Write formulas with natural language using Copilot in Excel
Writing formulas can feel intimidating, especially when you’re unsure of the syntax or which function to use. We’ve already made formula writing easier with formula completion, which proactively suggests and autocompletes formulas as you type. Now, we’re introducing an additional on-grid Copilot tool that takes it a step further: With this new capability, you can simply describe what you need, and Copilot will create the formula for you. This means no more struggling to remember complex syntax, and faster and more natural interactions with your data, especially if you’re new to Excel – plus, a helpful alternative when formula completion doesn’t return the right suggestions or when you prefer typing in your own words. Together, these tools make formula writing faster, easier, and more intuitive, so you can focus on insights, not syntax. How it works In Excel for the Web, select the cell in which you want to enter a formula. Type = in the cell or the formula bar, and then click on the Ask Copilot for a formula option that appears. NOTE: You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + , to move the focus into the input box. Describe the kind of formula you want in natural language. For example: “Calculate total profit". Review the formula suggestion, the description, and the preview of the result on the grid. Then, select either Keep it if the suggestion works for you, or Discard, and then type = and run the Ask Copilot for a formula option again. Tips and tricks You can ask Copilot to modify existing formulas: In cases where you already have a formula but need to adjust it, simply describe the change you want, and Copilot will update the formula for you. For example, you can modify a return on assets calculation to include average assets for period. You can ask for formulas that require data from different sheets, such as calculating the asset turnover rate using values from separate Income Statements and Balance Sheets tabs. In cases where the formula completion doesn’t match your needs – for example, Copilot spells the month out but you want the format to be MMM – describe the exact format you need, and Copilot will generate the correct formula for you. Scenarios to try Copilot can generate formulas of varying complexity for different needs: Return a unique list of salespersons from the transactions table. Calculate the total units sold for each salesperson in the list. Calculate the total sales for each quarter - even when the sales table doesn't include the quarter, only the date. Extract the state out of the customer address. Compute profit for each transaction with a lookup function that uses data from another table. Known issues This feature currently supports one formula or one formula column or range at a time. Multiple formulas support is being considered for future updates. Availability This feature is currently rolling out to Excel for Web users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Feedback We appreciate your insights regarding formula suggestions using natural language! You can share your feedback with us in the result card using the thumbs up or down buttons, or by selecting the Feedback button in the upper right-hand corner of Excel for Web, and then selecting either Give a compliment, Report a problem, or Make a suggestion.Unleashing the power of agents in Microsoft Planner
In today's fast-paced world, AI has become an essential tool for enhancing productivity and efficiency. We are committed to empowering our users with innovative solutions that simplify their work processes, and we’re thrilled to introduce the latest updates to Microsoft Planner, designed to leverage the power of Copilot and agents to streamline project management and task organization. With the recent announcement of Project Manager agent, rolling out in public preview in the Planner app in Microsoft Teams, and the rollout of the new Planner for the web, we are bringing you a comprehensive suite of tools to help you and your team achieve more with less effort. We invite you to explore these exciting new features and discover how they can transform the way you work. Introducing Project Manager agent Project Manager agent is a new AI-powered agent designed to enhance your planning experience by acting as a virtual project manager within your plans. Project Manager agent is built to streamline your planning process, empowering you to focus on the strategic aspects of your work while it handles some of the tasks on your behalf. It is the latest development in enhancing and transforming team collaboration with AI in Planner. Earlier this year, we introduced Copilot in Planner (preview) as a personal companion experience designed to work alongside your planner workflow. With Project Manager agent, we’re now bringing AI capabilities directly into your plans, allowing you to interact with the agent as an integral part of your plan. Project Manager agent takes your goals and