Alex Pearce
Chief Strategist - Microsoft & Education
Alex Pearce Linked In
Microsoft 365 Copilot is constantly developing, with hundreds of updates already released based on customer feedback. Today, as part of the “Microsoft 365 Copilot: Wave 2” event, Microsoft made several announcements that will help you adopt and transition your business into an AI organisation.
Innovations in Copilot in SharePoint, OneDrive, and Excel will see you get more from your licence and help with deployment into the different departments within your organisation.
Copilot in SharePoint and OneDrive
One of the many benefits we have with AI and the Microsoft stack is the ability to talk to our data. Now, with Copilot in OneDrive, we can talk to elements of our data for a more granular response. Within your OneDrive experience you will be able to summarise files, generate an FAQ or ask questions about the content within the file. You will also be able to compare two files to understand the main differences, and then talk to the data across all the files you’re comparing.
SharePoint will enable you to do the same, however, you will now be able to create Copilot Agents directly from a document library.
Copilot Agents
Copilot Studio gave us the ability to create our own Copilots and has been part of the Microsoft 365 Copilot licence since the product became generally available. Now, you will be able to create your own Copilots, now known as Copilot Agents, directly from a SharePoint document library. Simply select the files you want and you can chat to only those files. This great addition allows you to create Copilot Agents for projects, bid work, review of customer documents before submission, and many other scenarios which are part of your AI journey.
You can then take that Copilot Agent and customise it further in Copilot Studio like any other custom Copilot, such as adding better trigger words, data and actions to run in the backend.
Microsoft 365 Chat becomes Business Chat
Where you go and chat to your data in Copilot has always been known as Microsoft 365 Chat and is located in several areas, including Windows 11, Microsoft 365 and Teams. Microsoft has now changed Microsoft 365 Chat to be called Business Chat, making it clearer when you are talking to the web with Copilot and when you are chatting to your business data. The extensibility of this as part of Copilot Agents and Copilot Studio is also run from Business Chat. Make sure to let your users know of the enhancements in this area, as they will get better usage out of Business Chat (or Biz Chat for short).
Copilot in Excel goes General Availability and adds Python support
When Microsoft 365 Copilot was first released, Excel was never part of the general availability and was always subject to change. Over the past nine months however, Microsoft has enhanced the models used to support Excel and improved the way it understands your data. Today (Monday 16 September), Microsoft has brought Copilot in Excel into general availability meaning it is now fully supported.
For advanced Excel users, Copilot in Excel will soon support Python, and you will be able to use AI to enhance your experience with this programmable language. Excel has supported Python for some time now; however, the ability to use AI and Python will help with advanced data analysis and visualisation within your data. Copilot in Excel with Python will go into Public Preview in the next few weeks.
Improved responses with integration of GPT 4o and others
Microsoft hasn’t been too open about the AI Models they are using within the Microsoft platform, but in today's announcements, they mentioned that GPT 4o is now the default language within Business Chat, increasing the context windows, language and understanding of your data.
Copilot Pages
Using Copilot has always been something that you do yourself. You chat to the transcription in Teams; it's your Business Chat experience, and if you analyse a file, only you see the output.
Using the underlying technology within Microsoft Loop, you will soon be able to collaborate with chats using Copilot, allowing you and your team to talk to the data together and see the output that AI can give. This element of team work is now increased with the ability to collaborate with AI and the data you pull together as a team.
You can find out more about Copilot Pages here.
Did you spot the name changes?
During this announcement, Microsoft has changed the name of Copilot. This isn’t the first time, but it has now moved back to calling it Microsoft 365 Copilot and each Copilot in a product is now “Copilot In” eg: Copilot in Teams, Copilot in Loop. I hope you spotted this throughout the post.
Conclusion
If you ever speak to me through your Softcat Account Manager, you will know I am keen to ensure you get the most out of your Microsoft 365 Copilot. Investing in this Microsoft AI platform will transform your business, and I am keen to ensure you learn more and get the most out of Copilot. With this set of announcements, Microsoft 365 Copilot is increasing your features and maturing the AI so you can get more and more out of your license.
If you’d like to find out more about how Softcat can support the roll out and usage of Copilot within your organisation, please contact your Account Manager or reach out to our Sales team here.
Microsoft 365 Copilot: Wave 2 was presented by Satya Nadella (Microsoft Chairman and CEO) and Jared Spataro (Microsoft Corporate Vice President, AI for Work). You can watch a replay of the event here.