Technology
I was becoming more curious about the growing prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI) toolsets for business in online articles and posts. My company recently rolled out Copilot for Microsoft 365, so to satisfy this curiosity and jump-start my knowledge, I attended a Microsoft Copilot Studio in a Day course.
I was hoping to get answers to several questions:
What is a Copilot and how does it relate to AI?
Is Copilot the name for the pop-ups (prompts) that I’m seeing regularly now on my PC?
Is there only one type of Copilot or are there different types?
Do I need to do anything to start using Copilot for Microsoft 365?
How might a Copilot be useful in my job or for training purposes?
Here’s what I learned from attending the class and through my research in the time since then. I hope you find it helpful.
Copilots are conversational assistants powered by large language models (LLMs) and generative AI to assist in daily tasks or line of work.
To better understand this explanation, I turned to the IBM website. After all, they’ve been involved in the AI space for a long time (for example, Watson). Here’s what IBM has to say:
Conversational assistant: This technology leverages AI techniques to understand user inputs and generate appropriate responses.
Generative AI: A form of AI, generative AI refers to large, deep learning models that can generate high-quality text, images and other content based on the data they were trained on (see LLMs).
LLMs: A subset of generative AI, LLMs are models that have been trained on large amounts of data so that they can understand language and provide the backbone for generative AI.
In a nutshell, a Copilot is a form of generative AI.
Copilot is the name of Microsoft’s family of conversational AI assistants. Other tools refer to these conversational assistants by a different name. For example, Adobe calls it an “AI Assistant.”
In Microsoft’s world, Copilot is an overarching term for a number of different Copilots that exist within the Microsoft infrastructure, both enterprise class and web-based.
Just as these assistants use different names, each supplier uses different technologies and platforms for the development, delivery and support of their conversational AI assistants.
Microsoft has created a Copilot “for every enterprise Microsoft Cloud experience.” These Copilots are:
Copilot for Microsoft 365
Copilot in Windows
Copilot for Security
Copilot for Dynamics 365
Copilot for Power Platform
Copilot for GitHub
In our line of work, the Copilot you will probably be exposed to and use the most is the enterprise Copilot for Microsoft 365.
Yes, you need a license in your environment. This is normally applied to your account by your IT team.
This article assumes your organization has enabled it for your use. If not, I suggest you inquire about it with your management or IT support staff.
If it’s available to you, you can quickly start using Copilot for Microsoft 365 and reap the benefits. Once a license is applied, Copilot for Microsoft 365 will appear in many Office apps such as Teams, Word, PowerPoint and Excel.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 has access to many enterprise app data points. From writing and reviewing emails, understanding meetings or simply trying to catch up after a day out of the office, Copilot can make fast work of crunching through our data.
In Teams, Copilot can be used to record, create transcripts and notes, and summarize meetings. Recordings can be reviewed as a refresher and shared with those who were unable to attend. Notes are easily searchable post meeting, and summaries highlight key points and action items.
Multiple team members can contribute to and edit the notes, ensuring comprehensive and accurate documentation. It is refreshing to simply be involved in a meeting knowing that notes and recordings are automatically created for you.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 in Teams allows you to be fully immersed in the conversation. We find its use makes meetings more efficient for all and saves time on follow-up.
PowerPoint is another example. Need to quickly understand a PowerPoint and running short on time? Try Copilot in PowerPoint and request that it create a summary of the deck. Copilot responds with the main ideas and prompts you with examples of follow-up questions to ask (like, “What key business questions are addressed in slide 10?”).
You can ask Copilot in Word to summarize a document or provide suggestions for how to improve specific content or ask it a specific question about the content (“Is there a call to action?”).
By extension, Copilot for Microsoft 365 can help training professionals quickly generate and customize training materials, including presentations, references guides, handouts and quizzes from secure source documents — safely and confidentially.
Beyond these examples of using Copilot for Microsoft 365, be on the lookout for opportunities to create your own Copilots with your colleagues or for your clients.
Let’s take a look at this.
Microsoft provides a toolset, Copilot Studio, to allow development of Copilots. This tool is an end-to-end (create-to-deploy) graphical development environment that most business users can master with some basic training.
Note that there are two primary development paths to build a Copilot using Microsoft Copilot Studio — a low-code method and a professional developer method.
Besides owning a license to Microsoft Copilot Studio and having someone who knows how to use it, creating a Copilot in Copilot Studio can require a skilled and diverse set of resources (such as content developers and data sources) and well-defined processes to make it happen — particularly for enterprise use.
Following are questions to consider:
Who is your user?
What type of conversations will your Copilot be having with this audience?
Where will these conversations take place?
What does it mean for your Copilot to truly answer user questions?
What are some unexpected responses your Copilot may encounter?
What data might you need access to? Which systems do you need to integrate with to do so?
What level of content moderation should you allow generative AI to create responses for?
What assumptions do your users have when they engage with your Copilot?
What context do your users have when chatting with your Copilot, and does this solution fit that mental model?
How can you design a Copilot that makes it easy for your users to find the answers they are looking for?
Copilot for Microsoft 365 is a suite of conversational AI assistants powered by large language models and generative AI, designed to assist you in various tasks across enterprise Microsoft Cloud experiences.
These tools help you across the Microsoft Office app environment to more efficiently create, discover and use enterprise data in development of training materials. Additionally, Copilot Studio allows you to create low- or no-code custom Copilots, catering to specific enterprise needs and enhancing user engagement.
Caroline Bennett, MBA, MA, MHI, is director of learning strategy for NXLevel Solutions. Email her at
cbennett@nxlevelsolutions.com or connect through https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolinebennettmbamams/.
