Revolutionising Work: Copilot Wave 2 Announcements

Written by  Rob Quickenden, CTO, Cisilion

 

Yesterday, on 16th September 2024, Microsoft enthusiastically announced the latest updates to Microsoft 365 Copilot, marking almost nine months since Copilot became available to all organizations. The 30-minute session, hosted by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Jared Spataro, introduced a range of new features, capabilities, and performance enhancements across the entire experience.

Microsoft 365 Copilot, now its official name, ensures enterprise data protection with the same level of security and compliance as other services like files, SharePoint, and emails. Significant improvements have also been made to PowerPoint and Excel based on user feedback, including the introduction of Python integration in Excel.

Some of these updates are available starting today, while others will be rolled out in the coming weeks and months.

 

Evolving the Purpose and Role of Microsoft 365 Copilot

Yesterday, Microsoft highlighted how Copilot is evolving from an individual productivity assistant to a collaborative partner at work. Copilot can utilize various content sources such as files, chats, calendar invites, and emails to generate rich outputs based on the needs of users and teams. The demos showcased how Copilot facilitates collaboration and achieves outcomes, making both personal and teamwork more efficient and effective.

Additionally, Microsoft has focused on performance and stability enhancements with significant investments in their Azure Data Centres.

Microsoft also emphasized their commitment to providing the same level of enterprise data protection to Copilot as they do with files, email, SharePoint, and other services.

Here are some of the most exciting new features and updates!

 

1. Copilot Agents

Microsoft is broadening the definition of “agents,” ranging from personal AI assistants to fully autonomous agents. These agents span across a spectrum, from human-in-the-loop to fully autonomous. Agents can help you retrieve information, automate tasks, and even operate independently without human intervention. This feature will be available in public preview later this month.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As an example, say an issue out in the field required further research and follow-up and the team keeps all their customer records from deployment info to maintenance reports on a SharePoint site. Like many organisations, there’s loads of valuable information stored here, but it takes ages to sift through it and find what is needed. Now with Copilot Agents, an agent can be built from any SharePoint site library or folder. It’s possible to create an agent with a single clip and in just a few seconds, your agent is ready to be used and shared with your team and it can be simply added to the department’s team’s chat.

Once created, created agents can be customised and things like topics and knowledge can be enhanced as well as the actions it can take. These can be connected to third party apps such as Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management.

 

2. Copilot Pages – Powered by Loop

This is the second biggest announcement and combines two of my favourite parts of Microsoft 365 – Copilot and Loop. Accessed through BizChat, Copilot Pages, allows users to create side-by-side pages for real-time collaboration. Built on Loop components, these pages enable multiple users to work together and update data simultaneously, enhancing teamwork and productivity. You can start and finish most of your work in BizChat before transitioning it to your format of choice.

Biz Chat will be the place where you can start and finish most of your work before you transition it to your format of choice. Within Biz Chat, you’ll also soon see a button to move the output to the final experience – says move to Outlook, move to Word, move to PowerPoint etc., but you can do all of the pre-work in Bizchat which Microsoft’s customers say is where they spend “most” of their time.

 

3. Utilizing Email and BizChat for Business Insights

Copilot can now use email and BizChat to identify patterns and information, recall similar situations, and access relevant content from various sources. This feature helps discover strategies such as price reduction, promotional offers, and ad campaigns by reasoning over email and chat threads to solve business challenges.

 

4. Biz Chat Enhancements

Copilot Biz Chat now has the ability to send output to the final app for you to finish your work. The new “send to” button makes workflow faster and smoother, integrating seamlessly with other applications.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Copilot in Word

Copilot in Word now allows it to reason over more document sources, including emails, chat, meeting content, and files. This makes it much easier to create documents while referencing multiple sources of information.

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Copilot in PowerPoint Improvements

Copilot democratizes advanced features in PowerPoint by allowing users to use natural language to access them. Improvements include the ability to easily build custom narratives, sections, and flow within presentations. Branding options ensure consistency with company logos, fonts, colors, and styles. New features include adding picture notes to slides, built-in slide transitions, and animated text.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leveraging corporate templates requires that marketing teams integrate their organisations branded assets into a SharePoint OAL (Organization Asset Library) in order to be able to create presentations with organisational images. This is scheduled for release in Q4 2024.

 

7. Copilot Enhancements in Teams

Improvements are coming to Teams based on user feedback. Copilot can now reason over chat in addition to meeting transcriptions. This feature entered public preview today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. Copilot in Outlook Improvements

Outlook’s new Copilot feature, ‘Prioritize my inbox,’ organizes emails based on topics, keywords, and important people. It identifies important contacts like your boss and their boss, enhancing email organization and efficiency. This new feature is rolling out now, with early access for some insider rings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since Copilot can reference emails, meetings and attachments as well as knowing who your colleagues are when you are drafting it can save a huge amount of time as it understands the context in which you are working. This new feature is rolling out now, with early access for some insider rings.

 

These updates are not just incremental improvements; they are game-changers. We’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with Copilot, and we can’t wait for you to experience these new features.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to innovate and lead the way in AI-driven productivity tools.

 

Get in Touch with Cisilion

At Cisilion, we understand the importance of staying ahead of the curve. That’s why we’re excited to offer our expertise in integrating these new technologies into your business. Our team is ready to help you explore the full potential of the new Copilot innovations.

 

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to transform your business with the latest Microsoft advancements. Contact Cisilion today to learn more about how these new features can elevate your productivity and creativity to new heights.