Microsoft Brings Copilot for Microsoft 365 Chat to its ‘Classic’ Outlook App

Microsoft announced this week that its classic Outlook app for Windows would get a new Copilot for Microsoft 365 chat experience this month. The AI assistant will be soon be pinned by default in the app’s left navigation bar, and clicking it will open the familiar chat experience that also incorporates work content.

“Copilot in Outlook allows you to draft emails, ask questions, summarize multiple email conversations, and connect across your enterprise data including chats, documents, meetings, and emails without leaving Outlook,” the Outlook team explained today. “This feature will start rolling out for classic Outlook for Windows in June for Current Channel and August for Monthly Enterprise Channel.”

Commercial customers with a Copilot for Microsoft 365 license could already access Copilot features within the classic Outlook app for Windows. The AI assistant can summarize email conversations and also help users write emails. However, to access the Copilot for Microsoft 365 chat experience, Outlook users currently need to switch to Copilot in Windows, the Copilot web app, or the built-in Copilot experience in Microsoft Teams.

As of today, Microsoft’s is actively developing the new Outlook for Windows, which is still a work in progress. The classic Outlook app, which will eventually be deprecated, is less of a priority these days. However, Microsoft is aware that many of its customers still prefer this classic app, and the company is committed to improving the Copilot experience for these users.

“We understand that classic Outlook is an important tool for many people, and we hope to bring more Copilot features into classic Outlook,” the Outlook team explained. “While each platform has its own dev time, we expect that key Copilot features that come to new Outlook for Windows, web, mobile, and Mac will also come to classic Outlook within a reasonable follow-up timeline depending on the feature.”