Within the last few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has become an essential tool for almost every business. It makes unprecedented new levels of productivity and efficiency possible, especially for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) who would otherwise struggle to achieve their goals.
For the millions of companies worldwide who already rely on Microsoft 365 to function, one particularly compelling option is Copilot. This AI-powered assistant is already helping businesses improve operations, save money, and empower their workforce. If you’re in the market for a new AI solution, this might just be the perfect choice.
But why?
A Brief History of Microsoft Copilot
Copilot grew from the ashes of Microsoft’s previous AI assistant, Cortana. This assistant was their testing ground, allowing them to experiment with integration and the question-answer format that all large language models (LLMs) now use. Cortana was initially released in 2015, but then slowly shut down four years later due to a lack of success. Microsoft had a strong vision in mind – but the technology wasn’t quite there yet.
In 2023, Microsoft decided to try again. By this time, AI technology had made significant leaps forward thanks to models such as ChatGPT. The new and improved assistant, Microsoft Copilot, was designed to be far more than a novel plaything – it would be a productivity powerhouse designed specifically for businesses.
This strategy finally paid off. By October 2024, just one year later, it was estimated that up to 79% of businesses had implemented it in some capacity. This isn’t because Microsoft is good at marketing. It reflects the very real value that this digital assistant can provide.
A Glance Under the Hood: How AI Assistants Work
Understanding how tools like Copilot function can be useful for leveraging them effectively. Typically, they use a mixture of the following:
- Language Model Intelligence: At the core of every modern digital assistant is an advanced LLM, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. These are trained on vast amounts of language data, and are constantly improving by using the internet to learn more. They are designed to understand natural language prompts and produce helpful, evidence-based guidance.
- Contextual Awareness: Today’s AI tools don’t generate answers from within a vacuum. They consider context relevant to your situation, such as other documents they have access to or recent events in the news. This allows their answers to be more tailored to your needs.
- Real-Time Processing: As LLM technology develops, these tools improve their ability to interpret questions, research and analyse information, and generate fact-based responses in real time.
While they may seem magical, AI assistants are using a complex series of logical and algorithmic calculations to arrive at their conclusions. They are accurate, fast, and highly intelligent.
Learn more about how AI works alongside Microsoft 365 to improve productivity
What Makes Copilot Different From Other AI Models?
While all AI assistants function using the same set of basic building blocks, there are some unique factors that increase Microsoft Copilot’s productivity gains:
- Integration: Copilot is designed to integrate with all other Microsoft products. This allows it to pull data not just from the internet, but from your own documents and communications. The end result is greater accuracy and more tailored insights.
- Security: Microsoft applications are famous for their advanced, highly customisable security features. With a little configuration, you can easily mitigate the risk typically associated with LLMs.
- Updates and Maintenance: Copilot is regularly updated with new features, stronger security, and more advanced algorithms. As time passes, the benefits it can provide will only continue to grow.
- Customisability: Using Microsoft’s numerous configuration options, leadership can customise Copilot to your business’ precise security and productivity requirements. This ensures that it continues to suit your business needs perfectly, even as changes occur.
5 Ways Copilot Boosts Your Productivity
But what does Copilot actually do? There is plenty of discussion around the positive impact this application is having on businesses, but not many details are being provided. It’s difficult to commit to a new technology when you’re not entirely sure how exactly it can help.
Here are 5 tangible Microsoft Copilot benefits for businesses:
1. Reduced Workloads
Consider what your staff spends most of their time doing. Chances are, the bulk of their workday is not used developing strategies or driving growth. Instead, it’s wasted on:
- Meetings
- Organisational tasks
- Drafting documents
- The dreaded, endlessly-refilling email inbox
They don’t need to do these things – or at least, not nearly as often. Copilot can summarise meetings, draft documents, and even write responses to emails. By automating these menial, time-consuming tasks, you drastically reduce your employees’ workload. This carries significant long-term benefits: not only will productivity rise as staff get more done in a day, but morale will also improve. Happier, less exhausted employees will work harder, accomplishing even more.
Using this capability alone, your business can easily double output without having to hire a single additional staff member. This translates to improved client satisfaction and higher profits.
2. Stronger Data Insights
Datasets are bigger and more complex than ever before. While this provides you with all the information you need to make smarter decisions, it’s utterly wasted if no one can actually read it. As the amount of information employees must sift through grows, analysis becomes increasingly difficult. Important trends are missed, hours are wasted, and in the worst-case scenario essential files could be misplaced entirely.
