If you are interested in learning how to use AI-powered assistants to enhance your productivity, collaboration, and innovation, you may want to explore the copilot landscape that Microsoft offers. Copilots are Microsoft’s brand name for their AI-powered assistants that can help you with various tasks across different products and services, such as M365, Azure, Power Platform, Dynamics 365, and more. In this blog post, we will provide an overview of the different copilots that Microsoft offers, how to license, buy, and use them, and what are the benefits and challenges of adopting them in your organization.
What are copilots and what can they do for you?
Copilots are AI-powered assistants that can help you with various tasks across different products and services, such as summarizing, searching, and creating content, building apps, managing security, and more. Copilots use natural language processing and large language models to understand your questions and requests, and provide you with relevant and contextual responses.
As Shawn Ambrose, the organizer of the The Invero Show, explained during the event,
“Copilots are designed to help you get more done in less time, by automating routine tasks, providing quick answers to your questions, and helping you discover new insights and opportunities.”
Shawn Ambrose, Chief Revenue Officer, Invero
One of the most popular copilots is the one for Microsoft 365, which can help you with tasks such as summarizing important documents, catching up on communications, generating drafts of emails and documents, and searching your data for answers to key questions. This copilot is available for all M365 customers and can be easily turned on from the M365 admin center with the appropriate licenses.
Another copilot that is gaining popularity is the one for Azure, which can help you with tasks such as managing your cloud resources, monitoring your applications, and optimizing your costs. This copilot is available for all Azure customers and can be easily accessed from the Azure portal for no additional fees.
In addition to these pre-built copilots, Microsoft also offers Copilot Studio, which allows you to customize and extend the existing copilots or create your own copilots from scratch. With the Copilot Studio, you can use low-code tools and pre-built templates to design and develop your own AI-powered assistants that can help you automate your tasks, improve your productivity, and enhance your user experience.
How to license, buy, and use copilots?
Licensing, buying, and using copilots is easy and straightforward. For the pre-built copilots, such as the ones for M365 and Azure, you simply need to have a valid subscription to the corresponding product or service. Once you have a subscription, you can turn on the copilot from the admin center or the portal, and start using it right away.
For the Copilot Studio, you need to have a subscription to the Power Platform. Once you have a subscription, you can access the Copilot Studio from the Power Platform admin center, and start designing and developing your own copilots.
In terms of pricing, the pre-built copilots are included in the price of the corresponding product or service, so you don’t need to pay anything extra to use them. For the Copilot Studio, the pricing depends on the number of users and the complexity of the copilots you want to build. You can find more information about the pricing on the Power Platform pricing page.
What are the benefits and challenges of adopting copilots?
Adopting copilots can bring many benefits to your organization, such as increased productivity, improved collaboration, and enhanced innovation. By automating routine tasks, providing quick answers to your questions, and helping you discover new insights and opportunities, copilots can help you get more done in less time, and focus on what matters most.
However, adopting copilots also comes with its own challenges, such as ensuring compliance and governance, managing data privacy and security, and training and upskilling your users. To address these challenges, Microsoft provides a range of tools and resources, such as compliance and governance frameworks, data protection and security controls, and training and education programs.
As Stephanie Yackimec, one of the presenters on this episode of The Invero Show, noted during the event,
“Adopting copilots is not a one-time event, but a continuous journey. You need to have a clear vision and strategy, a strong governance and compliance framework, and a culture of learning and innovation to make the most of the copilots and realize their full potential.”
Stephanie Yackimec, Software Licensing Practice Lead, Invero
In conclusion, copilots are powerful and there are lots of capabilities that can help your organization do more with less!
Invero offers a unique and comprehensive Copilot for Microsoft 365 Readiness Assessment that leverages software developed by Invero to uncover all data that has been overshared across your entire M365 tenant. To learn more about this offering, you can check out our listing on Microsoft’s AppSource marketplace.
This post covers just some of the content that was part of a broader episode of The Invero Show that did a deeper dive into Microsoft’s Copilots and Generative AI – Options, Licensing Models, Use Cases and Next Steps. You can watch the full episode by clicking the image below.
