What's New In Microsoft 365 Copilot | December 2024

Welcome to the December 2024 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:

Admin and management capabilities:

• Announcing Copilot release notes
• Expanded resources for Viva Learning
• New templates and reports in Copilot Analytics

End-user capabilities:

• Transform notetaking with Copilot for OneNote
• Improve data understanding with Copilot for Excel
• More dynamic interactions in Copilot for Word and PowerPoint
• Intelligent recap in Teams for calls from chat and ‘Meet now’ meetings

Announcing Copilot release notes

Now, admins can easily review a list of shipped Microsoft 365 Copilot changes across Microsoft 365 apps including new features, product updates, and improvements based on feedback. Copilot release notes were added to Microsoft Learn in December and will be updated monthly.

A screenshot of a website page titled Copilot Release Notes.

Expanded resources for Viva Learning

Soon, admins will be able to duplicate the Copilot Academy and add or remove courses to tailor it to their organization’s needs or address industry-specific requirements. They will also be able to duplicate Microsoft-curated Learning paths and featured sets for further customization options. This feature rolls out in January.

A screenshot of Viva Learning with the section called Manage Academies open

The AI and Copilot Resources provider will power the out-of-the-box Copilot Academy and will be visible by default to users who have Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses. This will appear in the admin tab alongside other providers, enabling admins to control content that powers Copilot Academy in the same way they can control other content providers. This includes the ability to enable, disable, and apply permissions on this content. This feature rolled out in December.

The Manage providers tab in Viva Learning showing AI and Copilot Resources as one of the available providers.

New templates and reports in Copilot Analytics

Copilot survey templates in Viva Pulse enable change leaders to gather employee feedback on aspects of Copilot readiness, adoption, and impact. This qualitative feedback is a great complement to the usage metrics already included in the Copilot Dashboard. Viva Pulse results for the Copilot survey templates will be automatically shared to the Copilot Dashboard. Learn more about Viva Pulse capabilities. This feature rolled out in December.

A screenshot of the Viva Pulse homepage depicting various template features and Pulses sent.

Sales leaders can now create a custom report in Viva Insights using Copilot for Sales metrics or leverage the prebuilt adoption report to understand how people are using Copilot for Sales within the organization. Sales leaders can view how Copilot for Sales actions are contributing to key sales tasks, comparative adoption across groups, effectiveness of various sales actions, and overall usage trends. Learn more about the Copilot for Sales adoption report. This feature rolled out in December.

A slide featuring bar charts for adoption metrics as well as a line graph showing the change in active Copilot users per month.

Transform notetaking with Copilot for OneNote

Copilot for OneNote on Mac and iPad is an intelligent assistant that helps transform the way users interact with their notes. With simple natural language commands, users can use Copilot to help them understand, summarize, and rewrite notes for enhanced clarity and purpose. It is designed to work seamlessly on the Mac, offering a contextual chat experience that empowers users to accomplish tasks faster. Whether preparing for a meeting or organizing thoughts, Copilot for OneNote on Mac is the perfect partner for boosting productivity. Copilot for OneNote for Mac and iPad rolled out in December.  

A screenshot of an iPad with the intelligent assistant side pane open.

Quick Actions with Copilot are now generally available directly on the OneNote desktop app canvas. In a OneNote page, users can click the Copilot icon on the canvas and take notes, summarize, create a task list, or rewrite the page. This feature rolled out in November.

A OneNote page showing the Quick Actions pop-out.

Improve data understanding with Copilot for Excel

With Copilot in Excel, users can now clean data with just one click. Clean Data detects and offers solutions for text inconsistencies, number format issues, and extra spaces. This feature rolled out in December to Copilot in Excel for the web. Learn more about Clean Data with Copilot in Excel.

Screenshot of Excel with the Clean Data feature open showing how it identifies inconsistent text and highlights the corresponding inconsistencies.

Copilot in Excel can recognize several patterns like text transformation, date transformations, simple arithmetic calculations, row numbering, and forward filling, and then suggest a formula for users to apply instead. This feature is rolling out on Windows Desktop in January.

Screenshot of Excel showing a table with manually entered data and an on-grid suggestion to apply a formula.

More dynamic interactions in Copilot for Word and PowerPoint

Now, users can now ask Copilot to read aloud responses in the chat pane, enabling more dynamic interactions with Copilot. This feature rolled out in December for Word and rolled out in December for PowerPoint on web, desktop, and Mac.

A screenshot of a Copilot chat window with the read aloud button circled.

Now, users can add images to their chat using Copilot. Users can ask questions about images, extract text, get a description of a chart, translate information, or generate alt text. This helps users stay in the flow of work while getting necessary information to continue working on a document or presentation. This feature is available as of December for Word and for PowerPoint on web and desktop. Learn more about Add an image or banner with Copilot in Word.

An open Copilot chat window in PowerPoint answering questions about the slide image.

Intelligent recap in Teams for calls from chat and ‘Meet now’ meetings

Soon, you will be able to enjoy AI-generated summaries for more types of meetings, even when they are not scheduled in advance. Intelligent meeting recap will be available for impromptu calls and meetings, like those started from ‘Meet now’ and calls started from chat. You can easily browse the recording by speakers and topics, as well as access AI-generated notes, AI-generated tasks, and name mentions after the ad-hoc meeting ends. This feature has begun rolling out and will be available in January.

A screenshot of a Microsoft Teams meeting recap with AI-generated notes and follow-up tasks

Did you know? The Microsoft 365 Roadmap is where you can get the latest updates on productivity apps and intelligent cloud services. Please note that the dates mentioned in this article are tentative and subject to change. Check back regularly to see what features are in development or coming soon.