From the dawn of computing, one story remains: our data is the same, but the way it’s presented has changed. we’re always striving to improve efficiency with how we work and how we communicate.
With the many Copilots beginning to improve our lives, the dilemma remains – which is the right one to do the job?
On Friday April 19th I had to honor of speaking for the Minnesota Microsoft 365 User Group once again, and took a journey through “the past” of when to use what technology for job, stepped into “the present” to see how each of the Microsoft Copilots work in the real world, then into “the future” with a handy guide that will help you know when to use what Copilot.
As a takeaway for this session, I’ve created this hand product cart on where to use the right Copilot for the right persona, as well as included a chart of applicable use cases
Looking to download a copy of the slides? Grab it in PDF format here
Understanding how the Copilots work is great, but in scenarios where multiple can do the same job, looking at the accuracy and precision may drive which tool to use, moving form the commodity tools found in Microsoft 365 Copilot, all the way to custom solutions that drive the mission of your organization.
An important part of success after identify the RIGHT Copilot is establishing #quality #promptengineering
Here is a handy list of ways to see better success faster in crafting your prompts:
To help in aiding advanced scenarios, and based on use cases with customers, I’ve put together a list of some scenarios I’ve helped customers in generating – there will be some that as you’re looking for more precision and accuracy in skilling, the solution will change from commodity to common tools.
| Persona (Dept) | Job (Title) | Challenge/Pain | Success Criteria | Solution | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales | Customer Experience | Customer service call are typing lengthy call summaries | Generate call summaries with minimal typing | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| Sales | Customer Experience | Determine Follow-up capture for client | Generate call actions in call summaries above 95% | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| Sales | Customer Experience | Accelerate quoting for customer statements of work | Accelerate quotes to 50% of current time | Copilot for Sales Azure OpenAI | ||
| Sales | Customer Experience | Capture and follow-up acceleration | Call summaries are taken from Teams meetings and put into Salesforce | Copilot for Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales | ||
| Sales | Customer Experience | Improve management of strategic accounts | Map leaders in strategic accounts to actions | Copilot for Sales | ||
| Sales | Customer Experience | Improve new lead conversation | Track and manage activities to create value | Copilot for Sales | ||
| Sales | Customer Experience | Pricing optimization | Optimize the GM on sold deals | Copilot for Sales | ||
| Finance | Finance Manager | Summarization or Q&A against excel from JD Edwards, etc. | Process orders, sales, financial data in a single dashboard | Copilot for Fabric | ||
| Finance | Finance Manager | Standardize the data estate and analytics from JD Edwards | Self-service data access without Excel as dependency | Copilot for Fabric | ||
| HR | Recruiter | Create job description is manually created from scratch | Automatically generate job descriptions | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| HR | Recruiter | Performing resume screening is a manual process | Autonmatically Map appropriate resumes and/or experience | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| HR | Recruiter | Manual generation of candidate screening notes and recording | Record interviews and capture key notes automatically | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| HR | Policy Manager | Employees are asking on where to find policies, understand updates, and send questions to the team regularly that are documented | Legerate a chatbot to provide quicker access to HR information | Copilot Studio Azure OpenAI | ||
| IT | Helpdesk | Resolve tickets faster, or shift left (30 tickets a day) | Answer IT oriented questions faster | Copilot for Service | ||
| IT | IT Manager | Analysis of legal documents for examples of language | Legal analysts review documents for specific legal language | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| IT | Developer | Creating code from scratch is time comsuing | Code development done faster | Github Studio | ||
| IT | Developer | Develop safe code | Code is developed from trusted repositories | Github Studio | ||
| IT | Developer | Code across platforms | Code is developed accurately | Github Studio | ||
