Copilot Expands Connectors to Third-Party Systems, Pulls SharePoint Data into Work IQ

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Microsoft detailed the latest round of features added to Copilot including new connectors and plugins that provide the vital plumbing for connecting to data sources and systems of record so AI functions can be embedded more deeply in corporate processes.

In addition, Copilot and several new features are now available in the SharePoint content management system and the OneDrive cloud storage platform.

System and Data Connections

Connectors are invaluable tools in connecting Copilot and agents to the diverse data sources that employees need to access to bring business data and knowledge into AI workflows. These new connectors range from vertical industry (financial services, healthcare, and more) software and data to horizontal (human resources) sources.

Notable examples include:

• Financial Services industry: connectors to Fiscal AI, D&B Risk Analytics, D&B Finance Analytics, Zacks, MT Newswires, PrivCo, S&P Global Kensho, Square, and Morningstar Credit Analytics
• Healthcare and Life Sciences: AMASS, Cortellis Regulatory Intelligence, SciLeads, Causaly, BioRender, ClinicalTrials.gov, PubMed, and more
• Industrial and Manufacturing: Autodesk, Resilinic, Vista Finance
• Retail and Consumer Packaged Goods: NielsenIQ, Cloudinary, Contentsquare
• Energy and Resources: Rystad Energy
• Human Resources: TechWolf

Plugins provide access to AI skills, connectors, and other capabilities so Copilot users complete more workflows more easily. IT admins can discover and approve plugins once, manage them centrally through the Microsoft 365 admin center and Agent 365, and make them available consistently across Copilot experiences. The newly launched Copilot plugin registry delivered provides a catalog of Microsoft, partner, and custom-built plugins that work across the Copilot app and Microsoft 365 apps. 

AI in SharePoint

SharePoint is a mainstay of corporate content and file management, and Microsoft is injecting new AI and automation into the platform.

The now generally available Copilot in SharePoint lets users access AI capabilities directly in SharePoint sites. Copilot in SharePoint helps teams create and organize content, ask questions grounded in SharePoint, enhance libraries with AI-generated metadata, and build reusable skills for business processes that are repeatable.

In the near future, SharePoint content and action tools will be available in Work IQ, enabling Copilot to use SharePoint content intelligence and take action on that content. This adds to the core Microsoft systems – following Dynamics 365 and Power Platform — whose data is being made available to Work IQ for grounding.  

Copilot in OneDrive has been rebuilt on the same foundation as Copilot in SharePoint, creating a more consistent experience for creating content and organizing information where content already lives.

Copilot Search is now the default search experience spanning SharePoint and OneDrive. It combines natural language understanding, semantic retrieval, and AI-generated answers so users can ask questions and receive grounded answers based on content they’re authorized to access.

Other Enhancements

As of September, Copilot enhancements are enabling users to bring agents and skills – reusable sets of instructions for commonly executed tasks — directly into their Copilot prompts in order to complete specialized tasks so they can compose prompts in one continuous flow. Users can call agents or skills inline by typing ‘/’ (agents) or ‘@’ (skills).

A new Record feature in the Microsoft Copilot mobile app lets users capture in-person conversations and voice notes and turn them into actionable content. Record provides an AI-generated transcript and summary in Copilot Chat, so users can easily preserve conversations and ideas that would have easily been lost in the past.

The full list of new and enhanced Copilot features – either delivered or scheduled in September – is available for review online.

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