IT Home On October 13, a tech media outlet NeoWin posted a blog post yesterday (October 12) stating that Microsoft has reversed its office AI strategy. Previously, it mainly embedded Copilot into Office applications. Now, around the new Copilot application, a complete Word, Excel, and PowerPoint creation, editing, and collaboration experience is integrated.
The IT Home provides the relevant video as follows:
According to Microsoft’s demonstration, users in the Copilot app can create and edit Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations without having to switch to a separate Office application, and collaborate with other users.
In the new Copilot app, users can start tasks with simple prompts in Copilot Chat, or initiate more complex tasks through Copilot Cowork. For example, users can ask Copilot to generate a Word document based on research notes, and the system will then open the document next to the conversation.
Unlike the old version of Copilot, which can only create Office files, the new version allows users to continue working on files within Copilot. Users can ask the AI to rewrite content, add tables, or make other modifications, or use standard Office editing controls to manually adjust the content.
In terms of collaboration, users can share files within the app, add comments, and edit together with others; changes made by other users are displayed in real time. The file types that can be edited currently include Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Microsoft has also launched a “Library” section in the Copilot app, which displays recently used Office files, Copilot pages, and AI-generated images. Users can reopen existing files or create new files from this section.
All Office files are still stored in OneDrive, and their format, comments, sharing permissions, and version history are preserved. Regarding model invocation, users can select an AI model for Office tasks or enable the Auto mode, allowing Copilot to automatically choose a model based on the task.
