What's new for Copilot in August 2025
- Maxime Hiez
- Copilot
- 03 Sep, 2025
Introduction
Microsoft releases a monthly update to Microsoft 365 Copilot to keep admins and users up-to-date on productivity-enhancing features in Microsoft 365. The August 2025 release focuses on agent governance, usage measurement, security and risk management, and several conversational, visual, and creative capabilities for end users.
For administrators : Copilot Control System
Inventory of agents in the administration center
- SharePoint agents are joining the Microsoft 365 admin center’s agent inventory, alongside agents developed internally and deployed across Microsoft 365 interfaces, agents created by users with Microsoft Copilot Studio in Copilot Chat, and third-party agents with governance actions (blocking, unblocking).
- Rollout : September
Copilot Search
- Usage reports now track adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot Search to guide your support plans.
- Rollout : August
Approval workflow (Frontier & agents)
- A centralized request / approval flow arrives in the admin center (Copilot, then Agents and Requested agents) for Frontier and Microsoft agents, reconciling experimentation and security requirements.
- Rollout : August
Billing : Message pack integration
- Ability to apply pre-paid credits (Pay-As-You-Go) for Copilot Chat with visibility and cost control (Copilot, then Billing & usage and Pay-as-you-go services).
- Rollout : August
Health of the agent park
- New controls to block, reassign or remove unowned agents and reduce operational risks.
- Rollout : August
Purview Insider Risk Management for AI risks
- Purview Insider Risk Management (IRM) now detects sensitive prompts and responses in Copilot and Copilot Studio, calculates a risk level, and triggers appropriate policies (DLP, lifecycle governance, Entra conditional access).
- Rollout : August
For users : an enhanced Copilot experience
SharePoint agents : access and reach
- Direct access to SharePoint agents from the Microsoft 365 Copilot app (display in the recently used agents bar).
- Open by default in Copilot rather than SharePoint.
- Discoverable in the Teams store with direct addition to a chat/channel (customized list per user).
- Rollout : September
Copilot Chat : New model & tools
- Try GPT-5 button : Copilot uses GPT-5’s real-time router to switch between a high-throughput model (simple tasks) and a deep reasoning model (complex tasks).
- Tools menu in the input area (Designer, Pages, pinned agents, Researcher, Analyst) to reduce back-and-forth.
- Email references with attachments (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, JSON, XML) directly included in the response, in Outlook and the Microsoft 365 Copilot app (with a Copilot license).
- PowerPoint presentation : Generation of a ready-to-use deck (structure, visuals, formatting) from the Copilot app ; with a license, taking into account the work context.
- Rollout : August
Visual reasoning & image editing in Copilot Chat
- Upload PDF / Word / PowerPoint and ask the question What’s shown in the image on page 4 to get visually anchored answers.
- Generate / edit images in natural language, visually track added elements (snippets).
- Side-by-side editor : canvas + natural language guidance, upscale and auto-enhance without losing context.
- Rollout : September
Create visuals in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app (without a Copilot license)
- Create features (posters, banners, infographics, images) are now available to users without a Copilot license.
- Rollout : Web / Windows / macOS in August, mobile in October.
Summary in Edge for Business
- Right-click on the webpage and then Summarize with Microsoft 365 Copilot to condense a dense webpage without leaving the tab.
- Rollout : August
Custom dictionaries for Copilot in Teams
- Upload industry-specific dictionaries (English, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, and simplified Chinese) from the Copilot settings in the admin center ; benefits Copilot and Teams meeting recap.
- Déploiement : Juillet
Recommended action plan for administrators
- Verify the presence of reports and controls (Search usage, unowned agents, Pay-As-You-Go / credits)
- Enable the Frontier / agent approval workflow before broadly expanding usage
- Prepare for the arrival of SharePoint agents (inventory, governance, publishing in Teams)
- Update your Purview IRM / Adaptive Protection policies to cover sensitive prompt scenarios
- Inform your users of new gestures (Try GPT-5, Tools menu, email references, Edge summary, image creation/editing)
Conclusion
This August 2025 wave strengthens agent governance, brings AI risk detection to Purview, and streamlines daily usage (on-demand GPT-5, centralized tools, image understanding, presentation generation, page summaries). Administrators gain control, users gain speed and context—enough to accelerate adoption while maintaining control.
Sources
Microsoft Adoption - Frontier Program
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