There’s a better way. Copilot can read and analyse enormous datasets in seconds, providing actionable insights that allow your business to make real progress. It can identify market trends, potential bottlenecks, and performance metrics long before this information is actually necessary, enabling faster and more accurate decision-making.
You can even use it to build ‘What-if’ scenarios, playing out the potential outcomes of a choice in real-time. This lets you decide upon the best course of action minus the trial-and-error, minimising costly mistakes in the process.
3. Better Presentations and Documents
When too much time is wasted on document and presentation creation, it is easy for staff to get lazy. Reports and slides are haphazardly thrown together in the name of saving time for other tasks, lowering both quality and impact. There is also the Blank Page Problem: creating a document from scratch is often extremely difficult, particular for those without natural creative tendencies. Under these conditions, the temptation to simply throw something together can be very strong.
Copilot solves both problems. It uses information taken straight from your stored files and previous communications to generate accurate drafts. With half the work already done, and the blank page filled with content, employees have the time and motivation they need to focus on quality.
That’s only the beginning. As staff work to edit their new documents, Copilot can make suggestions for formatting, additional content, visuals, and styles. It can also rewrite text to improve clarity, fix tone and grammar issues, or condense long passages. The result is higher-quality output with less hassle.
4. More Efficient Collaboration
Few can deny that during the average workday, much time is wasted chasing up prior communications and attempting to clarify needs. This not only reduces productivity, as previously discussed, but also creates friction between team members. No one enjoys being asked to provide the same information five times over, and the affected staff may begin to ignore or delay such requests.
Copilot’s integration with Teams and Outlook streamlines communications by addressing these common pain points. It can:
- Summarise long meetings or email chains into small, digestible chunks that highlight the most critical information
- Automatically identify tasks that must be completed, and provide a list of next steps
- Generate responses, status updates, and announcements
This significantly improves collaboration between staff members, ensuring that everyone works together effectively.
5. Smarter Workflows
Without assistance, workflows can become complex and bogged down with pointless tasks. Over time, this leads to delays and errors that slow down operations. Your productivity drops through the floor, clients are unhappy, and profitability is reduced.
Copilot streamlines your workflows with reminders, follow-ups, and templates that keep everyone on track. Mission-critical tasks are less likely to be forgotten or pushed aside, because each employee is consistently reminded of what they should be doing next. Certain steps in the workflow can also be entirely automated. This eliminates unnecessary tasks, reduces human error, and helps you maintain momentum.
Implementing Copilot
To make use of Copilot’s benefits, you’ll need to implement it properly. Follow these steps to maximise your chances of a successful integration:
Step 1: Assess Readiness and Use Cases
Begin by determining what Microsoft Copilot’s productivity improvements would actually look like. Where does your team waste the most time? Are they writing repetitive reports, sifting through datasets, or constantly looking up meeting transcripts? These are the pain points you’re using Copilot to solve.
Next, assess your business’ readiness. Do staff have the skill set necessary to engage with an AI assistant? Do your existing workflows rely on any third-party applications that might integrate poorly with Copilot? Keep in mind that Copilot requires an additional subscription fee, and ensure you can afford this in the long-term. This information will determine your next steps.
Step 2: Run a Pilot Program
Before rolling out Copilot across the entire business, test it first with a smaller team. Gather feedback on what worked, what didn’t, and what issues might pop up in the future. Develop a set of key performance indicators (KPIs), and use them to check how much of an impact (positive or negative) Copilot had on workplace productivity.
Step 3: Set Policies
Any new technology must be supported by consistent policies that govern its use. Define what Copilot can be used for, and which data it may access. Decide how usage will be monitored over time, and put protective measures in place for any particularly sensitive information.
Step 4: Training and Adoption
AI assistants call for an entirely new skill set that your team may not yet have. Provide training on how to prompt it effectively, validate its output, and integrate it into their existing workflows. Encourage experimentation, while emphasising that it is designed to function as an assistant and not an absolute authority.
Remember that they will experience challenges as they get used to using Copilot. Be prepared to handle questions and an increased number of errors during the transition period. Proactive support will make this easier – if you hear that someone is struggling, reach out instead of waiting for them to approach you.
Step 5: Long-Term Evaluation
Continue to track your metrics, including time saved, tasks completed, usage, and error rates. Use this information to make necessary adjustments and address any problematic patterns that are starting to appear. You may need to provide additional training, tweak settings, or restrict features to ensure that the technology is being used correctly.
Solving Common Challenges
It’s always important to prepare for the worst-case scenario. Here are some pitfalls that many businesses experience while adopting Copilot, along with actionable solutions:
Inaccuracies
All AI models will occasionally output incorrect or incomplete information. This is simply due to the way they collect information – if the datasets they learn from are wrong, they will repeat the same errors in their answers.
