What’s new in Microsoft 365 Copilot | September 2025

Welcome to the September 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.

 

This month we have a special announcement to share – we’ve developed a new Copilot Chat Quality Roadmap to keep you updated on the new and enhanced features. You’ll find more information about it below.

 

Let’s take a closer look at what’s new this month:

User capabilities: 

• Work smarter and more efficiently with new updates to Copilot Chat
• Outlook email and calendar integrations in Copilot Chat
• Copilot Library and updates to Search and Create in the Microsoft 365 Copilot App
• Formula completion with Copilot in Excel
• Improved email management with Copilot in Outlook
• Update documents and fix spelling and grammar with Copilot in Word
• Thread summaries from Copilot in Teams
• Improve text with Copilot in PowerPoint
• Copilot now available in Viva Engage
• Enhancements and new innovations for agents

Copilot Control System: 

• Improved reports and controls in Microsoft 365 admin center
• Manage data security risks with Microsoft Purview Data Security Posture Management for AI apps
• Merge people data with other sources with Microsoft Copilot connectors

User capabilities

Work smarter and more efficiently with new updates to Copilot Chat

The new Copilot Chat Quality Roadmap is a transparent look at how we’re evolving Copilot Chat by listening to your feedback and learning from everyday use. The roadmap showcases our commitment to delivering a smarter, more reliable, and productive chat experience. Every month, you’ll find updates on new and enhanced features designed to make Copilot Chat better, easier, and dependable for everyone. This month we’re highlighting important changes such as the ability to reference previous chats, support for email file types, richer web answers powered by Bing, reading live web pages, step-by-step image editing, and selecting text in a response to start a new prompt. Whether using Copilot Chat with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license or a qualifying Microsoft 365 or Office 365 license, users benefit from these improvements at no additional cost. Stay tuned to the new Copilot Chat Quality Roadmap for monthly highlights as we continue to roll out innovations that help users get more done, with greater confidence and ease.

 

Copilot Chat is now available in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote to provide AI assistance right where users need it. Copilot Chat in these Microsoft 365 apps understands the context of a user’s open content—like a file, email, or notebook page—so they can ask questions, summarize, gather insights, or even generate new material. Learn more about Copilot Chat in Microsoft 365 apps here. This update rolled out in September for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, and rolled out for Outlook in July. This update is also available to Copilot Chat users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

 

We have updated Copilot with a long context model supporting over a one million token window. This means users can now get more comprehensive, reliable, and accurate answers when using Copilot over long documents. This feature rolled out in September.

 

Users can seamlessly launch the full Microsoft 365 Copilot app directly from the Copilot Chat side pane experience in Microsoft 365 apps. Accessible via the More menu, this intuitive entry point lets users shift from in-app assistance to the full Microsoft 365 Copilot experience without breaking their workflow. Copilot Chat will even recognize other features such as Copilot Pages and open the app straight into the feature with chat available next to it. This update is also available to Copilot Chat users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, and rolled out in September.

 

Copilot Chat now lets users interact with embedded images inside any document, whether it's a PDF, DOCX, or PPTX file. When a file is uploaded in the prompt or referenced by typing “/”, Copilot can analyze and interpret image content directly within the file. This means users can type a prompt like “Analyze the image on page 4” and receive responses that reference actual visual data. Copilot will read and understand the embedded visuals, delivering responses that include information derived from the visuals. The benefit? More insights, richer context, and smarter decision-making—without needing to manually describe or extract the image. This update is also available to Copilot Chat users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, and rolled out in September.

 

Users can move seamlessly from drafting to presenting with Copilot by asking Copilot Pages to create their presentation narrative. Then, they can collaborate with their team to refine the content until the story is finalized. When the story is ready, Copilot automatically builds a clean, structured deck based on the Pages document—no manual formatting or slide design needed. This feature rolled out in September.

 

Users can now search for even more of their work sources to refine their prompts when typing “/” in the prompt box. In addition to sources like files, emails, and meetings, two new categories are available to users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license:

• Chats: Users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license can search for specific Teams chats to include in their prompts. This feature rolled out in September.

• Channels: Users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license can search for Teams channels they are members of to include in their prompts. This feature rolled out in September.

