How to disable copilot on microsoft office (excel, word, ppt) on Macbook

Please provide a capability and instructions for removing Copilot (and the ever-present icon) from Word on my Mac. I do not want to use Copilot, and the icon is very annoying. I've been using MS Office products for decades now and find this to be the most unwanted and irritating function you've ever introduced. Common courtesy would suggest that you should let people opt-in to use Copilot and not force it onto our user experience. If you're going to set it as a default, you should at least provide an easy way within the software to turn it off.

This co-pilot stuff is insane, I changed my subscription in December and it was ignored in the January renewal.

I have just changed it again, but have taken copies of it all - I now have to wait another month to get it off my screen.

I am sick of the sight of the co-pilot badge and how it infringes on my screen space - the notion that Microsoft just sold it to everyone with a subscription without any acceptance of the offer sounds like a great class action in America.

very unhappy with MS.

thank you for bothering to share when you are clearly busy. I too cannot afford to have this interference and also want to remove copilot. i have no idea how to do as you suggest here ...

I have ended up reverting to the previous semi-annual build which doesn’t have the copilot auto built in to MS

can you or ANYONE PLEASE share how I can revert to a previous build.

in gratitude

sue

There’s no way I could find today to ‘turn Copilot off’ after it happened to me too, the previous suggestions including group controls, regedit etc. don’t work. I have Win 11 Pro with 365 Personal. I have ended up reverting to the previous semi-annual build which doesn’t have the copilot auto built in to MS Word. I am a PhD student nearly about to submit my thesis and cannot under any circumstances have AI anywhere near it otherwise it will be an automatic fail of four years of my life. It’s that serious.

Microsoft - Copilot NEEDS, absolutely needs, to be able to be functionally turned off for standard users. Please do not put university students at risk. I have been a university lecturer and marker this year too, and accidental AI use in non-AI subjects by students because it’s just sitting there in the software right at the in-line prompt when they are typing, leads to academic misconduct referrals, which is incredibly stressful for students and unnecessarily time consuming for staff. There are some university subjects where AI isn’t yet appropriate - universities are working towards integration but there are parts of some skills that have to be generated separately from AI right now. Please let us have the choice to turn it on and off, so students can turn it off while writing assignments, and turn it on for other uses.

SUCCESS!!!

To all frustrated respondents to this post, I have found a way to turn it off!!!!

It is in this article: Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps for home: Your data and privacy

At the bottom, under "Your Privacy Settings and CoPilot" is listed what you need to do:

i.e.: Open any of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, or OneNote

Click File then select Account (at the bottom, above Feedback and Options)

On your Account page, under Account Privacy click the Manage Settings button

Then, under "Connected Experiences" you need to turn off:

• Experiences that analyse content, and
• All connected experiences

Click OK

You will be warned about all the bells and whistles you're going to miss out on, but its so easy to turn on and off, you could, for instance, turn them off, write and submit your thesis, then turn them on again?

There is some semblance of control after all!

I only use Excel and Word but CoPilot is no longer interupting my edits in either!

Please note: As far as I know, this applies only when you’re using Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps for home*.*

Hi Tanya, are you using Windows? On my Mac, under 'file' there is no option for account!

Following in the hope of getting an answer...