Hitchhiker's Guide to Microsoft Copilot

The executive summary of this section of the guide is that anyone in office work needs to become expert at Copilot as quickly as humanly possible. We had such a gargle blast with this that we did it all again!

Welcome to another chapter of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to AI at Work. As last week, the guide continues to be voiced by Stephen Fry although he has asked us to point out that future appearances are dependent on us fulfilling the commercial side of his contract. Our response can be summarised in one word: Belgium!

This week is all about Copilot. We have been diligently testing this product for a while and discovered that, whilst impressive, there is still work for Microsoft to do.

The editors would like you to know that Copilot is not the only show in town, as our first article made clear. However we must address the planet as we find it, and not as the mice would prefer it. Copilot is going to be the market defining product for anyone working in an office in the next few years. This does not mean that we are recommending it, or suggesting that it is the only tool you use. There are so many tools available now that there will be one with your name on it. Quite literally, in the case of Claude Monet. [In fact Claude is named for Claude Shannon. Stephen.]

Teams

For many managers and executives, the main power of Copilot rests within Teams. You can point Copilot at your meeting transcriptions to get intelligent summaries, including action lists. Every attendee can access the transcript and question it from their point of view. So you can ask questions like: "What are my actions?"

You can also use Copilot as a search engine to trawl through your text chats, and more. Ford Prefect, after five minutes with the product, announced it to be the finest form of convenient carbohydrate food since bread first encountered an automatic slicing machine.

Outlook

Ford suggest that for those with unmanageable mailboxes, the Outlook plugin is probably the second most useful part of Copilot. It might be the first. It takes search to the next dimension, finding emails in even the most buried folder structure. He once compared Outlook to a council planning office, the sole purpose and design of which could have been to conceal the whereabouts of the planning application for the demolition of Earth. Copilot found the document, if you remember, in the basement lavatory defended by a leopard. Copilot is that good.

PowerPoint

Another tool beloved of some managers, creatives, communicators, and a jolly sight more groups than that, PowerPoint is still the premier tool for creating slides. Whether humans should still be creating such devils in the modern day is a topic beyond the reaches of this guide. However, for the vast number who do, Copilot in PowerPoint is the Damogran’s knees.

Ford’s friend Eva found herself in what she openly admitted to being a pickle. Having spent many hours crafting a 10-page script for a presentation, she ran out of time to create the actual slides. With a twinkle in his eye and sleeves in the ‘up’ position, he blasted the document through Copilot. 83 seconds later and 25 slides with titles, summaries and images arrived in Eva’s inbox. [Eva’s response has been deleted on grounds of taste. Stephen.]

Word & OneNote

As an experienced journalist working for Megadodo Publications, Ford Prefect shuns the use of Copilot in Word and OneNote. Having such a degenerate manifestation of technology replace his own efforts is anathema to him. [This para written by Copilot. As for all the rest of his filth. Stephen.]

Excel

In some early experiments, the Excel plugin was the least impressive. It tried forlornly to create a simple formula to create a calendar view only to give up on the first day of the month and retire hurt to the pavilion with a bruised elbow. No doubt others will have different stories. Please let us know in the comments.

Loop & Whiteboard

Apparently Copilot also works with something called Microsoft Loop and Whiteboard. Unfortunately nobody in the outer spiral arm knows what Loop is for. Even the great prophet Zarquon is none the wiser about Loop. Whiteboard might be useful to some people.

Copilot Licenses

Copilot Pro

Everyone with a work Microsoft account gets free, safe and secure access to Copilot Business Chat which is like a slimmed down version of ChatGPT. Just make sure you are logged into your work account when you use it. It’s really good and a nice way to ease into the product. But the true power only comes when you embed Copilot into Microsoft Office with a Pro license.

Copilot Studio

This is a suite that is used for creating your own agents. It is not for everyone but looks extremely powerful. This is out of scope for this guide. It is quite new. Ford and Trillian will have more to say on Agentic AI in the future.

Trillian Explains

Back again to translate the article for those of us who don’t speak in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy references.

Let’s get straight to the point: Copilot is the AI tool that many organisations will be adopting, and for good reason. Most already use Microsoft products, so sticking with Microsoft’s AI makes complete sense.

At its core, Copilot is a massive time-saver. It handles those repetitive, time-consuming tasks so you can focus on the work that actually matters. Spending a little time learning how to use it properly will pay off massively.?

Just a few ways it can make your life easier:-

• Transcribing Teams meetings & summarising notes – no more frantic typing during calls.
• Digging through old chat messages – find that key piece of info, even if you don’t remember who sent it.
• Managing your chaotic inbox (are you one of those with 100,000 unread emails, it pains me to see) – Copilot can set reminders to reply, find attachments, and locate documents in seconds.
• PowerPoint presentations – let’s be honest, slides are the devil’s work, but Copilot makes them quick and painless.
• Excel magic – if your Excel skills are limited to entering numbers, like mine were, Copilot can change that. It helps you write formulas, automate processes, and basically do all the things you should have learned in that advanced Excel course you never took.
• Writing content – not included above but in my opinion, it does a pretty solid job of writing too!

In short: embrace Copilot, learn to use it, and it will save you time. It’s not total magic but it’s pretty good.

Bedtime Reading

More minor characters from H2G2: https://www.bookcompanion.com/thgttg_character_list2.html

Ford and Trillian are heading off for their evening at Milliways. Have you done six impossible things today? Then why not head to Milliways: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe?

Trillian was played by Danielle McCarter.