Recent Discussions
Copilot Chat vsus. Microsoft 365 Copilot. What's the difference?
While their names sound similar at first glance, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, they differ in several aspects. And more importantly: one is built on top of the other. What is Copilot Chat (Basic)? First things first. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is often simply called Copilot Chat. Copilot Chat (Basic) generates answers based on web content, while Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) is also grounded on users' data, like emails, meetings, files, and more. Since early 2025, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat has been available to all users in organizations, becoming the entry point to AI assistance for many organizations. Copilot Chat (Basic) is the foundational Copilot experience available at no extra cost for everyone with an eligible Microsoft 365 plan, including: Microsoft 365 E3 / E5 Microsoft 365 A3 / A5 Microsoft 365 Business Standard & Business Premium Copilot Chat (Basic) is secured, compliant, and it does not required the full Copilot add-on license. Copilot Chat (Basic) is able to ground responses on: Public web content. Content explicitly shared or work data manually uploaded to the chat by the user. On-screen content or content displayed on-screen in apps like Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. When it comes to agents, Copilot Chat (Basic) offers these features: You can create your own declarative agents grounded on public web content with Agent Builder. You can use agents built by your org grounded on organizational data with the pay-as-you-go method. There are Microsoft prebuilt agents available like Prompt Coach, however Microsoft premium prebuilt agents like Researcher or Analyst are not included. The screenshot below shows how Copilot Chat looks and highlights its main capabilities. Note the Upgrade button, meaning this is not Microsoft 365 Copilot, but the Copilot Chat (Basic) experience. Note that EDP (Enterprise Data Protection) is available in Copilot Chat (Basic). What is Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium)? Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) is a paid add-on license that builds on top of Copilot Chat and unlocks Copilot's full power. It is available for selected Microsoft 365 plans, including: Microsoft 365 E3 / E5 Microsoft 365 A3 / A5 Microsoft 365 Business Standard & Business Premium With a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, users get everything Copilot Chat (Basic) offers, plus much more: Data grounding: Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) includes Copilot Chat grounded on web and/or on user's Microsoft 365 data like emails, meetings, chats, and documents. Office apps: It integrates deeply into Microsoft 365 apps like Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, and more. The integration includes features like Edit with Copilot allowing Copilot to adjust live your documents or email based on your prompts. Custom agents: It brings the capability to create your own declarative agents grounded in organizational data and/or web data. You can create agent either using Agent Builder or Copilot Studio. MS prebuilt agents: Premium prebuilt agents like Researcher and Analyst are included in Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium). The screenshot below shows the Copilot chat experience for users who have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Note that EDP or Enterprise Data Protection also applies here How can I access Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat? Today, Copilot Chat is accessible via https://m365.cloud.microsoft or https://copilot.cloud.microsoft using your Entra ID (work or school account). One important difference in day-to-day experience: Users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license typically see Copilot prominently surfaced across Microsoft 365 apps. Users with Copilot Chat only may not see it pinned by default on the Microsoft 365 home page. To improve discoverability, Microsoft 365 Copilot administrators can pin Copilot Chat via the Microsoft 365 admin center, ensuring that users can easily access it without friction. Especially convenient is that if you use the M365 Copilot Chat app on Windows, you can open Copilot using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + C. What’s the difference? The differences between Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot mainly come down to: Licensing Data grounding (web-only vs. personal work data) Integration depth within Microsoft 365 apps I’ve listed the key differences in the comparison below. 👇Microsoft Teams Video Recap with Copilot 🤖 | New AI Meeting Highlights Explained
Microsoft Teams just introduced a powerful new Copilot feature: Video Recap 🎥🤖 With AI-powered highlights, automatic key moments, and smart navigation, you can now revisit meetings without rewatching the entire recording. In this video, I’ll show you: ✅ What the new Video Recap experience in Microsoft Teams looks like ✅ How Copilot identifies key moments automatically ✅ Who can access this feature and licensing requirements ✅ Real-world scenarios where this saves hours of time This feature is a game changer for busy professionals, architects, IT admins, and anyone living in Teams meetings.
Copilot Studio + SharePoint: Markdown (.md) Files in Doc Libraries Supported as Knowledge Sources?