The Solution: All AI-generated content should be reviewed and fact-checked before use. Detailed prompts that include necessary context can help minimise mistakes.
Resistance
While business leaders love AI, many employees don’t share this sentiment. There is an all-too-common perception that it will be used to replace their roles, leaving them without an income. This may result in resistance.
The Solution: Get ahead of this before it becomes a problem. Validate their fears, then explain why Copilot is not capable of replacing them. Highlight the tangible benefits it will bring them personally (such as a reduced workload and less frustration), instead of expecting them to care about nebulous productivity gains that they cannot see. Demonstrate that it exists to empower them, not take away their livelihoods.
Overreliance
When users blindly accept Copilot’s output, errors can start slipping through the cracks and project quality may drop. Ultimately, while it is a useful tool, it can never fully replace the ingenuity of a human mind.
The Solution: Reinforce the importance of critical thinking, prompt refinement, and verification. Set clear policies that outline when it is acceptable to use Copilot, and when it is not.
Cost Management
Copilot is not included within your existing Microsoft 365 subscription. Instead, it costs an additional $44.90 per user per year. Without careful oversight, this could easily end up becoming too expensive to manage.
The Solution: Keep track of your spending, and only authorise Copilot for employees who need it. Start small, monitor return on investment (ROI), and slowly scale up from there as appropriate.
The Role of a Microsoft Expert
You may find that you need additional expertise in order to use Copilot to the best of its abilities. This isn’t uncommon. Microsoft products can be challenging to use, especially when the amount of configuration required is taken into account. To address this problem, you might consider hiring an external Microsoft partner for support.
The Benefits of Hiring an Expert
- Configuration Assistance: These experts understand the ins and outs of Microsoft’s ecosystem. They can help you integrate Copilot into your existing infrastructure, and configure it to your precise requirements.
- Strategy Development: All technology should be aligned with your overall business goals to ensure ROI. Your Microsoft partner will assess your objectives and develop strategies to make sure your Copilot usage makes a real contribution.
- Change Management: A professional can provide guidance on how to achieve buy-in and reduce change resistance. Some (but not all) may even offer hands-on training.
- Long-Term Support: Your partner will continue to monitor and optimise your Microsoft environment over time, keeping Copilot secure and effective as your business grows.
What to Look for
If you decide to partner with a Microsoft expert, look for these things:
- Proven Credentials: Your chosen provider should be a certified Microsoft Partner. This demonstrates that they have the experience and expertise needed to help you.
- Experience: Pick a partner with experience in your specific industry. These providers are more likely to understand your unique business environment, rather than applying generic solutions.
- Strong Social Proof: Look for case studies, reviews, and testimonials. Any partner worth their salt should be able to demonstrate a strong track record.
- Good Communication: Like any third-party partner, they should communicate quickly and clearly. Don’t pick a provider who consistently has to be chased up, or takes days to respond to a simple question.
- Transparent Pricing: It shouldn’t be difficult to understand what you are paying for. Check for transparent pricing structures, clear deliverables, and opportunities to scale the service with your needs.
FAQs
What Are Microsoft 365 Copilot’s Benefits?
M365 Copilot’s benefits include increased productivity by automating repetitive tasks, speeding up workflows, and improving collaboration. It also saves money by reducing staffing requirements. It’s a valuable assistant for any business seeking to accomplish more with less.
Does Copilot Work Offline?
Unfortunately, Copilot does not currently work offline. It is cloud-based, and requires internet access.
Can Copilot See All My Data?
Copilot can only see data you permit it to use. You maintain direct control over which items it can access.
Is Copilot Available in all Microsoft 365 Plans?
Copilot is not currently available in Business or Enterprise Microsoft 365 plans. To access the full version, you’ll need to pay an additional subscription fee on top of your existing one.
How Do I Ensure Copilot’s Outputs are Trustworthy?
You can never entirely eliminate the risk that Copilot will make a mistake. Always have a human review its output for accuracy and clarity, and use detailed prompts to reduce the risk of errors.
Leverage Your Microsoft Ecosystem for Long-Term Success
Copilot is an excellent tool for any business, but only if you understand how to use it effectively. Remember that its role is to supplement and support your team, not to replace them. Keep in mind what it’s good at, and develop strategies to cover its few shortcomings, and you’ll find that it provides you with a fantastic ROI.
Microsoft products can be confusing to navigate, and there’s no shame in admitting you need help. That’s what Platform 24 is here for. If you’re unsure how to leverage the benefits of Copilot, learn how our Microsoft experts can assist you.
