5 Microsoft Copilot features you should know about

2023 was the year of AI, and 2024 promises to be no different. This year, however, all eyes seem to be on on-device AI capabilities rather than cloud-based platforms such as ChatGPT or Gemini.

One important player in this field is Microsoft, with Copilot. Copilot is slowly making its way to more and more laptops and desktops running Windows 11, with a few models even getting a dedicated Copilot button. But do you know what is Microsoft Copilot, and what are some of its best features? Well, read on to find out.

What is Microsoft Copilot?

Copilot is an AI tool that can pretty much do everything that text generators such as ChatGPT and Gemini can, along with generating AI images via a Dall-E integration.

What sets it apart though, is the fact that it is integrated deeply into the Microsoft Office 365 suite, right on your systems. And if you’re wondering what this means for you, check out this list of the five best features it has to offer.

1. Document creation and management

Copilot, powered by the GPT-4 LLM, can create a first draft of any document you’re looking to make (provided you give it the necessary information first), and even help structure, format, and edit the same. It can also shorten or rewrite it, as and when required.

ALSO READ: 7 upcoming Windows 11 features worth looking forward to

Microsoft Copilot, additionally, can create PowerPoint presentations from scratch for you, based on the information provided to it from an existing document. It can generate slides, apply different layouts, and even choose a theme for you. What’s more, it can also create speaker notes to help you conduct your presentation.

2. Data analysis with Excel

Copilot, on Microsoft Excel, can generate formula suggestions, and even show insights on charts and pivot tables as well as identify and highlight any patterns it finds in a given data set. This helps readers understand their data better and also reduces the chances of any errors in the same.

That’s not all. It can also help you make calculations based on your data and create visualisations for them as well. For example, you can give it a prompt saying, “Create a column to show me the percentage increase or decrease in columns x and y.” Copilot will automatically do so and make the necessary calculations for you.

3. Email summarisation on Outlook and brainstorming on Loop workspace

Microsoft Outlook gets a Copilot integration too. What it can do is, generate short summaries of long email chains in case you end up losing track of what’s happening. In addition to this, it can also generate draft messages for you, and rewrite them, should you be looking to add, remove, or restructure any bits on them.

It can also help with brainstorming sessions on the Loop workspace. Say you have an event coming up and are looking for ideas. Well, along with your co-workers, Copilot can also generate ideas based on the information provided to it.

That’s Copilot on the Office 365 suite. However, it has a few tricks beyond work up its sleeves as well. Some of them are as follows:

4. Changing Windows settings via textual prompts

If you are new to Windows 11 or are simply in a rush to change certain settings on your laptops or desktops, finding a particular setting hidden under a mountain of menus and sub-menus can be annoying.

Copilot allows you to change some settings on your systems via simple textual prompts. While it hasn’t made its way to all settings just yet, it can do some stuff such as turning on dark mode, muting the speakers on your laptop, changing your wallpaper, and even setting a focus timer.

Bear in mind though, for settings such as your wallpaper, it doesn’t change them directly, but it does pull up the menu required to do so, for you. Neat, isn’t it?

5. Image generation abilities

As mentioned above, Microsoft Copilot also gets a Dall-E integration. This means that you can generate images based on textual prompts using the same. The AI assistant creates images as detailed as the prompts you provide it with. What’s more, it also has an in-built mechanism to check for and block prompts that ask it to generate images that depict violence or could potentially hurt the religious sentiments of a given community, and so on.

ALSO READ: Soon you’ll be able to perform a Windows 11 update without restarting your computer

These are just a few of the many tricks Microsoft Copilot has up its sleeves. To explore its full potential, we highly recommend you consider investing in Intel Core Ultra-powered laptops running Windows 11, which get in-built neural chips as well, enhancing the AI assistant’s capabilities all the more.