Hi all, We’ve been doing some deeper testing with Copilot Studio agents grounded in SharePoint knowledge sources, and I’m hoping to clarify whether what we’re seeing is a known limitation or an undocumented gap. Scenario A Copilot Studio agent uses SharePoint document libraries as a knowledge source The library contains Markdown (.md) files that are intentionally used as canonical design references The same .md files: ✅ Work well when uploaded directly to the agent ❌ Are not retrievable or citable when stored in a SharePoint library and added as a SharePoint knowledge source To help with grounding, we created modern SharePoint index pages that: Explain what the markdown collections are (Patterns, ADRs, Guardrails) Link directly to the canonical folders and files Explicitly state that the .md files are the source of truth The agent can: Discover and summarize the index pages correctly Understand that .md artifacts exist and where they live But it cannot: Read the content of the individual .md files Apply a specific pattern or ADR from those files in a design conversation Cite them as sources, even when permissions and search indexing are confirmed What We’ve Checked Permissions (agent user has access) Folder depth (kept shallow) Search results (markdown files appear in SharePoint search) SharePoint indexing status Work IQ enabled Same content works when attached directly to the agent This behavior also seems consistent with what others have reported here: Markdown works when uploaded directly Markdown retrieval degrades when hosted in SharePoint libraries Questions for the Product Team / Community Are Markdown (.md) files in SharePoint document libraries officially supported as Copilot Studio knowledge sources today? If yes, are there specific constraints (file size, rendering, parsing, indexing) that differ from Word/PDF? If no (or “not yet”), is this a known limitation on the roadmap? Is the recommended pattern to: Convert important markdown files into .aspx pages, or Use thin “index / summary” pages and keep markdown canonical until retrieval improves? We’re happy to adapt our information architecture — just trying to align with the intended platform direction rather than work against it. Thanks in advance for any guidance or clarification. This capability is extremely powerful, and clearer expectations here would help a lot of teams make the right design tradeoffs.
Copilot in Edge needs direct export integration
While using Copilot in Microsoft Edge, I noticed a key limitation: there is no option to directly save or export text snippets or summaries to OneDrive, Word, or OneNote. Users must copy manually, which breaks the reading flow and reduces productivity. Competitor comparison: Claude → PDF export, integration with Notion and Drive ChatGPT → PDF/DOCX export, integration with Google Drive Gemini → Automatic export, integration with Google Drive Copilot (Edge) → Only copy/paste or browser PDF, no native integration
Using AI to prep managers before performance reviews. What are you doing?
We're a 50 person company and review season is coming up. Our managers keep saying they dont have enough context on their direct reports when its time to write reviews. Someone suggested using Copilot to summarize Teams chats and emails but that feels like it would miss the actual performance data like goals and feedback. Whats everyone else doing to help managers prep for reviews? Is there some AI-powered tool that pulls together the actual relevant stuff?
Using Copilot meeting summaries for performance reviews - how?
Our HR team had this idea to use Copilot meeting recaps as input for performance reviews. Like, if a manager had 20 meetings with a direct report over the quarter, couldnt Copilot help surface key contributions and discussion themes? The problem is theres no way to aggregate multiple meeting summaries into something useful for a review. Each recap is a separate thing in each meeting. Has anyone figured out a workflow or workaround for this?
