Two new updates to Microsoft 365 Copilot for Word: Smarter Creation and Researcher agent

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What’s New in Microsoft 365 Copilot for Word Microsoft continues to evolve its Copilot capabilities in Word, bringing powerful new features that enhance productivity and streamline workflows. Two newly announced updates are rolling out this fall: First out of the gate is the integration of the Researcher Agent, allowing great content generation within Word itself. The second update is bringing more of the search and creation capabilities we have in Chat directly into Word. These updates represent a meaningful step toward closing the functionality gap between Copilot in Word and Copilot Chat. For me, this is a most welcomed improvement, making it easier for end users to get the results they want even faster, with less friction and more flexibility. Deep Research with the New Researcher Agent in Word Not too long ago, Microsoft introduced the Researcher agent in Copilot Chat, but moving and editing that content required copy/paste and jumping between applications. With this coming update...

Breakout rooms coming to Teams soon

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This is one of the features I have been looking forward to, and will be most useful in remote teaching and training. With breakout rooms coming to Teams, we get a great way to split classes into smaller groups for collaborative work. All of them supervised by a teacher/trainer who can monitor all rooms at the same time, or easily pop in/out of the sessions for support or questions.

The feature is associated with the roadmap item 65332, and according to a message in the admin center recently, it should be rolling out this month. The doesn't come with separate administrative controls, but the users need the right to start private meetings and channel meetings in order to control these features in the meeting.