Outlook email and calendar integrations in Copilot Chat

The new Edit in Outlook button in Copilot Chat—a seamless bridge between conversation and composition—provides users with smarter email workflows. When users signal an intent to write an email while using Work scope, Copilot Chat displays an Edit in Outlook button that launches a draft in Outlook, complete with a suggested subject line and body text. This feature is designed to reduce friction and accelerate productivity by letting users move from idea to action without switching contexts. This feature is rolling out in October.

Copilot Chat is becoming more powerful with new capabilities to ground responses in email data—making it easier than ever for users to find and reference information right when they need it. Whether users are recalling a conversation, tracking down a file, or summarizing a thread, Copilot Chat helps users stay in flow by surfacing relevant emails directly in the chat experience. Now, with three new features, the experience is getting even better:  

• When users ask Copilot Chat about emails, Copilot can now read attachments provided as links in emails and include that information in its response. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, JSON, or XML attachments are supported. This feature rolled out in September.
  
  

• Users can access email from delegated mailboxes. Whether asking about the entire inbox or referencing a specific email, delegated users can use Copilot Chat to help them manage email more efficiently for those they represent. This feature rolled out in September. 

• Users can access their shared mailboxes. With access to shared mailboxes in Copilot Chat, multiple users can leverage Copilot Chat to manage the inbox, helping to improve collaboration and visibility across teams. This feature rolled out in September. 

Users can search for meeting RSVPs for themselves or others. Users can also ask Copilot for information related to others’ RSVPs, like “Did I accept this meeting?” or “Who has accepted this meeting?” Users can include names of colleagues in the prompt to see if they’ve responded to an upcoming meeting. This feature helps users be more efficient with their calendar and their time, right from Copilot Chat. This feature rolled out in September.

 

Copilot Library and updates to Search and Create in the Microsoft 365 Copilot App

Microsoft 365 Copilot Library is a centralized destination in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app where users can easily find, edit, and share content they created with Copilot as well as Copilot-generated content shared with them. Library currently supports images and Copilot Pages created from Copilot Chat and the Create experience in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. Whether that content is a banner they created for an event or a team document drafted in a Page, Library makes it easier for users to keep track of and iterate on their creations. This feature is rolling out in October.

With Copilot Search, users can find meetings and everything connected to them in seconds, even if they only remember a few details. They simply type what comes to mind, like “last week’s design review,” “budget sync with marketing,” or “next quarterly planning session” and Copilot instantly finds the right event. And Copilot brings the meeting invite together with the full context: who attended, what was discussed, what files were shared, and what follow-ups were assigned. Whether users are preparing for an upcoming meeting or trying to recall what was decided in a previous meeting, Copilot provides a complete, connected view, all from a single search bar. This feature is rolling out in October.

 

AI Views in Copilot Search surface key insights from documents, emails, chats, and other content directly within the Search results page. Instead of clicking into results to get additional insights, users can hover over a result and select “Details” to view a summary, metadata, related content, and even initiate a chat with Copilot for deeper interaction with the document or item. This feature rolled out in September.

 

Now users have a more versatile way to produce videos from text prompts and existing files like PowerPoint, Word, and PDFs. Using Create in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, users can access capabilities including transcript-based editing, HD voice options, brand alignment through brand kits, a new scene structure for clearer storytelling, and a redesigned editing experience. These updates help organizations deliver consistent on-brand, accessible video communication at scale. These features rolled out in September.

 

Formula completion with Copilot in Excel

Formula completion in Excel streamlines the process of writing formulas by proactively suggesting and autocompleting formulas as soon as users type “=”. Copilot now analyzes a worksheet’s context—headers, nearby cells, and tables—to deliver accurate suggestions in real time, helping users create formulas faster and with greater confidence. Formula completion is designed to reduce errors and save time, letting users focus on insights instead of syntax. This feature rolled out to Excel on Web in September.

 

Improved email management with Copilot in Outlook

Users can easily summarize any open email or email thread in a single click. This saves users time and effort by automatically condensing lengthy emails or threads into clear, concise summaries. Instead of reading through multiple messages to grasp key points or updates, users can instantly understand the main ideas and decisions with one click. This not only boosts productivity but also helps users from overlooking important information, making email management more efficient and less overwhelming. This feature is rolling out in October for users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, and rolled out in September for Copilot Chat users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

The power of Copilot now extends to helping users search their Outlook inboxes. After completing a search in Outlook, users can click into Copilot-generated search results, bringing together inputs from email, Teams messages, and documents directly within the Copilot side pane in Outlook. Users can then ask Copilot follow-up questions as needed. This feature is available for new Outlook for Windows and rolled out in September.

