Microsoft Copilot is a new AI assistant that is integrated with Microsoft 365, the popular suite of productivity apps. Copilot claims to help you work smarter, faster, and better by providing you with relevant information, suggestions, and insights. But is Copilot really a copilot, or more of a backseat driver? In this blog post, I will share my personal experience with Copilot, and list a handful of great features and some not so great features of this AI companion.
The good
AI-powered chat
Copilot can chat with you in natural language, and answer your questions, queries, and requests. I consistently find myself asking Copilot to summarise Teams chats that I’ve missed to make sure I’ve seen any actions I might have, and to summarise documents for key points so I can quickly identify the areas I need to focus on.
Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps
Copilot is embedded in the Microsoft 365 apps you use every day, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more. I find it particularly useful that I can highlight a paragraph in an email and ask Copilot to suggest rewrites in different styles or to ensure focus on certain points. I don’t need to copy and paste or explain context to another AI engine, Copilot has access to my email history so it understands the context without me explaining it.
Copilot Studio
Copilot Studio is a tool that lets you customise and extend your copilot with your own data and logic. I’ve been able to connect Copilot to my data sources and use this data to quickly produce dynamic graphs and charts in my proposals to provide data driven context to my statements.
Responsible AI practices
Copilot is designed and developed with the principles of responsible AI in mind and aims to be fair, transparent, accountable, reliable, and human-centric. I’ve found Copilot will provide good explanations as to why it’s made a suggestion and allows me to make a good decision as to if I use the information it has provided me.
The bad
Limited language support
Copilot is currently only supported in nine languages: English, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese Simplified, and Chinese Traditional. As an example, I found Copilot in Excel is only supported in English when working with a multinational client. This means that if you want to use Copilot in another language, or in a multilingual setting, you are out of luck.
Occasional errors and glitches
Copilot is not perfect, and sometimes it makes mistakes or malfunctions. I’ve encountered some examples where Copilot has provided me with some information that when I’ve checked is outdated or controversial for a reason I might not have understood. I’ve also found it conflicts with some existing extensions in Microsoft 365 I use, such as Grammarly.
Lack of personality and customisation
Copilot is supposed to be your AI assistant, but it does not feel very personal or customisable. I can always tell when the content Copilot has suggested is AI generated and I would hope over time that Copilot can start to learn from my personal tone and style to make it’s content more and more realistic.
Subscription fee
Copilot is not free, and it requires a subscription fee to use. Copilot for Microsoft 365 costs $30 per user per month, on top of the existing Microsoft 365 subscription fee. Copilot Pro costs $20 per user per month, and requires a separate Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription. Copilot for personal use is free, but it has limited features and performance. I hope that in the future that Copilot is more affordable and accessible as I’d like more and more of my team to adopt it’s use on a daily basis.
The ugly
Copilot can definitely enhance your productivity, creativity, and skills in the workplace. However, it is not a magic bullet, and it has its flaws and drawbacks. We’re starting to see examples of where some AI engines (and I’m sure Copilot won’t be excluded from this) is simply ‘making stuff up’, the term that has evolved to describe this is ‘Hallucination’. This could obviously cause some difficulties and in the worst case might be dangerous, organisations are starting to implement strategies to mitigate this – stay tuned for a future blog!
In summary…
Remember that Copilot is not a replacement for human intelligence, creativity, or judgment, and it should not be blindly trusted or followed. Copilot is a tool, and like any tool, it depends on how you use it. Copilot can be your copilot, but you are still the pilot. You have the final say, and the ultimate responsibility. So, buckle up, and enjoy the ride.
You may also be interested in our series of AI blogs throughout the month, take a look below:
Adopting AI: beyond blind trust
Navigating AI landscape: essential considerations for successful adoption
If you have any questions or need support for your AI readiness and enabling your Data & AI programmes, reach out, we’d be happy to share our stories and knowledge with you.