What’s New in Copilot | May 2024

 

Welcome to the May 2024 edition of What's New in Copilot for Microsoft 365. Every month, we highlight new end-user and admin features in Copilot for Microsoft 365, enabling you to better prepare, plan, and roll out Copilot features that help your users be more productive and efficient in the apps you use every day. This month, we’re excited to share how admins can manage risk and compliance requirements for AI apps in the new Microsoft Purview AI Hub, automate tasks across the organization using Copilot extensions, and more. We’re also adding exciting new capabilities that enable you to act on employee suggestions quickly using Copilot in Glint, use Copilot in Planner to transform teamwork, expand new prompt collections for industry roles, and much more! 

 

And make sure to catch up on our recent Work Trend Index report, as well as Grow with Copilot, a new series where we curate relevant news, insights, and resources to help small and medium organizations harness the power of Copilot.  

 

Now let’s take a look at this month’s updates:

 

Admin and management capabilities:

• Discover how your organization is using AI with Microsoft Purview AI Hub
• Automate tasks across your enterprise with Copilot extensions
• Review and audit site permissions with Restricted SharePoint Search
• Integrate and innovate with new Copilot connectors

End-user capabilities:

• Act on employee comments and suggestions instantly with Copilot in Viva Glint
• Transform the way your team works with Copilot in Planner
• Explore new prompts unique to roles and industries in Copilot Lab
• Discover catch-up in Copilot chat
• Improve the way you draft and refine your Word documents
• Collaborate without switching context with Copilot in Loop components
• Boost response rates with Copilot in Forms

  

Discover how your organization is using AI with Microsoft Purview AI Hub

Now in Public Preview, AI Hub in Microsoft Purview helps support your organization’s risk and compliance requirements for AI apps such as Copilot for Microsoft 365 and third-party apps and provides ready-to-use policies to protect data. In the AI Hub, you can gain visibility into insights like sensitive data shared with Copilot, total number of users interacting with Copilot, and their associated risk level.  

 

Insights into unlabeled files and SharePoint sites referenced by Copilot for Microsoft 365 will also be included in the Public Preview release of the AI Hub. This helps you prioritize the most critical data risks and put protection policies in place to prevent potential oversharing of sensitive data. Additionally, AI Hub provides visibility into non-compliant use of AI interactions to help you quickly gain insight into unethical use, such as regulatory collusion, money laundering, targeted harassment, and more. Lastly, guided assistance for emerging AI regulations like EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 23894:2023 and ISO/IEC 42001 will be surfaced in the AI Hub to help you assess, implement, and strengthen compliance controls to meet AI regulatory requirements and standards. Learn more about AI Hub in Microsoft Purview.  

 

A computer screenshot showing the AI Hub in Microsoft Purview with several option to select to get started.

 

Automate tasks across your enterprise with Copilot extensions

Last week at Build, we announced Copilot extensions that make it easier than ever to extend and customize Microsoft Copilot for your unique business needs and processes. Extensions within Copilot enable new actions and customized knowledge for grounding and can be built using Copilot connectors, plugins, and your own copilots.  

 

Soon, admins will be able to create Copilot extensions using Microsoft Graph connectors from Microsoft 365 admin center, so users can perform targeted searches, natural language queries, and custom communications on semantically indexed third-party data in Microsoft Graph using predefined prompts, all within the familiar Copilot for Microsoft 365 interface. This feature will begin rolling out in July. Reach out to MicrosoftGraphConnectorsFeedback@service.microsoft.com for more details.  

Create Copilot extension pane with prefilled ‘Description’, ‘Instruction’ and ‘Starter Prompts’ based on the selected connection.

 

 

Access the newly created Copilot extension from Copilot chat right rail

 

Review and audit site permissions with Restricted SharePoint Search

Restricted SharePoint Search is now generally available for Copilot for Microsoft 365, enabling admins to review content management and data governance practices without losing momentum with Copilot deployment. Microsoft 365 admins can turn off organization-wide search and restrict both Enterprise Search and Copilot experiences to a curated set of SharePoint sites, so they can review and audit site permissions in parallel with the Copilot rollout. Users in the organization can continue to interact with files and content they own or that they have previously accessed in Copilot. Please view the Microsoft Learn article for more information and check the public roadmap for rollout status. 

There is a message at the top of the screen with the text: “Your organization's admin has restricted Copilot from accessing certain SharePoint sites. This limits the content Copilot can search and reference when responding to your prompts. Learn more.”

 

Integrate and innovate with new Copilot connectors

Copilot Studio is introducing Copilot connectors to enable an enterprise to connect their business, collaboration, and analytical data to their copilots. Copilot connectors include Microsoft Power Platform connectors, Microsoft Graph connectors, and Power Query connectors—with Microsoft Fabric integrations coming soon. This makes it possible to ground copilots in specific data sources, including public websites, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft Dataverse tables, Microsoft Fabric OneLake, and Microsoft Graph, as well as leading third-party apps. Starting in June 2024, admins can access the preview to curate and manage available Copilot connectors to ensure their developers are using a trusted catalog.  

A computer screenshot showing Copilot Studio options to add available knowledge sources.

