Does Copilot learn over time? Your Microsoft 365 Copilot questions answered

How does Copilot work? 

In simple terms, you type in a prompt and Copilot generates an answer. That’s how simple it is to use, but the answer to how it works beyond that is a bit more complicated. 

Copilot is an artificial intelligence, but more importantly a living language model. It learns from the data that it’s fed, meaning that its intelligence comes from its training data and ability to use that data to solve problems. 

The training process is incredibly complex and takes lots of time to ensure responses are not only rich but also accurate and helpful. When you send Copilot a prompt, it uses its training and learned data to generate output using natural language that seems human.

Does Copilot learn and improve over time? 

Copilot is constantly evolving and learning, and gains access to new training data all the time. The knowledge cut-off for the free version of Copilot – i.e. the date that Copilot in its current state stopped learning data – is April 2023, meaning that it won’t know anything that has happened since this date. However, this is constantly changing with new updates and innovations. 

When it comes to improving its capabilities, Copilot is constantly being improved within the Microsoft 365 environment. There will be things that Copilot probably won’t ever be able to do, and Microsoft developers will keep improving its capabilities and enhance the 365 ecosystem. 

What data does Copilot have access to?

The knowledge cut-off for Copilot is April 2023, meaning that its training data is all from before that date. However, Microsoft Copilot can also search using Bing and extrapolate data from the internet through that. 

This means that the data available to Copilot is anything accessible through Bing, but also dependents on its search capabilities.

What are the limitations of Copilot?

All AI has limitations. It’s not a magic solution to workflow efficiency and only works based on the current technological boundaries. Copilot has limitations as a language model that should to be considered. 

Here are the main ones:  

• Copilot can only generate text based on the data it has access to: You can’t ask Copilot to generate text based on things it doesn’t know about. 
• Copilot can sometimes generate factually incorrect text: This is known as hallucination. 
• Copilot can be repetitive: Because it’s trained on a dataset, Copilot can pick up and replicate patterns often, meaning that it can become repetitive. 
• Copilot can be biased: Because of the large dataset, Copilot can generate text that can be seen as biased or unfair. 

These are the main major limitations of Microsoft Copilot and are vital to consider when using it. While Microsoft has broadly trained Copilot to be neutral, it can pick up biases or false information that would otherwise go unnoticed. 

There are also specific technical limitations for Copilot that can limit its ability to do some tasks in Microsoft 365 applications. This includes file size limitations, word limitations, thread size limitations. 

Scope limitations is another massive part of this. Copilot’s scope means that it can only search in specific places. For example, Copilot for Microsoft Excel can only search tables and does not have reference capabilities. 

Can Copilot be customised for specific business needs?

Copilot can be customised for your business’s needs, through the utilisation of dedicated apps like Copilot Studio and plugins. Copilot Studio allows you to design, develop, and deploy custom AI copilots tailored to your specifications in just a few clicks. 

Custom agents are another example of how you can customise Copilot. You can make agents to automate tasks, provide support, generate content, and so much more. 

Extech Cloud can help unlock Copilot capabilities 

Microsoft Copilot for 365 is empowering but can be baffling. Hopefully, these answers have provided clarity and helped you understand the ins and outs of this complex AI feature. 

If you’re looking to implement Copilot for Microsoft 365 and don’t know where to start, we can help. Reach out to Extech Cloud today. Our experts will talk you through the process and discuss efficiency capabilities best suited to your business.