automatically breaks them down into actionable tasks. But it doesn’t stop there, it can also execute these tasks on your behalf. By managing the plan and executing tasks, the agent enables you to focus on impactful decisions while it contributes directly to the success of your project. When you start a plan with Project Manager agent, it guides you to define a goal you want to achieve (for example, conducting research on a specific topic). The agent will then generate all the necessary tasks for the research topic. Assign these tasks to the agent, and it will execute on them, providing detailed output that is automatically captured in a Loop page embedded within each task. All members of the plan can collaborate directly within the Loop page, exchanging comments and feedback with the Project Manager agent. Upon selecting Regenerate, the agent incorporates the feedback and generates a refined response, improving the task outcomes. At any point, if Project Manager agent does not have adequate information to generate necessary output, it will even ask clarifying questions that will allow it to provide better responses. You will notice that Project Manager agent is capable of contributing at every step of your plan, delivering value throughout the process. This comes with a new Project Manager View in Planner—your hub for setting goals, generating tasks, and showcasing the execution status. This intuitive interface lets you set your project goals and generate tasks, assign tasks to team members or the agent for execution and track progress and statuses in real time. Additionally, in the board view, you can also group tasks by Project Manager, which shows all the Project manager tasks and status in the appropriate buckets. At its core, the Project Manager agent runs on the Multi-Agent Runtime Service (MARS), a platform built on Microsoft Autogen. MARS leverages specialized agents with unique expertise, enabling the Project Manager agent to perform effectively across diverse scenarios. See the blog post to learn more about how Project Manager agent and MARS function. To help you get started, we’ve provided predefined, customizable templates on various topics, allowing you to quickly kickstart a Project Manager plan and easily tailor it to meet your specific goals. Once you’ve selected a template, you can modify the plan to align with your specific needs and goals, ensuring it meets your unique requirements while leveraging the agent’s capabilities for streamlined execution. From idea, to plan, to done, the Project Manager agent is your trusted partner, ensuring every aspect of your plan is managed seamlessly. We’re also introducing the Microsoft Whiteboard canvas in Planner! This new feature allows you and your team to brainstorm directly within the context of your plan. Upon creating a new plan with the Project Manager agent, you will now see a Whiteboard tab in the plan. Whiteboard offers a dynamic and collaborative canvas within Planner, allowing users to easily convert ideas into tasks and streamline workflow from ideation to action. In the canvas, you and your team can engage in real-time collaboration using inking, sticky notes, and templates. With the Planner integration, you can quickly convert your notes to tasks in one click, directly adding them to your plan. We’re excited to bring these powerful tools to your planning experience, and we can’t wait to see the impact of the Project Manager agent in your daily workflows! The new Project Manager agent will be rolling out to public preview in the Planner app in Teams in the coming weeks. To explore these capabilities, customers are required to have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license and also need to ensure their current Microsoft 365 licensing allows them access to Microsoft Loop. As this is a preview release, please note that the features may evolve based on user feedback and ongoing improvements. Initially, Project Manager agent will support English language as the interaction medium, and other languages in the future. We’d love for you to try it out and share your thoughts to help shape its future development! Please select the thumbs up or thumbs down button in the Project Manager view or in the Task details to share what you think about the experience. In addition, we are announcing two more capabilities that will be coming soon to Microsoft Planner: 1. Copilot in My Tasks view: This feature brings AI-powered organization and prioritization to your tasks, helping users effectively manage their backlog and enabling them to stay on top of what matters most. 2. Automated status report emails: Provides the capability to automatically generate a status email from your plans, streamlining the process of sharing weekly updates so you can spend less time on emails and more time moving projects forward. We expect these features to be available for our customers to try early 2025. Join us at Microsoft Ignite to learn more about Project Manager agent in our breakout