If you tried Microsoft Copilot early on and walked away a little underwhelmed, you\u2019re not alone. We heard it a lot last year: \u201cIt\u2019s interesting, but it\u2019s not quite there yet.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The thing is that Copilot doesn\u2019t stand still. It\u2019s one of those platforms that gets better continuously<\/strong>, not once every few years. And in 2026, a series of practical, behind\u2011the\u2011scenes improvements have finally tipped it from promising<\/em> to genuinely useful<\/em>.<\/p>\n So if you\u2019ve written Copilot off, it might be time to take another look.<\/p>\n One of the biggest changes this year is that Copilot has moved beyond giving ideas and started doing real work, <\/strong>while still letting you stay in control.<\/p>\n Across Word, Excel, Teams, and Outlook, Copilot now runs in what Microsoft calls agent mode<\/em>. In plain terms, that means it can handle multi\u2011step tasks instead of waiting for you to prompt every single action.\u00a0<\/p>\n You review everything before it\u2019s finalised, but the heavy lifting gets done much faster.<\/p>\n Bottom line:<\/strong> Less prompting. Less back\u2011and\u2011forth. More real progress.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column _builder_version="4.27.6" _module_preset="default" type="3_5" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_image src="https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CoPilotAgentMode.jpg" _builder_version="4.27.6" _module_preset="default" theme_builder_area="post_content" title_text="CoPilotAgentMode" border_width_all="2px" box_shadow_style="preset1" hover_enabled="0" sticky_enabled="0"][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version="4.27.6" _module_preset="default" theme_builder_area="post_content" hover_enabled="0" sticky_enabled="0"] For example:<\/strong><\/p>\n A subtle but important shift in 2026 is how Copilot behaves in Word. Instead of dropping suggested text into a side pane, Copilot can now edit the document itself straight from chat<\/strong>.<\/p>\n That means you can say things like:<\/p>\n The edits happen immediately\u2014but they\u2019re still transparent and reversible.<\/p>\n Why this matters:<\/strong> It turns Copilot from a \u201cwriting helper\u201d into something closer to a collaborative editor<\/strong>, which saves a surprising amount of time.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column _builder_version=”4.27.6″ _module_preset=”default” type=”1_2″ theme_builder_area=”post_content” border_width_all=”1px” border_radii=”on|10px|10px|10px|10px” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ custom_padding=”10px|10px|10px|10px|false|false”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.6″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″ hover_enabled=”0″] Copilot isn\u2019t just inside apps anymore.\u00a0 It\u2019s becoming a practical starting point for work<\/strong> on Windows.<\/p>\n This year, Microsoft added the ability to:<\/p>\n Instead of jumping between browser tabs, documents, and notes, Copilot keeps research and outputs together.<\/p>\n Why this matters:<\/strong> It feels less like \u201ca chatbot you sometimes use\u201d and more like a workspace that happens to be conversational<\/strong>.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.6″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ make_equal=”on” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″ custom_padding=”10px|10px|10px|10px|false|false”][et_pb_column _builder_version=”4.27.6″ _module_preset=”default” type=”1_2″ theme_builder_area=”post_content” border_width_all=”1px” border_radii=”on|10px|10px|10px|10px” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″ custom_padding=”10px|10px|10px|10px|false|false”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.6″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″] Early Copilot demos in Excel were interesting, but limited. In 2026, that\u2019s changed.<\/p>\n Copilot can now:<\/p>\n For everyday reporting and analysis, this closes a big gap for non\u2011specialists.<\/p>\n In practice:<\/strong> You don\u2019t need to be an Excel power\u2011user to get insights anymore.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column _builder_version=”4.27.6″ _module_preset=”default” type=”1_2″ theme_builder_area=”post_content” border_width_all=”1px” border_radii=”on|10px|10px|10px|10px” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ custom_padding=”10px|10px|10px|10px|false|false”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.6″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″] Another big (and easy\u2011to\u2011miss) improvement in 2026 is that Copilot is no longer locked into a single AI model.<\/p>\n Microsoft has started supporting multiple underlying models<\/strong>, including options from Anthropic (Claude)<\/strong> alongside OpenAI models.<\/p>\n In practice, that gives Microsoft more flexibility to pick the right<\/em> model for different types of tasks: reasoning, writing, analysis, or agent\u2011style work, rather than forcing one model to do everything. You won\u2019t usually see this happening day\u2011to\u2011day, but you\u2019ll feel it: better responses, fewer \u201cthat didn\u2019t quite work\u201d moments, and faster improvement over time. It also reduces dependency on any one vendor, which is a strong signal that Copilot is being built as a long\u2011term platform, not a one\u2011shot AI experiment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.6″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column _builder_version=”4.27.6″ _module_preset=”default” type=”4_4″ theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.6″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″] Each update removes a bit of friction:<\/p>\n Copilot keeps improving\u2014and this year, it finally crossed the line from interesting to genuinely helpful.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Think Copilot Was a Let\u2011Down? It\u2019s Quietly Got Much Better in 2026 If you tried Microsoft Copilot early on and walked away a little underwhelmed, you\u2019re not alone. We heard it a lot last year: \u201cIt\u2019s interesting, but it\u2019s not quite there yet.\u201d The thing is that Copilot doesn\u2019t stand still. It\u2019s one of those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":16113,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.kinetics.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}And for those clients that have asked us to update them on what’s new in Copilot, we hope this works for you!<\/h3>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.6″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” column_structure=”2_5,3_5″ border_width_all=”1px” border_radii=”on|10px|10px|10px|10px” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ custom_padding_last_edited=”on|desktop” custom_padding=”10px|10px|10px|10px|false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″ custom_padding_tablet=”10px|10px|10px|10px|false|false” custom_padding_phone=”10px|10px|10px|10px|false|false”][et_pb_column _builder_version=”4.27.6″ _module_preset=”default” type=”2_5″ theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.6″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]
Copilot Can Now Actually Do the Work (Not Just Suggest It)<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Word Feels Like It Has a Real Editor Sitting With You<\/h3>\n
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\u00a0Copilot on Windows Is Finally Useful Day\u2011to\u2011Day<\/h3>\n
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Excel Copilot Has Grown Up<\/h3>\n
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Copilot Isn\u2019t Tied to Just One AI Model Anymore<\/h3>\n
Copilot in 2026 isn\u2019t a single big \u201cwow\u201d moment. It\u2019s something better: <\/span>steady, practical progress<\/strong>.<\/span><\/h3>\n
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If you tried Copilot before and thought, \u201cIt\u2019s close, but not there yet\u201d<\/em>, that experience is already out of date.<\/h3>\n