Welcome to the August 2025 edition of What's New in Microsoft 365 Copilot! Every month, we highlight new features and enhancements to keep Microsoft 365 admins up to date with Copilot features that help your users be more productive and efficient in the apps they use every day.
Let’s take a closer look at what’s new this month:
Copilot Control System:
- Copilot management resources in Microsoft 365 admin center
- Identify risky AI usage with Microsoft Purview
User capabilities:
- Easier access and broader reach with SharePoint agents
- A new model and more reference options for Copilot Chat
- Image reasoning and editing in Copilot Chat
- Generate and edit images in the Microsoft 365 Copilot App
- Summarize with Copilot in Microsoft Edge for Business
- Custom dictionaries available for Copilot in Teams
Copilot Control System
Copilot management resources in Microsoft 365 admin center
Soon, SharePoint agents will be included in the Microsoft 365 admin center agent inventory. This will give AI administrators centralized visibility and control of SharePoint agents, along with other agent types such as Microsoft agents, internally-developed agents deployed to Microsoft 365 surfaces, user-created agents with Microsoft Copilot Studio in Copilot Chat, and third-party agents. SharePoint agents can be discovered, managed, and governed within the Agents section in Microsoft 365 admin center, where admins can view metadata and take actions such as blocking or unblocking. This feature is rolling out in September.
Admins can now review metrics for use of Microsoft 365 Copilot Search within the Usage reports in the Microsoft 365 admin center. This enables monitoring of adoption trends and usage patterns for Copilot Search alongside other Microsoft 365 Copilot services. These insights enable admins to make data-driven decisions to optimize user engagement, identify user enablement opportunities, and ensure that Copilot Search capabilities deliver maximum value across the organization. This feature rolled out in August.
To support governance and compliance, the Microsoft 365 admin center now includes a request and approval workflow for Frontier as well as agents in Microsoft 365. The Frontier program for Copilot offers administrators the ability to get hands-on with the latest model innovation and provide feedback before experiences are made generally available. It also gives administrators a centralized, auditable process to review and approve agent requests prior to user activation. The result is a controlled, transparent approach that balances innovation with organizational security and policy requirements. The approval flow for Frontier and Microsoft agents will be available in Microsoft 365 admin center → Copilot → Agents → Requested agents. This feature rolled out in August.
Message pack integration enables administrators to manage Copilot Chat consumption through pre-purchased capacity packs. This integration consolidates billing, usage monitoring, and policy alignment within the Microsoft 365 admin center. Organizations benefit from improved cost predictability, simplified administration, and the ability to scale Copilot Chat usage responsibly on a pay-as-you-go basis. Admins can update this setting in the Microsoft 365 admin center → Copilot → Billing & usage → Payasyougo services. This feature rolled out in August.
Admins now have more controls over agents in their ecosystem. Through the Microsoft 365 admin center, they can block, reassign, or retire ownerless agents, ensuring compliance and reducing operational risk. This feature strengthens governance by maintaining accountability and minimizing unmanaged assets within the environment. Admins can find this view in the Microsoft 365 admin center → Copilot → Agents → dashboard card Missing an owner. This feature rolled out in August.
Identify risky AI usage with Microsoft Purview
Purview Insider Risk Management (IRM) now detects risky AI usage by identifying sensitive prompts and responses in Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio, helping prevent misuse by insiders. It classifies user risk based on activity, enabling admins to apply targeted data security policies. In IRM analytics, admins can explore top AI-related risks and receive policy recommendations, including templates with indicators like risky Copilot prompts and sensitive responses. These indicators integrate with Adaptive Protection to assign insider risk levels and dynamically assign more strict security policies based on this risk level via Data Loss Prevention, Data Lifecycle Management, or Entra Conditional Access. For example, elevated-risk users attempting to access sensitive SharePoint sites can be automatically blocked. This feature rolled out in August. Learn more about empowering risky AI usage visibility and security investigations.
User capabilities
Easier access and broader reach with SharePoint agents
Soon, users can access SharePoint agents directly in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. This eliminates the need for users to navigate to individual SharePoint sites because recently used agents are just a click away in the Copilot app. After a user interacts with a SharePoint agent, it will automatically appear in the recently used agents sidebar in Copilot, creating a streamlined entry point for users to stay focused and productive. And soon, the SharePoint agents will open in Copilot by default, rather than SharePoint. This feature is rolling out in September.
SharePoint agents are now discoverable in the Teams app store, making it easier to add them to a workspace and collaborate with AI-enhanced support. Every user will see a personalized list of their most recently used SharePoint agents based on their activity in the Teams app store. These agents can then be added directly to a chat or channel. If a user has never used a SharePoint agent, it simply won’t appear. This feature is rolling out in September.