Users can schedule meetings using Copilot Chat, both within Outlook and in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. Copilot uses natural language processing rather than cumbersome forms to identify suitable meeting times based on participants’ availability, create agendas, send meeting invites, and more. Users can iteratively refine and update meeting details over multiple exchanges without losing context, resulting in a multiturn experience that’s natural, intuitive, and conversational. This feature rolled out in September.

Copilot now makes it easier to resolve scheduling conflicts, by automatically rescheduling 1:1 meetings and personal events based on a user’s preferences. Within the meeting event form, a user can indicate whether a 1:1 meeting series or personal event is more flexible and okay for Copilot to automatically reschedule. Users can also set additional preferences for when they’d like those rescheduled events to occur. Copilot will then take care of the rest, identifying when a user is double-booked and rescheduling 1:1s and personal events on their behalf. This feature is rolling out in October. 

Update documents and fix spelling and grammar with Copilot in Word

Copilot now supports the ability to reuse sections of an existing Word document or template using existing files, emails, and meetings as a reference, without changing the formatting. Users can highlight the section to be updated, click the pen icon, then select “Update with...”, and choose the files for Copilot to use. Copilot will generate a refreshed version based on recent content and show it below the original so users can decide whether to keep or discard it. The formatting stays intact, and only the selected content is changed. This feature rolled out in September for Web and is rolling out in the next few months on Windows desktop and Mac.

 

The Fix All feature with Copilot in Word lets users correct all spelling and grammar issues in one go—either across the whole document or in a selected section. Instead of fixing each mistake manually, users can now select the text, click the pen icon, and choose “Fix spelling and grammar.” Copilot will scan the selected content and clean it up in a single step. This feature rolled out in September for Web.

 

Thread summaries from Copilot in Teams

Enhanced AI-generated thread summaries, now available in post/reply and threaded channels, help users track conversations better. When a conversation becomes lengthy, Copilot helps users catch up by offering a “summarize thread” entry point, so they don’t need to read every message, making it easy to stay informed within a workflow. Based on customer feedback, we structured these summaries to a clear, scannable format, which includes a brief overview highlighting the key takeaways, followed by a bulleted list organized by topic. Thread summaries provide a fast, focused way for users to catch up on content that matters most to them. AI thread summary is available with Microsoft 365 Copilot license. This feature rolled out in September.

Improve text with Copilot in PowerPoint

Users can now quickly rephrase or refine the text in any slide by clicking on a text box and selecting the pen icon. Users can write their own prompt to have Copilot adjust the wording, making it easier to tailor presentation content to match the creator’s needs or audience. This feature rolled out in September on Web, Windows, and Mac. 

 

Copilot now available in Viva Engage

Users can now bring personalized, context-aware AI assistance to enhance their experience in Viva Engage. Copilot in Viva Engage learns from a user’s network, preferences, and activities, providing AI-powered experiences. Copilot recognizes a community, storyline, campaign, or conversation, tailoring responses to the current workspace and helping users catch up faster through organized summaries of the latest updates across a network and specific communities. Enhanced contextual search helps users quickly find posts, updates, or mentions across all communities. Copilot helps users write better updates by pulling in relevant context from Teams and Outlook, making it easier to craft complete, informed posts. These updates help users stay connected, informed, and productive in their workplace communities. This feature rolled out in August.

 

Enhancements and new innovations for agents

With the new output controls for Researcher agent, users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license can better control how and where to interact with the agent’s response. When Researcher agent has finished running its report, users can open it in Word to share, edit, and more. This feature is rolling out in October.

 

The Skills Agent helps organizations understand and manage workforce skills using AI. It combines AI-inferred skills with profile information and user-selected skills to offer unique value for both employees and leaders. With the Skills Agent, employees can view their own skills, find colleagues with similar or complementary expertise, and get suggestions for learning new skills. Leaders can identify skill strengths, gaps, and trends, making it easier to staff projects, plan talent development, and drive strategic initiatives. This agent rolled out in September to the Frontier program.

 

Users can streamline content management in SharePoint and improve Copilot and agent performance with Knowledge Agent in SharePoint. The agent intelligently tags and organizes SharePoint files with metadata, identifies outdated content and gaps, creates new pages, and answers questions about SharePoint content. Users can launch Knowledge Agent by selecting the floating button in the bottom-right corner of SharePoint, and it will open a context-aware menu offering AI-powered actions tailored to the current page or library. This agent rolled out to Public Preview in September.