Edge and Copilot App - Error code: STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED
I am running Windows 11 Pro - Insider Preview - Version 25H2 (OS Build 26300-8376) My "Copilot app" from the Windows Store started giving me that error code, and Edge stopped working completely, unable to access anything at all, and shows that error on the screen. Windows support won't even look because I am on Insider Preview. Please help?The Daily Stand-Up Agent A Custom Copilot for Summarizing Jira & Azure DevOps Progress
Modern software teams move fast. Between sprint planning, backlog grooming, pull requests, deployments, and stakeholder updates, developers often spend more time discussing work than actually doing it. One of the biggest pain points in Agile workflows is the daily stand-up meeting especially when team members need to manually summarize updates across dozens of tickets in tools like Jira and Azure DevOps. https://dellenny.com/the-daily-stand-up-agent-a-custom-copilot-for-summarizing-jira-azure-devops-progress/Copilot in Excel-5 Minutes to Outperform 90% of Excel Users with AI
Quick note: I'm a native Chinese speaker. This article was translated with AI assistance — but I've personally tested every step in English before publishing. What you see here works exactly as shown. Prerequisites: This tutorial requires the Copilot feature in Excel (Microsoft 365 subscription). Availability may vary by region and may require additional configuration. Following my previous two articles in the Copilot from a User's Perspective series, this is the first article in a new companion series: AI Tutorials. I'll continue updating the previous series — I just think it's important to break up the rhythm with something immediately actionable from time to time. Why did I dare use this title? I'm sure many of you think I'm exaggerating. In 5 minutes, most people can't even explain what a cross-sheet lookup is — but if you follow this tutorial today, I'm confident you'll agree with the title. If you don't believe me, start your timer now. Step 1: Open Excel and Learn the Terminology Before we start, let's make sure we speak the same language: Column — The vertical axis, labeled with letters (e.g., Column A, Column B). Row — The horizontal axis, labeled with numbers (e.g., Row 1, Row 2). Cell — A single coordinate. For example, A3 means Column A, Row 3. Range — A span from one cell to another. For example, B3:B10 means Column B, Rows 3 through 10. B3:D4 includes six cells: B3, C3, D3, B4, C4, D4. Worksheet — The tabs at the bottom of your Excel file (Sheet1, Sheet2, etc.). Each tab is a separate table. Workbook — The Excel file itself. You might be thinking: "You're starting THIS basic? No way you'll deliver on that title!" But here's the thing — if you understand these terms, you already have everything you need to use Copilot in Excel. Step 2: Create a Practice Dataset Create a new Excel file, open Copilot, and enter this prompt. Make sure to click "Allow Edits" when prompted. Create Sheet2 first with these columns: Name, Gender, Student ID, Score, Height, Class, and Commute Method. Randomly generate 30 rows of data. Make sure the Student IDs are NOT sequential numbers. Then create Sheet1: randomly pick 10 Student IDs from Sheet2 and list them in Column A. For both sheets, format the header row with a light gray fill, increase the font size by 1, and center-align. Most tutorials only teach you concepts — they never give you a dataset to practice with. Here, I just had AI generate a ready-made practice dataset so you can follow along with every step below. Now, let's get to work. Step 3: Use AI to Replace VLOOKUP VLOOKUP is the single most searched Excel function on the internet. Give me 30 seconds, and I'll make it irrelevant. With your tables ready, go to Sheet1. In the Copilot sidebar, type: Based on Column A in Sheet1, pull the values from Column D and Column E in Sheet2. That's it. You just accomplished what VLOOKUP does. Now here's where it gets interesting. VLOOKUP has a well-known limitation — it can only pull data from columns to the right of the lookup column, never to the left. Try this: Based on Column A in Sheet1, pull the values from Column A and Column B in Sheet2. If this works — and it will — you've just gone beyond what traditional VLOOKUP can do. And you never had to understand how VLOOKUP works under the hood. The prompts I used above are deliberately bare-bones. You can be much more specific: Based on Column A in Sheet1, pull the values from Column D and Column E in Sheet2. Insert these two columns before Column A in Sheet1, and fill them with a light gray background. The more Excel terminology you know, the more precise your prompts become — and the fewer errors you'll encounter. Did you notice something? Everything you just typed was nouns + logic. That is the core operating principle of generative AI. Let's keep going. Step 4: Multi-Condition Sorting Switch to Sheet2, where we have the full dataset. Sometimes you need complex sorting — Class in ascending order, Score in descending order within each class, and Student ID in ascending order within each score group. I consider myself an upper-intermediate Excel user, and I still couldn't do this manually — it requires nested sort configurations that most people never learn. But just describe what you want. In the Copilot sidebar, type: Sort the data with the following priority: Class ascending, Score descending, Student ID ascending. All three columns are sorted simultaneously, each with its own direction. If you could do this without AI, you'd already be an advanced Excel user. AI just eliminated that skill gap — and it's faster too. You might have noticed I didn't use column letter references (like "Column F") this time. In fact, I didn't need to in Step 3 either. AI