Microsoft’s AI Copilot to add new features next month

Microsoft is set to release new features to its artificial intelligence (AI) assistant Copilot next month to improve user prompts which would consequently generate better responses by the chatbot, a top executive said.

“We are announcing a few new features on Microsoft 365 Copilot,” said Irina Ghose, Managing Director, Microsoft India & South Asia. “One is called Auto-complete, where you might start with the prompt, but you’re not very clear how to complete it. It just goes and completes it for you.”

Copilot will become more conversational by suggesting follow-up prompts or asking clarifying questions. A rewrite feature will turn a basic prompt into a rich one, she explained.

When asked about adoption of Copilot among organizations, Ghosh said that the AI tool is now being used by 500 large, mid-sized and small organisations in India through its individual and enterprise offerings including the likes of Cognizant, Axis Bank, Zomato, Aditya Birla Capital and Air India.

The MS-Office Suite applications such as PowerPoint, Word and Outlook are adding the most value to professionals.

“On Microsoft 365, we did a survey of about 3000 people, which showed that people are spending 4% less time on their inbox. They have to read 11% lesser mails. They are seeing productivity gains of 25 to 45% on emails,” Ghosh said.

“As for documentation, a marketing plan, let’s say, is getting generated entirely by AI and we are getting improved outcomes from a Word document or a PPT. PowerPoint can now generate the most impactful set of slides, creative headlines, etc. All these productivity gains are adding value, especially, for workers at the top of the pyramid,” she said.

Ghosh was speaking at the sidelines of the launch of Microsoft’s Work Trends Index report co-authored with LinkedIn.

Ruchee Anand, Senior Director, Talent and Learning Solutions, LinkedIn India said that OpenAI’s decision to make its most advanced model GPT 4o free-for-use is the “best thing that could have happened to democratise the use of AI across age groups of knowledge workers.”

Key findings of the study showed that AI skills are outweighing experience when its comes to hiring. 80% of the leaders in India prefer hiring less experienced candidates with AI skills, over a more experienced candidate without them.

It also said that 92% knowledge workers in India use AI at work as compared to the global figure of 75%. Besides, 72% of Indian AI users are bringing their own AI tools to work.

The findings are based on a survey of 31,000 people in 31 countries, as well as hiring trends on LinkedIn.