 

Act on employee comments and suggestions instantly with Copilot in Viva Glint

Understanding the voice of the employee through all types of surveys (i.e. engagement, onboarding, exit, and others) is critical to improving employee engagement, productivity, and retention. For organizations and large teams, these surveys generate thousands of employee comments that must be analyzed manually.  

A computer screenshot showing the Viva Glint user interface focused on a Comment report

 

Using Copilot in Viva Glint, leaders can get key insights instantly from the thousands of comments. This helps organizations save hundreds of hours spent manually analyzing the feedback. With Copilot, Viva Glint can summarize, explore, and act on suggestions with quicker time to action. 

 

Copilot in Viva Glint will be available for Public Preview in June. Check out how customers are benefiting from this quicker time to action, such as Phillips 66 – they saved two months of analysis with Copilot in Viva Glint. For a deeper understanding, you can read this blog and view a demo of  Copilot in Viva Glint.  

  

Transform the way your team works with Copilot in Planner

Copilot in Planner helps teams transform the way they work and collaborate on projects together. With the power of generative AI, Copilot in Planner streamlines the planning, management, and execution of your work, keeping you informed as you achieve your goals:  

• Get started with a plan – Copilot can take a natural language prompt and generate a plan for you, including goals, tasks and subtasks, and buckets. 
• Manage your plan – As your plan evolves, Copilot can suggest new tasks for you based on your new goals and keep you organized with new buckets where needed. Copilot can even help you add goals to your plan and generate tasks to achieve those goals. 
• Track progress – Copilot can answer questions about your plan and help you stay informed about the latest developments. 

Learn more about Copilot in Planner in this blog. Copilot in Planner (preview) is currently rolling out to the new Microsoft Planner in Teams. 

 

A screenshot showing Planner being used to create a marketing plan.

 

Explore new prompts unique to roles and industries in Copilot Lab

Earlier this month, we announced new prompt publishing capabilities coming to Copilot Lab that enable you to create, publish, and manage prompts within your organization. Now we are building on that value by introducing suggested prompts to inspire and guide you on your prompt creation journey. These prompts not only help you get started quickly but can be customized with role or industry specific details, best practices, and context to reduce trial and error and ensure high-quality output. 

 

Visit Copilot Lab today to discover new prompt collections for HR and Marketing roles. You can also explore industry-specific prompts spanning across financial services, retail, and manufacturing. Additional prompts for additional roles and industries will be added to Copilot Lab in the coming weeks and months, so check back often.  

Role and industry prompts available in Copilot Lab with drop down menu showing prompts organized by HR, Marketing, Retail, Manufacturing, and Financial Services.

 

Discover catch-up in Copilot chat

Catch-up in Copilot chat is your go-to resource for staying on top of your workday. Whether you're preparing, reviewing, or striving to stay ahead, Copilot has you covered with proactive suggestions in the flow of work. Effortlessly navigate through recent updates and activity to gain the clarity and control you need to make every day more productive. Catch-up in Copilot chat is rolling out this month. 

 

The image displays a computer screen with an open web browser showing the Microsoft 365 dashboard.

 

Improve the way you draft and refine your Word documents

Often, it’s easier to start on a new piece of work if you can reference or build upon existing content. That’s why we’ve added the ability to draft with Copilot based on a specific selection in your Word doc. This will help to:  

• Refine, rewrite, or paraphrase an existing selection 
• Elaborate on, expand upon, or explain your selected content in more detail 
• Enhance your content with statistics and additional information 

Whether you are referencing selected text, a list, or a table, Copilot in Word provides a rich and interactive experience that will make your job easier. This feature started rolling out in April. 

A computer screenshot showing a highlighted section of copy with a Draft with Copilot prompt window.

 

Collaborate without switching context with Copilot in Loop components

Microsoft Loop enables you and your team members to work together with Copilot. In the Loop app, you can co-prompt with Copilot, building off each other’s ideas and Copilot’s suggestions to maximize your creativity and collaboration. Copilot in Loop components is rolling out now, so you can experience this collaboration without switching context. Simply start a Loop component in Teams, Outlook, or Collaborative Meeting Notes and use Copilot to create or update content in the Loop component. When you share the Loop component in other apps, your Copilot conversation carries over so you can continue refining your prompts until everyone is happy with the results. 

An image of a new email in Outlook with a Loop component inserted. The Loop component shows Copilot and multiple people prompting.

 

Boost response rates with Copilot in Forms

Copilot in Forms will now email response rates to a form’s owner and offer proactive recommendations for follow-up actions. For example, if the response rate is low, the form owner can use Copilot to quickly write and send reminders. Additionally, when a form has received sufficient responses, Copilot prompts the owner to review the form’s insights for informed decision-making. This feature is rolling out now. 

Image of a Forms reminder email with text created by Copilot

 

Did you know? The Microsoft 365 Roadmap is where you can get the latest updates on productivity apps and intelligent cloud services. Check back regularly to see what features are in development or coming soon.  

 

Please note that the dates mentioned in this article are tentative and subject to change. For the most accurate and up-to-date information, we encourage you to regularly check the Microsoft 365 Roadmap.