Today, Microsoft is announcing “Wave 2” of its Microsoft 365 Copilot AI innovation, which is geared towards users who are paying for a Microsoft 365 Copilot Pro subscription. But one feature, known as Pages, may be available to business customers who use Copilot without a subscription.

The subtext of Pages — and the overall theme of the new Copilot wave in general — is that Copilot’s AI contributions matter.

Normally, any advice provided by Copilot remains within Copilot and only for a short time. Microsoft characterizes Copilot’s output as “ephemeral,” signifying something that eventually passes over.

But the new Pages feature treats Copilot’s insights as equal to something that you or your coworkers themselves might have authored, saving Copilot’s output on a “page” to be worked on with your colleagues.

Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft

Pages will initially be available to users who subscribe to Microsoft 365 and have a Microsoft 365 Copilot Pro subscription, which is a $20-per-month add-on. But in the coming weeks, Pages will also be added to Entra accounts. (Entra is Microsoft’s corporate identity solution, which your employer may or may not use.) Entra accounts won’t require a Copilot for Microsoft 365 subscription to use Pages.

The goal, of course, is to sell more of these Copilot for Microsoft 365 subscriptions. But Microsoft is also trying to make Copilot itself stickier and more appealing. The company cited customer testimonials that say Copilot saved them several hours per week.

Microsoft is also adding additional features to its Microsoft 365 apps, including Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.

Copilot in Excel: Copilot in Excel is now generally available. The key addition is Copilot in Excel with Python, which means you’ll be able to “write” Python functions for Excel using a Copilot prompt. Copilot for Excel now also supports XLOOKUP and SUMIF, conditional formatting, and the ability to iterate with Copilot on visualizations like charts and PivotTables, Microsoft said.

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Microsoft

Microsoft

Copilot in PowerPoint: Narrative Builder is the latest feature within Copilot for PowerPoint, helping to come up with a “draft” presentation and then refine it until you’re satisfied with your product. Soon Copilot will also be able to add images from your SharePoint library and create approved branded presentations.

Copilot in Teams: Later this month, Copilot will be able to summarize both Teams meetings and related chats in meetings, so that the official stuff and the backchannel explanations are summed up.

Copilot in Outlook: Although Outlook already has Focused Inbox, a new Prioritize My Inbox feature will pull out your most important emails based on the contents of emails and relationships of senders to you. A summary email sums up those emails and explains why they’re important.

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Microsoft

Microsoft

Copilot in Word: “Coming later this month, Copilot in Word will enable you to quickly reference not only web data and work data like Word, PowerPoint, PDFs, and encrypted documents, but also emails and meetings,” Microsoft said. Microsoft recently added suggested prompts, which are generally available.

Copilot in OneDrive: Later this month, Copilot for OneDrive will allow you to compare up to five files and provide “insights” into the others.

Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft is also announcing Agent Builder, the ability to create agents with Copilot Studio. These agents, now available, can automate business processes, ranging from simple prompt-and-response agents to “more advanced, fully autonomous agents,” said Microsoft.

One of the example agents is a Visual Creator agent, which creates AI images, designs, and soon videos.

Further reading: What can Copilot Pro really do?

Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld

Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology. He has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Popular Science and Electronic Buyers’ News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room.

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