What is Microsoft Copilot? An Introduction to the “Everyday AI Companion”
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into our daily work routines is no longer a distant future—it's our current reality. Microsoft Copilot is one of the tools at the forefront of this shift, offering an innovative AI-driven solution designed to enhance productivity, streamline tasks, and foster a new era of workplace efficiency. In this post, we'll dive into what Microsoft Copilot is, explore its capabilities, and discuss how it seamlessly integrates with Microsoft's suite of products to revolutionize the way you work.
What is Microsoft Copilot?
Microsoft Copilot is an AI tool developed by Microsoft, designed to act as a virtual assistant within the company's suite of productivity software. Leveraging the power of advanced machine learning and natural language processing technologies, Copilot aims to enhance user productivity by automating routine tasks, providing intelligent recommendations, and facilitating more efficient workflows.
Capabilities of Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft Copilot's capabilities are vast and varied, designed to cater to a wide range of tasks across different platforms. Here are some of the key features that set Copilot apart:
Text Generation and Editing: Within Word, Copilot can help generate content, suggest edits, and rephrase sentences to improve clarity and impact. Writing RFPs just got a whole lot easier!
Data Analysis and Visualization: In Excel, Copilot assists with data analysis, offering insights, generating summaries, and creating complex visualizations with simple commands.
Email Management: Outlook users can leverage Copilot to draft emails, summarize threads, and manage their inboxes more efficiently—a huge win for people drowning in their inboxes.
Meeting Facilitation: Copilot enhances Microsoft Teams meetings by providing real-time summaries, action items, and follow-up tasks, ensuring productive and focused discussions (no more meeting minutes!)
Customized Assistance: Beyond these, Copilot can be customized to perform specific tasks tailored to your organization’s needs, demonstrating its versatility as a tool.
How Copilot integrates with Microsoft's suite of products
One of the most compelling aspects of Microsoft Copilot is its deep integration with Microsoft's suite of products. Whether you're drafting a document in Word, analyzing data in Excel, managing emails in Outlook, or collaborating in Teams, Copilot is there to enhance your productivity. This seamless integration ensures that users can leverage AI assistance without disrupting their existing workflows, making it an invaluable tool for businesses and individuals alike.
Where can I see immediate productivity enhancements in my daily work tasks?
Microsoft Copilot is your AI ally in the digital workspace, offering not just a helping hand but the right words at the right time. This innovative tool is designed to enhance your daily work tasks by simplifying processes, elevating your productivity, and ensuring your focus is sharp on what truly matters.
Consider the following Copilot prompt for a glimpse into its potential to transform your day-to-day activities:
“Can I get the latest updates from Joe Smith, categorized by emails, chats, and files?”
And here's the response from Copilot:
Emails:
Joe Smith forwarded a conversation regarding a candidate's values and self-rating to Jane Doe and you about 15 minutes ago.
This morning, he informed the management team about the approval of Contoso Ltd agreements starting August 1, which supersedes previous years' agreements.
Chats:
Joe Smith gave a shout out to you for submitting a client Request for Quote before the deadline on Friday.
About half an hour ago, he thanked Bill Swift for his support and discussed prioritizing Northwind Trader project work with Jane Doe.
Files:
Joe Smith authored or co-authored several documents, including roadmaps, presentations, and discussions on various topics such as project planning, security, managed services, and IT management. The most recent modification was about 15 minutes ago on a document titled "Roadmap – Contoso Ltd”
This is a seamless example of how Copilot can give you a quick and relevant review of important information by gathering data from across your Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
Is Copilot free with Microsoft 365?
Unfortunately, no. Microsoft Copilot offers users three different plans with varying functionality, one of which is free (with a caveat). Dive into the details below.
1) Copilot for Microsoft 365
This plan is available to customers with a Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Business Premium, E3 or E5 subscription. It includes:
AI-powered chat with secure access to organizational graphs
Access to Copilot in apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams
The ability to build your own copilot with Microsoft Copilot Studio Preview
Enterprise-grade security, privacy, and compliance
This plan is just over $40/user per month (CAD).
Learn more about what’s included in Copilot for Microsoft 365 >
2) Copilot Pro
This plan is available only to Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscribers, and includes features like:
Priority access to GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo during peak times for faster performance
Ability to use Copilot in select Microsoft 365 apps to draft documents, summarize emails, and format presentations
Ability to create images even faster and in landscape format with 100 boosts per day in Designer (formerly Bing Image Creator)
This plan is $27/user per month (CAD)
Learn more about what’s included in Copilot Pro >
3) Copilot Free
The free version of Copilot is a web-based AI that operates very similarly to Chat GPT. It empowers you to:
Access Copilot on web or mobile—and in Windows, Edge, and Bing
Chat using text, voice, and images
Summarize documents and web pages
Create images with 15 boosts per day in Designer (formerly Bing Image Creator)
Use plugins and Copilot GPTs
Real-world feedback: is Copilot worth the investment?
We wanted to know: are companies actually using Copilot in their everyday activities? We asked some of our IX team members to provide real, unfiltered feedback on how they’re using the product. Here’s what they had to say:
“I likely use it differently than the technical team does. I have Copilot tell me the sentiment of an email or document. For example, when I am writing performance reviews, I want to ensure the sentiment is what I want and that there are no conflicting points.”
“If I find I have written a text-heavy email, I use it to create a summary of my information, and then link to a larger document.”
“I ask Copilot to summarize any month end billing notes about a client at the end of the month.”
“I've used it for Documents—taking a bunch of ideas and thoughts from multiple people, and having it put them together in a cohesive manner.”
“I have used co-pilot to assist with some high-level documentation. It provides some very nice frameworks and talking points when developing agendas or document outlines, but I found the detailed content to be somewhat hit-and-miss.”
“It hasn't fully replaced search, but it is useful in some cases. It can be hit and miss, but occasionally it generates some decent results for the query.”
The general consensus? Copilot is fantastic for automating or streamlining administrative tasks. While it’s not a perfect solution, each iteration of the platform will only improve—and even today, our team is seeing real-life value from the investment.
Is Copilot really revolutionizing workplace productivity?
The candid answer: it depends. The introduction of Microsoft Copilot is more than just an incremental update to Microsoft's suite of products—it represents a shift in how we approach work. By automating routine tasks, providing intelligent recommendations, and streamlining workflows, Copilot allows users to focus on the creative and strategic aspects of their work, kind of like an IRL virtual assistant.
While it does have the potential to increase productivity and enhance the quality of our work, AI is only as promising as users believe it to be. The early adopters will be all in, but many of us are still late to the game. So—will you try using AI in your everyday activities?
Interested in how you can leverage AI in your organization?
If you’re a business or IT leader looking to enhance your operations, Microsoft Copilot represents a significant step forward in our journey towards a more efficient, productive, and intelligent workplace. Connect with our Microsoft experts if you need help determining how to effectively roll out Copilot within your organization.
