A month after unveiling Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft today announced Copilot for Microsoft Viva, helping users to take advantage of next-generation AI to boost productivity and drive improved business outcomes.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is a generative AI technology based on GPT-4, a large language model created by OpenAI and which forms that basis for the ChatGPT chatbot.

Last month, Microsoft announced a Copilot chatbot to automate various tasks in multiple Microsoft office apps, such as summarizing key discussion points in a Teams chat or adding relevant content to a PowerPoint presentation based off documents previously created by a user.

Microsoft Viva is an employee-experience platform first launched by Microsoft in February 2021, providing a digital "gateway" for employees to access relevant news, learning, analytics, and knowledge within their organization.

Copilot in Viva is built on the Microsoft 365 Copilot System and combines the power of large language models with the data in the Microsoft Graph and Viva apps, including Goals, Engage, Learning, Topics, and Answers.

Copilot in Viva Goals will help to simplify both goal setting and goal management, suggesting draft objectives and key results (OKRs) based on existing Word documents, such as annual business plans or product strategy papers. Once they are created, Copilot will then summarize the status of OKRs, identify roadblocks, and suggest next steps.

Copilot analyzes engagement, assesses sentiment

In Viva Engage, leaders will be able to feed prompts into Copilot from which the technology will be able to create posts. Copilot will also be able to offer suggestions to help personalize messages, including the option to adjust tone and length or include relevant imagery, in addition to analyzing engagement metrics, assessing sentiment, and recommending responses.

Copilot in Viva Learning can suggest curated learning collections tailored to specific roles or training needs, while Copilot in Viva Topics allows employees to use natural language to learn more about important topics and see related issues and projects.

Finally, Copilot in Answers helps users construct specific questions while extracting the key topics to help categorize it and surface appropriate references, resources, and experts that can be cited in the response.

Microsoft said that Copilot in Microsoft Viva will begin rolling out to customers later this year.

Introducing Glint to the Viva product suite

In addition to Copilot in Viva, Microsoft has also announced that Viva Glint will formally be joining the company's Viva Suite in July. Glint, a former LinkedIn subsidiary, is a self-described people success platform that uses AI to provide companies with greater insights into their overall organizational health and surface risks, opportunities, and recommendations in real-time.

Copilot will also be coming to Viva Glint at a later, unspecified date, where Microsoft said it will be able to summarize and analyze thousands of employee comments, making it easier for leaders to explore feedback and ask questions via natural language AI.

Tools like Copilot and Viva have the potential to completely transform the way work gets done, said Jared Spataro, corporate vice president of modern work and business applications at Microsoft, speaking at the Microsoft Viva Summit Thursday.

"We recognize that we have a responsibility to deliver this technology in the right way and security, compliance and responsible AI aren't an afterthought, they're a foundational part of the Copilot system," he said, adding that every Copilot feature has passed privacy checks, been tested by experts and is monitored in real time. Spataro also said that Copilot's large language models are never trained on a company's tenant data.

"Copilot won't get everything right every time but we have mitigations in place to quickly and effectively address inaccuracy, bias and misuse by bringing Copilot into Viva," Spataro said.