7.6. Generating Images, Visuals, and Charts
💡 First Principle: Text is the slowest way to make a point about numbers or ideas. A chart or an image lets the audience see the point in seconds. Copilot can produce visuals in several places, and the right one depends on whether you need a picture (an illustration, a banner) or a chart grounded in data (a trend, a comparison).
Where Copilot creates visuals:
| Need | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| An image, poster, infographic, banner or short video | Create in the Microsoft Copilot app | Styles such as Photorealistic, Surrealism and Anime. Sizes 1024×1024, 1024×1536 or 1536×1024. Refine with Transform with AI, Edit or Text. Saved to your Copilot Library. Videos can be made from prompts or PowerPoint decks |
| An image in a document | Copilot in Word | Uses Designer's Image Creator (DALL-E 3). Needs only a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription, no add-on. Can also suggest stock and brand images |
| Images and slides in a deck | Copilot in PowerPoint | Generates images and summarizes slides |
| A chart or PivotTable from data | Copilot in Excel | Describe it: "Create a chart with vendor budget on the X axis and headcount on the Y axis." Premium users get Agent Mode for multi-step work |
| Charts, tables and diagrams from an attached file | Copilot Chat | Select the pencil button to open the response as a Copilot Page, or Add to recent page |
| A branded deck as part of a larger task | Cowork | Applies the organization's brand templates to decks it creates |
Licensing and governance: image creation is part of standard access, so Copilot Chat users can create images without a Microsoft Copilot (formerly Microsoft 365 Copilot) license, and admins can control whether users can generate images in Copilot Chat. Work accounts in Create get Brand and color (a brand kit) to keep visuals on brand. AI images from Microsoft Copilot carry C2PA content credentials, provenance metadata that marks them as AI-generated.
Validate visuals like you validate text. A chart is only as accurate as the data and the axis choices behind it. Check that the chart answers the business question, that the scale isn't misleading, and that the numbers match the source file. An AI image should also be checked for anything that misrepresents your product, people or brand.
⚠️ Exam Trap: Don't assume image generation needs the add-on license. It's part of standard access in Copilot Chat and available in Word with a qualifying subscription. And "make a chart" isn't one feature: a chart grounded in a spreadsheet belongs in Excel (or Copilot Chat with the file attached), not in an image generator, which produces a picture of a chart with no real data behind it.
Reflection Question: A marketing lead needs (1) a banner image for an internal campaign in brand colors and (2) a chart showing quarterly sign-ups from a spreadsheet for the same slide. Which Copilot experience fits each, and what would go wrong if she asked an image generator for the chart?