can read the headers, think, and identify the right columns on its own. Step 5: Conditional Formatting Still on Sheet2. Sometimes you need visual differentiation — for example, blue highlighting for male students and pink for female students. In the Copilot sidebar, type: Fill the rows of male students with blue, and the rows of female students with pink. Without AI, I'd filter for males, apply the fill, then filter for females and repeat. That two-step process is surprisingly slow for something so simple. Sometimes you need to spot duplicates. Try: Bold the text in cells where Height values are duplicated. Without AI, this requires setting up conditional formatting rules — a skill that already puts you in intermediate-to-advanced territory. Now the sheet looks a bit messy. Let's reset: In Sheet2, reset all cells except the header row to default formatting. A Note on Prompting Style You'll notice that in Step 5, my prompts were almost entirely natural language — no column letters, no technical references. So why didn't I start the tutorial that way? Because I wanted to give you something you could copy-paste and get working immediately — something reliable and reproducible. I use natural language prompts because I've spent enough time with AI to understand its boundaries and behavior. The terminology-based approach from Step 3 is what I call "The Noun Method" — combine domain-specific nouns with natural-language logic to form complete instructions: Based on (logic) Column A (noun) pull (logic) from Sheet2 (noun) Column B (noun) and (logic) Column C (noun) Once you understand The Noun Method, you can effectively operate any generative AI tool. The key is learning the relevant nouns for each domain — and in Excel's case, there are remarkably few to learn. Closing Thoughts If you followed along with every step, the whole process probably took 10–15 minutes. But I believe that the moment you successfully ran the VLOOKUP prompt in Step 3, you stopped doubting the title. If you'd like more Excel + AI tutorials, follow me and leave a comment. I'll keep them coming. Next up: What You Need to Know About TokensThe Architecture of Copilot Agents: Building Intelligent Assistants for the Modern Era
The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence has ushered in a new class of systems often referred to as copilot agents. These agents are not fully autonomous decision-makers, nor are they passive tools they sit in the middle, augmenting human capability by assisting with tasks, providing insights, and automating workflows while keeping humans in the loop. From coding assistants to enterprise productivity tools, copilot agents are becoming foundational to how we interact with software. https://dellenny.com/the-architecture-of-copilot-agents-building-intelligent-assistants-for-the-modern-era/
Got Copilot to use goal progress when drafting review feedback?
So I've been trying to experiment with how I use Copilot for performance management, reviews, goals, etc. When I manually feed goals, feedback results, etc into Copilot, it drafts pretty decent performance reviews. Now Im curious. Can I automatically feed these into copilot from any HR platform with API's or something? So it automatically views goal progress and drafts review feedback? I know if Viva Goals was still available, I would be able to do something along these lines. Anyone tried this?
Copilot pulling last weeks 1:1 action items into this weeks agenda, possible?
Spent 3 hours yesterday trying to get Copilot to pull open action items from last weeks 1:1 OneNote page and turn them into this weeks agenda. Gave up. Is this a prompt problem or just not possible with the current connectors?
Microsoft's Copilot: A Frustrating Flop in AI-Powered Productivity
Microsoft's Copilot was supposed to be the game-changer in productivity, but it's quickly proving to be a massive disappointment. The idea was simple: integrate AI directly into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office tools to make our lives easier. But when it comes to actually performing specific functions, Copilot falls flat. Here’s the problem: when you ask Copilot to alter a document, modify an Excel file, or adjust a PowerPoint presentation, it’s practically useless. Instead of performing the tasks as requested, it often leaves you hanging with vague suggestions or instructions. Users don't want to be told how to perform a task—they want it done. This is what an AI assistant should do: execute commands efficiently, not just offer advice. What makes this even more frustrating is that other AI tools, like ChatGPT, can handle these tasks effortlessly. When you ask ChatGPT to perform a specific function, it does so without hesitation. It’s able to understand the request and deliver exactly what’s needed. But Copilot? It struggles with the basics, and that’s unacceptable, especially from a company like Microsoft. It’s frankly embarrassing that Microsoft can’t get this right. The whole point of integrating AI into these tools was to streamline workflows and boost productivity. But if Copilot can’t even manage simple tasks like formatting a document or adjusting a spreadsheet, then what’s the point? Users don’t need another tool that tells them how to do something—they need one that does it for them. Microsoft, you’ve missed the mark with Copilot. It's not just a minor inconvenience; it's a serious flaw that undermines the value of your Office suite. When other AI tools can easily accomplish what Copilot can't, it's time to reevaluate. Users expect more, and frankly, they deserve more for their investment. What’s been your experience with Copilot? Is anyone else finding it as frustrating as I am? Let’s talk about it.Automating the feedback collection process before reviews. Is it possible with Copilot?
