Add AI capabilities to your Microsoft Copilot Chat prompts

Note

Home, the new starting point in Copilot where Chat and Cowork come together, is still rolling out, so what you see in the Copilot app might be different from what this article describes.

When you write prompts in Microsoft Copilot Chat, you can add AI-powered capabilities to get more task-specific and in-depth results from Microsoft Copilot. Each of these intelligent capabilities specializes in generating responses for your particular needs.

Note

If you don't have a Microsoft Copilot subscription, there are some limitations to using AI capabilities in Copilot Chat. To learn about those limitations, see How Copilot Chat works with and without a Microsoft Copilot license.

Add AI capabilities to Copilot Chat

To add AI capabilities to your prompts in Copilot Chat, complete the following steps:

  1. Go to Copilot Chat and sign in with your Microsoft 365 account.
  2. Next to the Message Copilot compose box, select  Add plus sign icon  Add and manage sources to open the sources menu.
  3. From the sources menu, select:
    1. Two parallel lines with circles to open Tools menu in Copilot Chat Add capabilities to find capabilities like:
      1. Sphere with ring around it to use Researcher agent in Copilot Chat prompt Research a topic to create thorough reports with detailed research.
        1. Select Sources to refine which sources Copilot Chat should reference.
        2. Learn more about Researcher at Get started with Researcher in Microsoft Copilot.
      2. Line with dots to use Analyst agent in Copilot Chat prompt Analyze data to receive in-depth insights of your data.
        1. Learn more about Analyst at Get started with Analyst in Microsoft Copilot.
      3. Outline of Word document as icon for Copilot Chat tools menu Write a document to create document drafts while in Copilot Chat.
        1. Learn more about the Word capability in Copilot Chat at Get started with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Agents in Microsoft Copilot.
      4. Outline of Excel spreadsheet as icon for Copilot Chat tools menu Build a worksheet to generate spreadsheets without leaving Copilot Chat.
        1. Learn more about the Excel capability in Copilot Chat at Get started with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Agents in Microsoft Copilot.
      5. Outline of PowerPoint pie chart as icon for Copilot Chat tools menu Design a presentation to build presentations while in Copilot Chat.
        1. Learn more about the PowerPoint capability in Copilot Chat at Get started with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Agents in Microsoft Copilot.
      6. Letter D to generate image with Designer tool Generate an image to create AI-generated images.
        1. Select Type to choose which type of image to create, and select from other image options too.
        2. Once your image is created, edit it using the side-by-side image editing tools.
      7. Page and pencil icon to create a new page from prompt Draft page or code to create a new page or code block from your prompt and Copilot's response.
  4. With your capability selected, enter your prompt into Copilot Chat and select  Arrow icon to send message to Copilot Chat  Send.
    1. Copilot generates a response using the capability you selected.

More ways to work with Copilot Chat