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| Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash |
In March of this year, Microsoft unveiled an innovative AI-powered Copilot, driven by GPT-4, integrated across its suite of Microsoft 365 applications and services, including Word, Outlook, Excel, Teams, and more. Copilot serves as a digital assistant designed to assist you in completing various tasks, such as generating a PowerPoint presentation from a Word document, analyzing data in an Excel sheet, or summarizing a meeting you arrived late to in Teams. Embedded within these applications as a sidebar, Copilot represents Microsoft's commitment to providing "a whole new way of working," as articulated by Microsoft 365 head Jared Spataro during the announcement.
Let's explore the myriad ways Copilot can enhance your productivity within each application:
Word:
Copilot extends its support to Word by aiding in summarizing, drafting, and revising documents. It can offer suggestions to enhance your writing and even help brainstorm new ideas when you encounter writer's block.
Excel:
In Excel, Copilot transforms into a powerful analytical tool. It can provide fresh insights into your numbers, create quick data visualizations, identify patterns, and even generate Python workflows.
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PowerPoint:
Creating presentations becomes a breeze with Copilot in PowerPoint. Simply provide natural language instructions, and Copilot can construct entire presentations. You can also add context using specific content from previous documents, and Copilot excels at summarizing lengthy presentations.
Outlook:
Copilot extends its prowess to Outlook, helping you efficiently organize and clear your inbox within minutes. It can summarize conversations and offer suggestions on your next steps, streamlining your email management.
Business Chat:
A new addition to the Microsoft 365 toolkit is Business Chat, functioning across the LLM (Loop, Lens, Mesh) and scanning through all the apps. Business Chat provides meeting summaries, extracts calendar entries, checks recent client interactions, and aids in creating work plans. The responses from Business Chat are reminiscent of Bing chat's responses.
Microsoft 365 toolkit is now available to users at $30 per month for those subscribed to Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard, and Business Premium packages. Apart from the subscription, there are prerequisites to consider:
Accounts for all Apps: Users must have accounts on all relevant apps like Teams, Outlook, or Microsoft Loop.
Microsoft Entra IDs: All users need a Microsoft Entra or Azure Active Directory ID configured through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
OneDrive accounts: To access all Copilot features, including tools for sharing and saving files, users should have a OneDrive account.
Update Microsoft Apps: Ensure your Microsoft apps are updated to access Copilot. Look for the Copilot icon in the ribbon menu of the app, and for some apps, Copilot will launch automatically, offering suggestions.
Microsoft recommends enabling the 'feedback features' within Copilot to gather insights about user experiences. Additionally, users can obtain a Microsoft 365 usage report, providing an overview of user adoption, retention, and engagement, accessible from the Microsoft 365 admin center through the 'Reports' and 'Usage' options.