Frequently asked questions about Copilot for Microsoft 365

Copilot uses a large language model that mimics natural language based on patterns from large amounts of training data. The model is optimized for conversation by using Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback (RLHF)—a method that uses human demonstrations to guide the model toward a desired behavior.

When you submit a text prompt to Copilot, the model generates a response by making suggestions about what text should come next in a string of words. The model is based on a domain-specific language (DSL) that allows you to specify what kind of information you want to search and synthesize from your Microsoft 365 data. It's important to keep in mind that the system was designed to mimic natural human communication, but the output may be inaccurate or out of date.

Use natural language to ask Copilot work questions, for help generating content, or for a summary of a topic, document, or chat conversation. The more specific your prompt, the better the results. 

Here are some example prompts to help you get started:

• Summarize unread emails from John

• Draft a message to my team with action items from my last meeting

• What’s our vacation policy?

• Who am I meeting with tomorrow?

No, you no longer need to link your personal account to your work account to use Copilot. To use Copilot in Bing for Business, sign into Microsoft Edge with your work account. 

To use Copilot in Bing for Business, you need to be signed into Microsoft Edge with your Microsoft work account. To use Bing for Consumers, sign into Microsoft Edge with your personal Microsoft account. If you want to use both at the same time, you need to open Microsoft Edge in two separate windows, sign into one of them with your work account and sign into the other with your personal account.

To ensure quality, Copilot is given test questions, and its responses are evaluated based on criteria such as accuracy, relevance, tone, and intelligence. Those evaluation scores are then used to improve the model. It's important to keep in mind that the system was designed to mimic natural human communication, but the output may be inaccurate, incorrect, or out of date.

Providing feedback via the Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down icons will aid in teaching Copilot which responses are and are not helpful to you as a user. We will use this feedback to improve Copilot, just like we use customer feedback to improve other Microsoft 365 services and Microsoft 365 apps. We don't use this feedback to train the foundation models used by Copilot.

Customers can manage feedback through admin controls. For more information, see Manage Microsoft feedback for your organization. 

Copilot presents only the data that each individual can access using the same underlying controls for data access used in other Microsoft 365 services. The permissions model within your Microsoft 365 tenant will help ensure that data will not leak between users and groups. For more information on how Microsoft protects your data, see Microsoft Privacy Statement.

Copilot and Microsoft 365 are built on Microsoft's comprehensive approach to security, compliance, and privacy. 

For more information, refer to the following: 

• If you’re using Copilot for Microsoft 365 in your organization (with your work or school account), see Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365.

• If you're using Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps at home as part of Copilot Pro (with your personal Microsoft account), see Copilot Pro: Microsoft 365 apps and your privacy.

Copilot is designed to provide accurate and informative responses, based on the knowledge and your data available in the Microsoft Graph. However, answers may not always be accurate as they are generated based on patterns and probabilities in language data. Responses include references when possible, and it's important to verify the information. While Copilot has affordances to avoid sharing any offensive content or potentially harmful topics, you may still see unexpected results. We're continuously working to improve our technology in preventing harmful content.

If you find an answer is incorrect or if you encounter harmful or inappropriate content, please provide feedback by selecting the Thumbs Down icon and describing the issue in detail.

As AI is poised to transform our lives, we must collectively define new rules, norms, and practices for the use and impact of this technology. Microsoft has been on a Responsible AI journey since 2017, when we defined our principles and approach to ensuring this technology is used in a way that is driven by ethical principles that put people first. Read more about Microsoft's framework for building AI systems responsibly, the ethical principles that guide us, and the tooling and capabilities we've created to help customers use AI responsibly.

When you see Copilot for Microsoft 365 apps (such as Word or PowerPoint), it will help you within the specific app. For example, Copilot in Word is designed to help you draft, edit, and consume content. In PowerPoint, it’s there to help you create better presentations.

The chat capability of Copilot for Microsoft 365, however, gives you the power of AI across multiple apps and content, together with your secure work data. It’s an AI chat app for your work content (formerly called Microsoft 365 chat). You can get quick summaries of projects, meetings, emails, chats, and more. To learn more, see Get started with Copilot for Microsoft 365.

You can write your own prompts to get data summaries, brainstorm new content, and get quick answers (for example, about the location of files). You can add new info and detail to the prompt and try again if you want more or less than the results Copilot provides.

Successful prompts usually include:

• Goals

• Context

• Details

• Data

You can learn a lot more about prompts by going to the prompting toolkit.

Catch up helps you quickly review summaries of important updates. When you want to dive deeper, you can take actions on some of these updates, using the power of generative AI.

Catch up uses AI to:

• Create summaries for documents that you have access to (you won’t see summaries for documents you don’t have permission to see).

• Create summaries for past meetings that you were invited to (you won’t see summaries for meetings you weren’t initially invited to, even if you were given access to the meeting or chat after the meeting ended. You also won’t see summaries for meetings that didn’t have transcription on, or which had the transcription deleted).

• Prepare for upcoming meetings using the documents that Copilot suggests as possibly being related to the meeting (you’ll only see documents that you have access to).

There are some things you can do to customize what’s included in Catch up summaries: 

• If you don’t want a document to show up in everyone’s summaries, you can revoke access to the document. Then only the people who have access to the document can see the summaries.

• If you don’t want a meeting summary included in the Catch up, you can turn off transcription for the meeting or delete the meeting recording. The summaries are generated from the meeting transcript and are linked to the meeting recording.

Copilot supports a wide range of languages. For the latest information on language support for all Copilot apps, see Supported languages for Microsoft Copilot.