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Microsoft Copilot as the key to productivity

In an ever-evolving digital environment, companies are constantly looking for tools that increase productivity and streamline work processes. Office 365, a comprehensive suite of business applications, is a cornerstone for many organisations. That's why Microsoft has developed Copilot, a powerful assistant for businesses and individuals that can take collaboration and productivity to the next level.

Microsoft has already conducted a number of tests of the solution, which have identified the following main findings about the use of the tool:

• Time savings: users saved an average of 90 minutes of work per week using Copilot,
• higher productivity: 83% of users confirmed that they were more productive with Copilot,
• less paperwork: 79% of people found it reduced paperwork.

How Microsoft Copilot is changing the way we work

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is an innovative AI-powered tool designed to help users across a range of Microsoft applications, including Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint. The intelligent assistant harnesses the power of machine learning to understand user intent and context, providing valuable suggestions and automating repetitive tasks.

Some of the benefits of Microsoft Copilot tools:

• Increased productivity: Copilot significantly increases productivity by automating mundane tasks and offering intelligent suggestions. This allows employees to focus on more strategic aspects of their work and increases creativity and innovation.
• Effective collaboration: with Copilot, collaboration and communication within Microsoft 365 becomes much easier. It understands the natural language and context of text, enabling smooth communication and easier collaboration between team members.
• Smarter decision-making: helps users make informed decisions by providing relevant information and suggestions in real time. Whether it's analysing data in Excel or preparing a PowerPoint presentation, Copilot makes sure users have the right information at their fingertips.
• Reduced workload and errors: by automating repetitive tasks, Copilot not only saves time, but also reduces the risk of errors associated with manual data entry or document creation. This results in greater accuracy and more reliable results, which contributes to overall operational integrity.
• Flexibility in different industries: its versatility makes it valuable for companies in different industries. It adapts to different work processes and procedures (finance, marketing, healthcare, education), thus catering for the needs of each sector.
• Continuous learning and improvement: it is designed to learn from interactions with users and to continuously improve its proposals over time. As employees work with the assistant, the assistant adapts more and more to their preferences and working patterns, providing increasingly accurate and relevant recommendations.

Specific use cases in Microsoft tools

1. Summarising Word documents: Copilot can summarise documents in Word that are several pages long, while preserving all relevant information. This allows users to quickly get the gist of a document without having to read the whole text. In doing so, the user can specifically define the exact specifics that are important to them and that they need when summarising the document.
2. Summarising long email chains in Outlook: nowadays, almost everyone in a company finds themselves at some point in time in the predicament of many long email chains, whether after a holiday or a day away from the office. Copilot can summarise the key open issues related to an individual and indicate the points that still need to be completed. This helps users to stay organised and focus on tasks without the need to read long chains of messages between different users.
3. Quick document and text search: allows users to quickly search for documents or specific texts within individual documents in the Office 365 environment. This is particularly useful at times when large volumes of documentation need to be managed. Users simply enter keywords and Copilot instantly finds relevant documents or sections, saving valuable time that would otherwise be spent manually searching for information/documents.
4. Meeting and call summarisation: automatically generates a detailed summary including key points, decisions and tasks assigned, once meetings or calls have been completed. This allows participants to quickly obtain information about the meeting without the need to review the full minutes. Copilot can also identify and remind of key points that require follow-up, improving project/task tracking and ensuring that all team members are up-to-date on agreements and commitments.

What about security?

Microsoft Copilot for M365 is an upgraded data processing system, with data security and user privacy taken care of on multiple levels:

• Business data protection: it ensures that businesses keep their business data securely stored. Users can only access files they have rights to access in the cloud. This prevents unauthorised access to sensitive information, as Copilot cannot retrieve data to which the user does not have access.
• No storage of conversations: nowadays, all companies are well aware of the importance of privacy in communication. Microsoft Copilot does not store conversations within 365 tools, ensuring that the user's communications and business conversations remain private and confidential.
• No use of data for learning: it does not use data to learn large data models (LLMs) when working within organisations. This means that the data shared by users within their organisations is secure and will not be used to learn LLMs or to improve the system without their explicit permission.

By taking these precautions, Microsoft is committed to ensuring the confidentiality and security of business data and the privacy of users in accordance with the highest standards of data protection. This enables users to collaborate and create in a secure environment, while remaining flexible and responsive to future changes in regulatory requirements.

Faster processes, more efficiency

Efficiency is the cornerstone of a successful business, and Microsoft Copilot excels at automating workflows to boost productivity. Power Automate allows people in leadership positions to automate repetitive tasks, freeing up valuable time for strategically targeted tasks. This workflow agility ensures that your organisation stays at the forefront of the competitive business environment.

Copilot for a scalable future

Microsoft is continuously investing in the development of Copilot, expanding its capabilities and integration with other applications. As AI technologies evolve, we can expect Copilot to become even more proactive and help users with increasingly complex tasks. This tool represents an important step forward in the integration of AI technologies into the Office 365 ecosystem. With its intelligent document assistance, productivity recommendations, data insights and smart meeting capabilities, Copilot enables users to work smarter and more efficiently. By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, Copilot increases productivity, improves content quality, facilitates data-driven decision-making and enables seamless collaboration. It is currently only available in English in Slovenia, but by the end of June it is expected to be available in Slovenian for the first time. As Microsoft continues to innovate, the future of the tool looks very promising and organisations can look forward to reaping even more value from their investment in Microsoft 365 with this powerful AI tool.