| Marketing | Marketing | Building marketing campaign content | Create marketing content drafts that are 80% completed | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| Marketing | Marketing | Competitor or marketing research | Gather research regarding competitors or market trends | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| Marketing | Marketing | Keeping content up to date | Content generation | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| Sales | Customer Care Specialist | Notifying customers that projects are late (Netsuite Report) | The customer is automatically notified of delayed based on inventory or order status | Copilot for Service Copilot for Power Platform | ||
| Sales | Sales Coordinator | Understand what opportunties are/ are not actionable | The sales representatives can prioritize client feedback based on specific criteria | Copilot for Sales Azure OpenAI | ||
| Sales | Project Coordinator | better understand where products are in the product process to schedule orders | View product deivery status and provide a virtual chat bot to understand lead times | Copilot for Sales Copilot Studio | ||
| Sales | Sales Manager | Conduct employee reviews and manage | Automatically process employee feedback and provide goals / OPRs | Copilot for Viva | ||
| Sales | Territory Manager | Review pipeline and deals for account executives | Automatically view sales statustics and create dashboards for views across all customers | Copilot for Sales Copilot for Fabric | ||
| Supply Chain | Buyer/ Procurement | Customers are unaware of delayes in orders | Automatically notify customers that projects are late via Netsuite data | Copilot for Sales | ||
| Product Management | Design Specialist/ Manager | Coordinatinng design work, working with 3D models, creating in depth technical drawings, performing manual input, and working creatively with design teams is time consuming | Generate meeting summaries and automate the creation of standardized documentation to meet product specifications | Copilot for Microsoft 365 Copilot Studio | ||
| Estimating | Estimator | Manual effort to understand what product specifications are when talking with client | Use natural language to accuruately provide details | Copilot Studio Copilot for Sales Azure OpenAI | ||
| Plant Operations | Samples Fabricator | Manual effort to understand what materials and products are stocked / backorderd | Use natural language to determine supply chain accuracy | Copilot Studio Copilot for Sales Azure OpenAI | ||
| Plant Operations | Shipping/Freight | Provide accruate freight costs bases on shipper and finalized product weight | Automcally pull inventory data from finalized products and cross references against shipping provider | Copilot Studio Azure OpenAi | ||
| Production | Production Associate | Understand delayes to supply chain and parts for product production | Using natural language search automatically generate reporting from ERP systems and provide | Copilot Studio Azure OpenAI | ||
| IT | Developer | Updates to custom developed platforms take time to make corrections | Automatically review code and use natural language to provide enhavements | Github Studio | ||
| IT | Business Analyst | Gaps in understanding operations of teams and applying technology effectively | Automatically review SOPs and use chat bots to interact | Copilot for Microsoft 365 Copilot Studio | ||
| IT | Helpdesk | Respondin to user support requests can take hours if not days | Create a chat bot for interaction based on existing knowledgebase and then escalate to team member when all options are exhausted | Copilot Studio Copilot for Service | ||
| Marketing | Ops/Coordinator | Setting Up marketing campaigns in tedious and not tailored to custonmers | Automatically generate presentations around customer data | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| Finance | CFO | Generation of data around company finances is tedious | Automatically create reports and dashboards from company ERP systems | Copilot for Finance Copilot for Fabric | ||
| Executive | CEO | Cannot easily perform Deep Diving Around Data Analysis | Automatically create reports and dashboards from company ERP systems | Copilot for Finance Copilot for Fabric | ||
| Sales | Account Manager/ Specialist | Book a trip takes multiple steps and coordination with managers | Trip is automaticlaly booked and goes thru the proper approval workflows | Copilot for Microsoft 365 plugin Copilot for Power Automate | ||
| Finance | Travel and Expense | Undestanding travel and expoense policies must be emailed and answered by someone in finance | Automatically interact with Concur related questions via chat bot | Copilot Studio | ||
| Finance | Travel and Expense | Automate expense report processing. | Expense reports are automatically audited for accuracy. | Copilot for Microsoft 365 plugin | ||
| Finance | Travel and Expense | Analyzing spend for fraud/duplicates is tedious | Duplicate charges are reimbursed back to the company. review dataset apply logic to identify duplicates / incorrect spend | Fabric / OpenAI | ||
