Tag: Video

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M365 Copilot Image Generation Levels Up, and Video Summaries are coming to Copilot Notebooks

Microsoft has kicked off 2026 with two significant enhancements to Microsoft 365 Copilot – both providing a clear signal to how improvements in multi-media creation in AI will support creativity, communication, and knowledge sharing across the workplace.

The first is a major upgrade to Copilot’s image generation capabilities with the rollout of OpenAI’s GPT‑Image‑1.5 model. The second is a new capability that turns Copilot Notebooks into automatically generated video summaries (in addition to the voice / podcast over views). These are both in preview for organisations enrolled into the Copilot Frontier Preview.

Whilst subtle – these make Copilot more useful, more expressive, and more multi-modal in the flow of work. Read on for more detail.

GPT‑Image‑1.5 Creation comes to Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft is good at getting new features into Copilot Quickly. Just before Xmas 2025, Copilot was updated to support the latest GPT5.2 models and now they are replacing OpenAI’s GPT‑4o with GPT‑Image‑1.5 across the Copilot’s image generation experiences. This will gradually roll out through January 2026. This includes Copilot Chat and the wider “Create” module in Copilot.

For organisations already using Copilot to create internal comms assets, presentation visuals, campaign concepts, or quick mock‑ups, this upgrade is most welcomed. The quality gap between “AI‑generated” and “designer‑produced” continues to narrow, and the speed improvements make Copilot even more viable for rapid ideation. Image creation in AI tools has come on massively in just a few months.

One of the key upgrades is the ability to updates aspects of an image (via a prompt) or take over and edit with Microsoft’s Image Designer Tools directly from Copilot. You can see the difference in the example below (you’ll need to zoom in sorry)!

What is GPT-Image-1.5?

This latest model from OpenAI is their answer to Google’s highly regarded Nano Banana image models – This is (according to experts), “on par” in terms of fidelity, instruction following, and realism, plus it’s included at not additional cost to Microsoft 365 Copilot users.

According to Microsoft, once rolled out, users can expect:

  • Sharper prompt adherence – especially for composition, style, and on‑image text
  • More precise region‑specific editing with fewer unintended changes
  • Higher‑quality visuals with more realistic lighting, textures, and detail
  • Faster generation – up to 4× quicker for many prompts
  • Better consistency when iterating on faces, colours, and lighting.

Video Overview in Copilot Notebooks

Microsoft is introducing Video Overviews – the ability for Copilot to automatically generate a short, narrated video summary of a Notebook’s content. This adds to the current audio overview feature and is rolling out to organisations enrolled in the Frontier Preview, Other organisations will get this in due course – keep an eye on the official Roadmap for this one.

This enhanced the existing overview feature, allowing Copilot Notebook users to:

  • Analyse the full Notebook
  • Extract key insights
  • Generate visuals
  • Produce a narrated video summary in first person, interview or podcast style

Think of it as a dynamic, visual executive summary – ideal for sharing updates, explaining concepts, or turning long‑form thinking into something more digestible.

Copilot Notebooks are a powerful space for iterative thinking, brainstorming, and structured problem‑solving in solo or shared mode. But they’ve also been static, plus you still had to read them. The ability to have audio or video overviews make these much more digestible, quicker to consume and are great for helping consume content in their preferred way.

Whilst Google’s NotebookLM has had this feature for a month or so, this is the first time Copilot is turning your content into multimodal output without requiring any video editing skills (or even prompting) at all. It’s a glimpse of a future where:

  • Documentation becomes auto‑summarised
  • Content is consumable in ways that meet the user’s need.
  • Knowledge becomes more accessible

I’m personally really interested to see how well Copilot handles narrative flow, visual selection, and pacing. If Microsoft gets this right, it could become one of the most impactful features in the Copilot.

Summary

In short, these subtle but impact updates point to the same trajectory of where Copilot is heading – becoming a fully multi-modal assistant, not just a text‑based one.

  • GPT‑Image‑1.5 – higher‑fidelity visual creation
  • Video Overviews – automated multimedia storytelling
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Sora-2 now in Microsoft 365 Copilot

Sora 2 - Copilot

At Ignite 2025 this month, amongst a long list of AI and Security updates, Microsoft announced that OpenAI’s Sora 2 text-to-video model is now integrated into Microsoft 365 Copilot in their Create Agent bringing AI video into enterprise productivity.

Sora 2 can make content much more realistic than the previous version of Sora and has earned both praise and criticism, since AI-generated videos are quite a debated and controversial topic. Sora 2 also supports a “cameos” feature that creates the likeness of a person that can then be placed in content – again met with mixed opinions.

