Microsoft AI Copilot News Today: Latest Updates and Features

Source: Dev.to

Copilot News Today: Announcements & Business Plans

In early December 2025, Microsoft announced Microsoft 365 Copilot Business – a new plan tailored for small and medium businesses (SMBs). Priced at $21 per user per month, Copilot Business brings enterprise‑grade AI into apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams at an SMB‑friendly price. For a limited time (until 31 March 2026), Microsoft offers discounted bundles when you add Copilot Business to an existing Microsoft 365 Business plan.

“We’re excited to announce the general availability of Microsoft 365 Copilot Business — a comprehensive, full‑featured AI solution built for work at an SMB‑friendly price point. For just USD 21 per user per month, Copilot Business brings secure, enterprise‑grade AI into the Microsoft 365 apps SMBs use every day.”

Pricing Overview

Bundling Offer: Discounts are available when Copilot Business is added to Microsoft 365 Business subscriptions.

These plans were announced alongside a slate of feature updates at Microsoft Ignite 2025 (November 2025) and through official Microsoft blogs.

Latest Updates for Microsoft 365 Copilot (December 2025)

Microsoft is rolling out dozens of AI‑driven updates across its ecosystem. Key new features and announcements include:

• Copilot with Work IQ – An “intelligence layer” that gives Copilot context about your email, files, meetings, and chat. Work IQ builds a personalized memory of your preferences and tasks, allowing Copilot to surface relevant suggestions, answer questions using your company’s data, and select the optimal AI model (e.g., OpenAI or Anthropic) for each task. Microsoft reports more than 400 new features added to Copilot in the past year, including GPT‑5 and OpenAI’s Sora 2 video model.

• Chat in Office Apps – Copilot Chat is now integrated directly into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. With a file open, you can summon Copilot Chat for context‑aware help (e.g., summarizing a document or drafting an email reply).

• Dedicated Word/Excel/PowerPoint Agents – New AI agents in Copilot Chat assist with content creation. These agents hold multi‑turn conversations, ask follow‑up questions, and leverage Work IQ for context. Initially available in preview via Microsoft’s Frontier program.

• Copilot Agents for IT and Teams – Specialized agents such as Teams Admin Agent, SharePoint Admin Agent, and Workforce Insights/People/Learning Agents help automate administrative tasks, identify inactive sites, manage overshared content, and provide insights. The Teams Admin Agent (preview) can automate meeting monitoring and user provisioning.

• Voice and Multimodal Interaction – Windows 11 (preview) introduces a “Hey Copilot” voice trigger and a Copilot key (Win + C) to start a conversation without leaving the current window. The Copilot mobile app also supports voice commands (e.g., “What are my top priorities today?”).

• Copilot in Windows 11 – Copilot is embedded throughout the OS. You can hover over files in File Explorer and invoke Ask Copilot for insights, use the new Agenda view in the Notification Center (preview Dec 2025) to see upcoming events, and benefit from AI‑driven personalization in Windows Narrator with Azure AI text‑to‑speech models.

• Copilot App and Notebooks – A standalone Microsoft 365 Copilot app (Windows, macOS, iOS, Android) consolidates productivity tools, chat, file search, and app access in one place. Copilot Notebooks (in OneNote) let you organize chat threads, documents, and notes into AI‑assisted, searchable project journals. The app auto‑installs on Windows 11 PCs outside the EU/EEA starting October 2025.

• Smarter Search – Copilot AI now powers enterprise search across Microsoft 365 and connected apps. Using natural language and Work IQ, Copilot Search surfaces relevant documents, chats, and third‑party data, understanding intent beyond simple keywords.

• New AI Models and Media – Microsoft added Anthropic’s Claude models to Copilot, giving organizations model choice. OpenAI’s GPT‑5 and Azure’s Sora 2 power Copilot, with Sora 2 enabling video creation and editing in the Create tab for marketing or social content.

• Copilot Chat for All M365 Users – Copilot Chat remains free for eligible Microsoft 365 subscribers, and Microsoft plans to extend it to users without a paid Copilot license. By March 2026, Copilot Chat (w…

For additional context, see the official Microsoft blogs and TechDecodedly’s recent article “AI regulation news today: key trends and US updates.”