New Microsoft Copilot 365 Wave 2 includes agents and Pages
The tools include an agent for building automated business processes and Pages for editing AI-generated material. While the tools provide more context, they present some challenges.
Microsoft on Monday introduced Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2, a series of new generative AI-based office productivity tools highlighted by autonomous and semi-autonomous AI agents and AI content editing features.
Copilot Pages takes AI-generated content and enables users to edit, add to it and share it with others. Team members can work collaboratively in Pages. Microsoft has started to roll it out to Microsoft 365 Copilot customers.
Microsoft, during a virtual Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2 event, also revealed that Copilot in Excel is generally available. The feature enables users to work with data that hasn't been formatted as a table and can now work with text and numerical data.
The tech giant also introduced Copilot agents, AI assistants that automate and execute business processes, working with and for humans. The agents are available now.
In Copilot Studio -- a low-code tool that lets enterprises create custom Copilots -- Microsoft customers can now build Copilot agents with Agent Builder.
Users can also quickly create a Copilot agent in Business Chat (BizChat) or SharePoint. BizChat is a central hub that brings users' data into workflows.
"Copilot is becoming this new enterprise orchestration layer," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during the virtual event. "Yesterday's bespoke interactions with siloed business applications will just simply become Copilot agents."
Adding context and focus on collaboration
Oftentimes, Copilot is just making guesses, and it's wrong about the content of what you're trying to do.
J.P. GownderAnalyst, Forrester
The ability to build agents based in SharePoint or BizChat shows that Microsoft has worked toward providing more context and more accurate results in Copilot, said Forrester analyst J.P. Gownder.
"Oftentimes, Copilot is just making guesses, and it's wrong about the content of what you're trying to do," Gownder said.
Microsoft is providing context by introducing new features in Copilot PowerPoint and Copilot Word that direct Copilot to specific documents. Also, because users can build Copilot agents in SharePoint sites, it provides a better understanding of the source of the presented data. This is because the agents are built on the data in SharePoint or BizChat.
Microsoft is also showing it's focusing on not only individual productivity but also team productivity, Gartner analyst Jason Wong said.
For example, previously Microsoft released Copilot Teams, which helps run and moderate Teams meetings. In Copilot 365 Wave 2, Copilot Pages is an interactive collaborative space.
"Fundamentally, they're embedding Copilots in every single application," Wong said.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella introduces new tools in Microsoft Copilot 365.
More training
The vendor's focus on team productivity and embedding Copilot into office applications also will trigger new training needs to teach employees how to use the new features and tools, Gownder said.
"It's not like people are going to just know how to use Pages," he said. "There's a lot of barriers on the people side with Copilot."
And many enterprises don't have the time, skills or resources required to train employees on Copilot tools, he added.
Moreover, many enterprises lack employees who know about prompt engineering, how to question the output of AI models, or how to understand the relationship between data and what a model is saying, Gownder continued.
"You can't teach all that in one hour," he said.
Other than learning challenge with the new tools, there are also omissions regarding control and management.
"Governing all these Copilots and interactions with quality data responses … is still largely missing from what's built into Copilot today," Wong said.
Microsoft also needs to address problems with data hygiene and permissions, Gowder said.
Other new Copilot tools are:
Copilot in Excel with Python: It enables users to conduct advanced analysis using natural language.
A new "prioritize my inbox" feature in Copilot in Outlook: It helps users get to important messages faster.
Narrative Builder in Copilot in PowerPoint: It helps users quickly build a first draft. Brand Manager, a Narrative Builder feature, enables users to build branded presentations.
Esther Ajao is a TechTarget Editorial news writer and podcast host covering artificial intelligence software and systems.
