Microsoft has unveiled a raft of updates to its Microsoft 365 Copilot at the Microsoft Ignite 2024 event, upping the ante on autonomous capabilities to address everyday repetitive task, provide real-time support, employee self-service and collaborative team work.

In one of the most significant advancements, Microsoft announced that the Copilot Studio autonomous agents are now available in preview. These autonomous agents enable customers and users to build powerful autonomous agents for a multitude of use cases.

Among the new features is Copilot Actions, which automates everyday repetitive tasks such as scheduling and meeting preparation using fill-in-the-blank prompts. For example, users can schedule daily summaries of action items or automate customer meeting preparations by summarising prior interactions. There's also Copilot Pages, a new teamwork functionality using AI prompts to create flow charts, code blocks or summaries drawing from Microsoft Graph data. Microsoft has additionally brought Copilot into Teams to analyse visual content shared during meetings and to summarise file content directly in the platform.

Dynamic language translation is another focal point. Microsoft is introducing Copilot into PowerPoint so users can translate presentations into 40 languages while retaining existing design and templates. In Outlook, Copilot is there to help users schedule focus time or one-on-ones with colleagues across calendars from this month, plus customisable themes.

New agents have also been integrated into tools like SharePoint and Teams, providing real-time support to users and with the aim of scaling impact across workflows. Already available are agents for quickly accessing project details, summarising memos or locating critical documents in SharePoint; while speech-to-speech interpretation during meetings is on its way in early 2024. Also in public preview is a 'Facilitator' to work as a scribe taking noting in Teams meetings and chats, plus Project Manager for automating plan creation and tasks in Microsoft Planner. There's a data protection feature being included at no additional charge for Copilot customers.

Copilot Analytics integrates with Microsoft Viva Insights to track Copilot adoption and measure its impact on key performance indicators. Microsoft has also introduced features to reinforce security and system integrity, including the Windows Resiliency Initiative and Windows 365 Link.

In addition, partners including ServiceNow, Workday, and Cohere are introducing agents that integrate mission-critical knowledge into Copilot.

Microsoft said nearly 600,000 organisations have adopted AI-powered capabilities covering 70% of Fortune 500 companies. It's a fourfold increase in usage year-over-year.

"Over the past year, Microsoft has witnessed how reimagining business processes with Copilot and agents has revolutionised what we build, including intelligent apps and AI agents. Additionally, enhancing efficiency through automation and AI has fundamentally changed how we build, unlocking even more rapid low-code development," the company stated.

"For years, Microsoft Power Platform's AI-infused low-code capabilities have empowered organisations to create and deploy applications with ease. Now, with Copilot as the new UI for AI, any organisation can build powerful agents that augment their workforce and execute business processes right inside Copilot Studio-without any coding. Autonomous agents can work independently, detecting events like an email arriving, and use generative AI to trigger a series of actions. By automating complex tasks, these agents can orchestrate workflows and work unprompted alongside or on behalf of users or entire teams."