The AI tool we unlocked today is: Microsoft 365 Copilot's Scanned Document Search
What problem does it solve?
Here is a pain point almost every professional has quietly accepted as normal: the moment a document becomes a scan, a screenshot or a photo, it disappears from search.
A scanned contract sits in a Word file, a table gets pasted in as a screenshot in Excel, a whiteboard gets photographed into a PowerPoint deck, and from that point on, Ctrl+F is useless. The only way to find anything is to open file after file and skim manually.
Copilot Chat now closes that gap. It can read scanned PDFs and the text inside embedded images across Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and surface answers directly from content that was previously invisible to any search bar.
How to access
What it can do?
Stop the file hunt: ask a question once instead of opening a dozen files to find one clause or figure.
Trust old paperwork again: pull answers straight from scanned contracts and invoices without retyping them into a searchable format.
Turn screenshots into data: get text inside pasted images and photographed whiteboards treated as real, searchable content.
Example
A compliance manager needs to confirm termination notice periods across a stack of scanned vendor contracts before a Friday renewal deadline.
- Ask the question directly: open Copilot Chat and type "Find the termination notice period in each vendor contract in this SharePoint folder" and Copilot searches scanned PDFs it previously couldn't read
- Request the output format: add "summarize the answers in a table" and Copilot returns each contract's clause side by side
- Specify structure: ask it to "group by contract expiry date" so the most urgent renewals surface first
- Add formatting cues: prompt "bold any clause requiring 90 days' notice or more" so high-risk contracts stand out at a glance
- Export and share: ask Copilot to "put this table into a Word document" and share it directly with legal for sign-off
What makes Microsoft 365 Copilot's Scanned Document Search special?
- No re-scanning required: works on documents already sitting in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and SharePoint, no OCR software or re-upload needed
- Reads what search has always missed: finds text inside screenshots and photographed whiteboards that keyword search skipped for years
- Built into tools already open: no new app or login, just Copilot Chat inside Microsoft 365
Mint's ‘AI tool of the week’ is excerpted from Leslie D'Monte's weekly TechTalk newsletter. Subscribe to Mint's newsletters to get them directly in your email inbox.
Note: The tools and analysis featured in this section demonstrated clear value based on our internal testing. Our recommendations are entirely independent and not influenced by the tool creators.
Jaspreet Bindra is co-founder and CEO, and Anuj Magazine is co-founder, of AI&Beyond.