Microsoft Copilot Enhancing Business Productivity Across Microsoft 365 Suite 

With the advent of AI and its increasing use across all industries, businesses are seeking innovative solutions to improve productivity and streamline operations. Gone is Clippy, the old Microsoft Helper, Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft’s AI tool, which is integrated within the Microsoft 365 suite, is designed to redefine workplace productivity. Microsoft Copilot is designed to improve productivity throughout the workplace for people in all roles, revolutionising business operational efficiency and productivity. 

Productivity Tools 
Microsoft Copilot is not merely an addition to the Microsoft 365 ecosystem; it represents a significant shift in how users and businesses interact with the Microsoft 365 suite to improve productivity. Copilot uses advanced artificial intelligence (AI), working alongside users in applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, while also linking directly into a user's OneDrive and SharePoint ecosystem, providing real-time assistance, suggestions, and automation capabilities that were previously unattainable or would have required hours of manual labour to collate, work through, and produce results for. 

Microsoft Word: Streamlined Document Creation and Management 
For businesses drowning in documentation, Copilot in Word offers a lifeline. By understanding the context and content of a document, it can generate summaries, draft emails, and even create content based on brief instructions. This allows teams to focus on refinement and review, rather than spending hours on initial drafts. 

Example: You are presented with a large document and want to find specific information and summarise it for your business needs. Ask Copilot, it can summarise the document with that specific information in context whilst also creating anchored links to the information within the document. 

Microsoft Excel: Advanced Data Analysis and Visualisation 
Excel, the backbone of business data analysis, becomes even more powerful with Copilot. Users can ask natural language questions about their data, and Copilot will not only provide answers but also suggest optimal ways to visualise this information. This feature reduces timely data analysis, enabling users with varying levels of expertise to derive meaningful insights from even the most complex datasets. 

Example: You have a large spreadsheet of your business purchasing data and want a way to visualise purchase history and spend by month and by department. Ask Copilot to visualise a graph based on these criteria, and it will collate all the data into a graphical format. 

Microsoft PowerPoint: Pretty Enhanced Presentations 
In PowerPoint, Copilot transforms the way presentations are created, streamlining, and speeding up the process drastically. By inputting a simple outline, set of bullet points, or linking to one or more documents within SharePoint, businesses can leverage Copilot to generate comprehensive, visually appealing presentations, complete with relevant stock imagery. Copilot within Microsoft PowerPoint not only saves valuable time, but it also ensures a high standard of quality and consistency across corporate communications. You can even tell it, or link it to your brand guideline documentation, logos, or presentation templates to ensure that presentations are delivered with your unique business brand identity.  

Example: You need to create a presentation for senior management based on client notes from word documents and sales statistics from a spreadsheet. Ask Copilot to produce a Presentation and provide links to these documents stored within SharePoint. Additionally, link it to a document outlining your brand guidelines, including Colour Hex Codes and logos. Copilot within Microsoft PowerPoint will then use these documents to create a visually appealing presentation, referencing this data with your business branding. 

Microsoft Outlook: Efficient Email Management 
The integration of Copilot into Microsoft Outlook revolutionises the way you use your emails. Not only can Copilot offer predictive text when drafting an email, it can also provide complete drafting assistance for an email based on natural language requests. However, it goes far beyond generative AI for email writing, Copilot brings powerful email management tools to Outlook, providing the ability to summarise long email threads to allow you to catch up on the important points. This efficiency boost helps users manage their emails more effectively, and efficiently. 

Example: You return from two weeks of annual leave to 30+ emails requiring attention upon your return, including multiple large email threads you have been copied in to. Rather than spending the first hours of your day reading and making notes on what needs actioning with each email/thread, Copilot within Microsoft Outlook can summarise the important points of emails and long threads, summarise action points and even assign tasks to the relevant people within the business. 

Collaboration 
Beyond individual productivity in the primary suite of Microsoft 365 Applications, Microsoft Copilot includes features that promote teamwork and collaboration. During Microsoft Teams calls Copilot can create a live summary of talking points and tasks, and using AI it is able to intelligently assign tasks to the relevant personnel.  

Example: Missed part of the meeting? Do not worry, Copilot can catch you up as you join or after the meeting has ended. Cannot remember who was supposed to be doing those crucial tasks? Copilot will not only list the tasks, but also who they were assigned to. It is like having your own personal PA on the Teams call... but for everyone. 

Cross-application
One of the most significant advantages of Microsoft Copilot is its seamless integration across the entire Microsoft 365 suite. This interconnectedness allows for a fluid work experience, where data and insights can be effortlessly shared, accessed and utilised across applications.  

Example: Insights from Excel can be directly incorporated into a Word document or PowerPoint presentation, reducing the need to duplicate work or costly time spent doing data or information analysis, streamlining the workflow, and enhancing collaboration. 

Privacy
Privacy and security within Microsoft Copilot are an essential consideration for any business who is thinking about implementing Copilot in their business. Do you know what your users have access to? When it comes to document sharing and access, many businesses are not aware of what documents their users can access, and in many cases, users have access to a plethora of information and data that they either do not need access to or should not have access to.  

There are two essential aspects of ensuring that your business is ready to implement Microsoft Copilot; 

1: Copilot Readiness Check: Before implementing Copilot, it is essential that businesses have a complete review of their entire Data Access estate. Before implementation, it is essential that users only have access to the files, folders, and data to allow them to effectively perform their role. 

2: Principle of Least Privileged Access: Ensuring that your business follows the Principle of Least Privileged Access ensures that when using Microsoft Copilot that users will not be able to ask Copilot (intentionally or unintentionally) to generate results based on data that they do not have the correct privileges to access. The Principle of Least Privileged Access is also an essential aspect of Cyber Essentials, Cyber Essentials Plus and ISO27001. 

Example of a Business that does not follow the Principle of Least Privileged Access
A user is creating a sales performance document, for this, they ask, “Based on members of the sales team, can you create a spreadsheet that breaks down overall productivity for February?” In a business where the user unintentionally has access to HR and Accounting data in addition to their own team sales records, this could potentially include a performance breakdown, including salaries and sick days, which this user should not need to access. 

Example of a Business that does follow the Principle of Least Privileged Access
A user is creating a sales performance document, for this, they ask, “Based on members of the sales team, can you create a spreadsheet that breaks down overall productivity for February?” In this business, the user only has access to their own sales team records, and as such, Copilot will only produce data based on what the user can access. 

Using the above examples, it is clear why you should ensure that your business performs a Copilot Readiness Check before implementation and follows the Principle of Least Privileged Access. 

How can TwentyFour IT help your business embrace the AI Assisted Future? 
As businesses adapt to the ever-evolving changes in digital technologies and the rise in Generative AI solutions that are becoming available (such as Chat GPT, Google Gemini and others), tools like Microsoft Copilot offer a significant leap forward in the future of work productivity. By harnessing the power of AI within the secure and familiar confines of Microsoft 365, businesses can unlock new levels of productivity, efficiency, and innovation. The integration of Microsoft Copilot across the suite represents not just an upgrade to existing applications but a fundamental shift in how businesses can operate. 

If you would like to find out more about Microsoft Copilot and see how your business could implement Copilot to improve your productivity, fill out the form below or email us to find out more.