Launched in early 2023, Microsoft Copilot allows users to marry generative AI with their Microsoft suite of products, such as Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel and more. While this addition promises to increase productivity and efficiency, it does come with a few limitations that users need to be aware of. Below we detail several pros and cons of M365 Copilot to help you determine whether it’s the right fit for your organization.
Benefits of Microsoft Copilot
Adding the power of Copilot to your Microsoft suite of applications can help your organization unlock new levels of efficiency. Copilot combines the familiarity and security of Microsoft products with powerful AI that can access data from across the internet and data housed in Chat-GPT. Listed below are a select few of the many benefits associated with Microsoft Copilot:
Boost Productivity
Microsoft Copilot is built to streamline tasks that often consume significant time. Whether it’s summarizing content, analyzing spreadsheets, visualizing data or creating new documents and presentations, Copilot can handle it all with remarkable speed. By leveraging AI, you can quickly digest large volumes of information, helping you pinpoint trends that could move your business forward.
Summarize Key Discussions
Keeping up with lengthy email threads or key points from a Teams meeting can be challenging. Copilot steps in by summarizing these conversations, allowing you to track deliverable dates, identify actionable items and keep projects on course.
Versatile Modes for Varied Needs
Copilot offers three different modes: balanced, precise and creative. The balanced and precise modes use GPT-4, a sophisticated AI model from OpenAI that boasts over 1 trillion parameters, offering far more power than its predecessor, ChatGPT 3.5. The creative mode, meanwhile, uses GPT-4 Turbo, which is informed by data up until April 2023, rather than the September 2021 data cutoff of GPT-4. This ensures that Copilot can generate more current and contextually relevant content.
Up-to-Date Information and Human-Like Responses
Unlike traditional AI tools like ChatGPT, which rely on static datasets, Copilot connects to the internet to provide more dynamic, human-sounding answers. This real-time connectivity allows Copilot to pull in the latest information, making it a more reliable source for current data and insights.
Security, Compliance and Privacy Integration
A major advantage of using Copilot within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem is its adherence to the security, compliance and privacy policies that users already have set up. This integration ensures that your data remains protected and your organization’s compliance needs are met.
Seamless Integration with Existing Microsoft Licenses
Copilot is available as an add-on to your existing Microsoft license, making it easy to implement without requiring a complete overhaul of your IT infrastructure. Your organization can quickly adopt the technology and start reaping its benefits.
Microsoft Copilot Challenges
While Copilot has its challenges, it’s possible to overcome many of them with sufficient training, vigilance and a partnership with a technology-managed services partner with Microsoft experience. While certain challenges will be resolved as Microsoft continues to invest in improvements to their AI, some current issues may include:
Potential Disruptions to Brand Messaging
While Copilot can draw on branded materials, copy, and images to generate content, these outputs may not always align perfectly with your brand’s standards. This could lead to inconsistencies in messaging, potentially diluting your brand’s voice if you’re not vigilant.
Switching Between Modes
Copilot’s versatility is one of its strengths, but switching between modes—balanced, precise and creative—requires users to start new searches from scratch. This can be a minor inconvenience, especially when trying to quickly adjust the output style.
Occasional Misses in Summaries
While Copilot is generally effective at summarizing content, it sometimes misses the main point or overlooks key details. Users need to stay alert and double-check the summaries provided to ensure accuracy.
Intellectual Property Concerns
One of the more significant risks with Copilot is the potential for its suggestions to inadvertently infringe on intellectual property rights. While Microsoft offers IP indemnification coverage through its Copilot Copyright Commitment, users must remain cautious when using AI-generated content for commercial purposes. Developing a company-wide AI policy can help mitigate IP concerns.
As the platform evolves and Microsoft continues to invest heavily in Copilot’s development, it’s likely that many of these issues will be mitigated or resolved altogether.
Key Tips to Overcome Copilot Challenges
If you’d like to test Microsoft Copilot, our advisors recommend purchasing one license and allowing one user to experiment with the AI system. The employee can identify pain points, try out different features and explore how the technology can positively impact their role. After a while, you can switch the license to another user, giving them the same opportunity to explore Copilot. This experimental stage gives your workforce a chance to see how their day-to-day tasks can be completed more easily and more efficiently with Copilot while also troubleshooting potential issues before a larger rollout.
Training provided by a third-party technology managed services provider like Anders Technology can help prepare your workforce for Copilot implementation. Our advisors are experienced Microsoft Solutions Partners who can design a permission matrix report for your business to ensure protected information remains hidden from users who aren’t authorized to access it.
By staying informed and working with a knowledgeable managed services partner, your organization can leverage Copilot’s strengths while mitigating its weaknesses, allowing you to fully harness the power of AI without becoming overly reliant on it or compromising your brand’s integrity.
As a Microsoft Solutions Partner, Anders Technology’s AI, Automation and Analytics advisors understand the ins and outs of Copilot and how it can help your business. To learn more about our services, and the associated cost, request a meeting below.
