Get More Done with Microsoft CoPilot for Business

As a business user, you know that time is money. With tight deadlines and ever-growing responsibilities, you need tools that can help boost your productivity.

That's where Microsoft CoPilot comes in.

CoPilot is an AI-powered assistant that works right within your Microsoft apps like Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook to help you write faster and work smarter. Here's how you can start using CoPilot today:

Accessing CoPilot

• Make sure you have the latest version of Microsoft 365. CoPilot works with Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, Business Standard, Business Premium, E3, E5, Government G1, G3, G5, and Nonprofit Business Premium licenses.
• Open a supported app like Word or Outlook and look for the CoPilot icon on the top right. Click on the icon or use the keyboard shortcut ALT+C to invoke CoPilot.
• Follow the quick setup prompts to connect your Microsoft work account and provide permissions.

Using CoPilot

Once enabled, you can start having natural conversations with CoPilot to get help with everyday tasks:

• Writing assistance - CoPilot will autocomplete sentences and entire paragraphs for you as you type, generating relevant suggestions based on the context. You can accept the suggestions or ignore them.
• Answering questions - Ask CoPilot direct questions about your document or task at hand and it will provide helpful information.
• Explaining concepts - CoPilot can explain complex terms, processes, and diagrams in easy-to-understand language if you ask it explicitly.
• Data insights - CoPilot can analyze data in tables and generate insights to include in your documents.
• Scheduling meetings - CoPilot can help schedule meetings and coordinate timings based on your instructions.

The key is to treat CoPilot like a helpful assistant and have a natural conversation. The more you use it, the better it understands your style and preferences.

Integrating with Excel

CoPilot does have the ability to analyze data in Excel spreadsheets and extract key insights you can add to Word documents and PowerPoint presentations.

To leverage this, open your Excel sheet and Word doc side-by-side. Highlight the data range in Excel that you want analyzed. Then in Word, type something like "Please analyze this data and write 3 key findings." CoPilot will scan the highlighted data and write sentences summarizing the main takeaways.

You can do the same in PowerPoint by asking CoPilot to create data charts using the highlighted Excel ranges. This makes it easy to quickly create data-driven documents and presentations powered by CoPilot's AI.

Microsoft CoPilot offers exciting new capabilities for authoring PowerPoint presentations.

With its natural language processing, CoPilot allows you to have a conversation with the AI assistant to create and refine presentations.

To start a new presentation, you can simply tell CoPilot something like "Please create a 10 slide presentation introducing the key points of my startup's business plan." CoPilot will then generate a draft presentation with placeholder slides and text summarizing the main topics.

You can then refine the presentation by giving additional prompts. For example, "On slide 3, add an infographic showing our projected revenue growth over the next 5 years." CoPilot will insert a relevant data visualization. You can also tell CoPilot to reword or expand upon certain slides for clarity and impact.

A major benefit is using CoPilot to turn long documents into presentations. Say you have a 20 page proposal document. You can tell CoPilot "Take the key points from this proposal and create a 6 slide presentation" and it will analyze the document and create a concise slide deck.

CoPilot is also handy for presentation design. You can give it commands like "Change the layout of slide 4 to have the title on the left and two columns of text" or "Insert a photo of a team collaborating above the title on slide 7." This makes it easy to quickly create visually engaging slides tailored to your content.

While CoPilot is not a complete replacement for human creativity, it can significantly accelerate your PowerPoint workflow. The AI generates helpful drafts and slide ideas, while you provide the direction, refinement and personal touch to the final presentation.

With some practice, CoPilot can become an indispensable presentation partner.

Get More Value from Microsoft 365

CoPilot is included with your Microsoft 365 license at no additional cost. It represents the latest innovation from Microsoft in bringing helpful AI assistants into everyday productivity applications.

So next time you're working on a document, creating a presentation, or trying to juggle your busy calendar, invoke CoPilot for assistance. Its conversational AI capabilities help you work faster and focus on the tasks that really matter.

Give Microsoft CoPilot a try today and see how much time it can help you save!

Here are some tips for using Microsoft Copilot to develop business correspondence and presentations:

For Business Correspondence:

- Ask Copilot to draft a professional email response based on key details you provide. For example: "Please draft a 200 word email to John Smith thanking him for his partnership proposal. Mention that we will review the proposal in our next executive meeting on March 15th."

- Have Copilot summarize long email threads to get quick context before responding. Say "Summarize the key discussion points in this email thread in 2-3 sentences."

- Use Copilot to compose emails by describing the intent and tone. "Write a short email checking in with the client to confirm logistics for tomorrow's meeting. Use a friendly and upbeat tone."

- Ask Copilot to revise emails to change the tone or length. "Make this email more concise and formal."

For Presentations:

- Give Copilot a prompt to create an initial draft presentation. For example: "Please create a 5 slide presentation introducing our new product features. Use the product brief document for background."

- Have Copilot insert relevant charts and graphs to visualize data. Say "Add a bar chart showing sales numbers from Q1 to Q4 based on the data in this spreadsheet."

- Ask Copilot to reformat slides and text for better flow. "Change the layout of slide 2 to have the image on the right and bullet points in a column on the left."

- Request Copilot to summarize lengthy presentations. "Condense this 15 slide deck into a 5 minute executive briefing"

- Tell Copilot to rewrite slides with an alternate tone or style. "Make the language on slide 3 more casual and friendly."

The key is giving Copilot clear instructions and providing reference materials. It can quickly create drafts and decks for you to then refine and finalize.