Copilot – that’s been the hot topic in the artificial intelligence world for a while now. But what is it exactly? What can it do? And how to install copilot? This blog is a starting point for everyone who is interested in getting started with Copilot from Microsoft.
Copilot – as the name suggests – is not here to replace you or anyone. It’s here to serve as your virtual colleague, one who can handle all the repetitive tasks for you, so that you have more time to focus on what’s important. The thing to remember here is that you are the main pilot, in charge of the tool and how it is used.
What is Copilot?
Microsoft Copilot is a powerful AI-driven tool designed to assist users across various Microsoft platforms like Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, and Azure. Built on the foundation of large language models, Copilot provides intelligent assistance that enhances productivity, decision-making, and automation.
Whether it’s within Word, Excel, Teams, or Dynamics 365, Microsoft Copilot helps users by automating repetitive tasks, offering real-time suggestions, and even generating content or insights based on user data.
One of the standout features of Microsoft Copilot is its seamless integration across the Microsoft ecosystem. It leverages AI to understand the context of your work, whether you’re drafting a report, analyzing data, or collaborating with colleagues. This integration helps businesses and individuals become more efficient by reducing manual input and allowing more time for high-value tasks.
In Dynamics 365, for instance, Copilot helps streamline CRM processes by providing customer insights, automating responses, and suggesting next steps. This makes it an invaluable tool for organizations that rely heavily on customer interaction and data management.
By embedding AI deeply within its suite of products, Microsoft has positioned Copilot as more than just a tool—it's a productivity partner that transforms the way users engage with their everyday tasks. Whether you’re a marketer, developer, or business leader, Microsoft Copilot is designed to help you work smarter and more efficiently.
How to get started with Copilot?
Enabling the Copilot functionality is simple if you are already a user of the Microsoft tools. The Copilot functionality will be present on the left side of the menu, where you can click and enable it.
But you can also choose to test the tool first and make your decision if you want to install Copilot. For the demo version of the AI, you can go to www.copilotstudio.microsoft.com where you will be able to test Copilot for free. You should land on the following page.
Note: you will need a work or school account to sign up for the free trial.
Steps to create your Copilot
Once you have landed on this page, you will be able to create your own Copilot. By creating your own Copilot, you will be able to have a customized AI tool that can help you with specific tasks in your business. Follow the step-by-step guide on how to create and install Copilot.
Step 1: Fill with words
Use simple words and terms in the box to indicate to your Copilot what it needs to do. You can also use the guides above the box to help you with the writing of this part.
This is an important step as it will help define the goal of your AI tool and why you wanted to install Copilot in the first place. For this Copilot, I indicated that the main goal is to bring valuable information to our clients.
Step 2: Add more information
Fill in the respective fields. Once you have identified your goals, you will be prompted to fill in other details to help build your Copilot. The details include:
- Name: This is a name that you will use to call your Copilot. You can choose any name that you wish.
- Icon: The Copilot icon will be affixed by default. You can choose to change it and replace it with your own icon if you want to use a personalize one.
- Description: This is where you are going to add to what you wrote in step 1. The description is the place where you can elaborate on what you want your Copilot to achieve, your target audience and how your new AI tool can help you out. It’s recommended to go in as much details as possible, as this will help Copilot understand your specific needs.
- Instructions: Here, you can be more specific on how Copilot will accomplish this task. You can indicate the tone of voice, the ways that it churns out any solution, and when or how to do it. This is you putting in the instructions on how you want your Copilot to work best for you.
- Knowledge: Finally, the last part is about you adding previous knowledge to help Copilot understand the type of information you want. When it comes to adding knowledge to your Copilot, you can choose to either add knowledge from the web or from your internal organization. Or you can choose to add from both sources so that Copilot benefit from a breath of information.
Step 3: Create your Copilot
Once you have added the knowledge, you can click on ‘Create’ at the right top corner of the screen.
All the details that you’ve input will configure together to create and install Copilot into your Microsoft environment. You will then land onto a page like the one below. You will notice that all the information you provided before will appear here, and you can modify them whenever you want to.
Step 4: Activate the general information settings
You should also make sure that the general information is enabled. This will allow Copilot to still provide answers even if it does not have the knowledge input yet.
Step 5: Test your Copilot
Now, it’s time to test our newly set Copilot. Go onto the chat box on the right part of the screen and write down anything that you wish your Copilot to provide. For the purpose of this blog, I’m going to ask it about managing credit card expenses. And it will give you some of the answers.
So, as you can notice. In just a few minutes, we’ve managed to create and install Copilot, as well as ask it to produce our first bit of AI generated content. You can ask Copilot to generate the information in any way that you want, such as bullet points, speech format, blog and more.
Need more information on Copilot ?
Schedule a free, personalized consultation with one of our Microsoft experts today to learn more about Copilot and how it can help you.
Gestisoft: Your premier Copilot installation partner
Launching and installing Copilot can be daunting, especially if this is your first time diving into an AI tool for business. But thankfully, we at Gestisoft, have years of experience as a Microsoft partner.
We have helped numerous businesses optimized their processed with personalized CRM and ERP systems, and now is a premier advisor when it comes to integrating Copilot into your Microsoft environment.
We invite you to contact our professionals who will be able to answer to your questions regarding Copilot, its installation, benefits and costs. We are also all ears if you want to have a personalized consultation regarding the processes at your business and how our CRM and ERP solutions can help you.
Installing Copilot is just the beginning, as it promises future benefits as it continues to evolve, especially adding variables and entities. Keep an eye for our next blogs on Copilot and get all the insights on its usage, benefits and functionalities.
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October 17, 2024 by Kooldeep Sahye by Kooldeep Sahye Marketing Specialist
Fuelled by a passion for everything that has to do with search engine optimization, keywords and optimization of content. And an avid copywriter who thrives on storytelling and impactful content.