The biggest change this month: Copilot now carries out tasks on its own in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. You open Copilot, choose Edit and let it adjust the document. We've translated these updates into what you can actually use today in a Dutch tenant.
Open your own mailbox or a document and give it a go. Under each tip you'll see where it saves you time.
Open a Word file in OneDrive or SharePoint, start Copilot and choose Edit. Ask, for example: "Turn this into a short management summary and put the action items in a table at the bottom." You accept or reject the changes one by one.
For people who work with documents a lotWorking for weeks on a proposal, training or audit? Open the Microsoft 365 Copilot app and create a Notebook. Pin your files, notes and links to it. You don't have to provide the context each time — Copilot has everything to hand.
For longer-running projectsIn Copilot you choose between Quick and Think. Quick works fine for a summary, a translation or a short email. Think gives a better answer for a plan, a comparison or an analysis. You'll notice the difference straight away.
For frequent Copilot usersThese changes simply appear. Your administrator doesn't have to do anything.
The big news this month. Copilot now edits your document itself: rewriting, restructuring, filling in formulas, updating slides based on new figures. Your template stays intact. According to Microsoft, people use Word 52% and Excel 67% more often with Copilot since the launch.
Since May, there are two new models in Copilot. One for quick answers: summarising, translating, a short email. One for thinking things through: drafting a plan, comparing two options, working out a tricky question. You choose the model at the top of Copilot.
Outlook gets a set of agent features this month. Copilot helps you with replies, summaries of long email threads and following up on loose ends. You give short instructions, Copilot does the groundwork and you keep final editorial control.
The Notebook workspace in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app has been redesigned. Your chats, sources and generated content now sit neatly side by side. The Notebook also works better with OneNote: notes from a meeting carry over directly.
Frontier is Microsoft's early-access programme. Your administrator can switch it on for a small group of users. What you see here is an early glimpse of where Copilot is heading — for a contained pilot, not yet for broad rollout.
You give Copilot rules for your calendar in plain language, for example: "Always accept meetings from my manager when I'm free." Afterwards you see an overview of what Copilot has done, grouped into accepted, declined or forwarded — with the reason included.
You can now link a Teams meeting to a Notebook: the transcript, the chat and the shared files come with it. You add web pages as sources. Very handy after a meeting, for a summary or a list of decisions.
The Researcher agent gets a second model that double-checks the first one's answer. Council Mode even lets several models work on a question together, from different angles. Useful for policy, research or an important decision.
A Word assistant specifically for lawyers and contract managers: comparing clauses with your internal standard, flagging risky language and suggesting standard revisions. Announced on 30 April 2026, now rolling out in Frontier.
The question that comes up most often in our trainings. Here's the short answer, in plain language.
In the Netherlands this is off by default. The same applies to the rest of the EU/EFTA and the United Kingdom. The reason: data that passes through Claude is currently processed outside the EU.
That is why Microsoft has given your administrator a dedicated switch to turn Claude on deliberately. Since April this can also be done for specific teams or individuals, instead of across the whole organisation at once.
Want to use Researcher Critique, Council Mode or another feature that relies on Claude? Discuss this first with your privacy or legal contact. Start small: one team, one use case. After a few weeks, evaluate how it's working out.
Do you work for a government organisation with a special cloud (GCC, GCC High or DoD)? Claude is not available there at the moment.
The official Microsoft sources behind this month's updates.
Want to get your team up to speed on Edit, Notebooks or the Calendar Agent? We provide tailored in-company training, online or in The Hague.