what you need to know
- Microsoft has unveiled new artificial intelligence capabilities coming to Office 365 at an event.
- Microsoft calls this AI “Copilot” and it will make it easier to write Word documents.
- With user input, you can ask Word to generate full text based on your own requirements.
Microsoft has announced that it will bring AI to all of its Office applications, including Word through a new “Copilot” feature that can generate text based on user input using natural language. You can ask Word to help you create a report on a given topic, and even point to offline source material, such as other documents on your computer.
Once Copilot generates the text, the user has the option of editing it, including using the AI to rewrite certain parts in a different tone or context, or discarding it entirely. The AI can also format, which means that users with only basic knowledge of Word will be able to create more advanced layouts thanks to the AI.
Copilot can even review documents, including spelling, punctuation, and even offer suggestions and changes based on your own likes and dislikes. Copilot’s design means that it should make writing and editing Word documents much faster.
This is how Microsoft describes Copilot for Word:
“Copilot in Word writes, edits, summarizes, and creates with you. With just a short notice, Copilot in Word will create a first draft for you, bringing input from across your organization as needed. Copilot can add content to existing documents, summarize text and rewrite sections or the entire document to make it more concise. You can even get suggested tones, from professional to passionate and casual to grateful, to help you hit the right note. Copilot can also help you improve your writing with suggestions that strengthen your arguments or smooth out inconsistencies”.
AI coming to Word is just part of today’s announcements from Microsoft. Copilot will reach all Office applications, including PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook. Use it to answer emails, organize data in a spreadsheet, or design a presentation based on a recent essay you’ve written. You can do it all.
Microsoft says that the AI functionality in Word will roll out in the coming months and is in limited testing of “20 customers,” likely to be enterprise customers, at this time.
