Copilot, Microsoft's AI-driven virtual assistant, is transforming the way work is accomplished. By harnessing your organizational knowledge and data, it has the potential to redefine authoring in SharePoint, streamline app development and workflow automation in Power Platform, and enhance customer and employee experiences through Dynamics 365.

The evolution of artificial intelligence is rapidly impacting business operations, as highlighted by McKinsey & Company's research. The technological landscape witnessed a significant shift, with organizations using an average of 3.8 AI capabilities in 2022, doubling the 1.9 capabilities used in 2020. This underscores the imperative for businesses to stay ahead of the curve by leveraging AI capabilities.

By seamlessly integrating human expertise with AI, it provides intelligent and context-aware recommendations. According to Microsoft's WorkLab study, 88% of respondents acknowledged that AI and automation contribute to enhanced teamwork, while 54% reported experiencing improved problem-solving capabilities.

There are various ways to leverage Copilot, ranging from accelerating the achievement of business goals and enhancing strategic performance to increasing everyday efficiency and productivity.

Copilot is scheduled to enter public preview in November 2023, and its general availability is anticipated in March 2024. This article examines the steps to prepare your organization for the introduction of new AI features and functionality across the Microsoft product suite.

Copilot in SharePoint

In SharePoint, Copilot stands as a sophisticated large language model seamlessly integrated into the platform. It empowers users to create, edit, and refine SharePoint sites and pages with unparalleled efficiency. Accessing Copilot is made convenient through the new SharePoint start page.

Through conversational content creation, Copilot democratizes authoring, making it accessible to a wider audience. It efficiently transforms your ideas into tangible results, allowing you more time to tailor the design to match your brand. By articulating your concepts in your own words and incorporating necessary files in the prompt, Copilot effortlessly generates visually compelling pages and sites.

Copilot goes beyond merely generating new content; it also enhances existing material by offering suggestions for text rewrites, ensuring more engaging and effective communications.

Microsoft offers a unified Copilot experience across their key tools such as Teams, Outlook, Stream, Loop, and others. This guarantees a seamless experience and facilitates a smooth transition to incorporating Copilot into your daily workflow, eliminating the need for a steep learning curve.

Dynamics Sales Copilot

Dynamics 365's Copilot leverages advanced AI capabilities to enhance every facet of your organization, seamlessly integrating with both CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) modules. It offers interactive support to individuals in various roles and business functions, aiding them in achieving their objectives.

The tedious task of manual data entry in a CRM system can be a significant time drain. Dynamics Copilot enables the automation of repetitive processes, freeing up your sales team's time for more impactful activities such as engaging with customers. For instance, when faced with a customer requesting a discount, simply instruct Copilot to analyze your CRM data and propose a response aligned with your current goals and activities. This process is completed much more efficiently than manually sifting through information and making a decision.

Moreover, AI assistance extends to crafting email responses and generating email summaries for Teams meetings in Outlook. This ensures that crucial information is not overlooked, with the meeting summary incorporating details from the CRM, including product and pricing information.

Copilot in Power Platform

The Power Platform is renowned for its efficiency in saving time and effort for employees. Copilot amplifies this capability, taking the Power Platform experience to new heights by improving workflow automation and streamlining the creation of low-code apps, websites, and chatbots. It plays a pivotal role in translating your creative ideas into fully functional solutions.

In Power Automate and Power Apps, Copilot seamlessly collaborates with the AI builder to enhance the efficiency of processing forms and documents. This integration empowers users to extract approval justifications effortlessly and automatically generate comprehensive emails that include the extracted details.

Copilot dramatically expedites the process of app development in Power Apps. Users can construct and modify apps by simply articulating their needs through conversation, specifying the information and data they want to include. Additionally, users can instruct Copilot to implement changes, such as adding a screen, configuring navigation, or styling a particular control, streamlining the development process.

When users directly import Excel files into Power Apps Studio, Copilot takes charge of processing the data and seamlessly transfers it to a Dataverse environment. This approach centralizes invoice management and streamlines the creation of apps. Copilot automatically recognizes column headings and data, culminating in a customizable app that offers an intuitive user experience.

Power Pages stands out as a powerful tool for crafting professional websites. Leveraging prompts, Copilot dynamically generates HTML, CSS, and pertinent images for various sections of the webpage. Going beyond coding, it extends its capabilities to generate content, including descriptive paragraphs and forms. This not only saves time but also allows for more focus on website customization, fostering a more fulfilling and creative work environment. As a result, employee engagement and job satisfaction are elevated.

Throughout the Power Platform, Copilot enables individuals without coding expertise to actively engage in time-saving workflow automation, as well as the development of apps and sites. Microsoft's AI offering expands the horizon of possibilities for achieving business-critical goals at an accelerated pace.

Copilot introduces natural language generative AI capabilities to your favorite tools and applications, including SharePoint, Power Platform, and Dynamics 365. Whether you're streamlining CRM tasks, crafting content for your intranet, or developing apps to address unique business challenges, Copilot proves to be an invaluable AI-powered asset in enhancing productivity and efficiency.

If you're contemplating the integration of Copilot into your digital transformation strategy, feel free to engage with one of our consultants for personalized advice and recommendations. Alternatively, stay connected with us on LinkedIn to stay abreast of all our Microsoft insights and updates.