Microsoft is developing technology that will automatically attach files to documents

Microsoft has recently filed a patent that describes a technology capable of automatically attaching files to documents, based on relevancy to the topic and the user’s intent.

The patent, developed in 2022 and published recently, seems to envision a technology best suited for mailing apps, such as Outlook, or even file management apps, such as Microsoft Teams, on OneDrive.

All three of these apps received some major updates recently: for example, Outlook will get Copilot, which will allow users to automatically compose emails; Microsoft Teams is also getting AI and a new design that allows for better file management within it.

And speaking of file management, OneDrive will also get a revamped design and an improved search, which also makes using the platform more intuitive and automatic, almost.

So, it would come as no wonder that Microsoft would develop such a technology. According to the patent, the technology would help users attach to right files to a document based on their input. The method would guess what a user wants to do, then it would ask the user to confirm, and only then it would suggest a list of files to attach. In many ways, this is similar to how Copilot already behaves on certain tasks.

Automatic file attachment: How does it work?

1. The system uses an intent model to guess if a user wants to attach a file.
2. It then asks the user to confirm this guess with a prompt (called an inline nudge).
3. An inline menu is created and shown to the user, which has a list of files that the user might want to attach. These files are ranked based on how relevant they are.
4. The system uses the user’s intent to narrow down the search for files.
5. The intent model uses two other methods (an embedding model and an N-gram model) and some limited seed queries to figure out the intent.
6. The system then ranks the files based on how relevant they are to the intent.
7. The user can then choose one or more files from the list to attach to their document.

As we mentioned earlier, Outlook can make the best use of this new technology, by suggesting automatic file attachments to users in their emails.

However, it can go beyond Outlook: OneDrive, Microsoft Teams or any other mailing app outside Microsoft can potentially use it. As a whole, the technology can be a game-changer, as it could greatly reduce time and workload when sending emails.

While we don’t know if Microsoft will release this technology, the patent is a good sign of where things are heading when it comes to file management.