Copilot(s) in Microsoft Learn

In my previous post I had Copilot(s) on my mind and shared my thoughts as I was looking into what’s what in the Microsoft Copilot ecosystem. In this post we will look at how the concept of Copilots looks in the official documentation, Microsoft Learn. Is the official documentation up to date?

Lot’s of hits for Copilot!

Let’s first check what happens if we search for Copilot. The Microsoft Learn teams have been busy, 2282 hits.

What if I filter on Dynamics 365 and Power Platform? 292 hits.

What’s Copilot?

Can I find out what is Copilot? Not easily. There are chapters describing overall what is Copilot, however it is referred to Microsoft Copilot, formerly known as Bing Chat/Bing Chat Enterprise.

I can find a section Copilot vs. Copilot for Microsoft 365, however Copilot still refers to Microsoft Copilot and not the Microsoft ecosystem of Copilots.

Almost what I am looking for…

There is another page describing Copilot more as an ecosystem and that is where you can read about how to Adopt, Extend and Build copilots. Now we are getting somewhere! Sounds familiar too, if comparing this with what’s described in Understanding Copilots at Microsoft .

I assume the “Adopt” Copilots can be compared to a combination of the “Embedded Copilots” + the “Solution Accelerators”. “Build your own” are the Custom Copilots obviously and Extend would be to take the Copilots from Microsoft (some of them extendable, some not) and customize for your own needs.

On the adoption page one can read:

“Microsoft offers a variety of Copilot assistants that can be adopted to enhance user productivity and creativity. Copilot is integrated into various Microsoft platforms and
products, providing a more interactive and efficient digital workspace.“

I like this. Now the reader gets a better understanding of what is Copilot. There is also a list of samples of what’s called Copilot assistants. Which seems like a mix of built in/embedded copilots and solution accelerators.

General Copilot landing page 💙

Only the future will tell if the branding guidelines will be Copilot assistants or just Copilots. Either way, I would like to see something similar more central in Microsoft Learn that what there is today. A landing page for the whole Copilot concept/ecosystem. Would make sense if https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/ would be the landing page and https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot (today 404) would describe the product formerly known as Bing Chat/Bing Chat Enterprise.

Funny thought. On one hand I would love to see a landing page for Copilot describing embedded, solution accelerators and custom copilots with further links to break it all down. On the other hand, Copilot will be everywhere. Think of it like search functionality. Is there a landing page for Search functionality with links to break it down by products? I have not investigated in detail but probably not all search functionality can be found/reached in one Microsoft Learn / Docs page. Still, with the information I have today, I would like a better Copilot landing page.

In addition, I would love to see a Reference section and a page for Copilot icons, similar to what we have for Power Platform Icons, Dynamics 365 Icons and Azure Icons. In there I want to see the colorful Copilot logo, the solution accelerator Copilot’s logos e.g. Copilot for Sales and of course the Microsoft Copilot Studio logo.

Back to the questions I asked in the beginning, is the official documentation up to date? No. Understandable though. Per (Copilot) product area, probably good (I have not read them all). As an overall picture of what Copilot is. Not so good. But I’m sure many people at Microsoft are enthusiastically working on that.

Looking forward to seeing how the official documentation will evolve along with new Copilot (assistants?) are being introduced.

Cover photo is a combination from a photo from Build 2022 and the Icon for Copilot.