Ep 14 - Copilot Readiness with Michal Pisarek

This week we talk about getting ready for Copilot for Microsoft 365 (as well as a few thoughts on how this applies to other Copilots as well). But first, the latest news.

Latest news

Is it time for another Copilot? Good news, there is a new one announced! With Hannover Messe conference taking place this week, Microsoft announced Copilot for Manufacturing. The focus is on getting easier access to data from across the manufacturing process so there is a lot of integration into Microsoft Fabric but also the capabilities becoming more available for Frontline Workers as well with Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service. At the last Ignite, the keynote talked about the ability of "Hey Copilot" to bring voice to the Copilot world and this should show even more of that.

Manufacturing for tomorrow: Microsoft announces new industrial AI innovations from the cloud to the factory floor - The Official Microsoft Blog

Kevin is speaking at a few events this year on building your AI Strategy with Copilot and this decision around what to buy, what to build and how to integrate those is key. This article from Microsoft explores this further and helps to trigger the thought process of when to extend too, also exploring the Copilot Studio vs AI Studio discussion.

Build, buy, or both? How to choose the right approach for your AI transformation | The Microsoft Cloud Blog

April looks like a busy month on the roadmap for Copilot for Microsoft 365 so make sure to check out some of the upcoming items. We will hopefully dedicate a show to some of these items, especially with the M365 Conference coming up.

We could talk roadmap as a lot of things coming in April e.g. Copilot in Stream - Microsoft 365 Roadmap - See What's Coming | Microsoft 365

Microsoft is continuing their investments in other AI companies with their own models and they have now invested in G42 over in Abu Dhabi. The story is even more interesting here due to the links that G42 had with China previously and the change to this was key to the deal.

https://www.geekwire.com/2024/microsoft-invests-1-5b-in-g42-the-emirati-ai-holding-company-based-in-abu-dhabi/

Podcast summary

For those looking to get going with Copilot for Microsoft 365, it is clear that being prepared starts with organising the content in your organisation. We were joined by Michal Pisarek of Orchestry to talk about:

• What you need to do to prepare for Copilot for Microsoft 365
• What Orchestry provides to help with this
• How Orchestry are using AI themselves

?Michal always provides a huge amount of insight into what matters with governance and cuts through the BS and this was no exception.

https://youtu.be/D5rw6kfHYDA?si=4lDmuK64MPlp5tme

Copilot powered TL;DR:

Here's a summary of the document:

Main ideas:

• Introduction and background of the guest: The podcast host, Kevin, interviews Michal Pisarek, the CEO and co-founder of Orchestry, a governance, adoption and automation platform for Microsoft 365. Michal is originally from Australia, but has been living in Canada for over 15 years.

• What is Copilot Readiness and why is it important: Copilot Readiness is the term used to describe how well an organization is prepared to take advantage of the AI capabilities of Microsoft 365, especially Copilot. Michal explains that Copilot Readiness involves cleaning up the existing content, managing the permissions and security, applying sensitivity labels, and training the users on how to use Copilot effectively. He says that Copilot Readiness can help organizations improve their productivity, security, and compliance.
• How Orchestry helps customers with Copilot Readiness: Orchestry provides a comprehensive solution for Microsoft 365 governance, adoption, and automation. It helps customers understand their environment, identify and fix issues, and implement best practices. Some of the features that Orchestry offers are content lifecycle management, permissions management, sensitivity labels management, provisioning, and reporting. Orchestry also integrates with Copilot and other Microsoft 365 tools.
• What are some of the challenges and opportunities for Copilot adoption: Michal acknowledges that Copilot is a powerful and innovative technology, but it also comes with some challenges and risks. He mentions that Copilot can sometimes produce inaccurate or inappropriate results, based on the quality and quantity of the data that it uses. He also warns that Copilot can generate content that may not comply with the laws and regulations of different regions or domains. He suggests that users should always review and verify the Copilot output before using it. He also sees opportunities for Copilot to improve over time, as it learns from the feedback and usage patterns of the users. He believes that Copilot can become a valuable assistant for knowledge workers, as long as it is used responsibly and ethically.

?Learn more about Orchestry at https://www.orchestry.com.

Useful links from the show

Vasa-1 : A lifelike audio-driven talking face generator: A new tool from Microsoft Research that can create realistic talking faces from a single image and an audio clip. Impressive ability to create new images that would be great in so many scenarios but we discussed on the show about the potential for misuse means that Microsoft Research are rightly keeping the code under lock and key for now.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/vasa-1/

Meta AI: A new bot for WhatsApp: Meta announced their new bot that will be embedded in many of their messaging features, including a new feature in WhatsApp that allows users to interact with it to answer questions, generate images, and provide information from various sources. We were a little skeptical about the privacy and security of the bot and the data that it uses, especially with some of the conversation that can happen in WhatsApp groups.

You can read more about the privacy and security guidelines:

https://www.facebook.com/privacy/guide/genai?entry_point=whatsapp_genai.

There are details on how to use it in a WhatsApp Group if you are in one of the supported countries:

How to chat with Meta AI in a group | WhatsApp Help Center

There are also details of the new Llama 3 model and how it compares with recent models released - thanks to Rene Schulte for sharing that:

https://x.com/rschu/status/1781007659493212215

Microsoft feedback portal includes Copilots: Did you know that there is a general feedback portal for the majority of Microsoft products where you can submit ideas and build support for them to encourage Microsoft to focus on them? Plus, there are particular sections for Copilot for Sales and Copilot for Service. Sadly nothing yet for Copilot for Microsoft 365 but maybe that's an idea to submit!?

Community (microsoft.com)

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