Teams Boosts Collaboration with AI Copilot, Ends 365 Chat

Microsoft has just announced an exciting update for Microsoft 365 users—a new and improved Copilot in Microsoft Teams. This enhancement is set to streamline collaboration and productivity for users by integrating advanced features directly into the Teams platform.

By introducing Copilot, Microsoft enhances productivity by integrating AI to assist users in managing and utilizing data from various Microsoft services including documents, presentations, email, calendars, notes, and contacts. This integration aims to streamline the process of finding and using information that may be buried in documents or lost in conversations, thereby facilitating new ways to get tasks accomplished through AI.

Microsoft 365 Chat gets replaced with the Copilot experience

The updated Copilot in Teams builds upon the familiar Microsoft 365 Chat, now rebranded and packed with additional benefits. It’s designed to be more accessible, user-friendly, and functional, aligning with the Copilot experiences users enjoy on microsoft365.com, Bing, and copilot.microsoft.com.

Here are the key features and improvements of Copilot over the Microsoft 365 Chat app.

• Ease of Access: The new Copilot is easier to locate and use within Teams, reducing the time spent navigating through the app.
• Enhanced functionality: With improved features, the Copilot experience in Teams aims to facilitate a smoother workflow, allowing users to catch up, create, and inquire more efficiently.
• Unified experience: Whether you’re using Copilot on the web or within Teams, you’ll find a consistent and seamless experience across platforms.

Transitioning to the new Copilot experience

For those who have been using the previous Microsoft 365 Chat, it’s recommended to transition to the new Copilot by unpinning the older version. The updated Copilot app will be automatically pinned above your chats in Teams, making it readily available for immediate use.

Getting started

To get started with Copilot in Microsoft Teams, users should follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Apps section on the left side of Teams.
2. Use the search bar to find “Copilot“.
3. Select M356 Chat from the search results and click on Add to incorporate Copilot into the Teams chat list.
4. Access the Chat section on the left side of Teams and locate the newly added M365 Chat.
5. In the Copilot chat, users can type in their queries or commands, such as requesting a summary of recent unread messages from a specific contact.
6. After sending the prompt, Copilot will generate a response. Users can select the sources linked in the response to review the basis of the AI-generated content, ensuring accuracy and reliability.

You can always browse the frequently asked questions (FAQ) about Copilot in Microsoft Teams for more information.

Copilot prompts you can use in Microsoft Teams

Here are some example prompts you can try in Microsoft Teams using Copilot:

1. Catch up: To catch up on what happened in a meeting, you can ask Copilot in Teams, “What questions were asked during the meeting?” or “What ideas were presented?”
2. Create: If you want to create a presentation about time management, you could use the prompt with Copilot in PowerPoint: “Create a short presentation about time management.” Or, to draft a response to an email announcing a project launch, you could try: “Write an email to congratulate the project lead and team on the launch.”
3. Ask: For planning a trip, you might ask Copilot, “Give me ideas for a 3-day trip in Hawaii.” If you’re a team leader looking for engagement activities, you could ask, “Give me ideas for a team-building activity.”
4. Edit: In Word, you can ask Copilot to edit a paragraph by selecting it and using the Copilot icon to “Rewrite with Copilot.” Or in PowerPoint, you might say, “Add an image of a target with arrows” to polish a slide.
5. Business-specific: For enterprise-licensed users, you can use prompts like “Create a training course outline to onboard partners to Project X,” “What’s the latest from Sam?” or “Generate a project kick-off presentation based on the topics discussed in the chat.”
6. Summarize: You can ask Copilot to summarize specific content, such as “Summarize last week’s emails from [colleague’s name]” or “Summarize incident 15134 in Microsoft Defender XDR into a paragraph that I can submit to my manager.”
7. List creation: For more actionable items, you might use prompts like “List key points from [file name]” or “Draft an email with action items from meeting [Teams meeting name].”
8. Scheduling and searching: Simple queries like “When’s my next meeting with [person’s name]?” or “Where is the file on [topic] that [colleague’s name] shared with me last week?” can also be used.

Remember to be specific and clear in your prompts, providing as much context and detail as possible to get the most accurate and helpful responses from Copilot.

Availability

The rollout of the new Copilot has already begun. Users with Copilot for Microsoft 365 will notice the app pinned above their chats. To get started, simply open Teams, select “chats,” and you’ll find Copilot ready to assist you.

About The Author

Dave W. Shanahan

I’m Dave W. Shanahan, a Microsoft enthusiast with a passion for Windows, Xbox, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Azure, and more. I started MSFTNewsNow.com to keep the world updated on Microsoft news. Based in Massachusetts, you can email me at davewshanahan@gmail.com.

See author's posts