Microsoft Copilot Changes Coming April 15

Microsoft recently announced upcoming changes to how Copilot Chat will be accessed in its Microsoft 365 productivity suite. These changes will take effect on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, and will affect how Copilot Chat appears in certain Office applications.

Copilot Chat will no longer appear directly within Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote for Baylor students, faculty, and staff. This change is part of a shift in Microsoft’s licensing model and applies to enterprise Microsoft 365 customers, including Baylor University.

Copilot Chat will continue to be accessible through the Microsoft 365 Copilot application, on the web at office.com, as a sidebar application in Teams, and within Outlook to assist with email and calendar management. No action is required, and existing access to Copilot Chat remains available.

To access some of the functionality previously available through the embedded Copilot Chat, Baylor students, faculty, and staff can use Microsoft 365 application agents through Copilot Chat. To access these agents, open Copilot Chat and click the “All Agents” link in the sidebar. Search for the Excel, Word, or PowerPoint agents. Prompting these agents directly or including them in a Copilot conversation will enable the platform to assist with tasks related to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint; however, the experience will differ from when Copilot was embedded directly within those applications.

BaylorITS will continue to evaluate Copilot offerings within Microsoft’s new licensing structure, working with university administration and the budget office to provide industry-standard tools and resources that support research, teaching, and learning. To learn more about this shift in Microsoft policy, contact HelpDesk+ at (254) 710-4357, visit HelpDesk+ on the main floor of Moody Memorial Library, or chat with a BaylorITS representative at helpdesk.baylor.edu.