MICROSOFT COPILOT RECAP
You’ll remember that Microsoft 365 Copilot is a cutting-edge AI-driven assistant that will seamlessly integrate into Microsoft 365, revolutionizing your productivity. Tailored, personal recommendations, insights, and suggestions are its forte, enhancing user efficiency. Launched recently in November last year, Copilot harnesses the capabilities of large language models (LLMs) while leveraging user data from the Microsoft Graph. This includes calendars, emails, chats, documents, meetings, and beyond. When coupled with the Microsoft 365 suite of applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams, Copilot transforms ordinary words into a dynamic powerhouse of creativity, enabling you to summarise emails, animate PowerPoint slides, and much more. Of its creation, Microsoft says:
“Our goal is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more by bringing Copilot, the everyday AI companion, to millions of people around the world.”
COPILOT FOR EVERYBODY
Until January this year, Copilot was exclusively accessible to enterprise clients, who guaranteed commitment to a minimum of 300 Copilot licenses. This dynamic has undergone a significant transformation. Copilot is now readily available to businesses of all sizes, without any minimum license prerequisites. This swift transition can be attributed to the overwhelming demand across businesses of varying sizes for AI and AI-powered tools. Moreover, individuals keen on exploring AI need not fret. Copilot is accessible to independent users outside of business plans through the Microsoft Copilot package, Copilot Pro. This gives SMEs an accessible route to using the generative AI tool.
SUMMARY OF COPILOT CHANGES
- Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now generally available for SMEs subscribed to Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Business Standard, with the flexibility to purchase between 1 and 299 seats.
- Commercial plans require a minimum purchase of 300 seats, opening Copilot’s accessibility to Office 365 E3 and E5 customers.
- Commercial clients can obtain Copilot for Microsoft 365 through Microsoft’s network of Cloud Solution Provider partners.
- Eligibility for Copilot for Microsoft 365 has been expanded to include education faculty and staff.
COPILOT PRICES FOR SMES
- Copilot – the standard version is free and a chatbot similar to ChatGPT.
- Copilot Pro – for consumers/individual users, offering AI-powered Copilot features inside Office apps and much more. It will set you back £19 per month.
- Copilot for Microsoft 365 – a premium subscription with more features designed specifically for businesses costing £25 per user per month.
COPILOT PRO VERSUS COPILOT FOR MICROSOFT 365
Check out these differences:
| Copilot Pro | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | |
| Foundational capabilities | • | • |
| Web grounding | • | • |
| Commercial data protection | • | • |
| Priority model access | • | • |
| Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote | • | • |
| Teams | • | |
| Microsoft Graph grounding | • | |
| Enterprise-grade data protection | • |
COPILOT BENEFITS FOR SMES
Microsoft probably isn’t far off the mark with this overarching statement:
“We all want to focus on the 20% of our work that matters, but 80% of our time is consumed with mundane work that bogs us down. Copilot lightens the load.”
Here are just a few of the benefits that SMEs can enjoy when they use Copilot:
Integration with apps – Microsoft 365 Copilot is seamlessly integrated into the suite of productivity applications that millions of users rely on daily for work and personal tasks, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more. This integration ensures a consistent user experience across all platforms, with Copilot maintaining the same intuitive look, feel, and functionality whether accessed through Teams or Outlook. Utilising a shared design language for prompts, refinements, and commands further enhances user familiarity and ease of use, streamlining workflows and increasing productivity. With its presence in essential productivity tools, Copilot becomes an indispensable assistant for users, aiding them in accomplishing tasks efficiently and effectively across various Microsoft 365 applications.
Unlock productivity – In Outlook, Copilot streamlines email management by summarising lengthy email threads and providing suggested replies, enabling users to swiftly clear their inbox in minutes rather than hours. Meanwhile, in Teams, Copilot enhances meeting productivity by summarising important discussion points, including who said what, highlighting areas of agreement and disagreement, and proposing actionable items—all in real-time, transforming every meeting into a highly efficient and effective collaboration session.
Upskilling – Copilot will empower you to excel in your existing skills while facilitating rapid mastery of new ones. Traditionally, individuals utilise only a small fraction of available commands within Microsoft 365, such as “animate a slide” or “insert a table,” despite the extensive range of functionalities at their disposal. With Copilot, the world is your oyster with thousands of commands unlocked, eliminating the need to memorise specific instructions. This marks just the initial phase of Copilot’s capabilities, hinting at even more remarkable developments to come.
Grounded in your business – AI-powered LLMs are trained on large but limited datasets. The pivotal factor in enhancing business productivity lies in bridging LLMs with your organisation’s data – securely, compliantly, and preserving privacy. Microsoft 365 Copilot achieves this by seamlessly accessing both your content and context within the Microsoft Graph in real time. By doing so, Copilot ensures that its generated responses are firmly rooted in your business content, enabling it to deliver precise, relevant, and contextual answers tailored to your SME’s needs.
COPILOT WILL ALSO LEARN NEW SKILLS
Copilot demonstrates remarkable adaptability. Take, for instance, its integration with Viva Sales. Through this interface, Copilot acquires the ability to interface with CRM systems, extracting pertinent customer data such as interaction records and order histories. This information seamlessly integrates into communication channels. What’s noteworthy is Copilot’s propensity to refine its skills over time. As it familiarises itself with various domains and operational processes, its proficiency expands, enabling it to handle increasingly complex tasks and inquiries with precision and efficacy.
COPILOT CONS FOR SMES
While sounding like something out of this world, Copilot still has a few cons. Here are a handful of these for you:
- Privacy Concerns – Copilot’s data analysis capabilities raise privacy concerns as it requires analysing user data and behaviours for suggestions, potentially prompting objections from some individuals and SMEs.
- Learning Curve – Users may face challenges adapting to Copilot’s AI-driven workflow, necessitating understanding and embracing its capabilities, potentially slowing initial adoption and requiring training.
- Reliance on Technology – Copilot’s productivity enhancements may lead to reduced reliance on critical thinking and problem-solving skills, fostering dependency on the tool.
- Potential Glitches – Like any AI system, Copilot is not infallible and may encounter errors or glitches, potentially disrupting workflows and necessitating contingency plans.
- Cost Considerations – Integrating Copilot into Microsoft subscriptions incurs an additional £25 per user per month, prompting SMEs to assess the necessity of Copilot licenses for their workforce.
PROCESS AND PROTECT
“SMEs can benefit tremendously from AI automation, but the technology does come with inherent threats.”
Those are some wise words from Izak Oosthuizen, Zhero’s Founder and CEO, as said in his Amazon international bestseller, You Don’t Need a £1 Million Cybersecurity Budget. Zhero is London’s #1 end-to-end cybersecurity and IT support company for SMEs. Our AI and process automation package, Process IT Better, allows all your departments to seamlessly integrate into a custom-developed and automated workflow. It’s also fully aligned with Microsoft Copilot. We are also cognizant of those “inherent threats” that Izak mentions. Enter Protect IT Better, our comprehensive technology-as-a-service cybersecurity offering. If you are an SME looking for the best of both worlds in AI automation and cybersecurity, you’re knocking on the right door. Reach out to us today and let’s crush the chaos together.
