Outlook gets a new and simpler Copilot experience

Copilot in Outlook has so far felt a bit scattered to navigate. Microsoft is now fixing that with an update that brings everything together around the chat itself.

The change applies both to the large Copilot page you can open in Outlook and to the smaller pane beside your inbox. Menus and navigation have been cleaned up, so it's easier to see what you can ask Copilot for and which agents, meaning ready-made AI helpers for specific tasks, are available.

In the large version of Copilot, you also get a new overview called Tasks, where you can see what Copilot is working on right now. That could be, for example, a chat you asked Copilot to continue later, or a task an AI agent is working on in the background. The smaller side pane gets the same new design, but not the task overview itself.

The update is tied to Copilot in Outlook now resembling the new, unified Copilot that Microsoft is also rolling out in other programs these months. With the Work IQ feature, Copilot can also pull answers directly from the company's own reports and data, instead of you having to dig them out yourself.

Employees and IT departments don't need to do anything to get the update. It comes automatically, and Microsoft expects all users to have received it during September 2026. The only things that change are the look and the navigation, not what you have access to or how your data is handled.

For a Danish workplace that uses Outlook as its main email program, this primarily means Copilot becomes easier to navigate, without anyone having to do anything.

What it means for you

If you use Copilot in Outlook, you'll automatically get the new and simpler version during September 2026; you don't need to do anything. Going forward, you can see all your ongoing Copilot tasks gathered in one place under Tasks, making it easier to keep track of what the AI is working on for you. Your data and access rights don't change; only the look and navigation are updated.