Good news! Starting January 16, 2024, Copilot for Microsoft 365 will be available to users with a CSP license. This truly ushers in a new era of "modern work. With Copilot's powerful and sometimes stunning AI features, any organization can become AI-driven and make a big step in efficiency and productivity. Copilot is integrated into the Microsoft 365 apps, giving employees' daily work a big boost. This makes Copilot a great opportunity for anyone working with Microsoft 365.  

What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?

Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI feature integrated within the Microsoft 365 apps to completely change the way employees work and support a variety of daily tasks. It gives every employee access to a personal AI assistant to work smarter, better and more efficiently. The name Copilot basically says it all: it's your personal assistant. You remain in control. 

A sampling of some of Copilot's features: 

Outlook

• Save time on email writing by having Copilot write a draft message based on a short job description (prompt). Of course, you have the option to have a new message generated based on feedback or modify the draft to your liking;
• Copilot can turn long e-mail conversations into short summaries, so you can quickly get up to speed on necessary information. 

Become

• Let Copilot prepare a first draft for your document, generate new ideas, and further draft the document based on the text you already have. 
• Transform your document by having Copilot edit existing text and convert plain text to tables. 
• Ask Copilot to help improve your document by adding further details or adjusting the writing style.

Excel

• Get your data analyzed and visualized by Copilot. Ask Copilot a question about your data and you'll be presented with options such as graphs, pivot tables and more. No need to enter formulas, you just give Copilot a command in plain language;
• Filter, highlight, sort data and create complex formulas at lightning speed by giving Copilot a simple command.  

PowerPoint 

• Get started quickly with a new presentation. Give Copilot a topic and description and you'll get a draft presentation instantly; 
• Commands allow you to instantly shorten presentations, change formatting or restructure slides;
• Use your organization's corporate identity by having Copilot create a presentation in the appropriate branding. 

Teams 

• Let Copilot look up and list the most important information from the call history within a chat or channel...;
• Writing meeting minutes is a thing of the past. Instruct Copilot to generate a meeting summary or ask Copilot to: list action items, ask about possible follow-ups and have agreements made recorded. 

Clearly, Copilot completely changes the way work is done in Microsoft 365. It can save a lot of time, improve existing work and take over repetitive, often boring operations.  

For which organization is Copilot suitable and what are the costs?

Copilot is now available and actually suitable and of great value for all types of organizations. From small to large and in any industry. This is in contrast to earlier noises about a minimum number of employees/users.  

Of course, there is an investment involved in using Copilot: it can be purchased as an add-on through Valid, as a CSP partner, for $360 (~€335) per user per year. We recommend, given the investment and the impact on IT strategy, to test Copilot with a limited group first. This way you can experience the benefits for your organization in an accessible way and see if it is a good investment for a larger group of users within the organization.