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GPT-5 in Copilot for Microsoft 365


Updated: January 2026

As of December 2025, Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now powered by GPT-5.2, the latest and most advanced large language model from OpenAI—the same model that powers ChatGPT.

This upgrade means Copilot now shares the same foundational artificial intelligence (AI) as ChatGPT, enabling it to deliver deeper reasoning, more nuanced responses, and broader contextual understanding across your emails, documents, chats, meetings, and calendar.

Large Language Models (LLMs), like GPT-5.2, are capable of tasks such as answering questions, summarizing documents, translating languages, and generating content—all based on patterns learned from their training data.

GPT‑5.2 brings together GPT-5.2 Thinking—the best model yet for complex problems and strategic insights, and GPT-5.2 Instant—an efficient model for everyday writing, translation, and skill-building.

Whether you're summarizing content or conducting complex analysis, Copilot's GPT-5.2 model offers a seamless and powerful AI experience directly within your Microsoft 365 environment.

Want to see GPT-5.2 in Copilot in action? 

Select from the two GPT-5.2 options within the model menu in Copilot (copilot.microsoft.com):

This new capability means Copilot can handle a wide range of tasks—from quick, straightforward requests to more detailed analysis—just like a person would.

Explore frequently asked questions:

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  • When can I use Copilot for Microsoft 365 with GPT-5.2?

    If you already have opted-in for a Copilot for Microsoft 365 license, GPT-5.2 is available now to reason over both web and work data in Microsoft 365—including your calendar, emails, chats, documents, meetings, and contacts—to provide full contextual responses. Once activated, Copilot (copilot.microsoft.com) will use GPT-5.2 for that session.

    For users without a Copilot for Microsoft 365 license—e.g., those that only have access to Copilot on the Web—GPT-5.2 is available via copilot.microsoft.com.

  • What are some prompts I can try to see GPT-5.2 in action?

    For all users with Copilot for Microsoft 365 licenses, try the following:

    • "Read through my recent emails and chats and provide a comprehensive analysis of my communication style by identifying my core values, strengths, weaknesses, skills, and areas where I can improve professionally."
    • "Get me up to speed on the latest plans related to [project/initiative]. Help me think through what to do next."
    • "Reflecting on our [project], what went well and what didn't? Can you draft a brief 'lessons learned' summary as if we were documenting a post-mortem for it?"
    • "Look at the last 5 work days, identify all the meetings where I was working on [topic], and give me a total number of hours I spent on the topic."
    • "Based on prior interactions with [person], give me 5 things that will be top of mind for our next meeting."
    • "Create side-by-side tables of the top 10 companies by market cap in 2000 and 2025. Then analyze the shifts in industry dominance, innovation cycles, and geopolitical trends—and connect any insight to implications for our 2025 strategic planning."
    • "Give me the top 3 strategic insights from today's meeting, and show how they connect to our objectives and key results and upcoming milestones."

    For all users, including those without Copilot for Microsoft 365 licenses, try the following:

    • "Look at the attached project plan and give me five substantive ways to make it better; include rationale for your responses and specific text to insert into the plan."
    • "Use the attached spreadsheet with customer feedback to create a polished executive report that helps upper management decide where to prioritize resources in our next cycle."
    • "We have a draft press release [document]. Find a couple of similar recent announcements on the web and then suggest how to make ours stand out."
    • "As a financial compliance analyst, prepare a summary comparing the Dodd-Frank, Basel III, and MiFID II capital adequacy and reporting requirements for banks."

  • When should I use Microsoft Copilot's Researcher?

    In 2025, Microsoft introduced Researcher, their advanced reasoning agent built on OpenAI's deep research model. While GPT-5 dramatically enhances Copilot's ability to handle complex, everyday prompts, Researcher is purpose-built for those times where you need deep, research-intensive work. It excels when you need exhaustive reasoning and synthesis across many sources, whether internal content or external websites. It is ideal for projects like board-level briefs, competitive analyses, and comprehensive client prep.

If you have any questions, or if you experience any technical issues, please contact the IT Service Desk.

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