Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force over the past 12 months. The use of AI in a wide range of business tools is making it easier for businesses of any size to benefit. AI can help small business owners free up time to focus on more strategic work, by helping get more routine tasks completed quicker.
Here we explore how Copilot for Microsoft 365 offers AI-powered features that can assist small business owners in a wide range of ways. It can help to boost creativity, identify patterns in data, and streamline routine tasks.
Built into Microsoft 365, Copilot can act as a personal AI assistant for business. It’s integrated into many of the Microsoft applications you may already use today. This includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 combines the power of Large Language Models (LLM) with your business data to help enhance your creativity and productivity.
An LLM is a machine learning model designed to understand and generate human-like responses or images. Large Language Models are trained on huge volumes of data. This enables them to develop a sophisticated understanding of language and subsequently provide more human-like responses.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 can help you focus on the jobs that matter. It can also give you a head start on tasks like writing, data analysis and design.
Below we unpack how you may be able to benefit from using Copilot for Microsoft 365.
In Microsoft Word, Copilot for Microsoft 365 can help you get ahead of the creative process. It can offer guidance, insights, ideas and source material for your latest company blog, proposal, or report. And can help you with tips on how to make your writing more effective.
There’s still the need for human input though. Like the name implies, Copilot for Microsoft 365 is an assistant. You’re still in control when it comes to iterating, editing, and approving your final work. Learn more about Copilot in Wordopens in a new tab.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 in PowerPoint can help you create presentations that stand out. Using your own business data, it can add relevant content such as image and integrate everything into a compelling visual design. Learn more about Copilot in Powerpointopens in a new tab.
In Excel, Copilot for Microsoft 365 can help you analyse your business data and create data visualisations very quickly. This can help you identify and understand trends to generate insights that can support business decision making. Learn more about Copilot in Excelopens in a new tab.
Save time by using Copilot for Microsoft 365 in Outlook to help manage, respond to and clear up emails. If you’re inundated with emails, Copilot can help by summarising long email threads and even draft replies for you.
Be sure to review and check responses before you send. Copilot can give you feedback on tone and clarity of what you’re written to help make sure you get your message across in the best way possible. Learn more about how Copilot in Outlook can help you draft effective emailsopens in a new tab.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 can help analyse discussions in Microsoft Teams meetings. It can highlight key discussion points and outline potential actions in seconds. This can help you move more quickly from meetings to action.
AI transcription can help save you time in documenting notes and action points from a meeting. Learn more about Copilot in Teamsopens in a new tab.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 is compliant with Microsoft’s existing privacy, security, and compliance measures. So, when you’re using it, you’re benefiting from protections that are already established in your Microsoft 365 set up.
Before implementing Copilot for Microsoft 365 it is important to review whether your existing privacy, security, and compliance settings align with Microsoft good practice policies This Microsoft learn article provide guidance on getting started with Copilot for Microsoft 365. You can also explore managed security solutions from experts who can help you.
If you sometimes struggle to stay on top of all the data you have access to, Microsoft 365 Copilot can help with this too. You can use Copilot for Microsoft 365 via the Business Chat app in Teams.
Business Chat can access the business data you have sitting across your Microsoft 365 environment. This can include things in your calendar, your emails, chats, documents, meetings, contacts, and anything within apps you’ve set up.
So, by using prompts you can ask Business chat questions to help you find the information you need more quickly. Learn more about Microsoft Business Chatopens in a new tab.
AI prompts are requests you submit to AI models to generate responses. Simply put, they’re instructions that tell the AI what to do.
Here are some examples:
AI prompt tuning involves adjusting the instructions given to an AI model to get better results. Often, the more detailed and specific prompts you give, the better outcome.
Say for example, you run a bakery and want to write a social media post to bring customers to your store. You could ask Copilot “write a social media post about our new sourdough bread” and it would produce a draft post. However, you could tune the prompt and get a better outcome by including extra detail. For example, like ingredients of the bread, the tone you want to post to use, and a call to action for customers.
The value of Copilot for Microsoft 365 is that it connects to your own business data. This is key to unlocking greater productivity and creativity in your business.
By using your business data, Copilot can deliver more accurate and relevant responses to help you.
Take a clothing retailer for example. The business owner asks Copilot for Microsoft 365 to find trends in recent sales data to inform a review of their marketing strategy. Copilot analyses sales data within the business’ Microsoft 365 files. It identifies the top selling products in different age groups. The business owner can then adjust their marketing strategy to target the different age groups with promotions for these individual products.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 is currently available as a paid add-on to an eligible Microsoft 365 licence.
Depending on how your Microsoft services are currently set up, there may be additional work required to ensure you have the right level of security, compliance, privacy, and access policies in place.
You may also want to consider what information you are happy for Copilot for Microsoft 365 to access. Remember that in principle it could access any data that exists within your Microsoft 365 environment. That includes all emails, chats and files held OneDrive. Think about privacy considerations and communicate with team members about how you might use these new capabilities.
Access to Copilot for Microsoft 365 can help improve how you work. Its ability to turn around tasks in seconds, rather than hours or days can create significant productivity benefits.
Think about where you and your team might be spending time on routine tasks where Microsoft 365 Copilot could help. Do you want to create impactful written content more quickly? Are you trying to get more from your data to make better decisions? Or are you inundated with emails that could be better managed to help free up your time?
Like with any new technology, it’s important to develop your knowledge and skills to get the most from it. Be aware of privacy and security considerations. And support your team in building their capability to help you find the productivity boost you’ve been hoping for.
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