Key insights

• Microsoft 365 Copilot Pages is a new feature that enhances productivity by allowing teams to collaborate with AI-generated content in real time. It acts as a dynamic, persistent canvas within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
• Collaborative Editing: Teams can edit and refine content collectively, with changes visible in real time, ensuring alignment and simultaneous contributions.
• AI Integration: Copilot assists in generating and enhancing content by sourcing information from internal data, files, and the web, acting as a partner within Pages.
• Seamless Sharing: Pages can be shared via links for colleagues to access and edit like a shared Word document. Components of Copilot Pages can be embedded into other documents for better integration across Microsoft 365.
• The main goal of Copilot Pages is to transform temporary AI-generated content into durable documents that teams can improve collaboratively. This centralizes information and reduces the need to switch between applications.
• When creating a Copilot Page, a Loop file is generated, stored in SharePoint Embedded containers. These count against the tenant’s SharePoint quota but are controlled separately from Loop using specific admin switches for ease of management.

Exploring Microsoft 365 Copilot Pages: A New Era of Collaborative Work

In a recent YouTube video, Dian Taylor, a Microsoft MVP and Dynamics 365 expert, delves into the innovative feature of Microsoft 365 Copilot Pages. This feature, announced during the Power Platform Community Conference in September, is set to revolutionize how teams collaborate using AI within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. The video provides a comprehensive overview of how Copilot Pages can enhance productivity, streamline project planning, and facilitate efficient information management.

Understanding Microsoft 365 Copilot Pages

Microsoft 365 Copilot Pages is a dynamic, persistent canvas designed to facilitate collaborative AI-driven work. This feature enables teams to interact with AI-generated content in real time, allowing for seamless editing, augmentation, and sharing of information. It fosters a new work pattern characterized by "multiplayer, human-to-AI-to-human collaboration." The key features of Copilot Pages include:

• Collaborative Editing: Teams can collectively edit and refine content, with all changes visible in real time. This ensures alignment and simultaneous contribution.
• AI Integration: Copilot acts as a partner within Pages, assisting in generating and enhancing content by pulling information from various sources such as internal data, files, and the web.
• Seamless Sharing: Pages can be easily shared via links, allowing colleagues to access and edit them just like a shared Word document. Components of Copilot Pages can also be embedded into other documents, enhancing integration across the Microsoft 365 suite.

Purpose and Benefits of Copilot Pages

The primary goal of Copilot Pages is to transform ephemeral AI-generated content into durable, editable documents that teams can collaboratively improve. This approach centralizes information, making it accessible to all team members and reducing the need to switch between different applications. By integrating AI capabilities, Copilot Pages enhances productivity, streamlines project planning, and facilitates efficient information management.

Moreover, Copilot Pages offers a flexible space where people can work together with AI, enabling a new era of collaborative work that leverages the strengths of both human creativity and artificial intelligence. This feature is part of Microsoft 365 Copilot, but it will also become available for the free Microsoft Copilot (for users signed in with a Microsoft Entra account) at a later date, broadening its accessibility.

How Microsoft 365 Copilot Pages Works

If you've used Microsoft 365 Copilot before, you are likely aware that it can be accessed from various platforms, including Teams, Outlook, and Bizchat. Users can start asking Copilot questions related to work data or switch the source to the internet. With the new Copilot Page feature, users can now store information from the Copilot chat onto this page, allowing them to save certain parts of the conversation. They also have the ability to collaborate with others on this page simultaneously.

For example, if a user starts a chat in Microsoft Teams and then needs to switch to Outlook, they can continue their work from where they left off. This seamless integration across different apps enhances productivity and ensures that users can maintain their workflow without interruption.

Enhancing Productivity with Copilot Pages

Copilot Pages significantly enhances productivity by allowing users to take information from Microsoft 365 Copilot and store it in a 'Copilot Page.' Previously, users would need to copy and paste responses from Microsoft 365 Copilot into another document, like PowerPoint. With Copilot Pages, this process is streamlined, as users can open the page in a side pane in Copilot, allowing them to stay on the same screen.

Users can decide which responses need to be added to the page and can also add data from other sources, such as word documents. Everything on the Copilot Page is editable, and users can collaborate with others on the same page, eliminating the need to manage multiple versions of a document. This feature also allows for embedding the page in emails or appointments, ensuring that any updates are immediately visible to all collaborators.

Creating a Copilot Page: A Practical Example

In the video, Dian Taylor demonstrates how to create a Copilot Page using a practical example. She starts by navigating to BizChat and asking Copilot for information on RSM. Copilot retrieves data from Microsoft 365, including PowerPoint presentations and PDFs, as well as information from the web. From there, she creates a new Copilot Page, which opens in a side-pane on the right of the chat window.

Taylor then adds a list of RSM office locations and a table of open work orders from Dynamics 365 Field Service. She also demonstrates how to extract information from a Word document and add it to the page. This example highlights the versatility of Copilot Pages and its ability to integrate data from various sources seamlessly.

Technical Insights and Considerations

When a user creates a Copilot Page, a Loop file is created and stored in a new user-owned SharePoint Embedded container. It's important to note that everything stored in these containers will count against the tenant's SharePoint quota. Administrators can control these files using Loop admin switches, but disabling Loop in your tenant will not disable Copilot Pages. Microsoft has added a new switch specifically for Copilot Pages to ensure they can be more easily controlled within an organization.

This technical insight underscores the importance of understanding the infrastructure behind Copilot Pages and the potential impact on storage quotas. Organizations should consider these factors when implementing Copilot Pages to ensure efficient management of resources.

In conclusion, Microsoft 365 Copilot Pages represents a significant advancement in collaborative work within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. By leveraging AI capabilities and providing a seamless platform for collaboration, Copilot Pages enhances productivity and facilitates efficient information management. As this feature becomes more widely available, it is poised to transform how teams work together, harnessing the strengths of both human creativity and artificial intelligence.

Keywords

Microsoft 365 Copilot Pages AI integration productivity tools collaboration features document automation business efficiency cloud solutions