Let's face it: we've all become lazier when it comes to reading, at least when it comes to dealing with long, tedious texts related to our work. That's why the latest improvement to the world's most used text tool has been very well received, allowing us to save time and effort: Microsoft Word launches AI-powered automatic summarization feature.
The truth is that this is a long-awaited feature that is now a reality thanks to the integration of AI co-pilot in this Microsoft 365 application. In this post we explain how it works.
The information that Microsoft has been providing about this new feature allows us to better understand how it will work: the Word function for automatic summaries It will be activated automatically every time we open a file, showing us the essential points of the text in question. So we will no longer have to waste our precious time reading it.
According to Stephanie Visser, product manager for the Word team, one of the problems we face is content overload. This leads to an ever-increasing need for tools to properly process information. «Microsoft Copilot —says Visser— can help alleviate this situation by providing an automatic summary at the top of Word documents.
How Does It Work?
The most interesting thing about Word's artificial intelligence tool for automatically summarizing a text or document is that you don't need to activate any function. Copilot It acts by default, without the need to give it instructions.
As soon as you open a file, a specific box appears on the screen between the first sheet and the ribbon under the title Copilot Summary (as seen in the image above). This box is compressed, allowing us to see only the first few lines of the summary prepared from the document in question. To see the full summary, click on the "See more" button.
Microsoft claims that this AI function of Word to make automatic summaries can work with texts between 300 and 80.000 wordsThis is four times the maximum limit that was set when news first appeared that this tool was being developed.
One aspect that will surely be polished later is the ability of this function to work in real time. That is, if we add a new fragment to the summarized text, Copilot will not summarize it automatically. We will have to use the “Find new summary” button for him to do it.
Summarize and share
Another possibility that this tool offers us is that of Generate summaries when sharing a document with, for example, other coworkers. This works, of course, when it comes to unencrypted documents.
To use this feature, do the following:
- First, we need to go to the document in question and select the button "Share".
- In the new window that opens, we select the Copilot icon.
- Then we click «Add a message».
From there, Copilot will generate a summary of the document so that we can share it more easily, although the user will always have the option to review and edit said summary. In this way, after sharing the Word file, our collaborators will receive a email notification which will include the summary generated by the AI.
A function with very practical uses
There are countless situations where this new AI function in Word for creating automatic summaries will be very useful. Students can obtain an extract of the main ideas of a written work or a lesson; meanwhile, there are many professionals in various fields who, faced with the need and obligation to read long and tedious official texts (reports, contracts, etc.), will find in this artificial intelligence function a practical solution.
However, there is something we must keep in mind: The quality of the summary may be higher or lower depending on the complexity and nature of the text.For this reason, it is always a good idea to review the summary generated by Copilot to make sure that it contains all the key points. This may mean doing a quick, skimming of the document, which is precisely the work we want to avoid.
This valuable synthesis tool will be available in all versions of Word for Windows, Mac and the web. However, in order to use it and enjoy all its advantages A paid Copilot subscription is required (which is separate from your Microsoft 365 subscription).
If you want to learn about the many other features that Microsoft AI offers us, we invite you to read some of our previous posts: How to access Copilot Notepad and what cool features it has y Copilot in Outlook: Your personal assistant to write efficient emails.