It seems like recently you can’t turn a corner without hearing about AI – it’s everywhere in the news. You may have recently heard about Deep Seek, a Chinese AI start-up that has rapidly gained prominence by developing advanced AI models comparable to leading systems like OpenAI’s GPT-4, but at a fraction of the cost.
Whilst this might be making headlines we look closer to home and how we can use AI in our day to day work. The standout tool that you may or may not have harnessed the power of AI is Microsoft’s Copilot part of the Microsoft 365 suite.
Today, I want to share some practical tips on how you can leverage Copilot to make your workday a bit smoother.
1. Crafting Effective Prompts
To get the most out of Copilot, it’s essential to provide clear and detailed prompts. Specify your goals, provide context, and mention any relevant sources. This guidance helps Copilot generate more accurate and helpful responses.
Here’s an example:
If you’re drafting a marketing email for a new product launch, instead of a vague prompt like “Write an email about our new product,” you can instruct Copilot with: “Compose a professional and engaging email announcing the launch of our new eco-friendly water bottle, highlighting its unique features and benefits.” This detailed prompt provides Copilot with clear guidance, resulting in a more tailored and effective draft.
2. Summarising Emails and Documents
Copilot can assist in distilling lengthy email threads or documents into concise summaries, allowing you to grasp key points quickly without sifting through all the details.
You can ask Copilot: “Summarise the key points from the email thread titled ‘Project Alpha Update’ dated between 1st and 5th February.” Copilot will then provide a concise summary, allowing you to quickly catch up without reading through every email.
3. Automating Repetitive Tasks
With Copilot Actions, you can automate routine tasks like summarising meetings, generating reports, or preparing meeting agendas. This automation frees up your time for more strategic activities.
If you regularly prepare meeting agendas, you can prompt Copilot: “Generate a meeting agenda for the weekly sales team meeting, including standard topics and a section for new business.” Copilot will create a structured agenda, saving you time and ensuring consistency across meetings.
4. Enhancing Writing and Content Creation
Copilot can help adjust the tone of your writing to suit different audiences, transform text into tables, generate initial outlines for documents, and extract key information from lengthy texts. These features can significantly enhance your content creation process.
When drafting a report, you might need to present data in a more digestible format. You can instruct Copilot: “Transform the following sales data into a table and provide a brief analysis of trends over the past quarter.” Copilot will create a table from your data and offer insights, enhancing the clarity and impact of your report.
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Embracing AI tools like Microsoft’s Copilot can revolutionise the way we work, making our tasks more efficient and less time-consuming. If you have any questions about upgrading your organisation to enable CoPilot or need assistance with integrating Copilot into your workflow, feel free to reach out. We’re here to help you navigate this exciting AI journey!
