CoPilot, Microsoft’s AI project, inches towards reality with news of a very limited preview plus hints that Dall-E like image creation will be possible from inside PowerPoint. OneNote, Outlook and Whiteboard will also get an AI makeover.
Microsoft continues to make announcements about their AI product, CoPilot, as if it’s already available to the public. The Microsoft 365 Copilot Early Access Program is a preview of the AI technology limited to 600 organizations who have to pay for the privilege of being Redmond’s guinea pigs. Presumably some companies think they’ll get an advantage by getting into AI early.
In short: Microsoft is throwing CoPilot AI into anything and everything they have. It’s similar to when Microsoft ‘discovered’ the Internet and there was a mad rush to add ‘net connections into every nook and cranny of their products and features. Those ‘nooks’ now include Whiteboard, Loop and Viva Learning.
It might seem that we’ve cynical about AI innovations in Office, we’re not. Office Watch is genuinely interested in what’s possible with AI based around Dall-E, Chat-GPT and many others. We’re cynical and wary about the Hype Hurricane (newly™) coming from Microsoft, which isn’t backed up with software that customers can try for themselves.
As always, Office-Watch.com will focus on what’s available to paying customers, not what’s vaguely promised for the future.
PowerPoint gets Dall-E
Copilot in PowerPoint will include image generation directly from the program. That will be a more convenient way to do what’s already possible.
Dall-E or Bing Image Creation is already available to make images that can be pasted into PowerPoint slides (or anywhere else)
Copilot will also be able to rewrite PowerPoint slide text, something already announced but now we can see it in more detail.
OneNote with CoPilot
Microsoft, like many politicians, loves to ‘announce’ something that’s already been revealed. Back in April, they talked about OneNote with Copilot so there’s nothing new in talk about “draft plans, generate ideas, create lists and organize information” in OneNote with CoPilot.
Outlook with Copilot
Outlook will presumably have the same Copilot tools that will be in Word, because Outlook’s email editor is Word in disguise. So, it’s no surprise that CoPilot in Outlook will make “suggestions on clarity, sentiment and tone”.
According to Microsoft …
Here’s the Microsoft summary of the latest CoPilot announcements
- Copilot in Whiteboard will make Microsoft Teams meetings and brainstorms more creative and effective. Using natural language, you can ask Copilot to generate ideas, organize ideas into themes, create designs that bring ideas to life and summarize whiteboard content.
- By integrating DALL-E, OpenAI’s image generator, into PowerPoint, users will be able to ask Copilot to create custom images to support their content.
- Copilot in Outlook will offer coaching tips and suggestions on clarity, sentiment and tone to help users write more effective emails and communicate more confidently.
- Copilot in OneNote will use prompts to draft plans, generate ideas, create lists and organize information to help customers find what they need easily.
- Copilot in Loop helps your team stay in sync by quickly summarizing all the content on your Loop page to keep everyone aligned and able to collaborate effectively.
- Copilot in Viva Learning will use a natural language chat interface to help users create a personalized learning journey including designing upskilling paths, discovering relevant learning resources and scheduling time for assigned trainings.
Use Microsoft’s AI magic now – don’t wait for Copilot
OneNote is getting Microsoft CoPilot
Copilot might “transform the way we work” but not right now
Microsoft Copilot reaches new levels of marketing hype
What Microsoft 365 Copilot can really do for you – not just the hype
