On Thursday, 16th of March, Microsoft Corp. announced it is bringing the power of next-generation AI to its workplace productivity tools with Microsoft 365 Copilot. Currently, in testing with select commercial customers, Copilot combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with business data and the Microsoft 365 apps to unleash creativity, unlock productivity and uplevel skills.
With the increase in the popularity of AI and its potential, Microsoft has begun to capitalise on this with Copilot. Through Microsoft’s early investment in Open AI and the upgrade to GPT-4, Microsoft now believes it is powerful enough to be implemented within the Microsoft 365 suite.
Copilot is integrated into Microsoft 365 in two ways. It works alongside you, embedded in the Microsoft 365 apps you use daily — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and more.
Testing will begin with around 20 companies to measure efficiency increase. Results should come in soon, with Copilot being available this summer.
Working to create and improve workflow and quality is what Copilot seeks to do in a business environment. By integrating Copilot into businesses, it is predicted that efficiency and workflow will be improved, leading to an increased output of improved work.
This will provide you with more time to do other work and not spend time doing simple and mundane tasks.
Microsoft Copilot aims to jumpstart your creative process by not starting with a blank slate, not knowing what direction you’re going. This saves you hours of sourcing and editing time and gives you a head start with your work.
With the help of Copilot, you will be able to input commands to create pre-made drafts of work. This will then let you edit and begin your workflow. In most cases removing writer's block allowing you to begin work processes with much more ease.
As the author, you will always be in control, so even if the content created by AI isn’t optimal, it will always put you further ahead from where you were.
With the help of Copilot, you are able to use Microsoft Word files to insert prompts and create powerfully designed PowerPoint presentations based on the data received from these word files.
For example, if you have a business proposal as a word file, you will be able to insert this in a prompt, and Copilot will create a PowerPoint presentation based on the proposal given.
Within Excel, you will be able to analyse trends and create professional data visualizations with simple commands.
With the help of trends and data inserted in Excel, Copilot will be able to create SWOT analyses based on what is shown. This will allow you as a business to analyse data in more depth and make smarter business decisions.
By integrating Copilot, you can now easily clear inboxes and filter out unnecessary emails. This will save you time in the long run and allow you to spend more time communicating and sending out the emails that you need.
Microsoft Power Platform is a line of business intelligence, app development, and app connectivity software application. With the help of Copilot, coders will be able to automate repetitive tasks and create simple lines of code which would normally be mundane tasks.
The future is now here. In the next coming months Copilot will soon be here and integrated within all your favourite Microsoft 365 apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, Viva and Power Platform. Pricing has still not yet been released but it is predicted that it will be a paid feature which will add onto what you already pay for Microsoft 365 licensing.
AI is a new and growing industry which will most certainly become part of every business in the near future. With what AI can already do it shouldn’t be a surprise the potential that it holds.