Sora 2 is available today (in the US) and rolling out to other regions, for Microsoft 365 Commercial users who are part of Microsoft’s Frontier program

What’s New with Sora 2

For those not familiar with Sora 2 the integration into Microsoft 365 Copilot (at no additonal cost) beings:

  • Improved realism and physics: Videos now follow motion dynamics more closely, from gymnastics routines to buoyancy on water.
  • Longer, coherent clips: Open AI’s Sora 2 can generate richer, more sustained video sequences than its predecessor.
  • Cameos feature: Users can insert likenesses (with consent) into videos, opening up new possibilities for training and storytelling.
  • Enterprise integration: Within Copilot’s Create experience, commercial users in the Frontier program can generate short clips, add voiceovers, music, and brand kit elements for consistency.

Whilst this may still feel like novality, it shows how far this is coming on and unleases new levels of quality allowing creators and marketiers to embedding video creation into the same environment where organisations already manage documents, presentations, and collaboration.

How to Access Sora-2 in Copilot

Users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license can create video project with Copilot (powered by the Sora-2). It can be used for video and voiceovers, leverage your organisation brand kit and then be editied to add music, and include other visual elements using ClipChamp.

Note: Today, your oganisation must be enrolled in the Copilot Frontier (early adopter programme)

Why It Matters for Microsoft 365 Customers

Microsoft positions Copilot as a multimodal hub, combining text, images, documents, audio, and now realistic video. For enterprises, this means:

  • Marketing teams can rapidly prototype campaign assets.
  • HR and L&D can produce onboarding explainers without outsourcing.
  • Anyone can create and enrich presentations with dynamic video narratives.

Since all this happens inside Microsoft 365, identity, compliance, and governance frameworks apply. That’s a major differentiator compared to consumer-first AI video tools and helps business further enable this level of creativity within risking corporate data leakage.

Video also coming to Copilot Notebooks

Along side this new feature, Microsoft are also bringing video into Copilot Notebooks. ALong with the already available audio podcast feature, Copilot Notebooks can now create enhances overview pages, proactive topic suggestions, and …wait for it, audio and video summaries and podcasts.

What’s Next?

Sora 2 in Copilot is more than a feature—it’s a signal of where enterprise communication is heading. Video will sit alongside slides, spreadsheets, and documents as a default medium. The organisations that thrive will be those that treat AI video not as a gimmick, but as a strategic lever for clarity, engagement, and impact.

Read Microsoft’s Official Post here:
Available today: OpenAI’s Sora 2 in Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft Community Hub

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Cisco and Microsoft report huge surge in Webex and Teams as use of Video Surges due to Covid-19

Cisco and Microsoft are amungst the two enterprise leading platforms that have seen a huge surge in usage numbers as organisations around the world move to online meetings to working and distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Microsoft and Cisco measure and record their numbers differently so its sometimes hard to compare one with the other, but the overall set of numbers are staggering.

Cisco Webex

Cisco’s has said their Web conferencing platform Webex has unsurprisingly seen a huge surge in usage numbers as organisations around the world move to online meetings to working and distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cisco recorded a peak of record 4 million meetings in one day on March 18 2020 up almost 100% on the number of global meetings that took place before the week before the outbreak hit.

Cisco have said that in the first 20 days of March alone, they hosted 7 billion minutes of meetings on Webex (an average of 350 million minutes a day) day with the duration of the meetings typically 22% longer than usual. company also saw a drastic increase in users signing up on its platform.

Cisco also recorded a record 324 million meeting attendees last month.

Microsoft Teams

Cisco’s news comes the same week as Microsoft also announced they had seen a new peak of a staggering 2.7billion minutes in one day, a 200% increase on the previous week and the total number of video calls in Teams grow by over 1,000 % in the month of March.

Image and data from Microsoft

Turn on Video to make online meetings more natural…

Cisco, like Zoom and Microsoft have recently made Webex free during Covid-19 with a view naturally to attract new users to the platform and to help grow usage within existing business who adjust use Webex across parts of their business. This is naturally driving usage of the platforms at huge pace as most of the world works from home!

While video can’t truly replace in-person meetings, it can actually be more productive, peoplr are using video more than normal as the social distancing seems to be a new way of life for a time to come.

In Microsoft’s Remote work trend report, they state that “Researchers like Dr. Fiona Kerr have found that eye contact and physical connection with another human increases dopamine and decreases the stress hormone cortisol. Her research shows that you can even physically calm someone down simply by looking them in the eye. So as the world works remotely, it is no surprise people are turning on video in Teams meetings two times more than before many of us began working from home full-time“…

Image from Microsoft.

Summary

So turn on that video everyone…personally I find it really helps me feel ready for my day. When I went to the office I’d (try) to make myself look presentable, so just because I’m working from home for the foreseeable future why should that change… The notion of getting ready for work and expecting face to face communication certainly gets me into work mode and seeing people (even over Teams or Webex) really does make me feel more connected and less distant from the people I am used to seeing on a daily basis.

Sources: Remote work trend report & Revoult Business Report.

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