Writing is not my forte. I often struggle with finding the right words, grammar, tone, and structure for my blog posts. That’s why I was intrigued when I heard about Microsoft 365 Copilot, a new feature that uses artificial intelligence to help you write better. I decided to give it a try and see if it could improve my writing skills and productivity. During this period, I wanted to answer 3 questions:
- Does it do what it says on the box?
- Has it made my life easier?
- Would I pay for it?
Here’s what I learned from using Copilot for a week.
What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Microsoft 365 Copilot is a writing assistant that works within Microsoft Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint. It uses natural language generation and understanding to provide suggestions, feedback, and insights on your writing. It can help you with various aspects of writing, such as:
- Spelling, grammar, and punctuation
- Vocabulary, style, and tone
- Clarity, coherence, and conciseness
- Structure, organisation, and formatting
- Plagiarism, citations, and references
Copilot is powered by GPT-4, a deep learning model that can generate natural language from a given prompt. It can also learn from your feedback and preferences to tailor its suggestions to your writing style and goals.
How does Microsoft 365 Copilot work?
To use Copilot, you need to have a Microsoft 365 subscription and enable the feature in your settings. Once you do that, you will see a Copilot icon on the top right corner of your screen. You can click on it to open a sidebar that shows you the Copilot suggestions and feedback for your writing.
You can also use voice commands to interact with Copilot. For example, you can say “Copilot, help me write a catchy introduction” or “Copilot, check my grammar and spelling”. Copilot will then generate some suggestions for you to choose from or apply to your writing.
You can also ask Copilot for more information or explanations on why it suggested something. For example, you can say “Copilot, why did you suggest this word?” or “Copilot, how can I improve this sentence?”. Copilot will then provide you with some insights and tips on how to improve your writing.
What are the benefits of using Microsoft 365 Copilot?
I found Microsoft 365 Copilot to be very helpful and convenient for my writing tasks. Here are some of the benefits I experienced from using it:
- It saved me time and effort. Copilot helped me write faster and easier by providing me with relevant and useful suggestions. It also reduced the need for manual editing and proofreading by catching and correcting my errors and mistakes.
- It improved my writing quality. Copilot helped me improve my vocabulary, style, tone, clarity, coherence, and conciseness by providing me with alternatives and feedback. It also helped me avoid plagiarism and cite my sources properly by providing me with references and links.
- It enhanced my writing skills. Copilot helped me learn new words, phrases, and techniques by providing me with explanations and insights. It also helped me develop my own voice and style by adapting to my preferences and feedback.
What are the limitations of using Microsoft 365 Copilot?
While Microsoft 365 Copilot is a great tool for writing, it is not perfect. It has some limitations and challenges that you should be aware of before using it. Here are some of them:
- It is not a replacement for human writing. Copilot is an assistant, not a writer. It can help you with some aspects of writing, but it cannot write for you. You still need to use your own creativity, judgment, and critical thinking to produce original and meaningful content.
- It is not always accurate or appropriate. Copilot is based on a large corpus of text from various sources and domains. It may not always understand your context, purpose, or audience. It may also generate suggestions that are inaccurate, irrelevant, or inappropriate for your writing. You should always review and verify the suggestions before applying them to your writing.
- It is not always consistent or reliable. Copilot is still in development and may have some bugs or glitches. It may not always work as expected or respond to your commands. It may also have some delays or downtimes due to network or server issues. You should always have a backup plan in case Copilot is not available or functional.
What are the requirements for Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Apart from having the appropriate license (Copilot & Microsoft 365), there are other requirements to make your Copilot experience better:
- Microsoft 365 Apps on the current channel
- Windows 11 (not a great experience on Windows 10)
- Microsoft OneDrive
- Microsoft Outlook (the new version is required here)
My scenario
During my week with Copilot, licenses were assigned as part of an internal POC (proof of concept) to evaluate the tool and if successful, then recommend rolling out to the wider business. While this is a great way to get hands on with the tool, it does present some dangers.
Users potentially have access to content they otherwise should not have. In addition, without any upfront planning & discovery, the experience may not be what’s expected. Users could find that Copilot is a bit intimidating as they really don’t know what to do or what its capable of and a session with someone going through Copilot and its uses (with examples or scenarios) would be very beneficial.
To have a successful experience and rollout, there needs to be a formal process of engaging a Microsoft partner that can get you ready for Copilot. These areas of consideration include identity, devices, data, apps, infrastructure and network. In addition to these areas of concern, business readiness which include business functions, change & adoption, end user training and costs are key requirements to make Copilot successful.
How did each Microsoft 365 application handle Copilot?
