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...

1000 channels in Teams, sending an invite to channel meeting participants and Automatic transcription of videos

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If you have a meeting recording but forgot to add transcriptions, it might be good to know automatic transcription will be added to files uploaded to SharePoint, Yammer or office.com. This feature is currently rolling out and should be generally available by late August. The feature is ON by default, but can be controlled by the set-SPOTenant command. If you are not familiar with how transcriptions work, here is a blogpost to get you up to speed.

Not the most technical update, but still an update that will be appreciated. According to roadmap item 127496, the number of channels per team will increase from 200 standard and 200 shared channels to 1000 channels combined + 30 private channels.  This should give organizations great flexibility within their teams. The feature is currently rolling out in preview, and should be generally available by the end of September.

Organizers of channel meetings should soon be able to also send invites directly to participants of the channel by a turn of a toggle in the invite. This will send invites directly to members' mailboxes, and the chances of missing a scheduled channel meeting should be something in the past. Roadmap item 142405 should be rolling out some time during August.