During the Microsoft 365 Conference 2023 in Las Vegas, Microsoft announced many new features for SharePoint, OneDrive, Lists, and other M365 products. SharePoint stole the show with the huge list of upcoming features and changes. Here are my 8 favorite features announces during the conference.

1.    Copilot in SharePoint

AI is coming to SharePoint (it was inevitable). Copilot will be your AI Assistant in SharePoint sites. This time it’s not about getting information from a document or generating a summary from a meeting. Copilot will do SharePoint-related tasks for you.

Example #1 – you can ask Copilot to create a site for your team, with a company logo, selected files, and personal message. In the chat window, you will get feedback information and you can also update your request or modify it. No more manual site creation process. Copilot will do it for you, apply the company theme, create required pages with data, etc.

Example #2 – you can ask Copilot to create a page with content from a file. All you need is to specify a file and check the results. Copilot will get content from the file, generate a SharePoint page with all information, and even add webparts with related information/highlights, etc. Then you can check the page and ask Copilot to rewrite the specific webpart or change it to make it more visually appealing.

Those are only use cases presented by Microsoft. I’m pretty sure that more will come when the Copilot become globally available. This AI implementation is one of my favorites. It will help users with daily boring tasks and should make SharePoint authoring a fun and fast process.

Planned rollout start – November 2023

2.    A new place to create SharePoint sites and pages

SharePoint will get a new start page for users, with a new look and a new design. You will use this site to create your site or page manually or using Copilot. It will also provide information for all your SharePoint-related data (your site views, your pages, collaboration activity, etc.).

The existing SharePoint starting point isn’t intuitive and many users struggle working with it. The new page could be a solution.

Planned rollout start – September 2023

3.    Coauthor SharePoint pages with your team members

Coauthoring SharePoint pages is not an easy task. If I edit the page, it’s locked for me, and my colleagues must wait to make their changes. The new feature will enable real coauthoring! We will be able to edit the page at the same time. The feature will use the Fluid framework (the same one that powers Microsoft Loop). I can’t wait to test this feature!

Planned rollout start – March 2024

4.    Introducing the new Brand Center in SharePoint

The Brand Center is the next big change in SharePoint. It’s a new, dedicated control pane in Microsoft 365 admin center, where you can create and manage branding elements (fonts, colors, logos, themes, etc.). Once created users can use those elements on your SharePoint sites and pages. This feature will shine when you must deal with large organizations with hundreds or thousands of sites.

Planned rollout start – December 2023

5.    The New OneDrive

OneDrive is getting a brand-new home page with many new features. The updated home page gives you a quick view of your files and the latest documents.

The Meeting page gives you information about files created during past meetings. You can quickly get access to documents, notes, and Loop files. The dedicated section shows upcoming meetings with files already created for those meetings.

Colored folders allow you to categorize folders in OneDrive. Simple yet powerful feature. I use colors in Outlook/Teams meetings and some other apps, and it works great for me.

6.    Video-first SharePoint pages

New Stream relies on SharePoint and SharePoint webparts. The upcoming changes to the Stream webpart will give you more flexibility and options to highlight your videos. The webpart will display single and multiple videos on SharePoint pages with inline playback. On top of that, a new page template designed for videos is coming.

7.    Fantastic Forms

Microsoft Lists will get a new form look and feel (and a designer!). You will be able to create a modern form and share it internally or externally. The form will work on any device (like Microsoft Forms). The new designer will let you configure multiple forms for a single list!

Planned rollout start – October 2023

8.    SharePoint Change History

The last feature is designed for SharePoint admins – Change History. This feature enables you to view all changes made to a site’s properties by other admins or site owners. You will be able to generate reports from changes and check what caused site problems and fix the issue. If you’d like to participate in the private preview, please sign up using this form.

Resources

During the event, Microsoft announced many more features and changes. You can find all information in the following blog posts:

• SharePoint in the AI Era: Introducing Copilot in SharePoint & 10 more Innovations for Creators
• Experience the New OneDrive: Fast, Organized, and Personalized
• Microsoft Lists: Easier, Better, Faster, Stronger
• Enhanced Video in Microsoft 365
• A new era in content management and security in SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams