I’ve Tried the New Copilot Tools for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and I’m Not Sure I’ll Use Them Again.
Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence recently gained greater autonomy and functionality in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, and now Microsoft is releasing a similar update for Copilot. These features have been in testing for some time, but they are now more widely available to individuals and businesses with any Microsoft 365 subscription.
Essentially, Copilot in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint can now do more on its own—not just offer advice and assistance, but also take over the creation and editing process. There are many ways to use this feature, but here are just a few examples I tested to give you an idea of the possibilities.
If this kind of AI intervention bothers you, you can hide Copilot in Microsoft Office apps. In Windows, select File > Options > Copilot and uncheck “Enable Copilot.” In macOS, open the app menu (e.g. , Word ), then Preferences > Copilot .
Copilot allows you to create and edit documents in Word.
Create a new document in Word, and Copilot will prompt you at the top to “Describe what you’d like to write using Copilot.” I asked you to write a 200-word introduction, suitable for a preface to a book about AI chatbots, written in a friendly, engaging, and accessible tone for everyone, regardless of their technical level. You can also use the “+” button to specify an existing file as the source.
In seconds, I had a formulaic and unnatural introduction, created by mashing together millions of handwritten words and sentences. Then a second window appeared for refining the text. I asked to make the introduction more formal and wordy, and Copilot went to work, finding longer and more sophisticated words in its internal thesaurus.
Click the Copilot button in the ribbon menu, and you’ll get a sidebar for requesting various edits and adjustments. Copilot can respond to everything you specify in your request. If your boss says your report should be more focused on client benefits and real-world examples, Copilot can accommodate that. You’ll then have the option to review all the changes made and accept or reject them.
It’s probably worth noting that I would never trust AI to write text, even edit it, come up with alternative headlines, or come up with article ideas—not only because I believe I’m better at these tasks, but also because I want to maximize my brain’s use for as long as possible. However, if you’re happy with machine-generated text, Copilot is certainly capable of doing the job (and will undoubtedly make fewer typos than a real person).
Copilot allows you to create and edit charts in Excel.
I’m much less familiar with spreadsheets than I am with articles, so I was interested to see how Copilot could help me in Excel. Unlike Word documents, there’s no pop-up with tips at the top of a blank sheet, but you can invoke AI assistance by clicking the Copilot button on the toolbar.
Here, I asked Copilot to create a demo spreadsheet showing 10 children and their running times during a school sports day, organizing the data into a simple table and chart. If you’re more experienced with Excel than I am, you can use Copilot to combine data from existing spreadsheets and reports, as well as create spreadsheets from scratch.
Copilot followed my instructions fairly accurately, although the diagram was quite rough and needed some work (Copilot tried, but was unsuccessful). Subsequent edits were handled well, and if you know exactly what changes you want, Copilot will do it for you.
I’m not sure I’d trust Copilot with, say, managing my company’s financial statements, but when it comes to working with spreadsheets using prompts, I was generally impressed. Instead of manually calculating rows and columns, adjusting formatting, or trying to figure out the exact formula needed to do the job, you can delegate the work to Copilot.
Copilot can create slide shows in PowerPoint.
Finally, I decided to see what Microsoft’s AI could do for me when creating PowerPoint slideshows. Again, the Copilot button on the toolbar is the key to the AI-assisted editing capabilities, and this time I asked it to create a presentation promoting Lifehacker. I wanted to test its ability to scrape information from the internet and create an entire slideshow from scratch (something I’d already tried with Claude Design ).
I answered a few questions about the length and tone of my presentation, after which Copilot got to work. Overall, the AI handled the task well, though in the same formulaic manner we’re accustomed to with such synthetic creations. Generating a precise series of slides from nothing in a matter of seconds is impressive, though I think I could have done a better job if I’d had an hour or two.
Guided editing works great. Want to change the background color? Just say so—it’s faster and easier than fiddling with menus and toolbars, though it might not be as enjoyable. Whether you want to change the overall tone of the presentation or add two additional slides with a quick overview, Copilot can do it.
I see these tools as useful for both performing basic tasks with minimal effort and automating complex edits and processes that would otherwise take a significant amount of time. I can also imagine that many users will simply stick to their current workflows. As for me, I think I’ll continue to do my tasks in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint myself for now.