Benefits of Microsoft Copilot

Copilot is now available for most license types! But if you haven’t had time to play around with this extraordinary new tool, or if you’re still wondering if it’s worth the investment, we’ve got you! 

Our experts have put together some of our favorite Copilot features as well as the benefits and potential drawbacks of using it.

Key Features of Microsoft Copilot

While you might be familiar with AI tools like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot is in a league of its own, thanks to its integration with the Microsoft 365 suite. We provided an early glimpse of how some of our pros are using this technology to simplify and shorten a variety of tasks. But the easiest way to make that clear is to explore how you can use it with the other Microsoft tools you’re probably using. 

We’ve summarized a few key ways Copilot can make your life easier within each tool below, but this video from Microsoft provides a helpful overview of tasks you can assign to Copilot throughout your day.

Copilot + Microsoft Word 

Do you get a little intimidated by the blank page or have difficulty starting a document? Copilot can create a first draft for you and help you make your document more visually appealing by transforming text into a table. Need to beef something up? Copilot will also help you support what you’re saying, and help you maintain a consistent tone. 

Copilot + Excel

You know those formulas you don’t like? How about just asking Copilot to do something instead? It can also help you identify trends, so you can act on the data you already have. It can also help you play out different scenarios about, say, sales data, by changing a variable or two. 

Copilot + PowerPoint

Just like in Microsoft Word, Copilot can start a first draft of a PowerPoint presentation for you — with your organization’s branding. Copilot can also organize slides for you and add images that might support your content. And if someone ever sends you a long one to review, no problem! Just ask Copilot to summarize it for you. 

Copilot + Outlook 

Is your inbox the bane of your existence? Then Copilot can transform you into a ninja master of all things email. 

Here are our favorite productivity hacks that Copilot can do: 

• Summarize long email threads from multiple people so you can get caught up to speed quickly on what’s been said and by whom
• Compose thoughtful, comprehensive emails and replies quickly based on content from other emails or other content in your Microsoft 365 environment 
• Highlight the most important messages in your inbox so you know what really needs your attention first thing Monday morning and what can wait 

Copilot + Teams 

Want to stop long, unproductive meetings from cluttering your week? You probably know where we’re going with this — encourage your organization to get Copilot. It can draft an agenda, generate a surprisingly intuitive list of potential topics, and suggest a meeting structure to keep things moving. And if you’re frequently working with people who don’t see eye to eye, you’re going to love this. Copilot can also generate a table of pros and cons to help simplify good decision-making. 

When your meeting is over, Copilot can also help you summarize everything that was discussed for anyone who couldn’t make it and suggest action items.

Copilot + Bing and Edge

You also can chat with Copilot to simplify your online experience with Bing and Edge. For example, you can ask it to summarize content for you, and you can interact with it to help you shop. As you continue to chat with Copilot, it will gradually use your preferences to bring you more relevant, personalized search results.  

5 Benefits Microsoft 365 Copilot Offers Businesses

AI shouldn’t do our critical thinking for us, and there’s still no substitute for the human brain. But the best use of AI is for the things that the human brain isn’t great at, and that we human beings tend not to enjoy. So, while there’s still reason to be cautious with some of these new tools, here are the benefits that early adopters are seeing. 

1. Increased Productivity

This one’s pretty obvious. If Copilot can cut down the time you spend reading and responding to emails by half, that alone is going to be huge for a lot of people. But the data is already starting to trickle in about how much productivity might go up. 

Here are some early statistics: 

• On average, sales representatives who used Copilot reported saving 90 minutes a week
• On tasks that required researching and compiling data from multiple sources, Copilot users were 27% faster
• Cybersecurity pros who used Copilot were 44% more accurate and 26% faster across all tasks, and 86% said it made them more productive
• Customer service reps that used Copilot resolved cases 12% faster 
• 67% of sales reps who used Copilot said they are able to spend more time with their customers

2. More Job Satisfaction

This isn’t exactly a news flash, but long and boring tasks don’t tend to make employees happy. With Copilot, there’s less drudgery and more time for more interesting, meaningful work. And by the way, it’s also been shown that people who enjoy their jobs are more likely to learn faster, make fewer mistakes, and make better decisions. 

3. Simpler Decision Making

At your organization, do the best ideas always get heard? Or do the best arguers tend to get their way? Copilot can outsource at least some of the naysaying, so instead of pitting person against person, everyone in the room can clearly see the potential advantages and disadvantages of a certain course of action. Copilot can also help advocate for good ideas that could use someone — or something — in their corner! 

And we touched on this earlier — because Copilot can summarize a significant amount of data easily, you can get more use from the tools you already have and make better-informed decisions.

4. Shallower Learning Curves

Microsoft tools can be very powerful, but without Copilot, some users might not be able to make the most of them. Copilot can help, and it can also help smooth the onboarding process for new hires by providing them with easy access to a wealth of information about your company and how you work.

5. Fewer Mistakes 

We tend to make more mistakes when we’re bored. Computers don’t get bored, and while AI will sometimes make a suggestion that’s not helpful, those “mistakes” are pretty easy to spot and quick to fix.

What To Know Before You Buy 

Microsoft Copilot is leagues ahead of most other AI tools in terms of security. However, your legal/compliance team might still not be fully on board with it. If you’re hoping to use it and you run into some objections, here’s what you should know. 

The way Copilot does what it does is by accessing data from across your organization’s M365 environment. Ideally, Copilot shouldn’t be able to fetch data for a user that they don’t have access to. You can make that happen, but only if your organization is able to easily enforce least privilege in M365.  

And here’s a concerning scenario that may or may not be relevant to your business: An employee gets permission to share a document through an anonymous link with a guest user. It’s possible that Copilot could access data contained in that document and show it to unauthorized users. 

So, while Microsoft Copilot will do a lot of work for you, some work is also required on your end: 

1. Use the permission models that you have available in your Microsoft 365 services to make sure users and groups can only access the information that they need to do their jobs
2. Just because you use Copilot doesn’t mean you should go on autopilot. Humans need to be responsible for how they use Copilot, and its responses aren’t guaranteed to be 100% accurate

Getting More From Microsoft 

Copilot isn’t the only way to get more from the Microsoft tools you’re already using!. 

Our experts are happy to provide you with personalized insights about what upgrades might make the most sense — for FREE. 

Click the link below to learn more about this offer!