session, "Boost productivity with Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps." Try Planner for the web today! The new Planner for the web is now available! This marks another major milestone in the Planner journey that we announced last November at Ignite. In April, we launched the new Planner app in Microsoft Teams, and now we've completed the rollout with Planner for the web. Planner for the web now brings together the simplicity of Microsoft To Do, the collaboration of Planner, the power of Project for the web, and the intelligence of Microsoft 365 Copilot into a simple, familiar experience. Discover a new way to manage tasks for individual plans, team initiatives, and larger scale project management aligned to goals and key strategic objectives. We’re excited for you to try it out and share your thoughts. Thanks to your ongoing feedback, we’re continuing to roll out bug fixes and new enhancements regularly to both Planner in Teams and Planner for the Web. We have more exciting updates coming soon including the availability of Planner for the web in GCC, a new board view in the My Tasks view, an updated experience for the Planner app in Teams channels, and more. Check in regularly on the roadmap to learn about what’s coming. Explore the new Portfolios feature The frequently requested Portfolios feature is also rolling out in the Planner app in Teams and will start rolling out in the new Planner for the web app in the coming weeks! This powerful addition is designed to help you effortlessly manage and track progress across multiple plans. With Portfolios, you can now get a consolidated view of all your premium plans and tasks, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks. Whether you're coordinating between teams or looking for a top-down perspective, Portfolios in Planner makes it all possible in one location, streamlining workflows and enhancing collaboration. Join our session at Microsoft Ignite We are eager to share more details about these exciting updates during our session at Microsoft Ignite! Join us as we dive deeper into the new features and capabilities of Planner, and learn how they can elevate your teamwork. Don't miss this opportunity to connect with our team and get a firsthand look at what's new. Share your feedback Your feedback helps inform our feature updates and we look forward to hearing from you as you try out the new Planner! Provide feedback by using the Feedback button in the top right corner of the Planner app. We also encourage you to share any features you want to see in the app by adding it to our Planner Feedback Portal. Learn more Check out the recently refreshed Planner adoption page. Sign up to receive future communication about Planner. Check out the Microsoft 365 roadmap for feature descriptions and estimated release dates for Planner. Watch Planner demos for inspiration on how to get the most out of the new Planner app in Microsoft Teams. Watch the recording from September's What’s New and What’s Coming Next + AMA about the new Planner. Visit the Planner help page to learn more about the capabilities in the new Planner.From Cloud to Chip: Building Smarter AI at the Edge with Windows AI PCs
As AI engineers, we’ve spent years optimizing models for the cloud, scaling inference, wrangling latency, and chasing compute across clusters. But the frontier is shifting. With the rise of Windows AI PCs and powerful local accelerators, the edge is no longer a constraint it’s now a canvas. Whether you're deploying vision models to industrial cameras, optimizing speech interfaces for offline assistants, or building privacy-preserving apps for healthcare, Edge AI is where real-world intelligence meets real-time performance. Why Edge AI, Why Now? Edge AI isn’t just about running models locally, it’s about rethinking the entire lifecycle: - Latency: Decisions in milliseconds, not round-trips to the cloud. - Privacy: Sensitive data stays on-device, enabling HIPAA/GDPR compliance. - Resilience: Offline-first apps that don’t break when the network does. - Cost: Reduced cloud compute and bandwidth overhead. With Windows AI PCs powered by Intel and Qualcomm NPUs and tools like ONNX Runtime, DirectML, and Olive, developers can now optimize and deploy models with unprecedented efficiency. What You’ll Learn in Edge AI for Beginners The Edge AI for Beginners curriculum is a hands-on, open-source guide designed for engineers ready to move from theory to deployment. Multi-Language Support This content is available in over 48 languages, so you can read and study in your native language. What You'll Master This course takes you from fundamental concepts to production-ready implementations, covering: Small Language Models (SLMs) optimized for edge deployment Hardware-aware optimization across diverse platforms Real-time inference with privacy-preserving capabilities Production deployment strategies for enterprise applications Why EdgeAI Matters Edge AI represents a paradigm shift that addresses critical modern