Microsoft 365 Copilot Unveils Redesign with Enhanced Search, Image, and Notebook Capabilities

Microsoft is gearing up to roll out a fresh take on its Microsoft 365 Copilot app, designed to cater to business needs while integrating more closely with the consumer-friendly features of the regular Copilot. The updated version boasts an AI-powered search, a new 'Create' feature that harnesses OpenAI's GPT-4o model to generate images, and 'Notebooks' that function like compact AI projects. Exciting times ahead, right?

Don't expect the sleek home interface you see in the consumer version, though. The new Microsoft 365 Copilot kicks off with a chat interface that's beginning to mirror its consumer counterpart. What's more, it now comes with memory and personalization features, learning your work habits and preferences to tailor its responses. It's like having a personal assistant that gets to know you better with each interaction.

*The new Microsoft 365 Copilot interface now starts with chat first.* Image: Microsoft

Jon Friedman, Microsoft's corporate vice president of design and research, shared some insights with The Verge, saying, "We re-built the app, Microsoft 365 Copilot, from the ground up. We're setting the stage for the next wave of computing, and that stage is this idea that Microsoft 365 Copilot will begin to truly understand you through its memory, its understanding, and that it will start to bring you the right tools that you need."

One of these tools is an AI-powered enterprise search that taps into third-party apps like ServiceNow, Google Drive, Slack, Confluence, and Jira. This means businesses can get more relevant search results, even if they're not fully immersed in the Microsoft ecosystem.

The Microsoft 365 Copilot app now sports a design that's consistent with its consumer version, and the 'Pages' feature, which made its debut in September, plays a crucial role in this redesign. Pages allow for collaborative work with AI agents, similar to co-editing a Word document. "We took the same model as Loop has, it works in Outlook, in Teams, and everywhere in the ecosystem," Friedman explained.

*The new Notebooks feature lets you focus Copilot on individual projects.* Image: Microsoft

Another addition to the app is 'Notebooks', which Friedman describes as "project-based notebooks that allow you to organize information around a set of data in the Office Graph." Imagine Notebooks as a curated collection of pages, links, and files you can share with Copilot, keeping it laser-focused on your specific project's needs.

The 'Create' section is a new addition that evolves from Microsoft's Designer product, enabling you to generate images, videos, surveys, and more for Office documents. Powered by OpenAI's GPT-4o model, you can now add AI-generated Ghibli art to your PowerPoint presentations if that's what you're into!

*The Create section lets you generate images using OpenAI’s latest GPT‑4o model.* Image: Microsoft

At the core of this revamped app is a new agent store, where you can access AI agents from Microsoft or third-party providers. Researcher and analyst agents are part of this store, and they're readily available from the left pane. "We're trying to optimize the entire left pane for content, rather than applications," Friedman noted.

While the consumer and commercial Copilot apps aren't identical, Friedman hinted at a necessary distinction between the two. "In consumer you earn the right to go pretty far and be really personal, at work with all of the professionalism that exists there's a healthy tension," he said. "In my mind Copilot can be one branded experience, and it goes from warm and personal to performant and professional, and that's what we've been working on together."

*Microsoft lays out its vision of a new Frontier Firm that puts AI first.* Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is launching this refreshed Copilot for businesses alongside its annual work trend index, which draws from business surveys, Microsoft 365 telemetry, and LinkedIn hiring and labor trends. They're pushing the idea of a "Frontier Firm" that's built around AI tools and humans taking charge of AI agents.

Jared Spataro, Microsoft's chief marketing officer of AI at work, emphasized, "As agents increasingly join the workforce, we'll see the rise of the agent boss: someone who builds, delegates to, and manages agents to amplify their impact and take control of their career in the age of AI. From the boardroom to the frontline, every worker will need to think like the CEO of an agent-powered startup."

The concept of an "agent boss" sounds a bit like the next evolution of an AI prompt engineer, but Microsoft warns that businesses will need to consider the balance between AI agents and human guidance. As AI agents become more sophisticated and capable, how long will it be before they start running the show without human intervention?

Correction, April 23rd: An earlier version of this article stated that Pages was new, but it was first announced in September.