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Hello, Microsoft 365 Insiders! I’m Natalie Sewell, a Product Manager on the Office AI team. I’m excited to share that we’re building a new, more natural way to interact with your documents with Microsoft 365 Copilot by using your voice.

Use your voice to gather insights from your Word documents

You continually create, collaborate on, and edit documents packed with valuable information. Now you can use your voice in Copilot chat to pull insights from your documents in real-time. Simply ask questions, dig deeper into key sections, and explore the content in a dynamic, conversational way. 

When using voice chat, you can: 

• Ask questions about a document using your voice and listen to Copilot respond in real time.


• Interrupt and follow up with clarifying or new questions, just like a real conversation.


• Select specific content in your document and ask targeted questions about that section.

How it works

1. Open a document that contains information you want to gather insights from in Word for Windows or Word for the web.


2. On the Home tab, click the Copilot button.


3. In the prompt box at the bottom of the Copilot pane, click the Speak with Copilot icon.


4. Ask a question using your voice and refine the prompt further as needed.

NOTE: When you exit the voice chat, notice that the verbal exchange you had with Copilot is captured in text in the pane.
 

Scenarios to try

Here are a few prompt ideas to help you gather insights from your existing content:

• “What does this section on [topic] actually mean?”


• “Walk me through the [topic] in this agreement”


• “What does this document say about [topic] goals?”

Tips and tricks

• Speak with Copilot like you would a colleague, no need for robotic commands.


• You don’t have to wait for Copilot to finish speaking – feel free to interrupt and ask a clarifying question or steer the conversation.


• Be specific for better results.


• Try asking direct, focused questions like:
  
  
  
  • “What are the action items in this document?”
  
  
  • “What does this section say about project timelines?”
  
  
  • “Summarize this paragraph for me.”
  
  
  
  


• Highlight a sentence or section before speaking to get answers about that specific content.


• Use Copilot as a thought partner and ask questions like “I’m trying to understand the argument in this section, can you help me unpack it?”


• Ask Copilot to repeat or rephrase something if you missed it by saying “Can you say that again more simply?”


• Try speaking with Copilot to work on your document hands-free – just plug in headphones and talk.

Known issues and limitations

• Microsoft 365 Copilot has a content limit for each session. For larger documents, responses will be based on the available context up to the limit, typically prioritizing the beginning or any selected content of the document.


• When you speak to Copilot using your voice, your audio is processed in real-time to generate a response. Your input audio is not stored nor used for training.


• This feature supports the languages outlined in Supported Languages for Microsoft 365 Copilot. Language and linguistic quality testing was performed in all supported languages by native speakers. Additional harms testing was performed for each language supported to ensure same safety quality as English.


• At this time, this feature does not support searching across your web or enterprise data.


• All Microsoft 365 Copilot license holders get a total of 60 minutes per day for all voice chat interactions with Copilot.

Requirements

• An Enterprise Copilot license (learn more about licenses for businesses).


• A stable internet connection.


• Enable microphone permissions if prompted.

Availability

This feature is currently rolling out to users meeting the requirements outlined above, and using  Word for the web or running Word for Windows Version 2412 (Build 18317.20000) or later.

NOTES:

• Users will get a total of 60 minutes per day for all voice chat interactions with Copilot.


• Coming soon to Word for Android and for iOS, and to PowerPoint.

Feedback      

We would love to hear from you! Please submit your comments and feedback by using the Copilot thumbs up or down buttons, or selecting  Help > Feedback in the app.