Microsoft Grounds Copilot Apps with Graph and Web Content

Office Apps Get Better Grounding in Copilot for Microsoft 365

Message center notification MC734281 (12 March 2024) might have passed by without too much attention unless you’re particularly interested in Copilot for Microsoft 365. The notification informs tenants that Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote will ground user prompts by reference to enterprise data and the web. As Microsoft notes, this is like what happens when users interact with Copilot for Microsoft 365 chat.

Grounding against enterprise data means that when Copilot responds to user prompts, it will seek additional context by attempting to find relevant information in Microsoft 365 repositories using Graph requests. Web grounding means that Copilot will use Bing search to find relevant information from sites within and outside the enterprise. The fact that major apps will start to use grounded requests from April 2024 might come as a surprise. After all, Microsoft has long cited Copilot’s ability to use the “abundance of data” stored in Microsoft 365 as a major advantage of Copilot for Microsoft 365 over other AI tools that don’t have access to Microsoft 365 repositories.

The roll out starts with Word (Windows and Online) and progresses to PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. Microsoft expects to complete the deployment by September 2024.

The Importance of Grounding

Microsoft explains that grounding is “the process of using large language models (LLMs) with information that is use-case specific, relevant, and not available as part of the LLM’s trained knowledge.” In other words, if you ask Copilot for Microsoft 365 to do something and grounding doesn’t happen, it relies on the user prompt to query the LLM.

Until now, users have been able to ground prompts in apps like Word by including up to three reference documents in the prompt. Let me illustrate the importance of grounding by showing an example of two briefing notes generated by Copilot in Word about the Midnight Blizzard attack against Microsoft in January 2024. Copilot generated the first briefing note without any reference documents. Because it couldn’t search the Graph or web for relevant information, the grounding of the prompt was poor, and Copilot could only use whatever information is in the LLM.

As shown in Figure 1, the generated text included several inaccurate statements (hallucinations), including the remarkable assertion that the attack led to a drop of $400 billion in Microsoft’s market value together with a declaration had deprived millions of Microsoft cloud users from accessing services.

If some relevant reference documents are included in the prompt, Copilot’s generated text becomes more accurate and balanced (Figure 2).

The important point here is that after Microsoft updates Copilot to allow the Office apps to ground prompts using Graph and web material, the chances of Copilot generating absolute rubbish lessen considerably. That is, if Copilot can find relevant information through its searches. Adding reference documents to prompts in Copilot for Word will generate even better results because the reference documents should give Copilot a more precise context to work with.

Microsoft says that Graph grounding is enabled for all user prompts and that Copilot requests will use “the file context” (whatever file is open at the time) plus web searches as well. Copilot for Microsoft 365 chat uses Graph and web lookups today.

The Quality of AI-Generated Text

In some respects, I was shocked that it has taken so long for Microsoft to ground Copilot requests in these important apps. Copilot for Microsoft 365 is evolving rapidly, but the ability to generate high-quality text at general availability seems like an essential rather than a nice to have feature. I’ve always been suspicious about the quality of the text generated by Word and this revelation certainly explains a lot.

Take Your Time

The advice of Directions on Microsoft analyst Wes Miller that organizations should pace themselves and understand exactly what they are buying before they invest in expensive Copilot licenses is accurate. Things are changing, and the hyperbole around Copilot is like a dust storm that obscures detail. Why rush in where angels fear to tread?

Before making your mind up about Copilot, take the time to read the article posted by MVP Joe Stocker where he reports a drop-off of Copilot activity after the novelty effect of asking the AI to perform tasks wears off. Although the sample size was small, this emphasizes the need to support users on their Copilot journey, especially as important new functionality like Graph and web grounding appears.

And if you attend the Microsoft 365 Conference in Orlando at the end of April, make sure that you come to my session about not letting Copilot for Microsoft 365 become a vanity project. You might even enjoy what I have to say!

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So much change, all the time. It’s a challenge to stay abreast of all the updates Microsoft makes across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, including in Copilot. Subscribe to the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook to receive monthly insights into what happens, why it happens, and what new features and capabilities mean for your tenant.