challenges: Privacy & Security: Process sensitive data locally without cloud exposure Real-time Performance: Eliminate network latency for time-critical applications Cost Efficiency: Reduce bandwidth and cloud computing expenses Resilient Operations: Maintain functionality during network outages Regulatory Compliance: Meet data sovereignty requirements Edge AI Edge AI refers to running AI algorithms and language models locally on hardware, close to where data is generated without relying on cloud resources for inference. It reduces latency, enhances privacy, and enables real-time decision-making. Core Principles: On-device inference: AI models run on edge devices (phones, routers, microcontrollers, industrial PCs) Offline capability: Functions without persistent internet connectivity Low latency: Immediate responses suited for real-time systems Data sovereignty: Keeps sensitive data local, improving security and compliance Small Language Models (SLMs) SLMs like Phi-4, Mistral-7B, Qwen and Gemma are optimized versions of larger LLMs, trained or distilled for: Reduced memory footprint: Efficient use of limited edge device memory Lower compute demand: Optimized for CPU and edge GPU performance Faster startup times: Quick initialization for responsive applications They unlock powerful NLP capabilities while meeting the constraints of: Embedded systems: IoT devices and industrial controllers Mobile devices: Smartphones and tablets with offline capabilities IoT Devices: Sensors and smart devices with limited resources Edge servers: Local processing units with limited GPU resources Personal Computers: Desktop and laptop deployment scenarios Course Modules & Navigation Course duration. 10 hours of content Module Topic Focus Area Key Content Level Duration 📖 00 Introduction to EdgeAI Foundation & Context EdgeAI Overview • Industry Applications • SLM Introduction • Learning Objectives Beginner 1-2 hrs 📚 01 EdgeAI Fundamentals Cloud vs Edge AI comparison EdgeAI Fundamentals • Real World Case Studies • Implementation Guide • Edge Deployment Beginner 3-4 hrs 🧠 02 SLM Model Foundations Model families & architecture Phi Family • Qwen Family • Gemma Family • BitNET • μModel • Phi-Silica Beginner 4-5 hrs 🚀 03 SLM Deployment Practice Local & cloud deployment Advanced Learning • Local Environment • Cloud Deployment Intermediate 4-5 hrs ⚙️ 04 Model Optimization Toolkit Cross-platform optimization Introduction • Llama.cpp • Microsoft Olive • OpenVINO • Apple MLX • Workflow Synthesis Intermediate 5-6 hrs 🔧 05 SLMOps Production Production operations SLMOps Introduction • Model Distillation • Fine-tuning • Production Deployment Advanced 5-6 hrs 🤖 06 AI Agents & Function Calling Agent frameworks & MCP Agent Introduction • Function Calling • Model Context Protocol Advanced 4-5 hrs 💻 07 Platform Implementation Cross-platform samples AI Toolkit • Foundry Local • Windows Development Advanced 3-4 hrs 🏭 08 Foundry Local Toolkit Production-ready samples Sample applications (see details below) Expert 8-10 hrs Each module includes Jupyter notebooks, code samples, and deployment walkthroughs, perfect for engineers who learn by doing. Developer Highlights - 🔧 Olive: Microsoft's optimization toolchain for quantization, pruning, and acceleration. - 🧩 ONNX Runtime: Cross-platform inference engine with support for CPU, GPU, and NPU. - 🎮 DirectML: GPU-accelerated ML API for Windows, ideal for gaming and real-time apps. - 🖥️ Windows AI PCs: Devices with built-in NPUs for low-power, high-performance inference. Local AI: Beyond the Edge Local AI isn’t just about inference, it’s about autonomy. Imagine agents that: - Learn from local context - Adapt to user behavior - Respect privacy by design With tools like Agent Framework, Azure AI Foundry and Windows Copilot Studio, and Foundry Local developers can orchestrate local agents that blend LLMs, sensors, and user preferences, all without cloud dependency. Try It Yourself Ready to get started? Clone the Edge AI for Beginners GitHub repo, run the notebooks, and deploy your first model to a Windows AI PC or IoT devices Whether you're building smart kiosks, offline assistants, or industrial monitors, this curriculum gives you the scaffolding to go from prototype to production.In case you missed it: A roundup of the latest Planner announcements
