Exciting times here at Cloudwell HQ. We’re still celebrating our CEO Pat McGown’s Microsoft MVP award earlier this month and we’re about to enter our twelfth year of Cloudwell!
But enough about us. What’s going on in the Microsoft technosphere? Quite a lot, as it happens.
Read on for the deets…
Copilot Wave 2 strikes
It’s barely a year since Microsoft 365 Copilot became generally available and already there’s a new wave to blow your metaphorical socks off.
Designed to streamline workflows, enhance productivity, and make AI collaboration more intuitive and effective, here’s just a few of the new features coming down the line:
Copilot Agents in SharePoint
Copilot agents are AI-powered agents within SharePoint that you can set up in just a few clicks, no code required.
Select the folders or files you want as your source information and like your own mini-copilot, use it to answer your questions, summarize information, or provide valuable insights, giving the most current and accurate response from the information it has access to.
Copilot agents can be shared with coworkers, acting like an additional team member, but will adhere to each user’s SharePoint permissions and the organization’s security policies.
You can already see how Copilot agents will be a gamechanger for everything from onboarding and customer services, to sales and marketing.
If you’re as excited by Copilot agents in SharePoint as we are, you won’t have to wait long, the public preview starts in early October.
Copilot in OneDrive
Another new feature that’s sure to save you time and headspace is Copilot in OneDrive.
You can summarize files quickly without ever needing to open one and even create FAQs from a file, to share as a reference document.
Imagine this. You’ve returned from vacation and have a ton of information to catch up on. But wait. Copilot in OneDrive can summarize all your meeting notes and project documents for you, so you’ll soon catch up.
Copilot in OneDrive even allows you to compare up to five documents, including mixed formats, giving you a high-level understanding of the information you’re working with.
The good news is, Copilot in OneDrive is already rolling out and should be complete by the end of September.
Enhanced Page Creation in SharePoint
Creating beautiful sites and pages in SharePoint is about to get a whole lot easier.
Copilot in SharePoint helps site creators author pages and create sites using AI and natural language, making it easier to build and manage content.
The rich text editor will suggest ways to make your content more engaging and using natural language you can type in the content and look & feel you want, allowing you to:
- Apply branding and theming
- Adjust typography and fonts
- Create a grid and layout
- Add videos and imagery
- Use animations and motion
Text rewrite capabilities are rolling out now, with natural language page creation early in 2025.
Centralized brand management in SharePoint
Another new feature that will help with creating beautiful, on-brand SharePoint sites and pages is the new SharePoint brand center.
Developed to streamline brand management and ensure a consistent brand identity, the SharePoint brand center is a centralized tool allowing brand managers to manage fonts, colors and images across SharePoint and Viva Connections.
The Brand Center also supports using branded templates and images in PowerPoint presentations, enhancing the consistency and professionalism of company presentations.
No code, low code or pro code?
That’s a question many of us have asked when considering the spectrum of development options available to us within Microsoft 365 and Power Platform.
That’s why you shouldn’t miss this webinar, hosted by friend of Cloudwell Mark Kashman.
Mark and his guests, Vesa Juvonen, April Dunnam and Chris Kent, will be discussing how to work out what skills to use, and when, and how to decide whether to build or buy.