Preparing your business and employees to get the most out of Microsoft 365 Copilot

Those of you who have tried Microsoft 365 Copilot know that it’s a gamechanger.

Those who haven’t, should. Whilst there is a lot of talk about the pros and cons of AI, leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot efficiently in your business’ day-to-day activities will support a wealth of functions and tasks, from marketing and sales to finance and inventory management.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI companion which integrates into the Microsoft Office Suite and can increase productivity, creativity, provide inspiration and help to assimilate data. If you can integrate it efficiently and encourage employee adoption, it can be useful for a host of different departments, keeping your business competitive and ahead of the curve.

An important Update: Microsoft 365 Copilot was first rolled out to enterprise customers in March 2023. After some rigorous testing with these large accounts, Microsoft has now removed many barriers to entry - meaning that much smaller businesses can benefit. Microsoft Business Premium customers and Business Standard customers can now purchase between 1 and 299 licenses for £23 per month, removing the 300-seat minimum. Most importantly, Microsoft 365 Copilot works within your organisation’s context.

Businesses considering adopting Microsoft 365 Copilot after this update need to prepare to get the most out of it. They should focus on integration, familiarise employees with how it works and what it can deliver and finally feed the solution the correct data, prompts and parameters. This blog takes a closer look at those areas.

Here is a look at what Microsoft 365 Copilot can do:

Enhanced Productivity

Microsoft 365 Copilot can summarise reports, help write blogs, emails and presentations, keep up with or summarise Teams meetings, provide inspiration for any written assignments and also help with creating a framework to structure the user’s thoughts. All of this is achieved by simply keying in questions to a chat facility.

Simplified Customisation

The more you use it, the more it learns, which means that it gets better and better with every prompt and piece of work. This means it makes sense to use it regularly and become familiar with the most effective prompts and how to get the most out of it. It also means that the early adopters will be getting the most out of it in 12 months time when other businesses are only just investigating its usages.

Learning

It provides learning resources and helps users expand their knowledge of AI but also any subject that the user asks about. Remember 'phone a friend'? 'Ask Copilot' would have seen a lot more millionaires leave that show.

Seamless Collaboration

It helps teams work together across language barriers and it can adapt documents with multiple authors to make them into one uniform tone of voice.

To prepare your organisation for Microsoft 365 Copilot integration, follow these steps:

Licensing and Account Requirements

Ensure your users have one of the following base licenses: Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Business Premium, E3, or E5 subscription, and Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365.

Technical Readiness

Users must be set up on Microsoft Entra ID and access to Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams and a SharePoint and OneDrive set up.

Network Optimisation

Make sure your network is an appropriate grade to ensure low latency and good speeds.

Permissions and data Management

Have the correct data management and security permissions in place beforehand because Microsoft 365 Copilot will use these.

Remember, successful Microsoft 365 Copilot integration involves both technical readiness and cultural alignment. Preparing users for Microsoft 365 Copilot integration involves several strategic steps to ensure a smooth transition.

Here’s how businesses can get users ready:

Education and Training is crucial

• Train employees on Copilot’s features, benefits, and usage.
• Provide, fun hands-on workshops to familiarise users with it for work and home productivity.
• Get them to use Microsoft 365 Copilot for one of their daily tasks.
• Ask for team volunteers to try it and tell team members about it.

Change Management

• Explain about the upcoming Microsoft 365 Copilot integration and discuss any concerns about using AI early on.
• Talk about the way AI can be used by different employee groups and how to prompt it to work effectively.
• Encourage familiarisation and testing of the solution.

Customisation and Personalisation

• Encourage users to customise it according to their preferences.
• Show them how to set up personalised shortcuts so it can adapt to their work style.

Collaboration and Best Practice

• Show groups how they can collaborate.
• Share best practices for using Microsoft 365 Copilot in team settings.

Security and Privacy Awareness

• Explain how Microsoft 365 Copilot uses existing permissions and policies.
• Reinforce responsible usage and adherence to organisational guidelines.

Feedback Channels

Set up channels for users to provide feedback. Whilst preparing for integration you might experience issues like privacy concerns. There may also be some resistance to change as Microsoft 365 Copilot reduces time spent on tasks, which may lead to concerns over manpower reduction. There may also be problems with learning curves and fears about over-reliance on technology.

It’s important whilst communicating what Microsoft 365 Copilot can achieve for the business to demonstrate to employees how it makes their role easier and areas where they can spend their time instead. Allay any fears with a detailed roll-out of what it is and how it can be used to benefit everyone.

Remember – it’s not a case of one size fits all, so explain how it can benefit different job functions. The following list illustrates just some of the ways that Microsoft 365 Copilot can be used.

Learning and Development

It can be used for lesson and workshops planning, engaging content, and learning resources. Users can add as much data as they require to support this activity and the better the data and prompts, the richer the output.

Marketing

It can be used to write content in different styles for any platform, campaign planning, analysing data and summarising reports.

Inventory Management and Sales

Microsoft 365 Copilot can predict sales trends and enhance product descriptions as well as writing sales collateral.

Finance

It can support with data modelling, financial reporting, and risk assessment. It can also help with complex calculations, generating investment summaries, and analysing market data.

Customer Service

It can be used to deliver consistent and efficient responses meeting customer expectations.

Human Resources

It can help with summarising job roles for recruitment, provide all the content needed for employee onboarding, and writing and editing policy documentation.

Legal

It can be used to summarise reports, analyse data and create presentations for stakeholders.

Best practices to ensure a successful integration of Copilot:

Feedback and Learning

To use it most effectively, use smart prompts and also provide feedback in order that Microsoft 365 Copilot can learn efficiently and deliver an enhanced service.

Identifying Additional Features

Investigate which solutions plug in to Microsoft 365 Copilot to make the most of its rich functionality.

Smart Data Choices

Microsoft 365 Copilot is as good as the data you feed it so making sure that you have rich and accurate data is imperative.

Working Ethically

Users should understand how to use AI to their advantage but also ethically and within the confines of your organisation’s chosen perimeters.