AI has already impacted numerous industries, so it’s no surprise that the adoption of AI is rapidly changing the education industry as well. Today, institutions are adopting AI-powered tools to support instruction as well as institutional operations. Yet to truly transform education, institutions will need to bridge the gap between existing infrastructure and new AI technologies. At Microsoft, we’re excited to help institutions achieve greater impact with Copilot and agents.
Agents take the power of generative AI a step further, bringing new opportunities for customization and the ability to work alongside or for you. In education, agents can be tailored to have a particular expertise whether it’s instructional design or individual student preferences and can leverage institutional data to offer relevant insights for educators and administrators.
At Microsoft, we’re committed to empowering every student and educator to achieve more. We believe this new technology can empower institutions to achieve greater impact. Our commitment to Trustworthy AI provides educational institutions with a foundation to safely and confidently adopt new AI solutions knowing they are backed by Microsoft’s enhanced security and compliance technology.
This year at Bett UK, January 22-24, 2025, we’re thrilled to announce Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, new AI solutions for Copilot+ PC, and more.
Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat
Our ambition is to empower everyone with a Copilot and transform every educational experience with agents. Education institutions from Auburn University to Northern Ireland Education Authority are already saving time and improving learning outcomes with Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Today, we’re introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, a new offering that adds pay-as-you-go agents to our existing free chat experience for Microsoft 365 education customers. Copilot Chat includes:
- Free, secure AI chat powered by GPT-4o.
- Agents accessible right in the chat.
- IT controls, including enterprise data protection and agent management.
It’s the chat experience you can use every day—powered by broad knowledge from the web, built on the latest AI models, and it’s designed to be safe and secure. Copilot Chat offers foundational capabilities of the Copilot Control System, including enterprise data protection and agent management. Moving forward, institutions will have a mix of Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot—our best-in-class offering. Try Copilot Chat today at m365copilot.com and learn more in the announcement blog.
We expect institutions will have entire constellations of agents—helping to enhance existing processes and create new ones. Florida State University faculty and students began with use cases ranging from providing course information and homework to help making data science more approachable and increasing analysis efficiency for researchers.
Our goal at FSU is to empower faculty to develop their own custom AI solutions, and to give our faculty ownership over AI technology, and the way they use it in the classroom, so that they can define our path forward. Copilot Chat will make that opportunity real by enabling us to scale our pilot across campus in a way that’s intuitive and meaningful for everyone.
Paul F. Marty, Ph.D., Associate Vice Provost for Academic Innovation, Florida State University
Bringing agent innovation to education
On top of the wide range of pre-built agents from Microsoft, teaching and learning agents will be available in the coming months. Eligible students are proactively prompted with questions to engage in the learning process and provide tailored coaching on specific subjects or assignments. Educators receive instructional design support with responses grounded in pedagogical expertise and educational standards.
One of our partners, Clever, the global identity platform for education, understands the importance of connected data to maximize educational value and insights. Clever’s agent, currently in private preview, helps educators generate customized lesson plans by incorporating applications their districts already use.
We’ll also be publishing open-source agents that will enable educators and students to interact with their course information and resources in learning management systems such as Canvas and Moodle.1 Learn more about today’s announcements in our Tech Community blog.
As we bring the latest innovation to education, we’ll continue developing and sharing our insights on the impact. The latest studies from Microsoft Research reinforce the opportunity for AI to enhance and deepen the learning process for students, but only with the critical support of educators and traditional learning activities. Read more in our “snapshot in time” of how students and educators see AI in higher education, and preliminary research findings from one of the first large-scale quantitative investigations into how reading comprehension and retention are affected with Cambridge University Press & Assessment.
Spark learning with Copilot+ PC
Copilot+ PCs are the fastest, most intelligent and secure Windows PCs ever, featuring enhanced security, optimized performance, and AI-integrated experiences. Today, we’re announcing our first education-focused Copilot+ PC app, code name Project Spark, designed to leverage on-device intelligence to deliver real educational value.
With this new Copilot+ PC app, educators can quickly create, share, and track personalized and interactive learning activities right from their Copilot+ PC, instantly boosting student engagement. Students can engage with these activities on any Windows 11 PC to receive immediate feedback and personalized coaching. Educators can also generate interactive lessons on a wide range of topics using their existing teaching materials or leverage peer-reviewed textbooks from OpenStax. And they can explore ready-to-learn content from leading partners such as NASA, Figma, and Minecraft Education.
Preview the Copilot+ PC app for Windows later this year. Take a deeper dive by visiting our Tech Community blog and discover how to move forward with new Windows 11 PCs.
Increasing access to Khanmigo for Teachers
Since our partnership announcement, Khanmigo for Teachers has been used by over 400,000 educators across more than 50 countries. We look forward to continuing to expand access with our next launch in Spanish speaking countries next month. Khanmigo for Teachers offers over 20 free, AI-powered tools to help streamline class prep with no prompting required. Learn more in our Khanmigo for Teachers Quick Guide and free AI tools training module or get certified through the Khanmigo for Educators course.
In the coming weeks, Khanmigo Writing Coach will also be freely available in eligible countries. Designed by educators, it uses AI to make essay writing a dynamic, interactive experience—providing students with step-by-step guidance from outline to final draft without ever writing a word for them. And, it provides educators with actionable and detailed insights into their writing process, strengths, and areas for improvement.
Providing exceptional learning experiences
Two new Learning Accelerators build on our commitment to empower institutions with innovative solutions to impact learning outcomes. Reading Coach helps learners discover the joy of reading while improving reading skills, whether practicing challenging words or co-creating stories with responsible AI.
Additionally, Math Progress is now generally available to streamline assignment creation while providing student performance insights to help educators identify course trends at the individual or class level. As a powerful formative assessment tool, Math Progress simplifies lesson planning by providing educators with activities and quizzes designed with math concepts that students are prepared to learn. Both Learning Accelerators are available in over 80 languages.
Building AI literacy with Minecraft Education
Minecraft Education is expanding its AI skills program, AI Foundations, with a new student credentialing pathway in AI offered through Prodigy Learning. Educators can also use the free AI-powered Lesson Crafter tool to build new Minecraft lessons and practice prompting. Explore engaging new ways to build AI literacy, teach cybersecurity, and code with Minecraft to prepare learners for the digital future!
Supporting AI skilling for all educators
Educators play a critical role in developing AI literacy among students around the world, yet most haven’t received professional development in AI. A majority of educators believe generative AI should be harnessed in the classroom, but less than 20% feel equipped to do so, according to a recent report from EY, TeachAI, and Microsoft. That’s why we’ve built AI Skills for Educators, a hub to help jump-start educators’ AI skilling through resources, dozens of free training courses, and programs like our Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts global professional learning community.
We’re excited to bring these new solutions to educational institutions to make a greater impact on education. If you’re going to be at Bett UK in London next week, join us to explore how you can transform education with the power of AI and the power of agents with Copilot.
1 The word Moodle and associated Moodle logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Moodle Pty Ltd or its related affiliates.
