Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2: AI Innovations in SharePoint and OneDrive
Published Sep 16 2024 03:00 PM 37K Views
Microsoft

Today, Satya Nadella and Jared Spataro introduced Wave 2 of Microsoft 365 Copilot innovations, including new Copilot agents that automate and streamline processes. Now anyone can easily create an agent with specific subject-matter expertise—from a coach to a brainstorm partner to a field-service technician. These updates represent a big stride forward in helping drive customer value with Copilot, and SharePoint and OneDrive will play a key part in this wave of Copilot innovations.   

SharePoint has become the foundational content management platform for enterprises―powering OneDrive, SharePoint sites, Teams, Loop, Stream, and more. It facilitates team collaboration, business processes, knowledge management, and employee communication with robust content services. With hundreds of millions of active users adding over 2.5 billion new files daily, SharePoint is a wealth of valuable organizational knowledge and insights that users can now harness with Copilot agents.

We are excited to announce the public preview of Copilot agents in SharePoint, a new experience that enables any user to quickly create and share agents right from within SharePoint for specific purposes. With a few clicks, you can create and share a Copilot agent in SharePoint―no coding skills required, all while respecting the organization’s security policies. These agents can work on your behalf answering questions about source material, reasoning over that material, and acting like a well-informed teammate would. Copilot agents in SharePoint will enter public preview in early October. 

OneDrive is the common files experiences for Microsoft 365 and is the common place you get to all your content, either standalone, in Teams, Outlook, or the Microsoft 365 app. This is why we are also excited to announce Copilot in OneDrive. With it, you can efficiently summarize, get answers from, and compare your files in OneDrive faster than ever. These features are rolling out now and will be generally available by the end of September. 

Copilot in SharePoint is now rolling out to customers, with additional features coming later this year. Copilot in SharePoint helps site creators author pages and create stunning sites, using AI and natural language. Simply explain the page you need, and Copilot builds it for you. 

 

Super charge productivity with Copilot agents in SharePoint  

Create an agent in just a few clicks: Creating a Copilot agent in SharePoint is a simple starting point for users looking to use AI tools tailored for their particular needs. Make Copilot your own. Use it to collaborate with others using the same relevant knowledge base and make critical decisions efficiently, or to spend less time consuming information so you can focus on more meaningful work. And you can create these agents right from where you’re already working in SharePoint. 

 

Create a Copilot agent in SharePoint with a single click.Create a Copilot agent in SharePoint with a single click.
Copilot agents in SharePoint work for you, your team, and cross-functional collaborators to help enhance knowledge sharing and teamwork. Let’s say you want to create a Copilot agent for a project you’re kicking off this quarter with a few other teammates. From your SharePoint document library, select only the folders or files you want. Then, with one click, you can create and immediately begin using your new agent. It reasons over the scoped set of SharePoint content to answer your questions, summarize information, or provide valuable insights, giving the most current and accurate response. 

Instantly use, share, or edit your Copilot agent in SharePoint.Instantly use, share, or edit your Copilot agent in SharePoint.

Secure by design: Creating an agent is as straightforward as creating a file. Agents in SharePoint are saved as Copilot files stored in the site where they’re initiated, ensuring consistent management and governance with site content.

Anyone with edit permissions on a SharePoint site, such as a site member, can create an agent scoped to the content they choose, and the agent will adhere to each user’s SharePoint permissions and the organization’s security policies. These Copilot agents, along with your other Microsoft 365 data, stay within the Microsoft 365 trust boundary. 

 

Customize your agent: To further customize the agent you created in SharePoint, click the edit button to add more files, update the branding, modify starter prompts, and more. You can easily enhance your agent in Copilot Studio with more advanced customization, such as adding actions to automate workflows or additional data sources beyond SharePoint. 

Copy and share Copilot agents.Copy and share Copilot agents.

Share and collaborate: Similar to files in other Microsoft 365 productivity apps, you can easily add the agent to a Teams chat or share a link via email to collaborate with others. All you need to do to interact with the agent is @mention it.
Sharing this agent with collaborators for a specific project helps foster teamwork and knowledge sharing so you can all get insights and make decisions based on the same current, relevant information. 

 

Share in a Teams chat and @mention the Copilot agent to interact with it.Share in a Teams chat and @mention the Copilot agent to interact with it.

Built-in Copilot agent scoped to your SharePoint site: In addition to user-created Copilot agents, every SharePoint site will have a prebuilt Copilot agent grounded in all the content within that site. Any site member can use this Copilot agent to ask questions and gain insights from the site.