| Operations | Business Transformation office | Perform financial roll ups from the primary categories (OP/Savings/Growth, Expense, Cash Outlay, Headcount) that export into Smartsheet and restructuring projects reporting from various business entities coalesced in Excel from various ERPs and the data warehouse each reporting period (monthly, 60+ initiatives) | Incrementally automate and improve the data accuracy period over period to free up the financial team’s time to reallocate to other business process improvement and reporting priorities (cross business and cross toolset) | Copilot for Fabric Azure OpenAI | ||
| Operations | Program management and people leadership role | Accelerate and improve the quality of team and individual goal setting (OKRs) across initiative leads | Set OKRs in a more timely manner and ensure / derisk initiatives plus improve visibility into milestones | Copilot for Viva | ||
| Operations | Program management and people leadership role | Use data from calendars to tell me how likely someone is going to be available for attending a meeting at that time. | Be told the slots that work best to schedule meetings for maximum attendance (goal = 100% of participants) and | Copilot Studio Copilot for PowerAutomate | ||
| Operations | Business Transformation Office | draft emails reminding teams when deliverables/updates are due | Automated communication to team members of monthly deliverables | Copilot Studio Copilot for PowerAutomate | ||
| Operations | Business Transformation Office | Setup of new suppliers across our legal entities and accounts payable approval for setup inside of ERP | Automated draft of the email, collection and workflow of the submittals, and tracking of the new supplier registration along the way. | Copilot Studio Copilot for PowerAutomate | ||
| Operations | Business Transformation Office | Schedule payments for invoices for suppliers thru Concur | Automated send invoice, collection of payment & notification of every step in workflow until payment is issued. | Copilot Studio Copilot for PowerAutomate | ||
| Operations | Business Transformation Office | Gaps in budget management in real time | Automatically provide data around invoice payment, increases / decreases, reporting dashboards, and automatic communucations | Copilot for Finance Copilot for Fabric | ||
| Operations | Business Transformation Office | Review supply chain PowerBI dashboard and engage users to flush out inaccuracies | Automatically identify potential inconsistencies, apply corrective actions from those to future events, and suggest overall more efficient and/or insightful ways of cutting & viewing data | Copilot for Finance Copilot for Fabric | ||
| Operations | Business Transformation Office | Create document templates around Crisis and strategic communications | Automatically leverage a library of suggested drafts is created | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| Operations | Business Transformation Office | Receive and file new documents relative to an M&A project to quickly source the answers to querries the data room particpants | Use a cat bot to Leverage data set across all of the deparmental areas of an organization based on a defined template and create a response / re | Copilot for Microsoft 365 Copilot Studio | ||
| Sales | Account Manager/ Specialist | Creating customers specific strategy and values and idetnifying how we can bring value is lacking | Use natural language response to understand customer strategy and automatically generate sales documents | Copilot for Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales | ||
| Sales | Account Manager/ Specialist | Creating customer specific presentations are time consuming | Customized presentations and links to their specific strategic direction and values | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| Sales | Account Manager/ Specialist | Analyze a market segment and identify most interesting leads to approach | Automatically review customer information based on calls and news | Copilot for Sales | ||
| Sales | Account Manager/ Specialist | Performing email preparation for customers it tedious | I can communicate more quickly and get additional touch-points with customers | Copilot for Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales | ||
| Operations | ERP Administrator | Creating and / or locating an operation sheet required for running a part on the shop floor is time consuming | The correct operation sheet is downloaded and displayed. | Copilot for Microsoft 365 Copilot Studio | ||
| Operations | ERP Administrator | Creating next step actions in the ERP is a manual process | Process log e-mails/notifications and tabulate in a scorecard and kick off next actions | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| Operations | ERP Administrator | Troubleshooting of the ERP system is difficult and requires human interaction | Provide troubleshooting to users through bot, Copilot, or automated email responses | Copilot Studio Copilot for Finance | ||
