How to keep up with Microsoft 365 Copilot without getting overwhelmed

Someone recently asked me how I keep up with all the changes to Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Great question! I realized I didn’t actually have a list of go-to resources, so I figured I’d put one together. Once I started writing, though, I realized that finding sources is only part of the challenge. You also need a way to decide which updates deserve your attention.

A new feature might change how you work in Excel. Another announcement might apply to a different app, a different subscription, or something your organization hasn’t received yet. They can all sound equally urgent when they show up in your feed.

For those of us who work with Excel, analytics, and business reporting, I’d suggest starting with four sources: Microsoft itself, independent technology publications, a few targeted alerts, and people who actually use these tools. Then give yourself a small routine for doing something with what you learn.

1. Go straight to Microsoft

When an announcement catches my attention, I want to find the original source. Microsoft’s resources serve different purposes, so it helps to know which question each one can answer.

Message center: what might affect your organization?

The Message center in the Microsoft 365 admin center covers upcoming changes, updates, and actions across Microsoft 365. That broader scope matters: Copilot sits alongside the apps and services your team already uses.

Access requires an appropriate role. Microsoft’s Message center documentation explains that a Message center reader role can provide access without other admin privileges. If you don’t have access, ask your Microsoft 365 administrator to share relevant notices or include you in an appropriate update process.

This is particularly useful when the question is, “What should our team prepare for?” You don’t need to become the administrator to have that conversation.

The public roadmap: what is on the way?

Microsoft’s public roadmap helps you follow planned features and their reported rollout status. Narrow your search to the products and platforms you use, then open individual entries for context.

I would use a roadmap item as a reason to keep watching. Before promising your team a demo or redesigning a process around it, check the current details and whether the feature is available in your own environment.

Release notes: what has changed?

The Microsoft 365 Copilot release notes are a useful place to check recent features and improvements by application and platform. Microsoft also explains that Copilot features roll out gradually, including to subsets of users within an organization.

That makes them especially helpful when someone sends you a screenshot and asks why their version looks different. Start by comparing the app, platform, and feature details before assuming you’ve missed a setting.

The Copilot Blog: what is the bigger picture?

The Microsoft Copilot Blog gives you announcements and Microsoft’s explanation of how its products are evolving. It’s a useful starting point for understanding what Microsoft wants you to notice, followed by a closer look at the documentation for anything you plan to use.

You certainly don’t need to read all four every day. Bookmark them so you know where to go when you have a specific question.

2. Don’t overlook the old-school computer publications

I still find publications like PCMag, Computerworld, Windows Latest, and Office Watch useful for keeping up with Microsoft 365.

They offer another way into the news: a roundup that puts several changes together, an explanation that makes an announcement easier to understand, or an independent perspective on whether something is useful. Sometimes the most helpful article asks a question the launch announcement barely addresses.

You don’t need to read everything they publish. A lot of it won’t be relevant to your work, and that’s fine. Pick one or two publications whose coverage helps you understand the tools you use.

My suggestion is to read with a small set of questions in mind: Does this affect an app I use? Does it change a task I do regularly? Does the article show what happened when someone tried it?

Then follow the link back to Microsoft for details you need to rely on, especially availability and requirements. An article can be a great introduction while still leaving questions about your particular setup.

3. Set up Google Alerts. Seriously.

There are all sorts of AI agents and automated news-monitoring tools available now, but I think Google Alerts is still underrated. For a modest reading habit, a few emails can do quite a lot. No elaborate workflow or token budget required.

Google Alerts sends emails when Google finds new search results matching a topic. In Google’s setup instructions, you’ll find options for frequency, sources, language, region, and how many results to receive.

Start with two or three focused searches. Here are a few I’d try:

• "Microsoft 365 Copilot" for the broader product.
• "Copilot in Excel" for spreadsheet-focused coverage.
• "Microsoft 365" "Copilot agents" if agents are relevant to your work.

I would avoid just Copilot. That name appears in enough contexts that you could spend more time sorting the results than reading anything useful. Review the preview before creating each alert, then refine it after you have seen what arrives.

Choose a delivery frequency you will actually read. Route the messages to one folder, and give yourself a regular time to look through them. If an alert mostly produces noise, change it or remove it.

Treat alerts as an aid to discovery. I would still visit the official resources directly when checking a particular feature; an alert should not be your only way of finding out about an important change.

4. Follow people who show their work

Following people who work with these tools every day is another great way to keep up. An announcement gives you one view of a feature. Watching someone use it gives you a chance to see the inputs, the results, and the points where they had to stop and check something.

X, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogs, and newsletters can all help here. The platform matters less to me than the quality of the example.

When deciding whom to follow, I’d look for people who make it easy to answer questions like these:

• Which app and version of the experience are they using?
• What did they give Copilot to work with?
• How did they check the result?
• What failed, needed correcting, or took more effort than expected?

For Excel in particular, I want to see the workbook and understand the analysis. A screenshot of an impressive answer tells me less than a walkthrough that shows the data, the request, and the checks afterward.

I try to share that kind of perspective myself, particularly around Excel, analytics, and Copilot. You can follow me on X at @gjmount or browse the Stringfest Analytics blog.

There are plenty of people doing good work in this space. I’d rather keep expanding my list than pretend a short list could capture everyone worth following.

Turn the reading into a small weekly routine

A folder full of bookmarks is easy to create. Returning to it is the harder part. Here’s a 20-minute weekly routine I’d suggest trying:

Keep your notes simple. A OneNote page, a text document, or a small Excel table will do. Record the date, the source link, the app you used, and a sentence about what happened.

For example: “Worth another test with a larger sample,” “Not available in our environment yet,” or “Useful, but the review took longer than expected.” A short note like that gives you something better to work from next month than a half-remembered headline.

You can also stop at the scan. If nothing looks relevant this week, close the folder and get back to your work. The routine should earn its place on your calendar.

Before you change a workflow, ask three questions

1. Can we use it? Confirm that the feature is available with your team’s tools, access, and approved data.
2. Does it help? Test it on a recurring task and include the time spent preparing inputs and reviewing outputs.
3. Can someone else repeat it? Keep enough context and checking steps for a colleague to try the same approach.

These questions give you a useful stopping point. You can be interested in an announcement without needing to adopt the feature immediately. And when something does help, you’ll have a clearer explanation of why it deserves your team’s attention.

If you’re thinking about how to build that practice across a team, my 30-day plan for what happens after Copilot training takes the next step: choosing real workflows, testing them, supporting people, and deciding what should continue.

Who would you add?

Who do you recommend following to stay abreast of Microsoft 365 Copilot? Share a name or a resource with me on X, ideally with a sentence about what you find useful. I’d love to expand my own list, too.

For now, start small: bookmark one official source, create one focused alert, and choose one task you’d like to improve. That’s plenty for a first week.