Microsoft Word and Outlook will no longer use AI to finish your sentences
Key Points
- Microsoft has turned off predictive text for Outlook and Word.
- The company said that it was disabling predictive text by default to provide users with more flexibility.
- Those who rely on predictive text can choose to enable the feature by navigating to the settings menu in Outlook or Word.
- The change affects Word for Windows, Android, iOS, and the web, as well as Outlook for Mac and Classic Outlook for Windows.
Microsoft has announced that predictive text will be disabled by default in Word and Outlook on mobile and desktop.
In a post on its tech community forum, Microsoft said that the feature would remain available to those who want it, but that it would now be turned off by default on Word for Windows, Android, and iOS, as well as the web version of the software.
While some users found the feature helpful, welcoming the software’s suggestions to finish their sentences for them, many said the suggestions were distracting or disagreed with the automatic inclusion of AI writing into their workflow.
“Text predictions helps you write documents and emails more efficiently by suggesting words and phrases as you type. While some people find these suggestions useful, others prefer to write without predictive text,” Microsoft said.
“Our goal is to provide a more consistent and user-controlled writing experience across Microsoft 365 applications.”
“This update helps ensure that predictive text remains available for people who find it helpful, while reducing unwanted interruptions for those who prefer to write without suggestions appearing automatically,” it said.
Those who would prefer to use AI-powered text predictions can enable the feature by opening Word or Outlook and navigating to the Settings menu.
Under this menu, they should see a Text Predictions feature that is turned off by default. Toggling Text Predictions on will enable writing suggestions as before.
It is unclear whether Microsoft disabled this feature by default as a result of user feedback or usage data, but its choice of an opt-in approach to AI-assisted tools will be a relief to those who prefer to write their own documents or correspondence without in-line AI interference.
