Copilot Chat can now read charts and diagrams inside Word, PowerPoint and PDF files
Reviewed by Helen Jones
Roadmap item 560540 rolled out in June 2026. Copilot Chat now interprets images embedded in .docx, .pptx, and PDF files on desktop versions. It processes charts, diagrams, screenshots, and other visuals instead of relying only on text extraction. The change affects commercial tenants worldwide. The feature stays limited to desktop. No details were released on accuracy with complex or poorly labelled images.
Before this update, Copilot could only work with the words in a file. Any data locked inside a chart, process diagram, or annotated screenshot stayed invisible to it, so users still had to read those visuals themselves or copy the numbers out by hand. Now the model can reference those visuals directly. For teams that already keep their key numbers and decisions inside diagrams rather than paragraphs, this removes one manual step. For everyone else it simply adds another source of answers that may be incomplete or wrong.
Analysis
This is a small convenience for people whose documents already contain clear visuals, and a new source of plausible-sounding errors for everyone else. Open one desktop app this week, enable the image-reading option, and test it on three files that actually contain charts or diagrams you rely on. If the answers are not immediately usable, turn the setting off again before it becomes another thing you have to check.
Pulse published by Collab365 Spaces, reviewed by Helen Jones on . Cite as "Copilot Chat can now read charts and diagrams inside Word, PowerPoint and PDF files", Collab365 Spaces. 2 sources referenced.