What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Microsoft 365 Copilot represents a new paradigm in work, where employees collaborate with AI for increased productivity. Copilot addresses the modern challenge where the pace of work is overtaking our ability to keep up. Microsoft 365 Copilot is designed to transform how we work in the digital age. Powered by Large Language Models (LLMs) and utilizing your business data from Microsoft Graph, Copilot aims to spark creativity, boost productivity, and foster new skills. This innovative tool integrates seamlessly with the Microsoft 365 suite, including popular applications like Teams, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, and more to elevate productivity and creativity in the workplace.
Examples of Microsoft 365 Copilot in action may include:
- Outlook. Summarize the content of a large email thread.
- PowerPoint. Turn a text-heavy slide into concise bullet points for greater clarity.
- Word. Rewrite a paragraph in a different tone or style.
- Teams. Summarize meetings and chat threads.
Microsoft 365 Copilot can help change the way that we work, transforming our everyday tasks into opportunities for growth and innovation.
The Microsoft 365 Copilot system
Microsoft 365 Copilot is more than OpenAI’s ChatGPT embedded into Microsoft 365. In fact, Copilot is a sophisticated orchestration engine and processor. It melds the strengths of LLMs with Microsoft 365 apps and your proprietary business data that you as an individual user have access to within Microsoft Graph.
Watch a brief video for a high-level overview of how Microsoft 365 Copilot works.
Trusted data security
Anchored in the heart of your business data lies the strength of Microsoft 365 Copilot, which maintains a firm commitment to security, compliance, and privacy. Operating with real-time access to your content and context within Microsoft Graph, Copilot has the capacity to generate responses deeply ingrained in your business content to provide relevant answers and insights. When paired with your ongoing work context - whether it's the meeting you're currently in, recent email exchanges, or last week's chat conversations - Copilot delivers precise, pertinent, and contextually aware responses.
Furthermore, Copilot rests on Microsoft's comprehensive approach to security, compliance, and privacy. Since Copilot is integrated into Microsoft 365, it automatically aligns with your company's robust security, compliance, and privacy policies and processes, establishing itself as a reliable AI solution that you can trust.
Be Microsoft 365 Copilot ready
Before you can access Microsoft 365 Copilot, you must meet the following requirements:
- Microsoft Entra ID. Users must have Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) accounts.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing. Microsoft 365 Copilot is available as an add-on plan. For more information on the licensing prerequisites, see Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing.
- Microsoft 365 Apps. Desktop applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. Copilot is available in web versions of the apps when a license is assigned. To get started with the implementation process, see Deployment guide for Microsoft 365 Apps.
- OneDrive Account. You need to have a OneDrive account for several features within Microsoft 365 Copilot, such as saving and sharing your files. For more information, see Sign in or create an account for OneDrive.
- Outlook for Windows. For seamless integration of Microsoft 365 Copilot with Outlook, new Outlook (Windows, Mac, Web, Mobile) is recommended. Copilot does support classic Outlook (Windows) as well. For more information, see Getting started with the new Outlook for Windows.
- Microsoft Teams. To use Microsoft 365 Copilot with Microsoft Teams, you must use the Teams desktop client or web client. You can download the desktop client here or sign into the web app. Both the current and the new version of Teams are supported. For more information, see Microsoft Teams desktop client. To enable Copilot in Teams to reference meeting content after the meeting has ended, transcription or meeting recording must be enabled. To learn more about configuring transcription and recording, see Configure transcription and captions for Teams meetings and Teams meeting recording.
- Microsoft Loop. To use Copilot in Microsoft Loop, you must have Loop enabled for your tenant. For more information on enabling Loop, see Get started with Microsoft Loop.
- Microsoft Whiteboard. To use Microsoft 365 Copilot with Microsoft Whiteboard, you must have Whiteboard enabled for your tenant. To learn more about Microsoft Whiteboard, see Manage access to Microsoft Whiteboard for your organization.
- Office Feature Updates task. The Office Feature Updates task is required for core Copilot experiences in apps such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote, to work properly. This task should be allowed to run on its regular schedule, and allowed to access the required network resources. For more information about the Office Feature Updates task, see Office Feature Updates task description and FAQ.
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