What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?

At the moment, AI (artificial intelligence), is the current buzzword and hot topic in computing. The launch of tools like ChatGPT and Google’s Bard have made a big splash and developers are now racing to integrate these new features into their apps. These features will help users by doing part of their work for you.

People are using AI to help them write business correspondence, create websites and write scripts with AI quickly transforming the everyday office workflow.

Microsoft is one of the biggest players in the office application field and has a major stake in ChatGPT. The company is about to integrate this AI technology into Microsoft 365 in a huge way with a new tool named Copilot.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is designed to help users get the most out of their Microsoft 365 apps. This revolutionary tool is an intelligent, personalised assistant, designed to help users navigate and use M365 more efficiently.

In this blog article, we will take a closer look at Microsoft 365 Copilot and tell you the keyways in which it will improve M365 apps and your business workflows.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI-powered assistant. It is designed to help users with their day-to-day tasks in M365 apps. In simple terms it is like having a personal assistant right in your Office apps where users can ask questions, get help with tasks and receive personalised recommendations. Copilot responds leveraging the context of their usage patterns.

Microsoft 365 Copilot works across all M365 apps, including:

Word
Excel
PowerPoint
Outlook
Teams
and more

When you are in one of these applications, Microsoft 365 Copilot is there to assist you with working on a document, meeting scheduling or collaborating with a team.

How Does Microsoft 365 Copilot Work?

M365 Copilot uses AI and machine learning to understand users’ needs and then provides personalised help. It uses data from users’ interactions with M365 apps to learn a user’s usage patterns and offers recommendations based on their preferences.
Here are a couple of examples:

You may frequently use certain features in Excel. Microsoft 365 Copilot will learn this and will then offer suggestions when it detects that you’re working on a similar task.
If you are working on a presentation in PowerPoint and struggling with design. Microsoft 365 Copilot can offer design suggestions based on your company’s brand guidelines.

Microsoft 365 Copilot can also help users with common tasks such as, scheduling meetings and managing emails. Users can simply ask Copilot for help. They can ask it to schedule a meeting or find an email from a specific person, and Copilot will take care of the rest.

Why is M365 Copilot Important?

Copilot is important because it can help users be more efficient and productive by providing personalised support. It can save users time and reduce their frustration.

Imagine working on a report in Word and you are struggling to format a table. Instead of spending time searching for a solution online or trying to figure it out on your own, you can simply ask Microsoft 365 Copilot for help. Copilot can offer suggestions. It can even walk you through the process, saving you time and reducing frustration.

M365 Copilot is also important because it can help users get more out of their M365 applications. Many people may not be aware of all the features and capabilities of their M365 apps, but with Copilot, users can discover new ways to work more efficiently and effectively.

The capabilities of Copilot go even further. Say that you need to give your team an update on a marketing strategy. You don’t need to dig out meeting notes, emails and chat threads, instead, you can ask Copilot to “tell my team how we updated the marketing strategy”. The app will then search all those places for you and craft an update for your team.

Need to draft a meeting agenda or presentation? Just ask Copilot. It can access existing M365 documents and content and craft an initial draft for you. Once it is created you will then need to doublecheck and add in any further details but the bulk of the work is already done.

Benefits of Using Microsoft 365 Copilot

Personalized Help

Microsoft 365 Copilot provides personalized help based on users’ usage patterns and preferences. This means that users get the help they need when they need it, without having to search for solutions by themselves.

Reduces Frustration

Microsoft 365 Copilot can help reduce user frustration and provides solutions when users are stuck on a task. The tool can also help users struggling with an Excel chart or table. Instead of them having to figure out how to generate it, they can simply give a command to Copilot to do it for them!

Time Saving

Microsoft 365 Copilot can help users save time on common tasks such as scheduling meetings and formatting documents. It can take on many information gathering tasks, like summarising meeting notes. This saves user’s considerable time, especially for manual tasks such as searching for information.
Knowledge workers spend an average of 2.5 hours per day searching for information.

Improved Productivity

Microsoft Copilot handles tasks that go beyond what business apps have historically done. For example, you can use it in PowerPoint to create a presentation for you. Use a command such as, “Create a six-slide presentation based on *this* document”. You can also tell it to find appropriate Microsoft stock photos and insert them.

The sky is the limit right now for how much this tool is going to impact office productivity.

When Will Microsoft 365 Copilot Be Available?

At the writing of this article, Microsoft currently testing Copilot with a limited number of users and hasn’t officially announced a release date yet. Sources are saying a July release date so it may be her sooner than we think!