A couple of months ago, Microsoft confirmed the launch of Microsoft 365 companion apps exclusive to Windows 11. The default behavior for these mini taskbar apps include force-installation and opening on device startup. Now, the Redmond tech giant has confirmed the integration of Copilot in these productivity companions.
Starting off with Copilot in the People app, the AI assistant will surface details about recent communications, responsibilities, and prompts that you can use to connect with others. You can also gather more insights with relatively generic prompts like "Tell me more about John Doe".
Next, we have Copilot in the Files app, where you can ask the AI assistant to summarize your documents, review changes, analyze data, and create action items. An example prompt is "Summarize this Excel workbook".
Finally, Copilot in Calendar will help keep your workday on track. Some of its functionalities include generation of meeting summaries and facilitation in meeting preparations. Example include "Suggest talking points for this meeting".
These Copilot integrations are designed to make your workflows less distracting, so that you only focus on the stuff that matters. Microsoft has emphasized that the integrations will make sure that you get tasks done in Windows at a "lightning fast" pace. It is also important to keep in mind that Copilot in the Microsoft 365 companion apps is grounded in your work data, which means that it will ideally only surface relevant insights and results. You also get a prompt box to narrow or broaden your search query. One workflow that Microsoft has suggested is to use the built-in search bar for a general search and then leverage Copilot on the results.
Copilot integration in People and Files is available right now for customers who have Enterprise or Business SKUs, are licensed to use Microsoft 365 Copilot, and have Microsoft 365 companion apps installed. The integration with Calendar is coming later at an unspecified date.