Before You Take Off With
Copilot for Microsoft 365,
Don’t Skip This Essential Preflight Adoption Guide

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Jesse Millard
Senior writer

Before You Take Off With Copilot for Microsoft 365, Don’t Skip This Essential Preflight Adoption Guide

The conversation around generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) covers many facets from the fantastic (humans will soon be replaced by AI) to the ordinary (we will all become faster at our jobs). Amidst the noise, the practical considerations around understanding AI capabilities and how they can lead to a Return on Investment (ROI) can be easily lost.

One LLM-powered generative AI solution that promises to deliver real value and an ROI is Copilot for Microsoft 365 — the new personal assistant that seamlessly works with Microsoft 365 tools, including Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook and Teams.

Productivity gains from Copilot for Microsoft 365 can be a real game changer for your teammates — especially those who may be bogged down in the day-to-day minutia of organising information, catching up on conversations and taking notes.

When it comes to doing or using AI, Copilot for Microsoft 365 appears on the “using AI” part of the spectrum. And it’s easy. End users input prompts, and Copilot for Microsoft 365 delivers results: meeting summaries, to-do lists based on emails and chat threads, document lists and more. Ultimately, Copilot for Microsoft 365 is any knowledge worker’s best friend — saving your end users from the tedium of endless email, document finding, note-taking and more.

“We believe Copilot will fundamentally transform our relationship with technology and usher in a new era of personal computing, the age of Copilots, and an era that uplifts every person, community, industry and country,” said Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO at the opening keynote for a Microsoft event in late 2023.

What differentiates Copilot for Microsoft 365 from other gen AI tools

There are many generative AI tools — with new ones popping up every day. But which ones will provide the most value for you? To answer that, you must first understand the two most popular approaches to generative AI:

Chatbots — A tool like ChatGPT is what many folks think of when they hear the term generative AI. ChatGPT and other similar products are publicly available LLMs where a user provides an input and gets an output. Using a chat version of generative AI is similar to an elevated web search experience — one where you can interact naturally and get the answers you need. This type of tool is perfect for general use among knowledge workers.

They can ask it to create documents, summarise information and much more. However, any data you provide a tool like ChatGPT is then used to train the model and improve upon its capabilities.

This can be a major drawback for businesses that don’t want to lose sensitive information to the public domain. There are many other tools similar to ChatGPT, including Gemini (formerly Google Bard) and the former Bing Chat Enterprise, which has been rebranded to Microsoft Copilot (not to be confused with Copilot for Microsoft 365).

Development hubs — Azure AI Studio is a popular example of a development hub designed for your application development teams to help them create specialized generative AI capabilities. With these tools, your coders provide the underlying infrastructure, data, and training, and the end result is an LLM that can meet highly specific needs. This generative AI approach requires development expertise, and organizations that have identified specific business use cases can benefit greatly from creating their own gen AI tools.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 isn’t quite a chatbot, nor is it a tool you’ll use to create your own generative AI capabilities. Copilot for Microsoft 365 is a virtual assistant that’s available across the Microsoft 365 suite. It essentially brings over the capabilities of a chatbot tool like ChatGPT, but now seamlessly works in your environment.

And the best part? Your data is private. And since Copilot for Microsoft 365 uses the same security and privacy settings from Microsoft 365, each user will only have access to the information they already have permission to access.

Where are you in your Copilot for Microsoft 365 journey?

We're exploring it.
We're preparing for integration.
We already have it.
We have no current plans to
add it.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 use cases

There are many impressive ways to use Copilot for Microsoft 365 across each everyday tool you use, including:

PowerPoint — Create first drafts, add content, edit the format, transform existing content into a PowerPoint, summarize the deck and extract next steps.
Outlook — Get help to reply to threads, author new emails, improve your emails and summarize long email chains.
Word — Create first drafts, add content, summarize long documents and ask questions about the content.
Teams — Catch up on ongoing meetings, ask questions about the discussion, summarize a message, create notes and access recaps.
Loop — Here, Copilot can be used for brainstorming and collaborative authoring and planning.

Many of these capabilities promise to save end users time and effort, so they can focus on deeper, more meaningful tasks that can propel the business forward. Imagine a world where you can quickly read email summaries, extract to-do lists with ease, and cut out much of the preparation work needed to draft documents and content.

These are productivity gains that can be a real game changer for your teammates — especially those who may be bogged down in the day-to-day minutia of organising information, catching up on conversations and taking notes. While these are necessary tasks for your organisation, they waste time that your top performers can’t afford to lose. Integrating Copilot for Microsoft 365 can help solve this challenge and lead to a more efficient workforce.

Frequently asked questions

Is Copilot for Microsoft 365 available?
As of Feb. 27, 2024, Copilot for Microsoft 365 is generally available to most enterprise and commercial customers.

What is the cost of Copilot for
Microsoft 365?
The retail price is $30USD per user, per month, and purchases must be transacted through your licensing partner.

