The much-anticipated release of Microsoft 365 Copilot to small businesses has now happened. As of 16th January 2024, all businesses with a added Microsoft 365 Business, E3, E5 or Office 365 E3/E5 will be able to purchase Copilot as an add-on and there is no minimum purchase requirement. Microsoft do require a minimum purchase term of 1 year and the cost is £294.40 per license per annum.
What is the hype about?
Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI-powered productivity add-in for Microsoft 365 which provides real time intelligent assistance to allow users of the Microsoft 365 suite to be more productive and more creative. People using the 365 apps can interact through the chat function in natural language to undertake tasks that would normally be time consuming or hidden withing the application. Copilot can be accessed as follows:
Business chat
Copilot can will be able to access all the data you have permission to access in your Microsoft 365 environment and find information, summarise documents and other activities that may take normally take you hours, in seconds. You might want to find all the information relating to a specific client, a major business initiative or the average price for a particular service in client proposals.
Copilot in Microsoft Teams
Copilot in Teams can help answer questions you have about your meetings and discussions in seconds. For example, if you wanted to find out if a particular service was quoted to a client, to summarise Teams discussions about a major project you may have missed whilst on holiday or suggesting action items.
Copilot in Outlook
Allows you to manage your inbox by creating to-dos, drafting replies and summarizing emails help you stay productive. Copilot can also provide ‘coaching’ which will provide feedback on a draft email you have written with suggestions on how you can improve the text.
Copilot in Word
Copilots in Word allows you to automate creating new content either from a series of prompts or by referencing external sources – for example you can create a new document from multiple existing documents.
Copilot in Excel
In Excel, Copilot allow you to create insights on data stored in tables using charts and pivot tables or highlighting data. It can also help you generate formula columns and provide explanations around how the formula works.
Copilot in PowerPoint
Copilot in PowerPoint can help you create a new presentation from a word document or from chat prompts. Additionally, it can help organise your presentation and add corporate branding as well as creating summaries of slide decks you may be sent.
How do you get started?
To start with you should then enrol on some training to ensure you get the most out of your investment. To start with you should review the Introduction to Copilot for Microsoft 365 training to get an overview of the system. Following that we recommend reviewing the videos on the Microsoft 365 Copilot YouTube channel to understand more about the capability of the system.
To access Copilot on your computer you will first need a compatible Microsoft 365 license as detailed at the beginning of this blog. You will also need a Copilot license. Should you wish to get started then contact your Pro Drive Account Manager on 0330 124 3599.
