Microsoft plans to incorporate its Copilot AI feature into OneDrive, although users will have to pay to use this new addition.
Starting in May, Microsoft 365 subscribers will have the opportunity to leverage the AI-driven Copilot feature for sifting through their OneDrive documents. As discovered by Neowin in a Microsoft 365 roadmap update, this enhancement aims to facilitate users in querying and extracting data from their stored documents without the necessity of opening each file individually.
"Enabled on OneDrive for Web, Copilot in OneDrive will empower users to pose questions and extract data from their OneDrive files seamlessly. It's designed to also provide summaries of single or multiple documents. This functionality will be applicable to a variety of file formats including DOC, DOCX, FLUID, LOOP, PPT, PPTX, XLSX, PDF, ODT, ODP, RTF, ASPX, TXT, HTM, and HTML. Accessing Copilot in OneDrive will necessitate a Microsoft Copilot subscription for Microsoft 365," Microsoft detailed in the roadmap.
Introduced in the previous November, the Copilot for Microsoft 365 initiative utilizes AI to augment the processing and management of documents across several applications within the suite, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams. Users can interact with Copilot to pose queries or make requests related to their documents. However, this feature is tagged with a monthly subscription fee of $30.
On another note, the Copilot Pro plan offers advanced capabilities in drafting and editing text, summarizing Word documents, generating formulas and dissecting data in Excel, as well as creating PowerPoint presentations, drafting notes in OneNote, and crafting email responses in Outlook. Unlike its counterpart, the Pro plan does not integrate AI functionalities with Microsoft Teams nor provides direct interaction with OneDrive documents via the web, yet it comes at a more affordable monthly rate of $20.
Furthermore, a basic iteration of Copilot is accessible for free through a dedicated web portal, a Taskbar icon in Windows 10 and 11, as well as through mobile applications for iPhone and Android. Nonetheless, only the Pro and the comprehensive Copilot for Microsoft 365 plans offer the convenience of direct integration with Microsoft Office applications and files.
In efforts to enhance OneDrive, Microsoft has introduced a redesigned interface and improved functionalities for its web version. This update, which is currently being deployed, introduces a refreshed appearance for OneDrive on the web, featuring file type filters, simplified file creation, and streamlined file sharing options with designated contacts.