OneDrive update adds Copilot AI technology
Microsoft has announced new enterprise features in its OneDrive cloud storage service, many of which leverage the company’s Copilot AI capabilities.
For example, users will be able to deploy Copilot “agents” in their OneDrive environments, Microsoft said in a statement. blog post last week. Co-pilot agents are AI assistants designed to perform specific tasks autonomously. Users can create agents in Copilot Studio, anchor them in organizational data, and deploy them in their Microsoft environments. Agents are entirely managed and orchestrated by Copilot.
Microsoft announced the co-pilot agents last month as part of its Copilot “Wave 2” update. OneDrive’s support for this feature means organizations can create AI assistants trained on specific files stored in OneDrive. End users can then interact with these assistants in natural language and receive responses based on data from OneDrive files.
“With Copilot Agents, you can bring together relevant files, documents, and data into a powerful, shareable assistant that knows everything about your project,” according to the Microsoft blog. “Need to onboard a new team member? Instead of sending them multiple links, emails, and files, you can simply share your Copilot agent in a Teams chat. With just one click, your teammate can start interacting with the agent, asking questions, and getting answers in real time.”
In addition to the ability to deploy Copilot agents, OneDrive business users also have access to other AI-based features.
New features enabled by Copilot in OneDrive include the ability to see summaries of OneDrive files without having to open them. Users can also leverage this summarization capability to create shareable FAQs about particular files.
Copilot can also show users the differences between up to five OneDrive files, even if those files are in different formats (for example, PDFs, Word documents, and PowerPoint slides).
Additionally, Copilot can answer users’ natural language questions about specific OneDrive files, so they can quickly assess the files’ relevance to their current task without having to open them.
Microsoft said it is working on more Copilot features in OneDrive for 2025, including meeting recaps and the ability to turn OneDrive files into PowerPoint presentations.
Other OneDrive improvements
Microsoft outlined a few other OneDrive additions for business users. For example, online and offline browsing is now faster, and Windows File Explorer now supports color-coded folders for easier searching.
Users also have better visibility into who is currently working on a specific file, as well as greater control over how long a sharing link remains active.
Other features are still coming or in preview phase. For example, the new integration between OneDrive Sync Health Reports and Microsoft Graph Data Connect is currently in public preview. This feature will allow administrators to “export data to Power Bl or Excel for custom reports.”
A new capability to generate site policy comparison reports using AI is expected to be available in public preview by the end of 2024. This feature is intended to help administrators quickly maintain compliance determining which sites require policy enforcement adjustments.
A new restricted content discovery feature that will allow admins to block specific files from appearing in Copilot responses is also expected in public preview by the end of the year.
A new archiving feature will arrive in limited preview in early 2025. This feature will allow users to “archive individual files in (their) SharePoint document libraries that have not been accessed in years, making it easier to decluttering and storage management.
Finally, Microsoft is preparing to make improvements to OneDrive document libraries by mid-2025. “We improve overall performance and reliability, making it easier and faster to navigate, pass through and create custom views, and filter large data sets,” the company said.