Is Copilot for Microsoft 365 available outside of Microsoft 365
productivity apps?
Yes, Microsoft is releasing Copilot across its many different tools. A version is either out or in the works for several applications, including GitHub and Dynamics 365.

Your Copilot for
Microsoft 365
preflight checklist

The seamless integration of Copilot for Microsoft 365 into your everyday productivity tools is plenty cause for excitement. Here are the clear skies many organisations may have been waiting for to provide generative AI tools to employees.

As with any journey, you must make sure you have the all-clear before takeoff. As the leading Solutions Integrator, Insight is well-versed with AI, LLMs and data governance. We assembled this preflight checklist to help you get the technical and human side of your business ready. This will provide a smooth transition to Copilot for Microsoft 365 that delivers real value to your business.

The essentials of a Copilot-readiness checklist

To get started with Copilot, your organisation must meet minimal technical requirements and have certain features enabled. Here’s what you should know about technical prerequisites and availability:

Licensing is available through the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) and Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP) programs with no minimum seat requirements. Additional prerequisites include Business Standard, Business Premium, Office 365 E3, Office 365 E5, Microsoft 365 E3, Microsoft 365 E5 license types.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is available for purchase for all customers and through all channels, including Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), Education, and Enterprise Agreement (EA) customers. This means that regardless of the size of your organisation or budget, you can now purchase Copilot for Microsoft 365 with no minimum license requirements and enjoy its powerful AI features and capabilities that will boost your productivity and efficiency.

Retail price of Copilot for Microsoft 365 is $30USD per user, per month, and purchases must be transacted through your licensing partner.

To take full advantage of everything Copilot for Microsoft 365 has to offer, your end users must be on the current update channel for Microsoft 365 productivity apps and should be using the new versions of both Outlook and Teams.

The above checklist is only the basic requirements for running Microsoft 365 Copilot. Your organisation will need to have larger conversations that lead to management initiatives to make the most of this tool.

Here’s what else you should do to prepare your organisation for Copilot for Microsoft 365:

Get your data estate in order

It’s often said data is the lifeblood of the business, and that’s no different with Copilot for Microsoft 365. Your data security, privacy and compliance are the top elements that must be tightly managed for your business to get the most from Copilot for Microsoft 365.

When Copilot for Microsoft 365 is properly deployed across your business, you’ll have teams who can easily deliver creative solutions, improve efficiency and drive results.

Your Microsoft 365 sharing and security permissions and settings carry over to Copilot for Microsoft 365. This will help you on the security front, as Microsoft 365 has many advanced security controls.

The important step is to confirm you’re using those security tools. Double-check you have the right data-sharing policies in place to ensure folks have the right level of access. Because, if you don’t have the right sharing permissions, Copilot for Microsoft 365 can become a source of data leaks and improper access.

For instance, documents that are shared company-wide will be discoverable by Copilot — even if you are only sharing them from OneDrive. A data estate audit will confirm your permissions are aligned to company and regulatory compliance requirements before you launch Copilot.

This technical approach isn’t just something you do at the beginning of your adoption. Your organisation should have policies in place that continually maintain the right data controls. The result will be a generative AI tool that delivers solutions, not problems.

2. End-user training

As you address the technical side of your data environment, you’ll also want to provide adequate end-user training and ongoing change management.

Innovation without any communication about the how, what and why will result in a wasted investment. Knowledge workers — no matter how willing they are to be on the cutting edge — are still creatures of habit.

So, if you don’t provide the right training around both using this tool and managing information, you’ll only spin your wheels.

Take a two-pronged approach with your users:

Train them further on the importance of managing data, so that each Copilot for Microsoft 365 instance only has access to what that user needs. This will avoid data sharing that can cause security and compliance issues.
Teach them ways to incorporate Copilot for Microsoft 365 into their day-to-day work. That includes showing specific use cases, having regular trainings and offering teammates opportunities among themselves to share how this tool helps improve productivity.

End-user training should be an ongoing activity. One that both equips new teammates and reminds your veteran teammates how they can become even better at their jobs with support from Copilot for Microsoft 365.

What do you see as the biggest barrier to integrating Copilot for Microsoft 365?

Cost/budget constraint
Uncertainty about ROI
Lack of internal resources/support to ensure training and adoption
Not confident in Copilot's capabilities
Something else

Are you ready for Copilot for
Microsoft 365?

At Insight, we have deep expertise to make the most of your technology investments. From your data estate to your adoption strategy and end-user training, we can provide hands-on guidance and support to ensure your organisation maximises the value of Copilot for Microsoft 365.

This tool will be a significant investment that can change the way work is done at your organisation. Our workshops and readiness services can help you get the most from this powerful tool by identifying use cases and user personas, optimising your data, establishing your adoption framework and more.

When Copilot for Microsoft 365 is properly deployed across your business, your teams can easily deliver creative solutions, improve efficiency and drive results. Tools like Copilot for Microsoft 365 will chart the future of productivity. Are you ready for takeoff?

Improve productivity across
the business.

We’ll help you prepare for Copilot for Microsoft 365 so you can maximise your ROI through a creative and more efficient workforce supported by AI.

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