The Microsoft Planner team recently celebrated two pivotal milestones: International Project Management Day and Microsoft Ignite. To round out the year, here’s a quick look at some of the new and existing features we announced. 7 hidden gems to effectively manage your tasks In honor of International Project Management Day on November 6, our team published a blog post to highlight lesser-known but powerful Planner features that help teams work more efficiently across Planner and Microsoft Teams. These features include the ability to bulk edit tasks, export plans to Excel, and auto-generate status reports. To learn more, check out our blog post, “7 hidden gems to effectively manage your tasks in Microsoft Planner.” Planner at Microsoft Ignite At Microsoft Ignite 2025, we unveiled a major wave of updates that deepen the integration between Planner, Teams, and the Project Manager Agent—bringing AI-powered coordination, automation, and compliance capabilities into everyday workflows. In meetings, Facilitator now listens for spoken intent, captures decisions as actionable tasks, and generates documents using meeting context. Tasks are automatically synced to Planner, reducing manual follow-up and ensuring alignment as soon as the meeting wraps. In Teams channels, the Channel Agent can create and update tasks, answer plan-related questions, and produce richer status reports. These status reports are now enhanced with Planner data for better visibility into progress, risks, and blockers. Workback plan generation is now available in channels, helping teams quickly create reverse timelines based on a target deadline. Please note, the Teams meetings and channel capabilities mentioned above are available in public preview and require a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. To learn more about Project Manager Agent skills in Teams meetings and channels, as well as newly released compliance features, see our recent blog post, “The next chapter for AI-powered work management in Microsoft Planner.” The new Planner in Teams for GCC High Also worth mentioning is the availability of the new Planner in Teams for our customers in the GCC High environment. As of October, all existing tasks, basic plans, and premium plans have been migrated to the new Planner in Teams. GCC High customers can now plan, track, and collaborate on work alongside their chats, meetings, and files. Learn more and access some of our most frequently asked questions in our recent blog post: The new Planner in Microsoft Teams is now available to customers in GCC High. Feedback We want to hear from you about how these features and others can make working with Planner more effective. Tell us what you think using the Feedback button in the top-right corner of the web app, or by selecting the ? icon in the top-right corner of Planner in Teams, then selecting Feedback. We also encourage you to share any feature requests by adding your ideas to the Planner Feedback Portal. Your feedback helps inform our feature updates, and we look forward to hearing from you as you try Planner’s new and existing capabilities! Planner resources Watch the on-demand Breakout session from Ignite 2025. Walk through the interactive demos for Project Manager Agent in Planner and Project Manager Agent skills in Teams meetings. Learn more about Planner on the Planner adoption page. Sign up to receive future communication about Planner. Check out the Microsoft 365 roadmap for feature descriptions and estimated release dates for Planner. Visit the Planner help page to learn more about Planner.
SharePoint at 25: The knowledge platform for Copilot and agents
Join us for a global digital event to celebrate the 25th birthday of SharePoint! Gear up for an exciting look at SharePoint’s historic moments along with an exclusive look ahead to the next chapter of SharePoint’s AI future! You will discover how SharePoint’s new content AI capabilities and intelligent experiences will transform the way people create, manage, and collaborate. Be sure to stick around after for our live Ask Microsoft Anything (AMA), where you can ask your questions about the exciting new SharePoint features directly to the product team! 🛠️ Don’t miss the SharePoint Hackathon in March 2026 Design, create, share! We are excited to invite you to a hackathon dedicated to crafting exceptional employee experiences using AI and the latest SharePoint features. More details coming soon.Partner Blog | Azure updates for partners: December 2025
At Microsoft Ignite 2025, we explored what it means for organizations to move into the era of Frontier transformation. This shift is focused on embedding AI across every part of the business to improve decision-making, increase speed, and create new value. Organizations leading in AI make it foundational. They rethink processes and integrate new technologies from the start to improve efficiency. For partners, this move toward Frontier represents a significant opportunity to lead customers into this new era. By building AI-powered solutions, connecting data for intelligent insights, and deploying Microsoft Azure’s cloud-ready platforms, partners can deliver value faster and scale confidently through the Microsoft ecosystem. Microsoft Ignite came with a significant number of announcements, so I’ve gathered the Azure updates that matter most for partners. These are the capabilities that can strengthen your ability to deliver intelligent solutions, drive operational efficiency, and differentiate your product or service in the market. You can also explore how partners are turning momentum into action, access highlights, and grab practical guidance from my Microsoft Ignite session. Continue reading here
