Microsoft's new AI assistant, Copilot, is quickly becoming a popular tool for businesses. A huge number of big companies, like Dow, Bank of Queensland Group, Eaton, and Accenture, are already using it.

Copilot is saving these companies a ton of time and money. For example, Dow expects to save millions on shipping, Bank of Queensland employees are saving hours each week, Eaton is speeding up its paperwork, and Accenture is rolling it out to a huge number of its workers.

Microsoft's big tech show, Ignite 2024, is all about making work easier with AI. They're rolling out a new AI assistant called Copilot to help people with their daily tasks. Plus, they're building tools to automate boring, repetitive work, so you can focus on the fun stuff. It's like having a super smart helper at your fingertips!

Here’s what’s new:

• Copilot Actions: These will help you automate boring, repetitive tasks in Microsoft 365.
• New Agents: These AI assistants will help you find information in SharePoint, translate languages in Teams meetings, and automate employee requests.
• Copilot Control System: This tool will help IT teams manage and secure Copilot and the AI agents.

Empowering every employee with a personal AI assistant

• Microsoft has been able to make Copilot even better. It’s now twice as fast and three times more satisfying to use. Microsoft has added a bunch of new features to help people with their work, like automating boring tasks and managing their schedules.

New Copilot Actions can automate your daily tasks with easy-to-use prompts. For example, you can set it up to:

• Send you a summary of your tasks at the end of each day.
• Collect information from your team for a weekly newsletter.
• Prepare for customer meetings by summarizing past interactions.

This feature is currently in private preview

• Microsoft is improving Copilot Pages, a tool for team collaboration. You can now use it to create all sorts of things, like flowcharts and code, using data from Microsoft. These creations can be shared and built upon by your team. This feature will be available early next year.

• Teams meetings often involve a lot of back-and-forth conversation and shared visuals. Now, Copilot can understand what’s being said and shown, including PowerPoint slides and web pages. It can summarize key points and answer questions about the content. You can even ask Copilot to summarize a file shared in a chat, so you can quickly understand the main points without opening the file. This feature will be available early next year.

• With a simple request, Copilot in PowerPoint can translate your entire presentation into 40 different languages. It’ll keep the original design while translating the text, making it like having a professional translator on your team. This feature will be available next year.

• Copilot in Outlook can now help you schedule meetings with your colleagues. It can find the best time for both of you and even draft a meeting agenda.

Microsoft's new feature, Themes by Copilot in Outlook, lets you create custom themes that can even change with the weather! Pretty cool, right? It's available now, so go ahead and give it a try.

Transforming every business process with agents

You can interact with AI assistants in Copilot, and create and manage them in Copilot Studio. New AI assistants for Microsoft 365 are coming soon to help you work more efficiently and transform your business processes. These new assistants will work alongside the ones announced last month for sales, service, finance, and supply chain.

Companies use SharePoint to store a huge amount of information. Now, every SharePoint site has an AI assistant to help you find what you need. You can ask these assistants to:

• Summarize documents
• Find specific information
• Create new documents

For example, salespeople can quickly find product specs and pricing information. This helps them respond to customer questions faster and more accurately. You can even create your own AI assistants to help with specific tasks.

• Imagine being able to speak to people in different languages, and they hear you in their own language, in your own voice! The Interpreter agent in Teams can do just that. It translates what you say in real-time during meetings and can even mimic your voice. This feature will be available early next year.

• Imagine having an AI assistant to help you with HR and IT tasks. The Employee Self-Service Agent in Business Chat can answer your questions about benefits, help you request a new laptop, and more. You can even customize it to fit your specific company's needs. This feature is currently in testing.

• Other AI assistants include Facilitator, which can take notes during Teams meetings and chats, and Project Manager, which can create project plans and even complete tasks in Microsoft Planner. These features are currently available to try out.

• In the next few months, companies like ServiceNow, Workday, and Cohere will add their own AI assistants to Copilot. These assistants will help with HR, finance, and sales tasks. Additionally, companies like S&P Global and CB Insights are working on ways to connect Copilot to more types of business data.

Equipping IT to lead AI transformation

• IT leaders play a big role in bringing AI into their organizations. To help them, Microsoft is introducing the Copilot Control System. This tool is designed to help IT teams manage and secure Copilot and AI agents.

• To help IT teams manage and protect sensitive information, Microsoft is including SharePoint Advanced Management at no extra cost for Copilot customers. This tool helps prevent accidental oversharing and provides valuable insights into how data is being used. It will be available early next year.

• IT teams can decide who gets to use Copilot and AI agents, and they can keep track of how these tools are being used. Copilot is coming to Microsoft 365 admin centers. This AI assistant can automate IT tasks, give personalized advice, and answer admin questions. It's still being tested but will be ready early next year.

• IT and business leaders can track how people are using Copilot and AI agents and measure the impact on their business. Microsoft is including Microsoft Viva Insights in Copilot at no extra cost as part of the new Copilot Analytics. This tool provides insights into Copilot usage and its impact on business performance. The Copilot Business Impact Report is currently available to try out, and Copilot Analytics will be available early next year.

Enabling every employee to be secure and productive with Windows

Keeping your business safe from cyber threats is super important. Microsoft is working hard to make Windows the safest and fastest platform out there.

• Microsoft is launching the Windows Resiliency Initiative to help businesses recover from unexpected problems. A new feature called Quick Machine Recovery will allow IT admins to fix Windows Update issues on devices that won't boot. This feature will be available to test early next year.

• Microsoft is launching Windows 365 Link, a new device designed to work seamlessly with Windows 365. This device lets you work on a familiar Windows desktop in the cloud, providing a fast and responsive experience. It's currently available to test and will be available to purchase in select markets starting April 2025.

Ctelecoms, your trusted Microsoft Gold Partnerin Saudi Arabia, is here to help Saudi businesses of all sizes to benefit from the power of Microsoft Copilot. Whether you're a small startup or a large enterprise, we can tailor Copilot to meet your unique needs.

Contact us now!