Microsoft Copilot

If you follow what 微软 is up to in even the slightest way, it will have been difficult to miss that is BIG news. Your friendly artificially intelligent assistant has already landed in some places and will be available in many more over the coming months.

But unless you've searched in a lot more depth, it's difficult to keep up with all the announcements, or to know where the assistant will be available to help out. The purpose of this article is therefore to bring the key announcements and supporting information into one place.

What is Copilot?

Quite simply, and in Microsoft's own words ...

Copilot is an AI-powered digital assistant designed to help users with a range of tasks and activities on their devices

It's therefore a tool you can use within the apps you use every day to help you get work done faster, and possibly better.

Is Copilot a single tool?

Whilst all the clever stuff behind the scenes is centralised, you'll see the benefits in numerous different apps. There's therefore different "Copilots" for different Microsoft Apps.

Here's some FAQ's to start you off: Frequently asked questions: AI, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Microsoft Designer | Microsoft Support

... and there's now a Microsoft (Tech) Community hub just for Copilot: Microsoft 365 Copilot - Microsoft Community Hub

So, what Copilots do we know about so far?

Microsoft 365

Using information from your calendar, emails, chats, documents, meetings, and more to turn your words into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet. And within Microsoft's existing commitments to data security and privacy.

Embedded into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more, it will help you to unleash creativity, unlock productivity, and uplevel skills. Take a look at the links below to see how in short videos and explanations.

1. Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot | Video
2. Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft 365 Blog
3. Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot – your copilot for work | The Official Microsoft Blog
4. Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot — your copilot for work | Microsoft News
5. The Copilot System: Explained by Microsoft?| Microsoft Tech Community
6. Unleash your productivity with AI and Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft Support

It's worth noting that to get the most out of Copilot, there's a few prerequisites and things you need to do to prepare. Microsoft probably explain it better than I could in these articles:

1. How to prepare for Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft Community Hub
2. How to get ready for Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft Tech Community
3. Semantic Index for Copilot: Explained by Microsoft | YouTube

Edge / Bing

Ask your questions in natural language in the new Bing and get real answers - a research assistant, personal planner and creative partner at your side whenever you search the web.

1. The new Bing – Learn more | Bing.com
2. Reinventing search with a new AI-powered Bing and Edge, your copilot for the web | Microsoft News
3. Reinventing search with a new AI-powered Microsoft Bing and Edge, your copilot for the web | The Official Microsoft Blog
4. Create images with your words - Bing Image Creator comes to the new Bing | The Official Microsoft Blog

SharePoint & OneDrive

Copilot in SharePoint helps turn your words into powerful tools for:

• creating and editing SharePoint sites and pages
• building more compelling and engaging sites aligned to your brand with the new Brand Center
• designing videos with and video page templates
• a refreshed OneDrive experience - find the right file, resume your work, and catch up on what happened while you were away
• collect and track information using , with new forms for cleaner information gathering, improved overall performance, and richer packaging options

1. Introducing Copilot in SharePoint and new OneDrive experiences | Microsoft 365 Blog

Teams (Premium)

Make every meeting more personalized, intelligent, and protected

1. Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft 365 Blog (see Teams & Business chat sections)
2. Copilot in Teams: August 2023 Updates | Microsoft Community Hub
3. Microsoft Teams Premium | Microsoft.com

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Dynamics

Interactive, AI-powered assistance across business functions, enabling everyone to spend more time on the best parts of their jobs and less time on mundane tasks. Coming to the Dynamics Customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

1. Introducing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot, the world’s first copilot in both CRM and ERP, that brings next-generation AI to every line of business | The Official Microsoft Blog
2. Copilot in Viva Sales innovates with next-generation AI | Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog

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Power Platform

If you believe the hype, if you can imagine your solution, you can simply describe it in everyday language, and copilot can create it for you via an intuitive and intelligent low code experience. Copilot will therefore accelerate development for citizen and professional developers alike.

1. Power Platform is leading a new era of AI-generated low-code app development | Microsoft Power Platform Blog

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Viva Engage

Copilot in Viva Engage will help inspire and aid leaders to connect with their employees more effectively through assistive prompts, inclusive communications, and valuable insights – well suited for sharing news, celebrating milestones, and helping build dialogue with employees around important topics.

1. Announcing Copilot in Viva Engage - Microsoft Community Hub (requires sign-in)

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Security

Microsoft Security Copilot empowers your defenders to detect hidden patterns, harden defences, and respond to incidents faster with generative AI.

Microsoft Security Copilot | Microsoft Security

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Github

Trained on billions of lines of code, GitHub Copilot turns natural language prompts into coding suggestions across dozens of languages

1. GitHub Copilot · Your AI pair programmer | GitHub

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Designer

Unleash your creativity and create stunning designs lightning-fast with AI

1. Microsoft Designer - Stunning designs in a flash

When can we have it?

The million dollar question (along with how much it will cost)! Elements of several of the above are already released or in preview:

• Copilot in Edge (just click on the Bing icon in the top-right in Edge v111 or later)
• Improvements in SharePoint & OneDrive (rolling out at the time of writing)
• Teams Premium (with required license)
• Designer
• ... and more ...

With such a focus on Copilot, we should expect to see announcements on the rest before the end of 2023.

How much will all this cost?

The great unknown! Microsoft have recently announced that Microsoft 365 Copilot will cost $30 per user per month, but I haven't yet seen any announcements on the other copilots yet.

Corrections?

As always, if you find anything you think should be added or corrected in this article, please reply in the comments and I'll get it updated.