 

Facilitator manages the end-to-end flow of a meeting in Microsoft Teams. It sets an agenda from the invite or infers goals from the discussion; keeps conversations on track with a visible timeline, smart time allocations, and gentle reminders; captures editable, real-time notes; answers questions with meeting context and relevant web information; and records, assigns, and updates tasks, syncing with Planner for seamless follow through. When a user needs a new document, Facilitator offers one click creation and generates a first draft in Word or Loop. Facilitator is also available in Teams Rooms and on mobile—extending chat, notes, and timers, and even adhoc hallway syncs if meeting participants choose to use it—so every decision and action can be captured. Facilitator is subject to available capacity and rolled out in September.

 

Each Teams channel can now have a Channel Agent to act as a domain expert for the team, drawing on the channel’s conversations and meetings. These agents adopt the channel’s name and help with common tasks such as flagging deadlines buried in conversations, summarizing progress with status reports, assigning tasks, and answering questions asked in natural language like “What’s the latest on our budget?” Users can invite these agents into meetings when expert insights are needed in the discussion. These agents will eventually expand to communicate with select third-party agents, and we will continue to invest in more capabilities that enable Channel Agent to communicate with other agents. This agent rolled out in September.

Agents in Viva Engage communities efficiently communicate updates and share knowledge, including through the Viva Engage app in Teams. Agents in communities take on the community’s name and immediately get to work—reviewing past conversations, pulling from selected SharePoint files, and drafting responses to unanswered questions. Designed to help community experts scale their impact, deepen engagement, and keep knowledge flowing without manual overhead, the agents in communities enable members to get answers quickly and streamline knowledge sharing across the organization. This agent became available in Public Preview in September.

 

SharePoint agents can now reason over metadata, not just file contents. That means agents can now distinguish between similar documents using fields like document type, review date, or status, resulting in higher-quality answers and more confident experiences. This feature rolled out in September.

Copilot Control System

Improved reports and controls in Microsoft 365 admin center

In the Agent usage report, admins can view and measure agents used in Microsoft 365 Copilot across users and by publisher type, such as user-created, Microsoft-built, or partner-built. Admins can also manage agent deployment and adoption by viewing line-level data on users, agents, and user-agent pairs, to help them make more informed decisions. This feature is available in public preview now and rolling out in November.

 

A new policy setting for Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat gives administrators and users enhanced control over Copilot prompts that might require interactions with content otherwise deemed harmful by Microsoft’s content filters. This policy is designed to support specialized roles—such as legal, investigative, or moderation teams—where exposure to sensitive content may be necessary. Admins can enable a control that allows authorized users performing specific queries to proceed past filter warnings where role‑appropriate—subject to organizational policies and auditing. Images and agent interactions aren’t impacted. This feature rolled out in September.

 

Admins can manage ownerless agents with comprehensive lifecycle functionality. When an agent’s creator leaves an organization, the agent can become ownerless, meaning no one is responsible for its management, updates, or security. Ownerless agents pose a few challenges. They may continue to operate without oversight, potentially exposing sensitive data or causing compliance issues. They can also clutter the environment, making it harder for admins to maintain an accurate inventory and ensure only authorized agents are active. Without clear ownership, it’s difficult to address issues, apply updates, or retire unnecessary agents, which can impact both operational integrity and security across the organization. Copilot Control System enables AI admins to easily filter and find, reassign, or remove ownerless agents from their environment. This feature rolled out in August.

 

Manage data security risks with Microsoft Purview Data Security Posture Management for AI apps

Apps and agents in Microsoft Purview Data Security Posture Management for AI apps enables administrators to view a dashboard of agents used across the organization and identify and manage any potential data security risks. Administrators can get detailed insights into sensitive data that specific agents have accessed and see how these agents are protected by Purview data security policies. The detailed agent view also indicates what policies are applied to agents and lets administrators create a policy directly from this view to address any coverage gaps. This feature rolled out in September.

 

Merge people data with other sources with Microsoft Copilot connectors

Microsoft 365 Copilot connectors for people data enhance how individuals are portrayed across Microsoft 365 apps and APIs. It does this by merging people data in Microsoft 365 with third-party sources where people data is stored, such as Human Capital Management systems. These connectors help ensure a unified and consistent view of individuals across Copilot, Microsoft Search, profile cards, and more. Learn more here. This feature rolled out in September.

 

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.