Microsoft introduces AI-powered Copilot for Microsoft 365 apps and services

Microsoft has unveiled a new AI-powered Copilot for its Microsoft 365 apps and services that will assist users with generating documents, emails, presentations and more.

Powered by GPT-4 from OpenAI, the Copilot sits alongside Microsoft 365 apps as a chatbot that appears in the sidebar and can be summoned to generate text in documents or help with features like PivotTables in Excel.

The Copilot system uses Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint along with the Microsoft Graph of data and intelligence to improve the quality of the prompts it is given.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella unveiled the new AI Copilot during a special AI productivity event. Microsoft is testing the Microsoft 365 Copilot with 20 customers and will expand the preview in the coming months.

While Microsoft is moving quickly with its AI-powered vision for Office apps, there may be concerns around the accuracy of its AI models, particularly when Microsoft 365 users may be using them with business data.

The company says it makes it clear how the system makes decisions by noting limitations and prompting users to review, fact-check and adjust content based on subject-matter expertise.