A new model and more reference options for Copilot Chat
Now Copilot can take a user’s prompt, understand it, and use GPT-5's real-time router to choose the best model to reason over the prompt and craft a response. Users will see a new “Try GPT-5” button in Copilot Chat. Once activated, Copilot will use GPT-5 for that session. For simple tasks, Copilot will use GPT-5’s high-throughput model. For complex tasks, Copilot will use GPT-5’s deeper reasoning model. This feature rolled out in August.
The new Tools menu in Copilot Chat makes it easier than ever to access powerful AI capabilities right when users need them. Located in the chat input box, this menu provides a simple, consistent way to discover and launch features like Designer, Pages, and pinned agents—all in one place. Users will also see advanced features such as Researcher and Analyst. By centralizing these tools, Copilot Chat helps users work smarter and faster, reducing context switching and helping to make their workflow more seamless. This feature rolled out in August.
When referencing an email in Copilot Chat, users can now receive responses that incorporate insights from content attached to the email. Whether the attachment is a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint deck, PDF, or even structured formats like JSON and XML, Copilot can reason over these files alongside the body of the email to deliver more complete, context-rich answers. This feature is available when using Copilot Chat in Outlook or in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app for users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. This feature rolled out in August.
Copilot Chat can now help users get from an idea to a presentation when they are short on time. In the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, users can describe what they need, and Copilot will turn ideas into a ready-to-use PowerPoint deck with structure, visuals, and formatting. And if a user has a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, Copilot Chat can include their work content to tune their presentation with the context they’re looking for. This feature rolled out in August.
Image reasoning and editing in Copilot Chat
Now, when users upload PDFs, Word documents, or PowerPoint presentations to Copilot—whether through local file upload or selecting a file by typing ‘/’—they can ask questions like “What’s shown in the image on page 4?” and get answers grounded in their visual content, making it easier to extract visual insights from within their files. This feature rolled out in August.
Users can now bring visual ideas to life without leaving the flow of a conversation in Copilot Chat. Natural language can be used in prompts and Copilot will generate new images or make precise edits to existing ones. This makes it easier for users to ask questions, extract details, and iterate across multiple turns. This feature rolled out August.
Now users can visually keep track of everything that has been added to a prompt while creating or editing visuals. When content has been added, an attachment snippet will be displayed, making it easier to manage and reference visuals as edits are revised and updated. This feature rolled out August.
Copilot Chat will soon have a new side-by-side visual editor enabling users to seamlessly move from generating or refining prompts to editing images—without losing context. This editor combines canvas-based controls with natural language guidance, helping users iterate faster and get closer to the results they want. If the first image isn’t quite right, users can quickly adjust, upscale and auto enhance. This feature is rolling out in September.
Generate and edit images in the Microsoft 365 Copilot App
The generative AI features of Create in Microsoft 365 Copilot are coming to users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. These users previously had the ability to create content and use templates, but now they can generate images and edit visual content—such as posters, banners, infographics, and images—using AI-powered tools. This update for users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license rolled out in August on web, Windows, and macOS, and will roll out on mobile in October.
Summarize with Copilot in Microsoft Edge for Business
In Microsoft Edge for Business, users can right-click on a webpage to access the Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat summarization feature. Copilot will instantly summarize dense articles, documents, or pages—making it easier to extract key insights without switching tabs or losing focus. It’s a fast, intuitive way to stay in flow while researching, reviewing, or multitasking. This feature rolled out in August.
Custom dictionaries available for Copilot in Teams
IT administrators can now upload custom dictionaries for their tenant in English, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, and Chinese (Simplified). This capability is accessible through the Copilot Settings page in the Microsoft 365 admin center. By integrating organization-specific terminology, custom dictionaries help the AI model produce more accurate and meaningful meeting transcripts. This enhancement benefits both Copilot and intelligent meeting recap, ensuring your unique business language is recognized and reflected. Organizations can reduce misunderstandings and improve productivity by tailoring the AI to their needs. This new feature helps users unlock deeper insights from meetings. This feature rolled out in July.
Did you know? The Microsoft 365 Roadmap is where you can get the latest updates on productivity apps and intelligent cloud services. Microsoft 365 Copilot release notes is where you can see the Microsoft 365 Copilot features that are generally available (Current Channel for Microsoft 365 apps) and specific to each platform. Check back regularly to see what features are in development, coming soon and generally available. Please note that the dates mentioned in this article are tentative and subject to change.
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