Have you taken a look at Microsoft Copilot lately?
It’s not for everyone or every situation, but if you haven’t poked around to see what it can do, it’s worth a look.
Today we’ll review a few ways that Microsoft Copilot can help you in your work and business. Plus, Microsoft recently announced some new experimental features that may roll out later this year. We’ll distill it all down to the stuff that’s most helpful to business leaders like you.
What Is Copilot?
Microsoft Copilot is Microsoft’s AI assistant, built into the latest versions of Windows and some Microsoft 365 products.
Think chatGPT or Google Gemini, but in Microsoft flavor: Copilot harnesses the power of large language models (LLMs) and other AI technologies to do two primary things:
- “Understand” conversational text in a way that previous systems couldn’t
- Respond to that text in sensible conversational text of its own
This goes far beyond what a classic Google or Bing search could do: there, the search algorithms tried to pair your query with strings of text it found somewhere on the internet. It found the sites, pages, and posts most likely to answer your question, but it didn’t answer your question on its own.
Now, these AI assistants can analyze thousands of sources and then synthesize their own answer to your question.
Microsoft’s version of this technology is built with business use cases in mind, not just consumer ones. Configured properly, Copilot can work from more than just the broader internet, searching your own and company documents for the information you need.
What Can Copilot Do for You?
By now you’ve probably seen some of the basic AI use cases: you can ask it to write an email for you, to write a poem about cybernetic potatoes in the style of Shakespeare, or generate an image of just about anything you can think of. Those have their place, but most businesses and business leaders want to get more out of AI.
Here are a few things Copilot could help with:
- Faster troubleshooting: Whether you’re the type to search Google and knowledge bases and forums or you’d rather just call IT, Copilot may be able to help faster. Ask it about the computer problem you’re having and see what it has to say.
- Summarize: Sometimes you just need the big picture, not the 15,000-word review. Copilot can “read” long documents or pages and generate a summary of the most important elements in just moments.
- Fix your formulas: Excel formula not resolving? Copilot may be able to identify what you’re trying to do and provide a formula that works.
- Turn data into visuals: Create a data-heavy PowerPoint presentation and let Copilot add relevant visuals, including data-based graphs and charts.
What’s New in Copilot?
Microsoft is testing some new elements like these:
- Auto-open: If you use Microsoft’s Edge internet browser, Copilot may automatically open when you start Edge. It will stay tucked away in the sidebar (where the Copilot button is now), but it will be more visible and always on, in a way.
- Ask Copilot: This one will live in your computer’s settings. Over the years, Settings has gotten too complicated, and it can be hard to find exactly what you need. With Ask Copilot, you can ask the handy AI to point the way to the setting you need — or maybe even to make the change for you.
Some users might have privacy concerns about an AI that’s always open in the sidebar, and if you’ve already concluded that AI assistants aren’t for you, the increased visibility might be annoying. But for many users, easier access to Copilot will be a convenient time-saver.
If you have questions about getting Copilot working properly for your team or you’re looking for help getting even more out of the tech, Blue Ridge Technology can help. Reach out today!