Who Was Your Copilot Before Copilot?

Before there was Copilot...

Before there was Copilot, we had our own human Copilots. Kerry Barrass was mine at Microsoft during my tenure there. And this week, I got to meet her in person for the first time to thank her for her vision, guidance, integrity and inspiration.

Before the world was enamored with the promise and potential of Copilots in our productivity suites (Windows and 365) we each out our own real, reliable, responsible Copilots in our human relationships at work.

Think about who those people were for you. That person or team you trusted to jump right into a shared, skeletal Word document or practically blank PowerPoint, to help you improve, iterate or find that first draft.

In my line of work, I am creating, curating, co-creating and recreating content all the time. I love that aspect of my work. It's fun. And in my line of work, I often have to do a lot of convincing and coalescing and coaching and collaborating. And that comes with endless potential and tantamount pressure.

I can remember implementing Groove Technologies in the early days, and that became the chassis to what we now know as real-time, live, co-authoring and editing in M365. That feature has been in my life since circa 2005. I have watched the entire arc of that evolution of innovation (and human behaviour alongside) to where we find ourselves today...cue the Copilots.

And still, there's that heart-racing feeling when you see those extra cursors jump into your documents to either build upon or break down your first drafts. No matter who you are, no matter your tenure, that feeling is one of a visceral vulnerability.

We all feel it, and it's what unites us...we all want to feel a sense of belonging and we want to be believed...even in our workplaces. And we all start tabula rasa, blank slate, those blinking cursors as our mascots. It is those blinking cursors that are perhaps our greatest, humbling equalizers to our egos.

And each time someone asks aloud on a call, "Can you share a link to that .docx or .pptx?" we hold our breath a bit and sometimes begrudgingly copy and paste it into the chat. Why do we hesitate? Why do we hold our breath? Why do we hope the default settings on OneDrive require people to request access first?

Because it's inherently scary to expose our first drafts, our opening thoughts...our blinking cursor while others await our perspective and point of view. And our learned behaviour is one of scarcity, while our two-initialed blinking cursor dances on the screens of others around the world.

"What could go wrong?" is where we often start. We brace for impact and hold our breath under the waterfall of comments to come.

And then, on occasion we get to see something different. We get to see the Copilots before we had Copilot. We see the beautiful dance of cursors that truly co-create and ultimately celebrate your thoughts, even your half thoughts. Those seedlings hold your growth too, those buds carry weight and wonder and wisdom as well.

And as the 1s and 0s like watercolors begin to mix before your very eyes, you get to reframe it into "What could go right?"

That is what I learned alongside big, brave hearts and courageous co-creation of leaders like Kerry Barrass & Alisa L. Liddle & Alexandra Jones & Carson V. Heady & Theresa Wescott Nebel & Maurice Rice at Microsoft. Thanks for the dance.

Yes, we get to begin with believing in people, their passions and potential. And we get to innovate from that place of "What could go right?"

And that is why I reflect fondly on those early days of shaping business experiences with products like Viva Sales (since rebranded as Sales Copilot) under the stewardship of Kerry Barrass . And it's why now, as I open the interface for Microsoft Copilot in apps and on OS daily, I smile.

And because I know those tenets of our humanity, consciousness and co-creation are there, deep in the code that works to give us our greatest gift...time back. And I know who worked tirelessly to keep that a humane priority and I know who is working around the clock to keep it top of mind, anchoring in our human potential not just in product.

I consider myself lucky to have led lasting change in partnership with the best in the business, long before the world of business ever had the best to test in Copilot.

And let us not forget, long before we had to work to craft perfectly poised prompts in Copilot in order to feel a sense of co-creation, we had one another, and the dance of blinking cursors.

And as the song says so eloquently about our humanity:

"Save the last dance for me."

So, who was your Copilot before Copilot?