Wave 2 of Microsoft Copilot was released earlier this month, bringing new updates and features to its users. In this blog, Simon Jefferies, Director of Technology at Sharp UK explores what we have learnt about Copilot so far, what’s coming in this next phase aka Wave 2 and how team members within Sharp UK have been leveraging the Copilot technology.
AI – A Gamechanger
We’re in a fast-paced digital era where many innovative solutions exist to streamline operations, enhance productivity and drive growth in our organisations. In the past 18 months, you cannot fail to have noticed how AI, specifically generative AI and Large Language Models (LLM) have been developed and integrated into the technology and services we use every day.
For me, this kicked off towards the end of 2022 with ChatGPT, when we suddenly had access to this revolutionary new tool that you could hold conversations with, create content and support your daily activities. Fast forward to September 2024, and we’re now utilising Copilot within Sharp UK and of course, helping our clients to understand Copilot’s benefits, how it can streamline their business activities and importantly, how to prepare for its introduction.
These latter points are all too important, as we hear of many organisations which haven’t been able to see its benefits. They may have purchased licensing to provide wider integration over the Copilot included in most Microsoft 365 licensing, but feedback suggests they haven’t seen the benefits it brings.
There could be several reasons for this:
- Lack of Awareness: Some organisations might not be fully aware of what Microsoft Copilot can do. They may just see it as just another AI tool without understanding its specific capabilities and how it can be integrated into their workflows.
- Resistance to Change: Implementing new technology often requires changes in processes and workflows. Some organisations might be resistant to change, preferring to stick with their current processes and traditional toolsets.
- Cost Concerns: There might be concerns about the cost of implementing and the licensing requirements for Copilot. They might be unsure if the investment will provide a good return.
- Training and Adoption: Successful implementation of new technology requires training and buy-in from the top down. Creating a culture around AI is important and it should be integrated with their process and everyday activities.
- Security and Privacy: Concerns about data security and privacy can also be a blocker. Organisations might be hesitant to adopt new technology if they are unsure about how it will handle sensitive information.
- Understanding the Value Proposition: Sometimes, the value proposition of a tool like Microsoft Copilot might not be clearly communicated. Organisations need to evaluate and see concrete examples of how it can improve efficiency, productivity, and decision-making.
How Sharp UK Have Been Using Microsoft Copilot
Our use of Copilot has provided some fantastic benefits for Sharp UK. We of course needed to understand the technology from the beginning to help deliver the benefits for our clients. Our Copilot Champions group which includes colleagues within various job personas has really helped us understand the capability and what should be done to prepare. Take a look at some of our Copilot Champion blogs:
- Copilot Champions: One Month with Copilot for Microsoft 365
- Copilot for Everyday: Regional Sales Manager
- Copilot for Everyday: Head of Managed and Professional Services
- Copilot for Everyday: Business Central Functional Consultant
- Copilot for Everyday: Support Services Manager
- Copilot for Everyday: Head of Support Services and Data Protection
- Copilot for Everyday: Business Development Manager
You will see from these blogs some of the key efficiencies we have gained. Some of these highlights are:
Teams Meetings – Note-taking & Recording: We have been able to concentrate on the actual meeting to a much greater extent, rather than writing notes and not necessarily concentrating on what is being said, especially within 121 sessions with colleagues. The capability of being able to ask questions about the meeting once it has finished has been a game changer and something we could not now be without.
Summarising Emails & Prioritising Actions: This is always a task that takes some time. Coming back from annual leave to hundreds of emails can be overwhelming, but Copilot can let you know what is a priority and what you need to respond to.
Content Creation: Whether this is images, documentation or presentations, using Copilot to create these pieces of content is a massive time saver, which some may consider ‘cheating’. However, this is not the case at all. Copilot is there to assist you and if you save time with it creating your initial content, then that is great. You get a really good start on content for you to amend, extend and make into your own.
Microsoft 365 Copilot: Wave 2
We’re excited to hear that Microsoft announced ‘Microsoft Copilot Wave 2’ bringing several new innovations and introducing Copilot agents, designed to automate and streamline even more processes. Having just been released on 16th September, here are some highlights of what is coming:
Copilot Agents
The agents are interesting and allow the creation of specific Copilot capabilities for resources you need. For example, you may have a specific data set in a SharePoint library which contains technical details for products you produce as a business. Or maybe you want to make it easy for employees to ask questions about company policies. You can create a Copilot agent to reason just with specific data sets, which Copilot can then answer questions for, provide insights and summarise information.
Interacting with the agents can be integrated into Teams, so within your organisation or a group of team members, you can quickly get the answers you need, removing the need to manually search through documents! Agents are deployable in a few clicks and can be customised further if required.
In addition, Microsoft will be adding prebuilt Copilot agents into every SharePoint site, which any site member can use and interact with.
OneDrive
Additional capabilities within OneDrive will allow you to summarise multiple files without the need to open each. It’s a simple case of selecting the files and asking questions for what you require. It may be you need to catch up on the progress of a project or need to understand the action points that you’re responsible for.
SharePoint Site Builder
Much like we have previously seen with Copilot building PowerPoint presentations, the same can now be achieved with SharePoint and Copilot building pages for you, through a natural language prompt. This will create the content, design, and layout, which of course is then customisable with further prompts so you get what you need! If you have specific corporate themes, Copilot can create your sites based on these themes, while building a modern design for the site.
PowerPoint Brand Manager
With the initial introduction of Copilot for Microsoft 365, it had been difficult to apply corporate branding when Copilot created presentations. Brand Manager is hopefully the remedy to this, providing a much greater alignment to your corporate branding. We are keen to see how this improves, as it's one feature that so far hasn’t worked as we would have liked.
Inbox Prioritisation
We all have many emails to read and catch up on and we of course do not want to miss any deadlines. Inbox Prioritisation now intelligently brings your most important email to the forefront, so that you don’t miss anything or forget to respond. You will also have the ability to mark specific senders as important, further improving the prioritisation that Outlook can now bring.
The Adoption of Copilot So Far
As organisations become more integrated with the capabilities of Copilot, they will wonder how they ever worked without it. I certainly would not want to be without Copilot now and am very excited with all the additional integrations and capabilities that are coming.
Overall, very few organisations are using it, but with the right approach to understanding what it can do for you, building a plan, raising awareness and preparing appropriately, you will gain great efficiencies in your everyday work life. Generative AI is here to stay and will only get better, more intelligent and more capable. Who knows what it will mean in years to come, but we can now use it to make our work lives easier so we can do more exciting activities. We think every organisation should get involved!
