Microsoft 365 Copilot Cheat Sheet -

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In a matter of months, the practical application of generative artificial intelligence has transformed from an abstract, far-off idea to a tangible reality. Businesses and organizations of all sizes are frantically trying to determine whether and how AI may increase employee productivity and efficiency. The Microsoft Copilot platform is driving the use of AI in a professional setting for enterprises that use Microsoft products.

Enterprise-level businesses are also exploring for ways that AI might use the enormous volumes of data that are generated every day by their organizations in increasingly effective ways. Many people think that a capable AI platform is the only way to handle such a large task. With its integration into Microsoft 365, Azure, Windows, and corporate data, Microsoft Copilot The AI, called streams, is said to be the key to releasing a company’s employees’ and data’s full creative and productive potential.

What is Microsoft Copilot?

The power of huge language models is combined with internal enterprise data produced by the Microsoft Graph and Microsoft 365 applications to create the new AI product Microsoft Copilot. Users can get better answers to their inquiries and possibly produce content from those responses by utilizing the power of AI and natural language dialogues. At the Microsoft Inspire conference in July 2023, Copilot was introduced as a Chat GPT platform that is currently in development.

Copilot comes in two flavors: Microsoft 365 Copilot and a more basic Microsoft Copilot. The Copilot platform featured in Bing Chat or other non-enterprise versions of Microsoft 365 is not the same as the consumer- and small business-focused Copilot platform found in Microsoft 365. These Copilot LLMs are trained on more generalized aggregate data collected from throughout the internet, and as a result, have a tendency to produce conclusions that are more universal. Microsoft 365 Copilot will be reliant on information produced by a particular, and only a particular, organization.

While the more broad Microsoft Copilot will use aggregate data obtained from the internet, Microsoft 365 Copilot will rely on internal, enterprise-generated data.

The Microsoft 365 programs, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams, will include both versions of Copilot. The employees of a firm will be able to use more creativity, unlock productivity advantages, and possibly develop their talents thanks to this thorough Microsoft 365 integration. The productivity package will also get an AI-enabled Business Chat feature from Microsoft 365 Copilot, which will integrate with enterprise-specific data including calendars, emails, chats, documents, meetings, and contacts to improve employee communication.

What are the versions of Microsoft Copilot?

Microsoft Copilot is available in three different flavors: Microsoft Copilot for Windows, Bing Chat Enterprise, and Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Microsoft Copilot in Windows

You can create and accomplish tasks inside the Windows operating system and with Windows programs using generative AI with this version of Copilot. Copilot will be accessible from the taskbar or by pressing Windows Key + C on the keyboard. The redesigned Copilot icon, the updated Copilot user interface, and Bing Chat will all be available on Copilot on Windows.

Bing Chat Enterprise

Business data is protected and won’t leak outside the organization thanks to the addition of commercial data protection in Bing Chat Enterprise, which builds on the Microsoft Copilot foundation. Your data is not saved with Bing Chat Enterprise, Microsoft does not have access to it, and it is not employed in the large language model training.

Microsoft 365 Copilot

Building on the Bing Chat Enterprise basis, Microsoft 365 Copilot offers enterprise-grade security, privacy, and compliance to guarantee that all data processing takes place within Microsoft 365. Microsoft 365 Chat is a feature of the Microsoft 365 Copilot experience that searches your whole universe of data (including emails, meetings, chats, papers, and more, as well as the internet) to assist you in working out difficulties at work.

Additionally, Microsoft 365 Copilot is linked with Microsoft 365 Apps like Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more.

What are business benefits to using Microsoft Copilot?

If Microsoft Copilot performs as promised, a worker may kick off a project (such as an email, presentation, report, or data visualization) with an AI-generated initial draft. Using that as a starting point, the worker can swiftly move on to editing and revising a second draft before moving on to a final draft, omitting at least one stage from the process. The worker should become more effective and productive as a result, and new abilities may be developed as well.

The use of enterprise-specific data in the new project from the beginning will be the key to these productivity improvements for Microsoft 365 Copilot. The project will likely be launched with few, but more significantly, relevant assets using data generated internally by the company from emails, documents, calendars, contacts, and other sources.

