Ignite 2023: Copilot for Microsoft 365 Adds Plugins Support and Customization Options

After Microsoft launched its Microsoft 365 Copilot on November 1, the company announced new updates for its productivity assistant at its Ignite conference this morning. With Microsoft Copilot Studio, organizations can now customize the AI assistant with plugins to make it even more useful. There are also some subtle branding changes to be aware of, with Microsoft now putting even more emphasis on the “Copilot” brand.

What the company used to call the “Microsoft 365 Copilot” is now “Copilot for Microsoft 365.” Additionally, Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise will now simply become “Copilot.”

While the basic “Copilot” experience is accessible for free on the web, the Microsoft Edge sidebar, and Copilot for Windows, Copilot for Microsoft 365 is priced at $30 per user per month for organizations with Microsoft 365 and E3 and E5 SKUs. Starting today, Microsoft is also expanding access to Copilot for Microsoft 365 to Office 365 E3 and E5 customers.

Copilot Studio adds new customization capabilities

With Copilot Studio, organizations will be able to customize Copilot for Microsoft 365 using a low-code tool to connect the AI assistant to other data sources and expand its capabilities. This announcement pretty much mirrors the custom “GPTs” that OpenAI announced last week.

“You can customize Copilot for Microsoft 365 with your own enterprise scenarios; build, test, and publish standalone copilots and custom GPTs; and manage and secure your customizations and standalone copilots with the right access, data, user controls, and analytics,” Microsoft said today.

Copilot Studio is available today, and organizations will be able to create their own Copilot using plugins and custom GPTs. These custom versions of Copilot for Microsoft 365 can then be deployed in Microsoft 365 apps for both internal and external use.

New features coming to Copilot for Microsoft 365

Microsoft also detailed today several new features coming to its AI assistant for work. Here are the main highlights:

• In Teams, Copilot can now answer questions during meetings without turning on recording or transcription. Next year, Microsoft will turn Copilot into a more capable meeting assistant that can take notes and react to specific instructions.

• In Outlook, Copilot can summarize email threads and suggest a list of follow-up actions. Next year, Copilot in Outlook will also be able to help users prepare for upcoming meetings by summarizing all the information they need to know.
• In Microsoft Loop, which is now generally available, Copilot can help users get started with their new Loop pages by suggesting content from previous pages or other information that’s relevant to the current project.

• In Word, Copilot for Microsoft 365 will soon be able to summarize changes and revisions made to a document.

Microsoft announced other Copilot products today including Copilot for Sales, Copilot for Azure, and Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides. “Microsoft is the Copilot company, and we believe in the future there will be a Copilot for everyone and for everything you do, the software giant said today.