As we told you a few days ago, today was the day Microsoft chose to introduce Microsoft 365 Copilot, a new leap in Redmond’s more than ambitious plans to extend the scope of AI to its apps and services. It was something that was expected for a long time, because in the first days of January we learned about Microsoft’s plans to use this technology in Office and Microsoft 365, and less than a month later the company itself moved part of its plans in this regard.

Now, after a video presentation with Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and Jared Spataro, corporate vice president of work and enterprise applications, in less than 40 minutes we were able to participate announcing an incredibly ambitious planwith which Microsoft 365, as well as other productive and professional applications and services of the company, took a giant leap by adding the Copilot mode, which will allow its users to delegate a large part of the functions to the most common AI.

In this regard, although so far we have only been able to see what Microsoft wanted to show and we will still have to wait for the test program to open (something that will happen much more slowly than we experienced with the new Bing), what we know so far is quite promising.

And how long will we have to wait? There are no specific dates, or at least they haven’t been released. What we do know is that for now, Microsoft is conducting initial tests with a particularly limited scope, for which it had 20 companies, a number that will gradually grow over the next few months. So it looks like we’re looking at a deployment model quite similar to what Google announced for implementing AI features in Gmail, Docs, and other services. In other words, heor more likely we won’t see another deployment until 2024 or late 2023 solution of both companies.

This is interesting because it confirms something we already stated at the time when we talked about Google’s position regarding the implementation of Bard. Microsoft could take much more risks with Bing than Google with its search engine, but in this case we are in a different situation because both Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are two very important services for both companies, so they cannot afford to take more risks. threatens its reliability.

Well, and unlike what happened with Bing, at least There is currently neither a waiting list to register, nor is there expected to be oneand in that sense, joining the Microsoft 365 insider program, neither the preview channel nor the beta channel, will do you any good. It’s a shame because there are a lot of us looking forward to testing the co-pilot features, but for now we’ll have to take it pretty easy.

What features does Microsoft 365 Copilot offer?

At this point it is important to clarify that Microsoft distinguishes in which on one side we find Microsoft 365 applications and on the other Business Chatsolution chatbot Based on the Large Language Model (LLM), which combines Microsoft 365 applications and calendar, email, chat, documents, meetings and contact data to enable the model to identify learning environment needs and accelerate them. Copìlot is able to interpret natural language and perform all related actions.

«Copilot combines the power of big language models with your data and applications to make your words the most powerful productivity tool on the planet.says Jared Spataro, Microsoft’s vice president of modern work and business applications. «Copilot draws on the content and context of your business to deliver relevant and actionable results. It’s business-ready and builds on Microsoft’s end-to-end approach to security, compliance, privacy and responsible artificial intelligence. Copilot ushers in a new era of computing that will fundamentally change the way we work.”

Now, from what was announced today, the potential scope of Copilot’s integration with Microsoft 365 is probably the biggest, and here are the features that Microsoft announced in that regard:

• Copilot in Word write, edit, summarize and co-create with the people who work.

• Copilot in PowerPoint facilitates the creation process by turning ideas into a designed presentation using natural language commands.

• Copilot in Excel helps you unlock information, identify trends, or create professional-looking data visualizations in a fraction of the time.

• Copilot in Outlook it can help synthesize and manage your inbox so that more time can be spent on actual communication.

• Second pilot in teams they make meetings more productive, with real-time summaries and action points right in the context of the conversation.

What does it mean? We will now be able to delegate many of the most common activities of these applications to AI, allowing us to focus on tasks that require human supervision. From requiring Word to redact any type of text (even based on other documents and information from other sources) to allowing Excel to analyze large data sets and look for information and patterns that might otherwise be much more complex.

Regarding Outlook’s features, we told you about them back when they were first leaked, although it’s true that now, with the integration with the rest of Microsoft 365 and Business Chat, we see that the scope of these functions is even greater than we can imagine. From providing an inbox summary to creating and sending messages with just basic recipient and content information.

Of course, as expected, the use of Microsoft 365 Copilot will be optional, and as we have mentioned on previous occasions, it is best to review and possibly adjust the work that Copilot has done, and in this Microsoft also reminded that its operation is not perfect, although we can expect significant improvements in the coming months, especially as the scope of the testing program expands and Microsoft begins to receive more feedback.

However, another question that remains unresolved concerns the cost of accessing these features all indications are that they will not be included in the price of a Microsoft 365 subscription, at least at levels aimed at private users. As we can read in the official statement, “Pricing and licensing details will be shared later.«. So it’s very likely that it will reach business customers first and some form of access for personal and family plans will be offered later.

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