March 20, 2023
Microsoft has introduced a new AI-powered Copilot for its Microsoft 365 apps and services. The AI-powered Copilot is intended to help users create documents, emails, presentations, and much more.
To turn words into action, it combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with data from the Microsoft Graph and Microsoft 365 apps. The Copilot understands commands like “add animations to this slide” and can even apply different styles per slide or across the entire presentation by using descriptive language. One of the things that distinguishes PowerPoint is the ability to talk to it like a person and ask it to create things based on ideas.
According to Microsoft, “Copilot in PowerPoint helps you turn your ideas into stunning presentations. As your storytelling partner, Copilot can transform existing written documents into decks complete with speaker notes and sources or start a new presentation from a simple prompt or outline. Condense lengthy presentations at the click of a button and use natural language commands to adjust layouts, reformat text, and perfectly time animations.”
It is also said to give the user control by allowing them to choose what to keep, change, or discard. It also enables users to be more creative in Word, analytical in Excel, expressive in PowerPoint, productive in Outlook, and collaborative in Teams.
Users can use the Copilot to control Office applications such as Excel and PowerPoint. Instead of digging into PowerPoint features, if a user is looking at a slide deck and wishes every title was orange instead of blue, they can simply ask Copilot. Copilot can also generate a PivotTable, create a graph, or assist in understanding the rows and columns of data.
For now, the new feature will be limited to a small group of users as they continue to refine it, but the company is expected to “expand to more” testers soon.
The sources for this piece include an article in MicrosoftBlog.