How to use Copilot agents: Here are a few examples that might inspire you to create Copilot agents from SharePoint for your own unique needs: 

  • Everyone can benefit from an onboarding or transition buddy. An agent can help you get up to speed in a new role or provide support and guidance to others as you transition to a new team. 
  • Marketing with a product launch agent enables a large, cross-functional team to filter and reason over various marketing documents to understand key dates and deliverables and make decisions or next steps.  
  • Sales teams can get a key advantage with a conversation agent. Copilot can use customer details and interactions to suggest pertinent questions and content, optimizing conversations and engagement  
  • HR can use an onboarding agent to guide new employees through company policies and provide them with instant, relevant answers.  
  • Customer service can find answers and respond to customer questions with a triage agent. It can also surface trends and suggest fixes for common issues.  
  • Engineering and product support can use a field incident report agent to analyze the types of issues coming in from the field and provide an analysis of what product issues should be prioritized.   

Copilot agents in SharePoint make it easy to scale knowledge, enhance team collaboration, and drive operational efficiency from where you’re already working. It’s coming to public preview in early October, so give it a try in SharePoint soon.

 

Boost your efficiency at work with Copilot in OneDrive 

Copilot in OneDrive is designed to help you rapidly find the files you need, discover content faster, and enhance your productivity to be more efficientstreamlining your daily tasks without ever opening a file. 

OneDrive home screen with Copilot feature drop-down menuOneDrive home screen with Copilot feature drop-down menu

Summarize files quickly: Faster extraction of key information in OneDrive is a productivity booster. With Copilot in OneDrive, you can summarize one or multiple files in your OneDrive web app without opening each file. Additionally, you can generate an FAQ from a document to use or share as a reference asset. For example, after returning from an extended vacation, you can summarize project plans and meeting notes to catch up on your work with one click in OneDrive

 

Copilot in OneDrive summary of a document.Copilot in OneDrive summary of a document.
Compare documents with ease
: Locating the right data or understanding the differences between multiple files is time-consuming. You can now select up to five fileseven mixing formats such as Word docs, PowerPoints, and PDFsand have Copilot offer a detailed comparison across all the files. This lets you get a high-level understanding of the information you’re working with. 

Table showing details of two documents using file comparisonTable showing details of two documents using file comparison

Get answers on specific content: Sometimes you need to find a quick answer to a question or information that can help you with a project youre working on. Now, you can ask Copilot questions about the information you need from the documents you choose to gain insights and do your best work. 


Copilot answering questions on two documentsCopilot answering questions on two documents

The new Copilot in OneDrive featuressummarizing content, asking questions about relevant files, and comparing documentsgive you the most value out of your content. 

Build SharePoint sites effortlessly with Copilot in SharePoint 

Every month, millions of users create and edit sites and pages in SharePoint. Copilot in SharePoint now puts your words to work to create beautiful sites and pages. You can use AI and natural language to author pages and create content-rich sites.

Rich text editor that can replace or rewrite screen.Rich text editor that can replace or rewrite screen.

Rewrite text to fit the perfect tone: Spend less time adjusting the messaging on your SharePoint sites and pages, and let the rich text editor give you suggestions to make your text more engaging. 

Use natural language to create beautiful pages: Easily create visually appealing SharePoint pages. With Copilot, you can type in the kind of content you want to create, including the language, tone, and information, and it will do the work for you. You can also provide existing content―like a Word document or PowerPoint presentation―to Copilot, and it will transform that content into a beautiful page. 

Copilot in SharePoint leverages all the features of the new SharePoint user experience designed to enable you to make more compelling, visually appealing content. With this capability, you can:  

  • Apply branding and theming 
  • Adjust typography and fonts 
  • Create a grid and layout 
  • Add videos and imagery 
  • Use animations and motion  

Using Copilot in SharePoint ensures your sites incorporate the newest design elements while staying true to your company brand. 

 

SP home.png

 

Get started today

We are excited for you to begin using OneDrive and SharePoint features that are part of this next wave of Copilot innovation. You can experience many of these new capabilities that are rolling out today and preview others in the coming weeks. 

  • Watch for the public preview of Copilot agents in SharePoint in early October.  
  • Join Copilot agents and SharePoint product experts on October 16th for an exclusive Meet the Makers episode. 
  • Copilot in OneDrive is rolling out now and will be fully available by the end of September.
  • Learn more at Microsoft OneDrive: AI Innovations for a New Era of Work and Home on October 8th 
  • Text rewrite capabilities of Copilot in SharePoint are rolling out now, with natural language page creation coming in early 2025.
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‎Sep 16 2024 12:56 PM
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