Benefits and use cases - Copilot for Microsoft 365

Following on from my first post, in this one, I'm exploring some of the benefits and potential use-cases for the various Copilots from Microsoft. It is important to remember that Copilot technology is constantly improving and the benefits to you or your users is only limited by your imagination. This is one of the reasons why it is important to get going with the technology early, so that the benefits to you can be explored and understood.?

When researching for this post, it became quite clear that there were significant benefits to be gained from each individual Copilot. I have concentrated on using Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 in this post. However, I'll look at some of the use-cases for other Copilots in future posts.

When information workers use Microsoft Copilot in conjunction with Microsoft 365, they gain several advantages:

• Enhanced Productivity: Copilot assists with content creation, editing, and answering queries, allowing workers to complete tasks more efficiently.
• Seamless Integration: Copilot integrates with Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Users can generate text directly within these applications, streamlining workflows.
• AI-Powered Image Creation: Copilot Pro offers an AI Designer tool for creating and editing images. This feature enhances visual content production.
• Priority Access: Copilot Pro subscribers receive priority access to advanced language models (such as GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo), ensuring faster responses.
• Collaboration: Copilot facilitates collaboration by providing accurate information and creative suggestions.

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Copilot is embedded into your favourite Office applications when you have purchased Copilot for M365. Here are some of the capabilities within some of the most popular apps:

1. Microsoft Word:

Content Creation:

• Drafting Documents: Copilot can help generate drafts based on prompts, saving you time in writing reports, proposals, or articles.
• Suggestions and Edits: It offers suggestions for improving grammar, style, and clarity, making your writing more professional.
• Formatting Assistance: Automatically applies consistent formatting and styles, ensuring your document looks polished.

Research and Citations:

• Information Retrieval: Provides relevant information and sources based on the content you're writing.
• Citation Management: Assists in managing citations and references, ensuring they are correctly formatted.

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2. Microsoft Excel:

Data Analysis:

• Automated Insights: Analyzes your data and provides insights, trends, and patterns without manual effort.
• Formulas and Functions: Suggests and helps build complex formulas, reducing errors and saving time.
• Data Visualization: Recommends the best charts and graphs to represent your data effectively.

Data Management:

• Data Cleaning: Identifies and corrects inconsistencies or errors in your datasets.
• Pivot Tables: Assists in creating and configuring pivot tables to summarize data efficiently.

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3. Microsoft PowerPoint:

Presentation Creation:

• Slide Generation: Helps create slides from scratch based on your outline or notes, ensuring a cohesive flow.
• Design Suggestions: Recommends design elements, layouts, and themes to enhance the visual appeal of your slides.

Content Enhancement:

• Speaker Notes: Provides speaker notes and key points for each slide to assist during presentations.
• Animations and Transitions: Suggests suitable animations and transitions to make your presentation more dynamic.

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4. Microsoft Outlook:

Email Management:

• Drafting Emails: Helps compose emails based on your inputs, ensuring clear and professional communication.
• Smart Replies: Provides suggested replies to emails, saving time on routine responses.
• Scheduling Meetings: Assists in scheduling meetings by finding suitable times and integrating with your calendar.

Organizational Assistance:

• Inbox Management: Helps categorize and prioritize emails, highlighting important messages and tasks.
• Task Reminders: Sets reminders for follow-ups and important deadlines directly from email content.

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Microsoft Teams:

Meeting Assistance:

• Summarizing Conversations: Copilot can generate real-time summaries of meetings, highlighting key points and action items.
• Transcriptions: It can transcribe spoken words into text, making it easier to capture and reference discussions.
• Meeting Prep: Before meetings, Copilot can provide summaries of previous meetings and relevant documents to help you prepare.

Task Management:

• Action Items: Automatically identify and assign action items discussed in chats or meetings.
• Reminders: Set reminders for tasks and follow-ups directly from chat or meeting summaries.

Content Creation:

• Document Drafting: Copilot can help draft documents, emails, and presentations based on the context of your conversations.
• Templates and Suggestions: Provide templates and suggestions for content creation, ensuring consistency and saving time.

Data Insights:

• Data Analysis: Integrate with data sources to analyze and present data insights during discussions.
• Dashboards: Create and share dashboards directly within Teams to facilitate data-driven decision-making.

Collaboration Enhancement:

• Smart Replies: Suggest relevant replies in chats, helping you respond quickly and appropriately.
• Integration with Apps: Seamlessly integrate with other Microsoft 365 apps, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, enhancing cross-app collaboration.

Knowledge Management:

• Contextual Information: Provide relevant information and documents during conversations based on the context.
• Knowledge Base Access: Quickly access and share knowledge base articles and resources within Teams.

Personal Assistance:

• Scheduling: Help schedule meetings by finding suitable times for all participants.
• Notifications: Manage notifications and prioritize important messages or tasks.

Learning and Development:

• Training Materials: Suggest training materials and resources based on the topics discussed.
• Skill Development: Provide recommendations for skill development and learning opportunities within the organization.

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You can see that there are significant benefits to end users in terms of time savings and helping with creativity through the use of Copilot for M365. However, we must remember that just switching on Copilot is not even half of the job (although it might be seen as the easy bit!). Users need to understand how to use the technology and to be allowed to experiment in the use of Copilot in their day to day work. User enablement is critical to the seeing individual's success and getting the return on the investment from a company perspective. Copilot is not a cheap solution to deploy, so organisations need to set users up for success in order to gain the productivity benefits and therefore see the return. User enablement is not just about training. There are recognised processes to help users through the significant changes that Copilot will bring. I think those organisations who invest in strategic user enablement will be the ones who benefit the most and in the quickest time.

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I'll cover measuring adoption and success in a later post, as well as some suggestions for user enablement strategies.

Please feel free to share your experiences with Copilot in the comments.