Microsoft is bringing its AI Copilot to OneNote

Despite sitting somewhat awkwardly between Word, Teams, Outlook, and the rest of its Windows productivity suite, Microsoft has announced an AI injection for OneNote as it continues with its mission to save workers time on repetitive and “mundane tasks.”

Copilot, which has already weaved its way into a number of other Microsoft services, has now been given residence in the note-taking app, where the company says it will integrate with other 365 apps and internal context to deliver a number of key features.

In an announcement, OneNote product manager Greg MacEachern said that the GPT-4-powered smart assistant was hoped to “unlock productivity, unleash creativity, and uplevel your skills.”

Microsoft Copilot in OneNote

“Create, capture, organize, and recall information” all form part of Copilot’s aims in OneNote, where it can do things like reformat text, summarize and simplify notes, and highlight important information. 

Despite gradually being added to more and more Microsoft products, Copilot remains in private preview to selected customers for now leaving most users waiting with anticipation for general availability.

The company has not provided any details for a Copilot launch, but it’s likely that Microsoft wants to get it right before putting the powerful tool into the hands of millions.

However, this may be sooner rather than later as the tit-for-tat race for AI dominance continues to unfold. Last month, Google teased how it would integrate AI into its free office software after what was at best an embarrassing reveal for its chatbot, Bard.

In an effort to minimize backlash, Microsoft detailed some of the measures it has taken to create a responsible Copilot, including “noting limitations, providing links to sources, and prompting users to review, fact-check, and fine-tune content based on their own knowledge and judgment.”

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