# What will Copilot change in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams?

Date: 2023-06-24 · Author: Robert Scales · https://guidetoartificialintelligence.com/en/learn/will-copilot-change-word-excel-powerpoint-teams/

**Answer:** Microsoft 365 Copilot will let you ask for a first draft in Word, an analysis or chart in Excel, a slide deck in PowerPoint and a meeting recap in Teams, using GPT-4 together with the files, emails and meetings you already have access to. It is still in a limited paid preview, so the best use of the waiting time is to tidy your files, check who can see what, and practice writing clear requests.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is an assistant that Microsoft is building into the Office apps millions of people use at work. You type a request in plain language, and Copilot answers by combining a large language model, including OpenAI's GPT-4, with your own work data: documents, email, calendar, chats and meetings. Microsoft calls that store of work data the Microsoft Graph.

Nobody outside a small group can use it yet. Microsoft announced Copilot on March 16 and tested it with 20 large companies, among them Chevron, General Motors and Dow. On May 9 it opened an Early Access Program, a paid preview by invitation only, for a first wave of 600 customers around the world. There is still no public price and no date for everyone. So this is a good moment to understand what is coming, before it lands on your screen.

## What each app is expected to do

Microsoft's announcements and early press coverage describe a sidebar in each app where you chat with Copilot. Here is the short version, app by app.

| App | What you could ask | What you still need to do |
|---|---|---|
| Word | "Draft a two-page proposal based on last month's meeting notes and the budget file." | Check every fact and figure, then rewrite in your own voice. |
| Excel | "What trends do you see in these sales by region? Make a chart." The Verge also mentions a SWOT analysis or a PivotTable. | Confirm the numbers against the source data. |
| PowerPoint | "Turn this Word document into a short presentation." Microsoft added in May that Copilot will create images with OpenAI's DALL-E. | Cut, reorder and fix the slides; check image rights and fit. |
| Teams | "What did I miss in the first 20 minutes?" or "List the action items." Recaps come from the meeting transcript. | Make sure the decisions and owners are right before sending. |

Outlook gets the same treatment: summaries of long email threads, draft replies you can make shorter or more formal, and, as announced in May, coaching on clarity and tone. Microsoft also showed Business Chat, which answers questions across your calendar, mail, chats, documents and contacts at once, and in May it previewed Copilot in Whiteboard for gathering and grouping ideas during a Teams meeting.

## How it works with your files

The key idea is grounding: before the model answers, Copilot looks up relevant material in your work data and adds it to the request. According to The Verge's description, the prompt goes to the Graph for context, is reworked, sent to GPT-4, and the answer is checked again before it reaches the app.

Two promises from Microsoft matter for anyone in charge of company data. First, the models behind Copilot are not trained on customers' data or prompts. Second, Copilot only shows you content you already have permission to open. That second point is reassuring, and it is also a warning, as the next section explains.

Microsoft is also honest that Copilot will sometimes be wrong. Its March post says you stay in control and decide what to keep, edit or discard. In May it added that the system notes its limitations, links to its sources and encourages people to review and fact-check.

## A worked example: one request, written two ways

Imagine you manage a small team and want a first draft of a quarterly update. Compare a vague request with a clear one.

```prompt
Write the quarterly update.
```

```prompt
Draft a one-page quarterly update for the leadership team using the file "Q2 Project Status" and the notes from the June 14 planning meeting. Use three headings: what we finished, what slipped and why, what we need. Keep a neutral, factual tone and flag any number you could not find in the files.
```

The second version names the sources, the audience, the length, the structure and the tone, and it asks the assistant to admit gaps. Those habits work in ChatGPT and Bing Chat today, and they should carry straight over to Copilot.

> **Try it:** Pick a document you write every month, such as a status report. Write the request you would give Copilot, naming the exact files, the audience, the length and the headings. Test the wording now in ChatGPT with made-up content, and keep the version that gives the best draft.

## How should you prepare?

Start with your files. Copilot can only ground its answers in what it finds, so a folder full of "final_v3_REAL" copies, outdated price lists and unnamed drafts will give it bad material. Archive old versions, give important documents clear names, and keep one current copy of anything people rely on. Microsoft says its new Semantic Index for Copilot, rolling out to Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 customers, maps how your company's information connects; clean, well-labeled files can only help it.

Next, check permissions. Because Copilot shows anything you are allowed to open, a salary spreadsheet shared with "everyone in the company" years ago becomes easy to surface with a simple question. Ask your IT team, or review it yourself in a small business, to find files and sites shared too widely and tighten them before Copilot arrives.

Then work on habits. Teams recaps depend on meetings being transcribed, so agree as a team when transcription is appropriate and tell participants. Practice writing specific requests in the tools you can use now. Finally, set a simple rule for everyone: Copilot drafts, people decide. Every number, name and commitment gets checked by a person before it leaves the building.

## Sources

- Introducing the Microsoft 365 Copilot Early Access Program and 2023 Microsoft Work Trend Index: https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/05/09/introducing-the-microsoft-365-copilot-early-access-program-and-2023-microsoft-work-trend-index/
- Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot – your copilot for work: https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/03/16/introducing-microsoft-365-copilot-your-copilot-for-work/
- Microsoft announces Copilot: the AI-powered future of Office documents: https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/16/23642833/microsoft-365-ai-copilot-word-outlook-teams