Microsoft is expanding access to its GPT-4-powered Microsoft 365 Copilot via an invitation-only early access program that will roll out to an initial wave of 600 customers.
This company’s announcement comes after they unveiled Microsoft 365 Copilot–a generative AI tool for Microsoft 365 productivity apps–in March and began testing it with 20 enterprise customers.
In addition, Microsoft is rolling out Semantic Index for Copilot, a new capability in Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 designed to give customers a map to their user and company data and help prepare them for AI. The company says this uses a conceptual understanding to determine a user’s intent and help them find what they need.
Along with the new Microsoft 365 Copilot Early Access program and Semantic Index for Copilot, Microsoft is introducing new capabilities for its AI assistant, essentially bringing Copilot to every part of the Microsoft 365 suite.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Early Access Program
The company’s main announcement was centered around the Microsoft 365 Copilot Early Access Program, which it calls an invitation-only, paid preview that will out to an initial wave of 600 customers worldwide.
According to Microsoft, the overwhelming feedback from the group of 20 enterprise testers of Copilot is that the tool has the potential to revolutionize work, with specific emphasis on its helpfulness in meetings and jump-starting creativity. Those customers include Goodyear, General motors, The Walsh Group, Avanade, Chevron, Dow and other large organizations.
Copilot expanded to the full Microsoft 365 suite
New Copilot features have been expanded to Whiteboard, Outlook, OneNote, Loop and Viva Learning. In addition, Microsoft is bringing Dall-E, OpenAI’s image generator, into PowerPoint to help users create custom images to support their content. This is in addition to Copilot capabilities in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and others.
According to Microsoft, Copilot in Whiteboard is designed to make Microsoft Teams meetings more effective by using the tool to generate ideas, organize them into themes, create designs and summarize whiteboard content. It leverages Microsoft Designer to turn ideas into original images that complement and enhance text.
In Outlook, Microsoft is adding new Copilot capabilities designed to make it easier to write emails with coaching tips and suggestions of clarity and tone.
In OneNote, Copilot will work across a user’s notes, images and data to draft plans, generate ideas, create lists and organize information in engaging formats within the company’s existing commitments to enterprise data security and privacy.
Microsoft is also adding Copilot to Microsoft Loop to help teams stay in sync by summarizing all content on a Loop page.
Lastly, Copilot in Viva Learning will help users create a personalized learning journey, the company says.
Semantic Index for Copilot
According to Microsoft, Semantic Index for Copilot is a sophisticated map of user and company data that doesn’t just look for documents with specific words in the file name or body.
“Instead, it understands that ‘sales reports are produced by Kelly on the finance team and created in Excel.’ And it uses that conceptual understanding to determine your intent and help you find what you need,” writes Colette Stallbaumer, general manager of Microsoft 365 and future of work, in a blog.
Semantic Index for Copilot will enhance enterprise search results for E3 and E5 customers, regardless of if they are using Copilot or not, the company says.
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