AI is a massive buzzword right now. That buzz is equal parts excitement over its potential, and scary stories about its usage. As a small business, how do you know whether to dip your toes into those new waters with caution, or to take the plunge and fully embrace the new technology?

Last week, we hosted a webinar which took a deep dive into how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping how businesses operate. In the webinar, held with our Microsoft licensing partner Pax8, AI and automation expert Tom Welton explained what Copilot is, best practice usage, and why small businesses should pay attention.

If you’re a small business owner looking to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and enhance workplace productivity, here’s what you need to know.

Did you know…?

You’ve probably heard of ChatGPT, the AI tool that answers your questions and produces text according to your commands (or prompts). It’s had a pretty meteoric rise in popularity. ChatGPT gained 100 million users in just three months. To put that in context, it took Facebook 4.5 years to reach that milestone. The internet didn’t hit that height for 7 years, and mobile phones took an extraordinary 16 years to reach that many people. Such is the phenomenal take up of AI in recent years.

What is Microsoft Copilot?

First things first, let’s explain what we mean by Microsoft Copilot.

It’s an AI-powered assistant that integrates with your Microsoft 365 suite. That means it can pull insights from your emails, Teams messages, documents, and spreadsheets to make your workday easier. Think of it as a junior assistant – it can take on some of your time-consuming tasks, but it has limited knowledge. It relies on you to tell it what to do.

Reducing your digital debt

What do we mean by ‘digital debt’? It’s the time wasted on tedious administrative tasks. You may be surprised how much that time mounts up. The Microsoft Work Trend Index 2024 revealed shocking statistics on digital debt. A huge 60% of global employees’ time is spent on areas like emails, meetings and chat. Only 40% is left for creating, producing and actually doing the job they’re hired to do.

That’s where Copilot for Microsoft 365 can make a big impact on your business’ productivity, and your employees’ satisfaction. Freeing them up to spend time on the creative, interesting and valuable aspects of their job – rather than the tedious ones, which boosts morale and output levels.

Is Copilot safe?

Data security is a major concern for businesses considering AI, and rightly so. Why would you introduce a newcomer to your business if it’s going to nick your highly prized information? You wouldn’t.

Microsoft gives several assurances when it comes to data security and privacy. Unlike ChatGPT, Copilot doesn’t train on your business data. Any documents that you upload to Copilot aren’t made available to Microsoft or anyone else. By contrast, ChatGPT stores your business information to improve its model unless you have “improve the model for everyone” toggled off (find it in “Settings” > “Data Controls”).

Copilot restricts access to information. You must be authorised to view something. Any existing security settings, including retention policies and sensitivity labels, will be retained.

Best practices for implementing Copilot in your business

If you’re thinking that Copilot might be just the ticket for your business, you’d be wise to follow these best practice guidelines. A structured approach can lead to real rewards for your business.

1. Start with a pilot group

• Choose a mix of employees from across the business to test Copilot.

• Gather feedback to refine how your team interacts with the tool.

2. Define an AI policy

You may well have a policy on social media usage or bringing your own device to work. In the same way, it’s a good idea to implement AI usage policies from the outset.

Ensure employees use Copilot responsibly by setting clear guidelines. Provide training sessions to educate your employees about data privacy and best practices.

3. Build a prompting library

An important thing to remember about AI, is that the results are only as good as the questions asked. The prompts that you type into the dialogue box are extremely important.

Tom explained a really helpful framework to think about when you’re constructing your prompt – GCSE.

• Goal: what response do you want from Copilot?

• Context: why do you need it and who’s involved?

• Source: what information should Copilot use?

• Expectation: how would you like Copilot to respond to meet your expectations.

When you find an effective prompt, save it. Create a shared document or Teams channel where employees can store and share useful Copilot prompts. You can save your colleague time experimenting with various prompts as you’ve already done that.

Copilot in action

During the webinar, Tom gave us a taste of what Copilot can do across different applications. A few examples include:

Excel: Analyses complex data sets, generates pivot tables, and even writes scripts for advanced analytics.

Word: Summarises documents, formats reports, and enhances written content with AI-driven suggestions.

PowerPoint: Produces slick and impressive presentations from text information. Just think of the time saved on fiddling and fussing over details.

Outlook: Refines your email tone and clarity. It can make your emails sound better with the right tone for colleagues and clients.

Teams: Summarises group chats and highlights key action points. It even covers for you at meetings you can’t attend, providing an outline of what was said.

Coming soon to Copilot

Looking ahead, Microsoft is introducing Copilot Agents. This feature will enable you to create customised features to benefit your business. You’ll be able to create custom AI assistants for specific functions like customer support, IT help desks, and HR enquiries.

Your Copilot agent could do things like finding answers from your internal documentation (like IT guides, HR policies or marketing guidelines). It could automate simple workflows (such as onboarding new employees or handling customer queries).

With AI tools tailored to your specific business needs, you can improve workflows significantly and free up time to spend on the tasks that will drive business success.

Should your business use Copilot?

Copilot’s a total game-changer for SMBs that use Microsoft 365. AI isn’t going anywhere. To remain competitive, and ahead of the curve, it makes sense to embrace the new technology and make it work for your business.

To find out more about Copilot and how it can integrate into your business systems, please get in touch.

Watch our Microsoft Copilot webinar in full