Here are some examples of how you can use Copilot in different applications:
In Word, you can use Copilot to help you write documents such as reports, essays, letters, or resumes. Copilot can suggest sentences, paragraphs, or headings based on your topic and purpose. It can also provide feedback on your tone, readability, grammar, and spelling. You can access Copilot by clicking on the Copilot icon on the Home tab or by using the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+C. Summarising of documents here was useful. I also found that drafting a new document was pretty good when giving it some clear (and sometimes short) definition. It also did really well at cleaning up an existing document.
In Excel, you can use Copilot to help you analyse, visualise, and summarise data. Copilot can suggest formulas, charts, tables, or pivot tables based on your data and questions. It can also provide insights on trends, outliers, or correlations. You can access Copilot by clicking on the Copilot icon on the Data tab or by using the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+X.
Analysing data within tables (it has to be in a table) worked fairly well. It was able to find trends and show insights you would not either be able to see from looking at the data or creating custom charts. It can reformat columns or create new formula based columns and pivot tables. This is useful where you may not be aware how to generate these items.
In PowerPoint, you can use Copilot to help you create presentations that are engaging, informative, and persuasive. Copilot can suggest slides, layouts, or designs based on your topic and audience. It can also provide feedback on your content, structure, and delivery. You can access Copilot by clicking on the Copilot icon on the Design tab or by using the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+P. Creating a slide deck from an existing file or link is really cool but I found that the graphics can be hit and miss but still provides you with a base structure to work from.,
In Teams, you can use Copilot to help you communicate and collaborate with your colleagues and clients. Copilot can suggest messages, replies, or emojis based on your conversation and context. It can also provide feedback on your etiquette, clarity, and professionalism. You can access Copilot by clicking on the Copilot icon on the chat or meeting window or by using the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+T. I found that meeting notes with follow up tasks and decisions was really useful as it didn’t require me to make notes or remember what was discussed.
In Outlook, it needs the new experience. In the old version it doesn’t work well (or sometimes at all). Suggestions are really good, it not only suggests some responses but looks at the question and can technically answer the question with suggestions. Summarising and email with all parties involved worked well. It condensed the email threads to a readable paragraph. Drafting a new email is not very good but responding is pretty good if you can give it some context.
In 365 chat, it can also do things like summarise emails from a period (like 48 hours). It will give you a bullet point summary with questions and tasks. When searching for chats or files relating to a certain topic, it will return results for chats and files\shared locations you have access to. In some cases it may highlight files you were not aware of in a location you have access to. This shows that Data governance is important.
Copilot does things the right way, not in some made up way. Examples of this are formulas in excel. Conditional formatting is done in a way that it is dynamic and will respond to data changes. Same with column formulas, it will base it on table headings rather than cell values. You need to know copilot language as it can be very specific. Its nothing like Google search
Questions answered
Does it do what it says on the box? Yes but not always.
Has it made my life easier? Yes once you try it you wont want to let it go. The builtin stuff prompting you is a massive productivity gain.
Would I pay for it? Yes
Surprises – how effective it is in teams used in a conversation or meeting. If transcript is on, and you are late to a meeting you could ask it to recap and if I have missed anything or anything I should be aware of. The search option across platforms was impressive even when you were not sure where the item or conversation was from and all you had was some vague description.
Things to improve in version 1
It is not uniform across products
OneNote allows for voice input where Word and Outlook does not
Ready to get started with Copilot?
Microsoft 365 Copilot is currently available as a preview for select Microsoft 365 users. If you are interested in trying out Copilot and Generative AI, you can contact Arinco for a Microsoft 365 Copilot Done Right assessment. You will need a Microsoft 365 subscription and a Windows 10 device to use Copilot. You can also check out the Copilot website for more information and resources, such as tutorials, FAQs, and feedback forums.
Conclusion
Microsoft 365 Copilot is a powerful and innovative writing assistant that can help you write better and faster. It can provide you with suggestions, feedback, and insights on various aspects of writing. It can also learn from your feedback and preferences to tailor its suggestions to your writing style and goals.
However, Copilot is not a replacement for human writing. It is an assistant, not a writer. You still need to use your own creativity, judgment, and critical thinking to produce original and meaningful content. You should also review and verify the suggestions before applying them to your writing. You should also be aware of the limitations and challenges of using Copilot and have a backup plan in case it is not available or functional.
I hope this blog post has given you some insights and tips on how to use Microsoft 365 Copilot for your writing tasks. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to share them below. Thank you for reading and happy writing!
77% of Copilot for Microsoft 365 users said that once they started using it, they didn’t want to give it up. Read about that here
70% of Copilot for Microsoft 365 users said they became more productive. Read about that here
68% of Copilot for Microsoft 365 users said the quality of their work improved. Read about that here