| Operations | ERP Administrator | Transform user requests are manually completed | Automatically translate input into an EPM Automate script and provide output to users | Copilot Studio Copilot for Finance | ||
| Operations | ERP Administrator | Validating user reporting requests is manually completed | Automatically generate emails with properly filled out form and workflows are handled quicker | Copilot Studio Copilot for Finance | ||
| Operations | ERP Administrator | Create internal documetation / standard work | The information has been transferred and transformed from an old version to a new template. | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| Operations | ERP Administrator | Pair program / validate / test Oracle Calc Script, Java/Groovy, EPM Automate, Batch Scripts, Postman configuration (for Oracle REST API requests) | Code is automatically generated with accuracy | Github Copilot Azure OpenAI | ||
| Operations | ERP Administrator | Provide one-stop shop for user requests | User is able to complete their inquiry using the AI. | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| Finance | Investor Relations | Draft more effective investor communications (Creative) | Initial drafts of earnings call scripts, press releases, presentations (Jump start the creative process) Assisting in getting the appropriate tone of these communications More investor communications these days are first absorbed by machines, AI should help to create better tailored materials | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| Finance | Investor Relations | Prepare management for analyst / investor question & answer sessions using predictive analytics | Automatically generate content and predections based on internal and external data | Copilot for Microsoft 365 Copilot Studio | ||
| Finance | Investor Relations | Summarizing peer companies’ / competitors’ investor presentations and transcripts is a tedious process` | Automatically generate reports and review meeting to provide summaries | Copilot for Microsoft 365 Copilot Studio | ||
| Finance | Investor Relations | Efficiently target strategic investors using data driven insights | Automatically review public and internal documents and create reports for investors | Copilot for Microsoft 365 Copilot Studio | ||
| Finance | Investor Relations | Knowing that the buy-side is analyzing investor communications, being knowledgeable about what these tools are saying has gaps | Automatically review communications for sentements in communucations and ensuring it meets company standards | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| Finance | Investor Relations | Administrative tasks are time consuming | Automatic generation of documents, meeting notes, interations via email, etc | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| HR | Internal Communications | Measuring internal communications include open rate and attrition rates, such as annual employee survey. | Legerate AI to report and measure empployee responses | Copilot for Viva | ||
| HR | IEP Writer | Creating ideas and synthesizing into SMART goals requires a skilled individual | Legerate AI to create goals based on user role | Copilot for Viva | ||
| Marketing | Contract Writer | Comparing T&Cs to ensure web edits are exact can be tedious and sometimes inaccurate | Automatically review documents based on a standardized template | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| Marketing | Public Communiucations | Creating press releases based on a template requires manual effort | Automatically generate a document based on template and provided criteria | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| Marketing | Public Communiucations | Copywriting & scheduling posts is a manual effort | Automatically create content and generate a flow to post on a scheduled basis | Copilot for Microsoft 365 Copilot for Power Platform | ||
| Marketing | Public Communiucations | Optimizing posts for virality (length and use of emojis) is a manual effort | Automtically review company content and recommend changes | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| Marketing | Public Communiucations | Developing content calendar is a manual task | Automatically review previous schedule and generate a schedule based on internal and external criteria | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| Marketing | Public Communiucations | Creating images/graphics to use with posts requires manual effort | Automatically generate grapgics by using keywords and prases | Copilot for Microsoft 365 | ||
| Marketing | Webmaster | Comparing HTML code to find a bug is a manual process | Automaticlaly review code for errors and recommend suggestions | Github Studio | ||
| Marketing | Webmaster | Consolidating web and social media data from multiple sources and update a dashboard is manually completed | Automatically connect data sources and flow information and reporting to a centralized dashboard | Copilot Studio Copilot for Fabric |
