Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET
In the era of AI chatbots, there are plenty of ready-to-use chatbots on the market that offer a range of functions. However, if the particular task you want to use a chatbot for isn’t available, you can now easily create your own chatbot in Copilot Pro.
As first spotted by X user Paul Couvert, Microsoft quietly added a new “Custom Copilot GPTs” feature in preview for Copilot Pro users. With the feature, Pro users can create a custom Copilot GPT with personalized instructions that can be kept private or shared so that both free and paying Copilot users can use it.
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Getting started is simple. Go to your Copilot Pro homepage and click on the “See all Copilot GPTs” option on the right-hand side of the page, under all of Microsoft’s custom Copilots.
Screenshot by Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET
The first option at the top is “Create a new Copilot GPT” with a preview designation that reads “Use the configure or create tool to create a custom Copilot GPT that you can keep private or share.”
Screenshot by Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET
After that, the next steps for creating the chatbot are very similar to the steps for creating a custom chatbot on ChatGPT, which also requires no coding or technical savviness — as you can see in ZDNET’s step-by-step instructions. On ChatGPT, the feature is also limited to its premium tier ChatGPT Plus subscribers.
If you have never created a custom GPT, no worries. Microsoft includes a thorough list of tips for creating a quality Copilot GPT with notes such as keeping the name short and catchy, using clear language, making prompts specific and actionable, and more.
As you follow the tips, the builder will continue to ask you follow-up questions that make creating your chatbot an intuitive process.
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A good first step is to name your chatbot and then follow up by describing the chatbot’s purpose. For this article, I decided to create a chatbot that automatically transforms all of your text into the tone of a Shakespearean play.
As a result, I named the chatbot “Shakespeare tone” and followed it up with the description, “Your job is to transform all user input text to have the tone and language of a Shakespearean play.”
Screenshot by Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET
As seen in the screenshot above, the builder understood the task immediately and followed up with more questions about how I wanted the chatbot to behave, including what topics it should emphasize or avoid. To facilitate the creation process, Microsoft even includes sample prompts you can click on to continue the process.
Once I had answered all of the basic follow-up questions for setting up the chatbot, the builder let me know the chatbot was completed and that I could preview it by clicking the “Preview Copilot GPT” button in the top right corner.
I tested it by entering the sentence, “The Yorkie puppy stood by the door anxiously awaiting for his owner to return from his errands.” The chatbot responded with an intricate three-paragraph passage in the tone of Shakespeare, as instructed, as seen in the image below.
Screenshot by Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET
Once you preview it, you can go back and tweak the chatbot further or publish it. When publishing, you have the option to share the link with everyone or keep it for yourself. It’s that easy.
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The perk of having a custom chatbot is that it circumvents having to enter elaborate instructions every time you want a specific function done. For example, I was able to bypass instructing ChatGPT with the exact parameters I wanted and instead could simply type the sentence I wanted transformed.
Therefore, if you use Copilot Pro or ChatGPT for a repetitive task in your personal life or workflow, it will save you time — in the long run — to take a few minutes to set up your custom GPT.