Copilot in Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 Copilot sits inside your Office apps and has access to everything you've created in the Microsoft ecosystem — documents, emails, calendar, Teams messages, SharePoint files. It's not a chatbot you switch to; it's an AI layer inside the tools you're already using. In April 2026, Microsoft made agentic capabilities (multi-step autonomous actions) generally available across Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Word
Draft & rewrite
Go from a blank page to a first draft with a prompt. Rewrite sections for different tones or audiences — formal, casual, concise, expanded.
Restructure documents
Reorganise headings, merge sections, split long documents, change formatting style.
Citations (Work IQ)
When Copilot incorporates content from emails, SharePoint, or web sources, it automatically shows citations so you can trace origins.
Agentic mode (GA April 2026)
Multi-step document editing — Copilot can draft, apply comments, restructure, and finalize a document through a sequence of actions, not just one response.
Excel
Formula assistance
Explain what a formula does, write formulas from a description, debug broken formulas.
Multi-step edits
As of 2026, Copilot can make multi-step edits to workbooks — create a table, add calculated columns, generate a chart — in one sequence without you approving each step.
Local file support
Works with local Excel files on Windows and Mac — no requirement to save to OneDrive/SharePoint first (added in 2026).
Data analysis prompts
Ask natural-language questions: 'which region had the highest growth last quarter?' — Copilot queries the data and shows results.
PowerPoint
Generate presentations
Create a full deck from a Word document, a prompt, or a topic — Copilot generates slides, layout, and speaker notes.
Designer Editor (AI image editing)
Remove backgrounds, improve image resolution, move image elements using generative AI — directly inside PowerPoint.
Format standardization
Enable 'Edit with Copilot' to automatically standardize fonts, font sizes, and bullet styles across all slides in one action.
Summarize decks
Get a summary of what a presentation covers, including key decisions and action items from speaker notes.
Teams
Meeting transcription & summary
Join a meeting with recording on — Copilot generates a real-time transcript, key discussion points, decisions made, and action items.
Catch-up summaries
Missed a channel? Ask Copilot to summarize what was discussed, what was decided, and what you need to respond to.
Copilot Chat in Teams
The full Copilot Chat experience (including inbox/calendar awareness) is available directly in Teams chats, channels, and meetings.
Cross-app context
Teams Copilot can reference your Word/Excel files and emails when answering questions in Teams conversations.
Outlook
Draft emails
Generate email replies from a brief description. Adjust tone and length after the draft is generated.
Email summarization
Summarize long email threads into a few bullet points — who said what, what decisions were made, what needs a response.
Inbox prioritization
Copilot can surface the most important emails and flag items requiring action across your inbox.
Checklist: Do You Understand This?
- M365 Copilot is embedded inside apps — it has access to your documents, emails, calendar, and Teams history
- Agentic capabilities in Word, Excel, PowerPoint went GA in April 2026 — multi-step autonomous actions, not just one-shot responses
- Excel now works with local files (no OneDrive required)
- Teams Copilot: meeting transcription, summaries, cross-app context from your Microsoft 365 data
- All M365 Copilot features require a Microsoft 365 Business or Enterprise subscription