Use Word's AI to Draft and Revise Compliance Policies

What This Does

Microsoft Word's Copilot feature lets you draft, revise, and expand compliance policy language without leaving your document — eliminating the copy-paste workflow between a separate AI tool and Word.

Before You Start

• You have Microsoft 365 with Copilot enabled (requires M365 Copilot subscription)
• Your policy document is open in Word
• You're logged in with your organizational Microsoft account

Steps

1. Open your policy document

Open the compliance policy you need to update in Microsoft Word. Navigate to the section you want to revise.

2. Launch Copilot

Click the Copilot icon in the Home ribbon (it looks like a small sparkle/star icon). A Copilot panel opens on the right side of the screen.

3. Select text and ask for a rewrite

Highlight the policy section you want to update. In the Copilot panel, type your instruction: "Rewrite this section to incorporate [new regulatory requirement]. Maintain formal policy language and keep the same overall structure."

4. Review the generated text

Copilot will display suggested replacement text. Read it carefully — check that the regulatory requirement is accurately incorporated and the language is consistent with your institution's style.

5. Accept, modify, or regenerate

Click Keep it to accept the draft, click Regenerate to get a different version, or manually edit the suggested text before accepting.

Real Example

Scenario: Your institution needs to update the CDD policy to reflect new beneficial ownership requirements.

What you type: "Revise this Customer Due Diligence section to require collection of beneficial ownership information for legal entity customers at account opening, including the 25% threshold rule and the control prong requirement. Maintain our current formal policy structure."

What you get: An updated policy section with the beneficial ownership threshold, list of covered entity types, collection timing requirements, and documentation language incorporated naturally into the existing paragraph structure.

Tips

• For major policy overhauls, work section by section rather than the entire policy at once
• After each Copilot revision, ask "Does this language create any ambiguity about [specific requirement]?" to catch unclear passages
• Save a version of the prior policy before using Copilot to rewrite — you'll want the tracked-changes comparison for audit documentation

Tool interfaces change — if a button has moved, look for similar AI/magic/smart options in the same menu area.