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...

Guest Access will be default "on" for Teams

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Here is a heads up for all Teams admins:
- ".. to bring Teams Guest capability into alignment with the rest of the suite, where the setting is already on by default." Microsoft is changing this policy (Allow Guest Access) to on.

I would assume most organizations have been turning this feature on, to encourage collaboration. And there is no need to take any action if you already set this policy to allow. But if some reason you need to turn this off for the entire organization, you will need to do so manually once this setting has been deployed.

According to "Message ID: MC228482" in the admin message center, this should start rolling out on February 8th.

Read more about the configuration options here.