Copilot is changing in Word, Excel and PowerPoint
Nov 10, 2026WORK NOTES · 01
Welcome to the first edition of Work Notes. We’ll share what’s changing in tools like Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT, and show you what those changes mean for the work you do every day.
First up, Microsoft is changing where you can create and edit Word documents, Excel workbooks and PowerPoint presentations.
If you’ve ever wondered whether to start in Copilot Chat, open the file in PowerPoint or pick a separate agent, this update is worth knowing about.
How does Copilot work today?
There are three places you might start, depending on what you want to do.
- Copilot Chat. You can ask questions, review files and create content. For example, you can upload a PowerPoint presentation and ask Copilot to suggest changes. If you ask it to produce a revised deck, you may get a new copy to review.
- Copilot inside Word, Excel or PowerPoint. If you want to make a change in an existing file, you can open it in the app and use Copilot there. For example, you can open a presentation in PowerPoint and ask Copilot to update slide 7.
- Separate Word, Excel and PowerPoint agents. Some Microsoft 365 Copilot users can select one of these agents from the Copilot app to help create a document, workbook or presentation.
What is Microsoft changing?
You’ll be able to do more from Copilot Chat. With the new editing experience, you can open an existing Word, Excel or PowerPoint file from the Library in the Copilot app and work on it alongside Chat. You can keep working in the same file, with the editing controls there when you need them.
You can still use Copilot inside Word, Excel and PowerPoint. If you already have a presentation open in PowerPoint, you can keep using Copilot there to make changes.
The separate Word, Excel and PowerPoint agents are going away. If you’ve been choosing one of those agents to create or revise a file, you’ll be able to start a new conversation in Copilot Chat and ask for what you need directly.
Microsoft expects the change to the separate agents to roll out from mid-November to late December 2026 for people with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence who currently have access to them. The new editing experience is rolling out separately, so what you see will depend on your licence and what’s available in your organisation.
Read Microsoft’s announcement about editing files in Copilot
What does that look like at work?
Your launch date has moved. Slide 7 shows the date, slide 9 sets out the launch plan, and slides 11, 15 and 21 cover the customer emails, team briefing and launch-day checklist.
Open the deck in PowerPoint or, once the new editing experience reaches you, from the Copilot Library. Give Copilot the revised launch plan and ask:
Update the date on slide 7 and the launch plan on slide 9. Use that plan to revise the timings and actions on slides 11, 15 and 21. Keep the layout and the other slides as they are. Flag anything the plan leaves unclear.
Before sharing the deck, check the five slides against the revised plan. Make sure the dates and actions agree across all five.
What this means for Koshima courses and programmes
If you’ve attended one of our courses, you’ll recognise the way of working. Explain what needs to change, give Copilot the right information and check what it did. Microsoft is giving you more choice about where you do those steps.
We use Copilot in our own work, so we’ll try these changes on the kinds of tasks we teach before we bring them into our courses and programmes. If you’ve recently attended a session with us and would like to see the new way of working, reply and tell us what you’d like us to demonstrate.