoption of OpenAI’s language models throughout its software and services.
That’s left some inside and outside Microsoft concerned at the pace of AI-powered software, but Spataro doesn’t share the same concerns. “To serve the unmet needs of our customers, we must move quickly and responsibly, learning as we go,” says Spataro. “We’re testing Copilot with a small group of customers to get feedback and improve our models as we scale, and we will expand to more soon.”
Microsoft is clearly starting small to ensure any costly mistakes are discovered early on. “When the system gets things wrong, or has biases, or is misused, we have mitigations in place,” says Jamie Teevan, Microsoft’s chief scientist. “We’re tackling the long-term implications and novel risks like jailbreaks. We’ll make mistakes, but when we do we’ll address them quickly.”
Overall, Copilot is an exciting development in the field of AI and productivity tools. As Microsoft continues to invest in developing AI-powered tools like Copilot, it will be interesting to see how these technologies continue to transform how we work and collaborate.
