Microsoft’s 365 Copilot Receives New Features in a Major Update

Microsoft announced an update to the Copilot 365 application on Wednesday, which includes numerous new features. 

The platform now offers an ‘AI-powered’ search feature that incorporates data from various third-party sources, including Google Drive, Slack, Jira, and others. The company also announced a new Create feature that supports image generation, powered by OpenAI’s latest GPT-4o capabilities. 

Additionally, the redesigned app now defaults to a chat-based interface, as demonstrated in a video published by the company on YouTube. 

Furthermore, the company announced a new Agent Store where users can integrate agents developed by Microsoft’s partner companies. This announcement is in addition to the recently introduced Microsoft Researcher and Analyst agents. 

The Researcher feature is similar to the deep research tools offered by today’s AI models and platforms. This feature combines OpenAI’s deep research model with the capabilities of Microsoft 365 Copilot. Additionally, it can integrate third-party data from platforms like Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Confluence.

The ‘Analyst’ feature is designed to function like a “skilled data scientist." This feature is built on OpenAI’s o3-mini reasoning model and can run Python to execute data queries, allowing users to view the code the tool runs in real time. 

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft also announced Copilot Notebooks, a feature that integrates chats, files, and recordings to deliver real-time insights and audio summaries, keeping users updated as data changes. “For example, I can collect all the latest things I’m reading about agents and agent frameworks, and then I can listen to it,” said CEO Satya Nadella, demonstrating the Copilot Notebooks feature on X. 

Alongside these new features, Copilot is also equipped with memory and personalisation features. These ensure that the tool ‘learns’ the user preferences, to provide tailored responses. 

Recently, Microsoft also announced autonomous computer use capabilities in the Copilot Studio. This feature is accessible through an early access research preview. This can navigate through a user interface and perform actions such as clicking buttons, selecting menus, and typing text into fields.