For instance, if a Ford enterprise employee needs to create a presentation that needs to illustrate movement, the AI should choose a Ford-related product rather than a comparable product from one of its competitors, assuming it has been correctly educated. The goal of implementing enterprise-specific generative AI may be defeated if an AI developed from data collected from the internet arrives at a different result.

How does Microsoft plan to integrate Copilot into its applications?

The design of all Microsoft 365 applications will include Copilot. Copilot will be available to help as needed anytime an employee opens a Word document, reads an email in Outlook, views an Excel report, or edits a PowerPoint presentation.

The intricacies of how each Microsoft 365 application will use Copilot are still being worked out, and it’s probable that many use cases won’t be found until after customers have had a chance to use the platform. However, Microsoft has described some of its fundamental concepts for Copilot in a professional setting.

Copilot in Word

Based on information from an Excel worksheet and a Word document (either the one you are working on right now or one you designate by name), create a two-page project proposal.
Condense the third paragraph in the existing paper, and alter the style to one that is more informal.
Using this rough draft as a guide, write a one-page draft.

Copilot in Excel

Create a table after separating this sales data by type and channel.
Create a chart to help you visualize the effects of a variable change in this data.
Model the impact on my gross margin of a change in a variable’s growth rate.

Copilot in PowerPoint

Based on this Word document, produce a five-slide presentation with pertinent stock photographs.
Three slides should be used to summarize this presentation.
Create three columns with a picture for each of these three bullets (in a specific PowerPoint presentation).

Copilot in Outlook

Write a summary of the emails you missed last week while away from the office and mark any critical messages.
Create a reply thanking the email’s senders and requesting more information about their second and third points.
Reduce the length of an email draft and improve the tone.
Next Thursday at noon, invite everyone to a lunch and learn about the launch of new products. Mention that there will be lunch.

Copilot in Business Chat

Write a summary of the conversations, emails, and documents related to the subject at hand.
What project milestone will come next? What dangers were found? Make a list of probable mitigating measures.
The project list from this email from this person (specifying a user’s name) should be incorporated into a new planning overview that is written in the same manner as this (specified existing) document and contains the planning schedule from another document.

What are potential problems and caveats with Microsoft Copilot?

All AI platforms are only as good as their training; if Microsoft Copilot is patterned after data that is incomplete, biased, wrong or otherwise corrupt, the advice it provides, regardless of who is asking, will be incomplete, biased, wrong or otherwise corrupt. The phrase “garbage in, garbage out” still holds true.

Because all the data required for the Microsoft 365 Copilot AI platform will be developed and acquired internally, training will be especially crucial for this platform. Businesses who want to use AI effectively need to be very careful about what information Copilot has access to. For instance, a company might not want brainstorming materials and meeting notes to be included in the data stream since rejected ideas could contaminate it and spread throughout the company.

Organizations and consumers of Microsoft Copilot must be mindful that part of the AI-generated output will probably be influenced by ingrained prejudices, fads, erroneous trends, and other transient occurrences. It is not appropriate for every online fad to appear in formal corporate documentation.

In addition to this possible issue, certain departments have a tendency to isolate their data behind firewalls, which is particularly problematic for Microsoft 365 Copilot setups. For instance, new services and products created under non-disclosure agreements are frequently shut off from the regular organizational data stream. Businesses will need to consider if it is better to keep data hidden from the AI in certain situations or to give it access.

What are the alternatives to Microsoft Copilot?

Given that generative AI is likely to be the most popular trend in technological innovation in 2023, Microsoft Copilot will likely face competition from a number of other new and in-development AI platforms.

Despite the fact that Copilot is based on ChatGPT, the AI chatbot should be viewed as a rival because it may be used independently. Bing Chat, a sort of AI already integrated into Microsoft Edge, was now made available for Chrome and the Google search engine. According to technology analysts, Apple is creating its own AI platform. It appears that artificial intelligence will be incorporated into almost all of the digital programs we use on computing devices.