Supercharge your productivity with Microsoft Copilot

Table of contents

What is Microsoft Copilot and how does it work?

What can you do with Microsoft Copilot?

What are the costs of Microsoft Copilot?

Is my data protected?

What if I'm not ready for Copilot?

Joining up your business with Focus Group

As we explore the capabilities, integration processes, and the undeniable benefits of adopting Microsoft Copilot for your business, remember that this is more than just an upgrade to your Microsoft applications. It's an investment in the future of your business, promising not only to enhance productivity but also to redefine the potential of your workforce.

What is Microsoft Copilot and how does it work?

Microsoft Copilot represents the next frontier in business productivity, a sophisticated AI integration within Microsoft's ecosystem designed to revolutionise the way we interact with digital workspaces. At its core, Copilot is a manifestation of Microsoft’s commitment to leveraging advanced AI technologies, specifically large language models (LLMs), to streamline and enhance the productivity of businesses worldwide. By tapping into the vast pools of data available through the Microsoft Graph—encompassing everything from emails, documents, calendar entries to contacts and meeting notes—Copilot acts as a highly intelligent assistant that understands the context and nuances of your business operations. This AI-powered feature is ingeniously woven into the fabric of Microsoft 365 applications, enabling users to transform their ideas and commands into actionable outcomes with unprecedented ease and efficiency.

The operational brilliance of Microsoft 365 Copilot lies in its real-time access to both content and context within the Microsoft Graph, allowing it to generate responses and actions that are deeply tailored to the specific needs of your business. It goes beyond mere automation, offering insightful analyses, creative content generation, and smart task handling by understanding the intricacies of your organisational data. Furthermore, Copilot introduces an innovative ‘Business Chat’ feature, a conversational interface that allows users to interact with their digital environment.

What can you do with Microsoft Copilot?

Teams

Microsoft Copilot in Teams revolutionises meeting experiences by intelligently tracking discussions, key topics, and action items in real-time. This ensures that participants can focus on the conversation without worrying about note-taking. Post-meeting, instead of revisiting entire recordings, Copilot provides a concise summary of the main points and actions required, streamlining follow-ups and ensuring that no critical information is missed. This feature not only saves time but also enhances team collaboration and productivity.

Outlook

In Outlook, Copilot transforms email management by summarising long and complex email threads, enabling users to quickly catch up on discussions without sifting through every message. Additionally, it assists in drafting emails, offering suggestions to convey messages in a concise and effective manner. For instance, if you need to inform someone about a project delay, Copilot can help craft a message that is both informative and tactful. This AI-driven assistance ensures efficient communication, with 64% of users saying Copilot helps them spend less time processing emails.

Apps (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.)

• Excel: Copilot in Excel is a powerhouse for data analysis and visualisation. By interpreting simple prompts, it can sift through complex datasets to highlight trends, generate professional-looking charts, and even provide summaries of data insights. This capability enables users to make informed decisions faster and present data in a more engaging and understandable way.
• Word: In Word, Copilot aids in overcoming writer's block by helping to generate first drafts, suggest rephrasings, and summarise long documents. In fact, 85% of users said Copilot helps them get to a good first draft faster. Whether it’s a report or a creative piece, Copilot can help refine ideas into polished texts, adjusting the tone and style as needed.
• PowerPoint: With Copilot in PowerPoint, creating compelling presentations becomes effortless. By inputting simple prompts, users can generate slides that incorporate relevant content, including data and insights from documents created previously. This feature not only saves time but also ensures that presentations are backed by accurate and comprehensive information, making them more impactful.

Other users

Copilot extends its functionality beyond specific applications, offering broad capabilities to foster creativity and facilitate international communication. For instance, it can generate creative ideas for projects, suggest names for products, or craft engaging social media posts. Additionally, its translation feature is invaluable for global businesses, enabling seamless communication across languages. This not only breaks down barriers but also opens up new opportunities for collaboration and market expansion.

Since 77% of users said once they used Copilot they didn’t want to give it up, it’s soon going to become one of the most essential pieces of business technology. By harnessing the power of Microsoft Copilot across these various applications, you can significantly enhance productivity, creativity, and communication efficiency.

What are the costs of Microsoft Copilot?

The financial model for Copilot is designed with scalability and accessibility in mind, ensuring businesses of all sizes can leverage its potential. The subscription to Microsoft 365 Copilot is priced at £266.76, translating to a mere 80p per user per day—a modest investment when compared to the profound impact on productivity it promises.

This cost is especially compelling when considering the potential for Copilot to make each employee an hour more efficient every day. Given the average UK salary, this efficiency gain equates to a potential annual productivity boost of around £4,400 per employee.

Is my data protected?

In the era of digital transformation, data security remains a paramount concern for businesses venturing into the integration of AI technologies. Microsoft Copilot is built upon the foundation of Microsoft's longstanding commitment to security, privacy, and compliance. It automatically adheres to your business's existing security and privacy policies, ensuring a seamless alignment with your organisational standards. With features like two-factor authentication and compliance boundaries, Copilot sets a new benchmark in AI solution security.

The technology underpinning Copilot has been meticulously designed to safeguard user and customer data, leveraging the same robust security measures that have protected Microsoft's platforms for years. Furthermore, Copilot's operation within your business ecosystem is highly respectful of data privacy; it only utilises information to which you have direct access, and interactions with the AI are not retained for the purpose of training the model. This comprehensive approach to security and privacy ensures that your venture into AI with Copilot is not just innovative but is conducted in a manner that prioritises the integrity and confidentiality of your business data.

What if I'm not ready for Copilot?

For those not quite prepared to make the leap to Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft offers an alternative path through Teams Premium. This option includes enhanced features such as 'recap' and meeting notes, which represent a more modest foray into AI-enhanced productivity. Teams Premium provides a suite of enriched functionalities at a lower cost point than Copilot, serving as an introductory platform to AI's benefits.

For those not quite prepared to make the leap to Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft offers an alternative path through Teams Premium. This option includes enhanced features such as 'recap' and meeting notes, which represent a more modest foray into AI-enhanced productivity. Teams Premium provides a suite of enriched functionalities at a lower cost point than Copilot, serving as an introductory platform to AI's benefits.

This alternative not only accommodates varying levels of AI readiness among businesses but also demonstrates Microsoft's commitment to providing solutions that meet diverse needs. Engaging with Teams Premium can serve as a valuable stepping stone, offering insights and confidence that can pave the way for a future transition to more advanced AI solutions like Copilot, ensuring that when your business is ready to embrace the full spectrum of AI's potential, the transition will be smooth and the benefits, significant.

Joining up your business with Focus Group

Choosing Focus Group as your partner in this digital evolution means selecting a team of experts committed to your success. We understand the challenges and opportunities that come with integrating new technologies like Microsoft Copilot. As such, we're not just here to implement solutions; we're here to support, guide, and ensure that you leverage these tools to their fullest potential. Our dedicated sessions on maximising Copilot’s output are a testament to our commitment to your business’s productivity and efficiency.

Together, we're not just adapting to the digital age—we're leading it. This collaboration is your gateway to not only keeping pace with technological advancements but setting the pace, ensuring your business remains at the forefront of innovation.