OpenAI has announced GPT‑5.6, which will become the new preferred model powering Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Copilot Chat and Cowork. According to the announcement, the update brings OpenAI’s latest flagship model series into the productivity tools used daily by Microsoft 365 customers.
What users can expect
OpenAI describes GPT‑5.6 as delivering more useful work per token, with stronger performance per dollar and capabilities for handling the most complex tasks. Microsoft says this will allow Microsoft 365 users to produce higher‑quality outputs with less effort across the apps they already rely on.
Nitin Agrawal, President of Copilot & Agents Core at Microsoft, commented: “We can’t wait for customers to see what GPT‑5.6 in Microsoft 365 will do, enabling them to work even more effectively with AI in the tools they use every day. Using Copilot powered by OpenAI’s latest model, customers will be able to produce more polished outputs in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Cowork, and Copilot Chat, whether they are drafting documents, analyzing data, creating presentations, or collaborating across teams. We’re excited to continue building with OpenAI to bring more powerful AI experiences to people and organizations around the world.”
Nikunj Handa, Head of API Product at OpenAI, added: “Microsoft 365 is where millions of people write, analyze, create, and collaborate every day. By bringing GPT‑5.6 to Microsoft 365 Copilot through the OpenAI API, we're helping organizations get more useful work from every token, and more value from AI in the tools they already use.”
Access and deployment
Microsoft will both serve the models natively within its services and access OpenAI models directly via the OpenAI API to make GPT‑5.6 available to Microsoft 365 customers. The announcement frames this as part of the ongoing partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI to extend advanced AI capabilities to more people and organizations.
Why this matters
Integrating GPT‑5.6 into Microsoft 365 represents a step toward embedding advanced language models into everyday office workflows. In practical terms, Microsoft 365 users may see reduced manual editing, faster document and analysis generation, and more efficient collaboration when working with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Copilot tools.
The move extends the companies’ collaboration to deliver more powerful AI experiences within widely used productivity applications.
