Microsoft's latest update highlights the rapid pace at which artificial intelligence is being integrated into the core of the workforce.

IT major Microsoft has announced that a free version of Copilot Chat will now be included within Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote for Microsoft 365 business subscribers.

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The addition will enable several organisations and workers to harness the power of AI without requiring a premium licence.

"Today, we’re introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, a new offering that adds pay-as-you-go agents to our existing free chat experience for Microsoft 365 commercial customers," read the Microsoft website.

The Copilot chat enables:

Free, secure AI chat powered by GPT-4o.

Agents accessible right in the chat.

IT controls, including enterprise data protection and agent management.

Copilot Chat includes:

Web-grounded chat with GPT-4o: You can use it to do market research, write a strategy document, or prepare for a meeting. File uploads allow you to add any document to the chat and ask Copilot to do things like summarize key points in a Word document, analyze data in an Excel spreadsheet, and suggest improvements to a PowerPoint presentation.

With Copilot Pages, you can collaborate on content with people and AI in real time—adding content from Copilot, your files, and now from the web as well. And you can quickly create AI-generated images for campaigns, product launches, and social media posts.

Agents: Using natural language, now anyone can easily create agents to automate repetitive tasks and business processes—directly in Copilot Chat. A customer service representative can ask a customer relationship management (CRM) agent for account details before a customer meeting, while field service agents can access step-by-step instructions and real-time product knowledge stored in SharePoint. Agents are priced on a metered basis, and IT stays in control. IT admins can also build organization-wide agents and manage agent deployment, all powered by Microsoft Copilot Studio.

Copilot Control System: Copilot Chat includes foundational capabilities of the Copilot Control System, including enterprise data protection (EDP) for data privacy and security and the ability to govern access and manage the usage and lifecycle of Copilot and agents, as well as measurement and reporting.