What Microsoft Copilot Can Do for You

The ‘Chatterverse’ is teeming with all manner of talk and speculation about the impact of AI (Artificial Intelligence) on the world. AI is rapidly enhancing all manner of cloud computing, and tools like ChatGPT and Bard have been making big waves. When a technology surges to the forefront, app developers race to introduce the next level of features to do part of your work for you, like writing emails or making follow-up checklists based on contact data.

This goes far beyond simply automating processes. People are using these AI-based applications to write business correspondence, create websites, and write scripts (part of what last year’s Writer’s Guild strike was about). AI is also quickly transforming the everyday office workflow.

Here at ITFIRM.COM, we use AI and automation for many ‘low-brain’ tasks, which frees up our technicians for ‘high-brain’ work. We suggest you check with your own It Services provider – whether in-house IT Support or outsourced Managed IT Services for implementation when Copilot becomes available.

One of the biggest longstanding players in the office application field is undoubtedly Microsoft. It’s at the forefront of introducing transformative technology. The company has transformed Microsoft 365 in a huge way with its new Copilot tool.

With its rollout on July 24, Microsoft 365 Copilot is a new tool designed to help users get the most out of their Microsoft 365 apps. This revolutionary tool is an intelligent, personalized assistant. It's designed to help users navigate and use M365 more efficiently.

With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at Microsoft 365 Copilot and the key ways it's going to improve M365 apps and your business workflows.

What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?

Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI-powered assistant that can help users with their day-to-day tasks in M365 apps. It's like having a personal assistant right in your Office apps. You can ask it questions, get help with tasks, and receive personalized recommendations. Copilot responds leveraging the context of your usage patterns.

M365 Copilot works across all M365 apps, including:

• Word
• Excel
• PowerPoint
• Outlook
• Teams
• and more

Microsoft 365 Copilot is at your beck and call for assistance regardless of the task - whether you’re working on a document, scheduling a meeting, or collaborating with a team.

Meet M365 Copilot:

In order to understand users' needs and provide informed, personalized help, Microsoft 365 Copilot uses AI and machine learning, analysing data from users' interactions with M365 apps to learn a user's usage patterns and offer recommendations based on their preferences.

Let’s say you frequently use certain features in Excel. Microsoft 365 Copilot will learn this. It will offer suggestions when it detects that you're working on a similar task.

If you are working on a presentation in PowerPoint and struggling with design issues, Microsoft 365 Copilot can offer design suggestions based on your company's brand guidelines.

It can also help employees who perform common tasks like scheduling meetings and managing emails. All you have to do is ask Copilot for help. You can ask it to schedule a meeting or find an email from a specific person, and Copilot will take care of the rest.

The impact of Microsoft Copilot

The long-term impact will be gauged going forward – as more users become aware of what it can do, but it would appear so far to have a huge, positive impact. Copilot is important simply because it can help users be more productive and efficient. By providing personalized support, the tool can save users time and reduce frustration.

If you are working on a report in Word and you're struggling to format a table, just ask Copilot for help. That will save the time and aggravation in trying to figure it out on your own or spending time searching for a solution online. Copilot can offer suggestions and even walk you through the process.

Copilot can help users get more out of their M365 apps, which is also important. Microsoft’s apps tend to be extremely ‘feature-rich’, so many users may not be aware of all their features and capabilities. With Copilot, they can discover new ways to work more efficiently and effectively.

For example, if you need to give your team an update on a marketing strategy, you won’t need to dig out emails, chat threads, or meeting notes. Instead, you can ask Copilot to “tell my team how we updated the marketing strategy.” The app will then search all those places for you and craft an update for your team.

If you need a first draft of a meeting agenda or presentation, just ask Copilot. It can access existing M365 documents and content and craft an initial draft for you.

What are the benefits of Microsoft Copilot?

Help that is Personalized

Raise your hand if you’re typically frustrated when you have to use the ‘help’ feature on apps and you get generic answers based only on keywords. Copilot provides personalized help based on your usage patterns and preferences. This means that you get knowledgeable and informed help when you need it, without having to search for solutions on your own.

Time Savings

Isn’t saving time supposed to be what all technology is fundamentally about - making things easier and saving time? Funny how often technology seems to do the opposite. Copilot can help users save time in many ways, from scheduling meetings to formatting documents. It can take on many information gathering tasks, like summarizing meeting notes. This saves users considerable time, especially for tedious manual tasks such as searching for information.

‘Knowledge’ workers spend an average of 2.5 hours per day searching for information.

Less Frustration!

We could all use a healthy dose of Frustration Reduction, right? Copilot can undoubtedly help reduce frustration by providing solutions when users are stuck on a task. The tool can also help users struggling with an Excel chart or table. Instead of having to figure out how to generate it, they can simply give a command to Copilot to do it for them: “Et, Voila!”.

Productivity Enhancement

Copilot goes well beyond what business apps have historically done while handling tasks. For example, you can use it in PowerPoint to create a presentation for you. Use a command such as, “Create a six-slide presentation based on (this) document.” You can also tell it to find appropriate Microsoft stock photos and insert them.

Right now, the sky is the limit as to how much this tool is going to impact office productivity. It will be fun to watch, because but the impact will most certainly be immense.