Preparing for CoPilot, do you know the fundamentals of Microsoft 365?

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Most people have heard of, if not toyed with AI…… right? My experience has found AI to be a fantastic tool for generating first draft compositions, from emails, to creating Excel data sets, to summarising reports and to even writing this blog – Just typing natural language specific questions and prompts, like “generate a 25 row Excel data set of IT products, cost & quantity” …… I have enlisted the help of AI to increase my productivity and saved myself a huge amount of time, time that has been better spent on other tasks.

The Rising Pace of Innovation:

The pace of innovation is continually accelerating, particularly in the realm of generative AI. With the prospect of empowering users to create entirely new works, this innovative technology promises to significantly enhance productivity and creativity in a variety of different areas of industry.

Microsoft conducted a comprehensive survey in 31 countries worldwide, engaging with 31,000 respondents to understand the challenges people face in the workplace and how they anticipate AI might be able to help them address these challenges effectively.

“68% of respondents struggle with a lack of uninterrupted focus time during the workday. Whilst 62% of survey participants report spending excessive time searching for information during their work hour1“

Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot:

We at Shackleton Technologies, are excited for the upcoming release of Microsoft 365 Copilot… with its innovative use of generative AI, Copilot presents a compelling solution to these challenges. This advanced tool is designed to provide personalised assistance to users across a wide range of tasks and activities, transforming their words into an unparalleled productivity tool.

Copilot’s ability to streamline tasks and provide personalised assistance can help individuals reclaim focus time during their workday. By automating information retrieval and analysis, Copilot can significantly reduce the time spent on information searches, enabling professionals to be more efficient and effective in their roles.

Empowering Productivity with Copilot:

This is not the time to be writing off Microsoft’s Office applications! This could be the optimum time for you to upskill, reconnect and refresh your use of these productivity apps!

As Copilot is embedded within M365 apps you use every day, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneNote Loop and more, it functions as more of a ‘collaborative assistant’ – working with you to support you in unlocking your full potential, aiding you in boosting your creativity, unleashing your productivity, honing your skills and accelerating your pace of work to help you get more done.

“With Copilot, you are always in control. You decide what to keep, modify or discard. Now, you can be more creative in Word, more analytical in Excel, more expressive in PowerPoint, more productive in Outlook and more collaborative in Teams2”

How do you see AI helping you?

Whether it’s generating business documents, creating beautiful presentations, summarise key discussion points and meeting notes, analyse data trends or creating poems for fun, take a look at How 6 Experts are using Generative AI

Conclusion

As with any tool, AI requires direction and supervision. It may not always get things right and this is where your analytical and judgement skills come into play.

Copilot can spark new ways of thinking, generate innovative ideas, and extinguish writer’s block, streamline tasks, automate information retrieval, and crucially, reduce time spent on searches, allowing you to be more efficient. It promises to unlock your full potential, boost creativity, improve productivity, enhance skills, and accelerate work pace.

It is a brilliant steppingstone to helping you create a final masterpiece, so having a comprehensive understanding of Microsoft 365 applications is beneficial in utilising their full range of features and functionalities, and extremely helpful in effectively leveraging the AI’s capabilities and making the most of your interactions with the applications.

Now is the perfect time to embrace Microsoft’s Office applications and make the most of Copilot’s capabilities.

References:

[1] Work Trend Index 2023

[2] Microsoft Copilot | A Whole New Way to Work

Need Further Information?

Contact Shackleton Technologies to discuss an IT strategy that’s aligned to your business goals.

Enquiries@shacktech.co.uk

#microsoft #excel #AI #leveragingAI #AIThefuture #microsoftcopilot #copilot

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