Microsoft Copilot gets more than 20 legal skills in Word, so the first pass on a contract no longer starts with a highlighter
By Brett Gavaghan, Founder of Adaptd ·
Microsoft has made more than 20 legal skills and a set of partner plugins generally available in Copilot, including tracked redlines in Word and obligation tracking across contracts.
The short version
- Microsoft Copilot now has more than 20 legal skills, including contract redlines as tracked changes in Word and deadline tracking across agreements.
- The skills are generally available to Microsoft Copilot customers worldwide from 15 October 2026, with partner plugins rolling out over time.
- Try it on a contract you already know well, and keep a person signing off every change.
Plenty of business owners read their supplier contracts the way they read software terms: quickly, and with a sense of doom. Microsoft wants Copilot to do the first read.
What are Copilot's new legal skills?
Microsoft Copilot's legal skills are more than 20 built-in tools for contract and legal work, made generally available on 15 October 2026. In Word, Copilot can review an agreement against your playbook and propose edits as normal tracked changes, or draft a new contract from approved templates in SharePoint.
In Cowork, it can handle longer jobs across files, like tracking obligations and deadlines across a pile of contracts or comparing key terms between agreements. Microsoft says Copilot only applies edits once you approve them, and doesn't use your documents to train its models.
Who can use it, and when?
The legal skills are available now to Microsoft Copilot customers worldwide, which includes Australia. Partner plugins are rolling out through Microsoft's plugin registry over time, from tools like Docusign, iManage, NetDocuments, Adobe Acrobat Sign, PandaDoc and Box.
Microsoft says that since an early release in April, more than 1,800 users have made nearly 100,000 edits and kept roughly seven in ten suggestions. A Word feature for jumping between defined terms and their definitions is due in preview later in October.
Should your business use it?
Your business should try it if you already pay for Copilot and deal with leases, supplier agreements or client contracts, even without a legal team. Seven in ten kept suggestions means three in ten weren't, so a person still reads every change.
My take: start with a contract you know well and see whether Copilot spots what you'd spot. If it does, use it for the first pass on new ones. It doesn't replace your lawyer, but it might make the bill shorter.
Even the best redline won't argue with your landlord for you.
Wondering what this means for your business?
That's exactly what the discovery call is for.