Although the era of artificial intelligence is provoking rather polarised opinions, it is clear that technological progress cannot be stopped or ignored. Microsoft’s new AI tool confirms this. The digital assistant saves time and speeds up users’ normal work processes related to Microsoft 365 applications.
Copilot’s generative AI technology is also integrated into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, and with it, Microsoft has begun to write an innovative chapter of more efficient work productivity. The fact that today Microsoft is already one of the most important players in the field of artificial intelligence was confirmed by its leading representatives during the Microsoft Envision event in Prague in March 2024.
They have done this through a combination of their own virtual assistant, Microsoft Copilot, but also by linking with OpenAI, which created ChatGPT, the first popular AI assistant, and the well-known big language model GPT-4.
Microsoft’s Global Head of AI, Nate Harris, argues that organisations should view AI in terms of three pillars. The first is trying to unlock employee productivity, the second is creating custom AI within the organisation that will be useful to the company, employees, customers, and everyday people, and the third pillar should be data protection.
What exactly is Copilot?
Simply put, Microsoft Copilot is an AI assistant that helps with everyday tasks and increases productivity. You can interact with it using text, voice or even images. Technologically, Copilot is a combination of Large Language Models (LLM) with data in Microsoft Graph, i.e. calendars, emails, chats or documents, and data from Microsoft 365 apps.
The result is one of the most powerful tools for maximising productivity, which is confirmed by the first surveys and user experiences, where the following arguments are leading the benefits rankings:
- It saves time when searching for information and creating documents (81% of respondents);
- Facilitates communication (79% of respondents);
- Enables faster handling and processing of emails (94% of respondents).
The perfect personal assistant simplifies users’ daily tasks. How? For example, by formulating answers to emails, preparing presentations and materials for meetings and briefings, or generating images according to the task. It can summarise information from long web articles, documents – including PDFs, or take minutes from an online meeting. Just ask for it! Copilot will record the proceedings of the meeting with everything that happens, and the level of detail of the transcript is selectable. The most detailed transcript even captures any emotions or the atmosphere of the meeting.
In the same way, this AI tool can process information “scattered” in different files and folders of the user, create statistical reports and edit them into an understandable form. The more specific the request, the more the output will match expectations.
There is no Copilot like Copilot
The spectrum of Copilot’s use is even much wider! Salespeople appreciate the virtual assistant when identifying business opportunities or putting together quotes and proposals, with research showing a 2.5 – 3.1 percent increase in upsell or cross-sell results.
Help with processing and evaluating the large number of notifications and alerts will also be welcomed by security officers or SOC (Security Operation Center) operators. Overall, the tool gives workers a greater sense of job satisfaction because it reduces the proportion of tedious or stressful tasks, taking over the role of problem solver while people can focus on more important activities. It also speeds up the executability of selected tasks, reducing the number of potential overtime hours.
Free Copilot for the web embedded in Bing is already available to every Edge browser user.
The family of licensed Microsoft Copilots today includes:
Copilot for M365, integrated into enterprise applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, which most ordinary users work with. It can be used for all common work activities such as data entry, file formatting, creating initial drafts of quotes or other documents to make them as content and graphical as needed.
Copilot for Sales, connected to Dynamics, will help sales consultants prepare for a customer meeting, more easily identify opportunities, summarize activities performed and their effectiveness.
Microsoft Copilot for Service is a tool to support and modernise contact centres and manage customer relationships or improve the customer experience.
Copilot Studio enables the creation and management of custom Copilots or Chatbots (GPT), creating AI conversational interfaces based on large language models and knowledge sources.
Copilot for Security, with links to Sentinel, for example, but also to other services, helps to evaluate an incident and find out how it was handled. A generative security solution powered by artificial intelligence aggregates big data signals into key insights to detect cyber threats before they cause damage.
How do you get Copilot?
As a condition for using any of the above Microsoft Copilot licenses, you must obtain a subscription to:
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard/Premium
- Microsoft 365 E3/5
- Office 365 E3/5
Copilot will soon be available to users with a subscription:
- Microsoft 365 F1 and F3
- Office 365 E1
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic
The list of supported languages is continuously expanding and now includes more than twenty languages: English (US, GB, AU, CA, IN), German, Chinese (Simplified), French (FR, CA), German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, as well as Hebrew, Hungarian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, and Ukrainian, with the recent addition of Czech.
The potential of a helper in a corporate environment
The common denominator in the use of virtual assistants is the desire to support users and serve as navigation on a particular platform. By providing instant access to all relevant information, Copilot in the company clearly:
- It speeds up the work;
- It is used to support users;
- It helps to make decisions and take the right actions;
- Increases labour productivity;
- Supports the achievement of goals;
- Simplifies standard work procedures;
- It generates work as smoother and more efficient.
If you’re considering starting to use Copilot for Microsoft 365 in a corporate environment, you need a good overview of the documents in the system, their contents or access by people. Too much out-of-date information in Copilot outputs could produce confusing to irrelevant results. Therefore, the key is to perform data categorization – i.e., to categorize and flag data that Copilot will not have access to in order to draw information from it for answers and solution suggestions. The goal is to control data with sensitive or confidential (protected) content that is intended for a defined set of users (e.g., management information). Readiness for deployment of the tool also includes educating staff and training skills to interact with Copilot.
Copilot harnesses the power of AI to improve productivity in absolutely innovative ways. It helps you unleash creativity, suggest content, get answers to questions (prompts) or catch up on what you’ve missed. And it does it all in compliance and with adherence to both safety and ethical principles. AI can be reliable in content creation as long as it is used correctly and supported by human oversight or verification.
The challenge for all of us for the coming period is therefore: Learn to communicate and use the potential of Microsoft Copilot to its full potential. To get better at what we are good at and to master more easily what we still want to learn.
