Microsoft is going all in on Copilot, a robust AI assistant designed to work with your apps, documents, and even your conversations. The idea is to spruce up your workload and give you extra time to take on other tasks while retaining a level of accuracy throughout. But how does one actually leverage this level of technology to produce the results they are looking for? Well, the good news is that I am here to discuss some of the many aspects of Copilot and how they can enhance your workflows, both professionally and creatively.
Use Cases
Copilot can be used in countless applications, including options for personal use, business use, and even larger enterprises. But it all starts on the ground floor with helping you bring some ideas to life. Copilot can quickly create drafts on any topic within Word, giving you jumping-off points to help draft letters, enhance your notetaking skills, and even elevate your narrative. But that’s just the start.
If you want to summarize a long email conversation trail, you can leverage Copilot summaries in Outlook to condense the information. This is great for personal and professional use. This way you get only the most important information and cut out the extra fluff.
For more business-oriented areas, Copilot can assist with automating business processes with custom or pre-built agents, ultimately saving time in the long run. Larger enterprise businesses can use Copilot to analyze large segments of data, taking complex information and breaking down the different results that you may be looking for. You can even dissect trends and stay on top of the hottest topics. You can also expand your experience with the use of agents which can accelerate productivity across your entire organization with either custom or pre-built agents.
These AI agents can support your team by handling a variety of everyday tasks or business critical processes. There are a variety of pre-compiled agents as well as the ability to create your own custom agents to handle your tasks.
Copilot
At the center of Copilot is the dedicated application. Once downloaded, you can use Copilot in its own separate application to help with various tasks if you don’t have any Microsoft 365 applications open or wish to use it as a stand-alone program.
In the app you have access to many different shortcuts designed for specific uses. If you want to analyze data and look at statistics, you can do it from a simple interface. There are other additional features built within the app as well. Researcher is great for managing prompts and finding out exactly the piece of information you are looking for.
Copilot even has a chat feature that transforms your queries from being stiff into something more conversational and natural. Simply start with a question or an idea and you’ll be heading off into unforeseen areas.
Sometimes, that information takes you to some of the applications you are already familiar with. As mentioned before, Copilot is baked into Microsoft Office’s applications as well as Teams. We already discussed what it can do in Outlook, but with PowerPoint you can control the flow of the narrative while also looking for inspiration for your next slide or an entire presentation.
Real-World Use
There are a ton of instances where Copilot can be used, but how does one actually utilize the technology in real-world situations? Especially those who are looking to create something? Taking all that we know now and applying it, there are some interesting ways to use Copilot.
First, we need to think of what we are doing and what our goals are. Are we drafting a letter? It might be a good idea to find some templates or assist with getting a few words out to truly show your affection. Maybe you’re looking for a name for your podcast, simply ask Copilot to come up with a few names and then narrow down your results by interests. Maybe you’re planning your next gaming session with friends, and you need some materials generated quickly so you can work on other parts of the adventure.
Even if you are writing a book and you need to quickly research a topic, Copilot can assist by not just giving you some aspects but also the sources of where the information originates from. This way you’re not just skipping out on the folks who put the time and effort into giving you the answer you were looking for.
If you are an artist using programs like Adobe Photoshop, you’ll find that it is fully supported on Copilot+ PCs, including those with Snapdragon X Series processors that take AI usage to higher levels. It runs natively, optimizing performance and stability. While there are other applications that support Copilot, it is currently not directly integrated into the UI, but it can still be used to help with a few questions and generate some inspiration.
As you can see, Copilot has many uses in many different areas. If you’re looking for that extra bit of assistance and development, you can always look toward Copilot.
