A new collection of Copilot features have been released under the banner “Wave 2” with inclusions for Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Word and Teams. Don’t get too excited because there’s ‘fine print’ that limits who can catch this wave.
Before we explain a little of what’s in the new set of Copilot features, let’s look at some of the unstated realities and important fine print.
Nothing for even paid consumer Copilot
None of the “Wave 2” announcements on Monday apply to consumer customers of Microsoft 365 Family/Personal.
Not even paying for Copilot Pro will get you any of the new goodies. Maybe, just maybe some of the innovations will flow to Copilot Pro later but there’s been no suggestion that will happen.
“Free” – not really
The new Copilot feature available ‘free’ has an important limitation which limits the real availability and isn’t really ‘free’ at all.
In Microsoft speak “Free” means “No extra charge on top of what you’re already paying”.
Copilot Pages is only free to people with an Entra account (not a Microsoft account). That means only enterprise customers and to be an enterprise customer means paying for a Microsoft plan or volume license.
“General Availability”
Microsoft’s phrase “General Availability” doesn’t mean what many people and some members of the press think it means. It’s a slippery phrase that really means “Available to customers who have paid for the right Microsoft plans”.
Copilot Pages
Copilot Pages is a collaborative page or canvas that can pull in Copilot results from a Copilot web page.
Here’s a Copilot web site (left) with a collaborative Copilot Page (right).
Copilot results like a summary of a document or web data can be added to a Page which various team members can contribute.
It’s an interesting extension of the Copilot web page into collaboration but it’s hard to see anything technically new in Pages. It seems like a Teams page or even shared Word document moved to a new place.
BTW – Copilot Pages, not to be confused with Apple Pages, their word-processor app.
Copilot in Excel makes Python code
This is truly interesting and clever for anyone with Excel 365 that includes Python.
Copilot can now write Python code to analyse or display results. Instead of having to learn about Python libraries, Copilot will be able to do a lot of the work for you.
The Copilot pane is worth a closer look to see what’s happening.
Up to now, Copilot has been able to do some analysis of data like asking for a summary, high/low results etc.
Adding Python means that a summary and good charts can be made quickly. Python libraries can make complex charts and graphs that leave Excel Charts in the dust.
The Copilot created Python code can be edited to tweak the results where necessary.
PowerPoint Narrative Builder
Narrative Builder is another integration of existing Copilot features to integrate them closely into PowerPoint.
A bullet point summary can be created from web source and/or documents within an organization. The bullets can be edited, rearranged and more added manually or with more Copilot.
Then click ‘Generate Slides’ to make the presentation or at least a goody part of one. Copilot will include images from an organization photo library and apply a corporate style.
Much of this is already possible but only by using Copilot separately to make the bullet points then convert the summary into slides.
A difference with Narrative Builder is that not just slides are created. It can add slide notes as well.
Outlook – Prioritize my Inbox
Copilot can look through an Inbox and suggest the high priority messages.
Copilot will not just suggest high priority items but will explain why in a header when the message is opened. It’ll also offer a longer summary.
Copilot can be taught your prioritization preferences, for example to highlight messages from a certain person.
It’ll also suggest responses to an email. Not the simplistic bland ones we’re already seeing but replies tailored to that message or thread.
Teams
Copilot can already make summaries of online meeting transcripts or the online text chat that goes on while the meeting is happening. But those are two separate summaries.
The Wave 2 Copilot will combine both the transcript and chat into a single summary.
Copilot Wave 2 videos
As usual there are videos to go with the new promotion. Also usual, some of the videos are more style than substance.
Copilot Pages
Copilot in Excel with Python
A good summary of how Python code can be written and run by Copilot.
Narrative Builder in PowerPoint
Prioritize your Inbox
Another ‘better than average’ explanation of the new Outlook feature.