James Field, Customer Strategy Director at Smartdesc analyses Copilot, Microsoft’s tool which uses the same AI technology behind ChatGPT.
A narrated version of this blog is available at the bottom of the page
It’s likely you’ve heard of ChatGPT by now – the advanced chatbot built by the American research company Open AI and part-owned by Microsoft. Capable of handling complex information requests, writing stories and code, having human-like conversations and much more, the tool has continued to surge in popularity since its release last November.
What you might not have heard about, however, is Copilot – Microsoft’s new productivity tool which will use the same AI technology behind ChatGPT.
Introducing Copilot and its features
Copilot was born out of Microsoft and OpenAI’s strategic partnership. OpenAI utilizes Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to power their systems and train their “Large Language Models” (LLMs) which deliver natural language chat with users.
Microsoft is incorporating OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology into Microsoft 365 through a product it is calling Copilot- an “AI-powered digital assistant” integrated into 365.
Currently in the Beta testing stage with a pool of around 25,000 users, the tool is due to be released sometime later this year. Copilot is touted as being a personal assistant, that you ask to perform tasks (anyone remember Clippy from Windows 98?).
The ability to instruct Copilot to perform tasks for you should enable significant time-saving efficiencies in day-to-day tasks, which in turn frees up valuable time for other projects.
It is fully integrated into apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. The product will evolve quickly, but some examples of its early uses include:
- Summarizing Teams call discussions into concise bullet points with action owners and due dates
- Providing insights on meetings you may have missed – what were the themes discussed in the meeting, who said what, and what the ‘mood’ of the meeting was like
- Automatically capturing and sending action points from calls to attendees, then creating tasks in Outlook/OneNote/To Do, etc with reminders for you
- Analysing and summarising lengthy email chains, highlighting pertinent points and actions for you, on email chains you might have been added to mid-thread
- Generating bullet point summaries onto PowerPoint presentation slides, based on analysing documents, proposals, research papers etc. that you feed it
- Analysing data in large Excel files, creating graphs, pivot tables, and more
- Generating content such as blogs or whitepapers for social media, based on industry themes, datasets, and reports
There will be lots more uses for Copilot, and the possibilities are nearly endless – watch Microsoft’s video with an overview on Copilot and some examples of how to use it.
Key Considerations for charities
While Copilot is an exciting new tool, it will take time for organisations to fully get up to speed with what it can do. We believe there are some important considerations charities will need to make when preparing for, and implementing this new AI technology. Microsoft coins it “getting AI Ready”, and here are our initial considerations:
Governance & data protection
Organisations should establish clear guidelines and principles for staff on the proper use of AI tools, ensuring GDPR compliance and data protection. The Large Learning Models (LLMs) also require extensive datasets, so charities may require external expertise on data silos and restructuring to maximize AI value. Even right now, it is sensible to issue guidance to your staff on what is and is not acceptable use of Chatbots like ChatGPT when discussing work matters. Don’t forget if you put personal identifiable information into a chat with ChatGPT that data get stored on their servers. And would you be happy if potential job candidates used ChatGPT to write their cover note? Do you ask if the tools were used for generating content?
Security & permissions
Copilot will “see” all the OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams chats etc. that you have access to with your user account. In theory, this is good because it means by default it can’t pull information from files and documents you don’t have access to. But when was the last time you reviewed your security permissions? Before rolling out Copilot, it will be worth conducting an audit of user permissions and correct any unauthorised access. This is crucial, as Copilot can access information from any source with the corresponding user permissions. Review file security permissions too to ensure sensitive data is protected from unintended exposure.
Use cases
As with many AI, automation and machine learning tools, the early barriers are often helping staff think conceptually about where the technology could help improve efficiency and remove manual workflows. Identify two or three potential use cases with Copilot and share these with your staff at a “lunch & learn” or equivalent. We’re sure some examples in our list above would resonate with some of your staff, as most will be using Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams etc. every day. It’s worth noting here that Copilot will be based on your own organisations’ data, but ChatGPT’s data is limited to the internet up until 2021, so events and information after this date are not currently updated.
Bing Copilot vs Microsoft 365 Copilot
You may have heard of Bing Copilot, which is already freely available. Bing is Microsoft’s Google alternative, and it already has Copilot integrated. It searches the internet based on you chatting with it to find and refine results (and it searches the current internet as of today). This means you can use natural language chat like you do with ChatGPT – for example: set context first – “I am a Diabetes researcher”. > “Show me clinical results for the 2012 trial in Sweden” > “Summarise the key findings” > Generate me a bullet point list” > then via Copilot for M365 once it’s released, you can go further: ”find a free slot next week and create a new meeting for me, Susan and David with the agenda to discuss these results” > “Summarise the meeting actions” > “Set these actions as due dates of 3 weeks’ time” > and so on.
Staff training & guidance
As with any new tool, start small, pilot, empower a few internal champions, and spread the word. Aim to issue staff with guidance and training on Copilot’s capabilities early on to ensure safe, responsible and productive usage, then ask your champions to demonstrate how they use it to save time via small bite-sized nuggets to get people excited about it.
In conclusion, we are hugely excited to see how Copilot rolls out. It will not be “switched on” automatically, so you will need to plan and prepare for it (and pay for it – we are anticipating a charity price point around £15-20 per user per month but Microsoft has not released any details other than there will be nonprofit pricing).
Embracing Copilot and the wider potential of AI will inevitably transform how we work, and charitable organizations can harness its power to streamline operations, maximize productivity, and deliver greater value to beneficiaries – but they should be aware of the data, security and training needed first.
Smartdesc is a charity IT expert and ACEVO partner, helping nonprofits get more out of technology by implementing more cost-effective, secure IT systems. Reach out to us today to explore how we can improve IT efficiencies at your organisation.