Every quarter, our HR team manually emails people asking for peer feedback before reviews start. Its a huge time sink and half the responses come in late. Someone mentioned Copilot agents might be able to handle this, like automatically reaching out to the right people, collecting responses, and organizing them. Has anyone tried building something like this? Or is there a simpler way to automate 360 feedback collection in M365?
Copilot won't edit text in existing oneNote Page
Hey All, I have tried the following in both the OneNote desktop app and the OneNote O365 web app. Both fail in the way described below. I have a oneNote page that I use for time tracking on projects. I asked oneNote to edit all listings of the date in one section to 2026-05-05. Copilot states that it is starting, but then quickly transitions to a blank white box. The copilot box remains completely empty. It is unresponsive for 10 minutes. Eventually, I can click the copilot button in the menu bar and close copilot -- if I try do this right away, nothing happens. Please let me know if there is some setting or something that I need to enable, so that copilot can edit oneNoteMicrosoft 365 Copilot Gets Smarter: GPT-5.5 Thinking and ChatGPT Images 2.0 Transform Workflows
The evolution of workplace AI is accelerating, and the latest update to Microsoft 365 Copilot signals a major leap forward. With the introduction of GPT-5.5 Thinking and ChatGPT Images 2.0, Copilot is no longer just an assistant it’s becoming a more capable collaborator for complex thinking, creative production, and multi-step problem-solving. https://dellenny.com/microsoft-365-copilot-gets-smarter-gpt-5-5-thinking-and-chatgpt-images-2-0-transform-workflows/Microsoft Launches Agent 365 to Bring Control, Security, and Visibility to the Age of AI Agents
In a move that signals how rapidly artificial intelligence is reshaping the modern workplace, Microsoft has officially announced the general availability of Agent 365, a new platform designed to help organizations manage, secure, and govern AI-powered agents at scale. https://dellenny.com/microsoft-launches-agent-365-to-bring-control-security-and-visibility-to-the-age-of-ai-agents/
All scheduled prompts failing — "couldn't be completed" error — Power Platform provisioning issue?
I'm hoping someone from Microsoft or the community has seen this. All my scheduled prompts are failing at execution time with this error: "This scheduled prompt couldn't be completed. It will be retried during the next scheduled run." Key facts: M365 Copilot license on a direct Business subscription The same prompts run correctly in Copilot Chat Even the simplest scheduled prompt fails: "List emails I received in the past 5 days. No analysis needed — just the list." The scheduling UI works fine — prompts appear in the Active list with correct schedules Failure is at execution time. Retries also fail. Admin-side investigation already completed: Power Platform environment: Ready No DLP policies in the tenant No admin toggle for scheduled prompts exists in M365 admin center (noted as unusual) Org-level optional connected experiences: enabled User-level optional connected experiences toggle absent (consistent with org locking it On) The absence of an admin toggle for scheduled prompts in the M365 admin center is the one thing that stood out — I wonder if this indicates the feature wasn't fully provisioned when the Copilot license was applied. Sharing here in case this is a known issue or others are experiencing the same. Any insight from Microsoft engineers or others who've resolved this would be appreciated.Apologies for repeated prompts – account works but restricted / Cuenta ok pero restringida
Hola, mi cuenta fue marcada por una infracción de “Abuso de la plataforma” en M365 Copilot. Ya verifiqué con soporte de inicio de sesión y confirmaron que no hay problemas con mi cuenta. Sin embargo, sigo experimentando errores y desconexiones al usar Copilot. ¿Alguien del equipo de Microsoft puede ayudarme a revisar este bloqueo o indicarme cómo apelar la restricción? Este problema me impide usar Copilot con normalidad. Utilicé un promt una y otra vez intentado hacer una gráfica de pastel y la IA estuvo "alucinando" datos. Intenté tanto que me enojé. Me disculpo. Gracias. Hello, My account was flagged for a “Platform abuse” violation in M365 Copilot. I have already contacted sign-in support, and they confirmed that there are no issues with my account. However, I am still experiencing errors and disconnections when using Copilot. Could someone from the Microsoft team help review this restriction or guide me on how to appeal it? This issue is preventing me from using Copilot normally. I used a prompt over and over trying to make a pie chart and the AI was 'hallucinating' data. I tried so much that I got angry. I apologize. Thank you. Puedes responder en inglés o español, gracias. | You can respond in English or Spanish, thank you.
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