Top Microsoft Office apps are getting a major AI upgrade — PowerPoint, Outlook and even Teams get a Copilot boost

Despite our protestations, Microsoft is determined to make AI tools in the workplace accessible and appealing with a raft of new improvements across its Microsoft 365 (M365) suite of productivity tools.

In an announcement on the M365 blog, the tech giant announced ‘wave 2’, rolling out (mostly) in September 2024, which includes Copilot Pages, “a dynamic, persistent canvas” for AI-powered collaboration. It also announced that Copilot would be seeing increased functionality in a number of key applications, such as data analysis in Excel and inbox management in Outlook.

While the company is stressing the importance of its AI tool for small to medium businesses who may have a need to manage costs, it is also keen to highlight that Business Chat (or ‘BizChat’, as it insists on calling it), the content-sensitive portion of Copilot, requires a subscription. The standard Copilot chat is free, but only searches the ...