Microsoft's AI-powered Copilot for Office will create documents and analyse data

Aims to help with the 80% of mundane work so people can focus on the 20% value-add

Microsoft is further integrating generative AI into its apps and services, this week announcing Microsoft 365 Copilot.

The company says Copilot "combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with your data in the Microsoft Graph and Microsoft 365 apps to turn your words into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet."

"Today marks the next major step in the evolution of how we interact with computing, which will fundamentally change the way we work and unlock a new wave of productivity growth," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

"With our new copilot for work, we're giving people more agency and making technology more accessible through the most universal interface — natural language."

Copilot will function as an assistant in Microsoft 365 apps. Accessible through the sidebar, it will help users to generate text in Word, create presentations in PowerPoint, and use features like PivotTables in Excel.

Microsoft is pitching Copilot's capabilities as superior to simply embedding OpenAI's ChatGPT in Microsoft 365.

In Word, Copilot can be used to generate a first draft from scratch. It can also edit documents, reducing the word count or modifying the tone; or summarise lengthy articles.

In Excel, Copilot can analyse data trends and help build data visualisations. And in PowerPoint, it can create presentations from a prompt.

In Outlook, Copilot will summarise email threads and draft replies. It will work in similarly in Teams, creating discussion points and action items in real time during a meeting. Finally, in Power Platform, Microsoft says Copilot can automate tasks and create its own chatbots "in minutes."

Microsoft acknowledged that current LLM technology can generate inaccurate responses. As a result, Copilot may still provide inaccurate information - human oversight is still a must.

The company is currently is testing Copilot with 20 customers and plans to expand the preview to additional users in the coming months.

The public release will depend on the outcome of the test phase.

In addition to Copilot, Microsoft has unveiled a feature called Business Chat, which also relies on AI.

Working across Microsoft 365 data and apps, Business Chat amalgamates data from various sources - such as documents, presentations, email, calendar, notes and contacts - to assist with summarising chats, composing emails, identifying important dates, or even developing a plan based on other project files.

One example of a Business Chat prompt Microsoft provided was "What is the next milestone on [project]. Were there any risks identified? Help me brainstorm a list of some potential mitigations."

Dr Andrew Rogoyski from the University of Surrey called Copilot "a game-changer."

"Although people may initially resist the idea of using AI, the ability to do things like summarise long documents and prioritise your email inbox will be an absolute godsend for most people struggling to cope with the ever-increasing volume of information we have to get through every day."

However, he warned, "There is a question of information leakage in the adoption of these AI, especially if the AI is allowed to learn from its interactions with users and its access to corporate data."

AI arms race heating up

The news of Copilot comes as companies around the world race to build out apps and services using ChatGPT and similar generative AI models.

Microsoft had a head start through its partnership with ChatGPT creator OpenAI, which dates back to 2019. The Windows giant made a further investment in the company this year.

Seeing a GPT-powered Bing as a significant threat, Google has also been racing to develop and add its own AI capabilities. The company unveiled Bard, its answer to ChatGPT, last month, and this week announced it would add AI capabilities to Workspace apps like Gmail and Google Docs.

Rogoyski said Copilot is "yet another blow for Google as companies who have invested in the Google office suite, which grew massively during the pandemic as users shifted to the cloud, may be asking themselves if they backed the right horse."