Microsoft Copilot is an amazing tool that can help professionals in various industries reach the peak of their productivity. Now, productivity tools are nothing new. Specialists have been using them for years and decades now, but Copilot may have more to offer.
So, what is Microsoft Copilot? The simplest explanation is that it’s an AI-powered successor to Clippy, a beloved virtual assistant present in earlier versions of MS Word. Now, aside from playing strongly on the nostalgia card, Copilot is an amazing tool in its own right. Here’s what it can offer and how it compares against some other (traditional) productivity tools.
1. AI-driven assistance
Let’s not beat around the bush and admit that the strongest selling point of any productivity tool in 2024 is its AI-driven assistance. This is where Microsoft Copilot excels. The tool is designed to put a special emphasis on memorizing user preferences and workflow, which is why you’ll have the impression that this assistant was hand-made for your own needs.
You’ll feel like it’s an actual assistant who’s been working for you for decades and knows exactly what and how you like things done.
This way, it can help you skip all the unnecessary technical and administrative responsibilities and get straight to your core tasks. We’re talking about the tasks that actually require human specialist input.
Just think about it: there are tasks that AI can do better (at least faster) than humans and things that they can’t do. The best way to organize workflow (for optimal productivity) would be to provide these trusted specialists with the right AI tools.
2. Amazing for integration
The next thing you need to understand is the importance of Copilot belonging to a Microsoft family. This means that if you’re using 365, you’ll have an easy time integrating it with all the other software involved. In other words, while there are other approaches to this issue, Microsoft Copilot should be seen as a default solution.
This means that you can use it to improve your collaboration, pre-existing skills, and even your decision-making without having to compromise and move to a platform that will allow for better integration. Sure, it goes without saying that most productivity tools start with the idea of making these integrations; however, it just won’t be the same.
The most important thing to understand is that these integrations really play into user-friendliness. Remember, if you are going to use Copilot with new tools, all of this potentially prolongs your onboarding process. The simpler, the better.
3. Multitude of conversational styles
The best thing about its NLP processor is the fact that it has styles that are capable of catering to different needs. It can be creative, balanced, or precise. For instance, while writing a post, you could use it for fact-checking and shaping your tone to be more formal.
You could use its creative aspect to give you new ideas, bullet points, or just to give you examples that your audience will have a much easier time relating to. The bottom line is that you need to acknowledge that it’s a human approach to content creation that your audience wants and values; however, the content doesn’t have to be made by an actual human. It just has to look like it.
Creating these examples or even using them to simplify the content you’ve created can be very helpful. You can literally copy-paste a sentence (something you’re preparing for a meeting or something you plan to insert in the next piece of content you want to produce) and just ask for it to be rephrased in a certain way. This can be incredibly helpful when working in a digital workspace.
4. Contextual assistance
Imagine having someone sitting next to you while you’re working. We’re talking about someone competent and fully focused on your task, making suggestions as you go. At the same time, it’s not an actual human, which means that they’re not making you uncomfortable or nervous. They’re not judging or evaluating, and their only purpose is to help.
With traditional tools, you would have to provide actual input to get what you need; however, Copilot is a sophisticated AI-driven technology that follows your work and understands context. You don’t want your lack of ability to verbalize these things to act as a bottleneck or a roadblock. If you need your work to be simpler, you need someone who knows what you think and how you think.
In a way, Copilot is there to help you with proactive problem-solving. You don’t have to be a master prompt-writer; it knows where you’re going and where you’re coming from. In fact, one of the strongest features of Copilot is that it’s so intuitive. The longer you use it, the more intuitive it gets.
5. Limitations of Copilot
The last thing you need to keep in mind is the fact that there are some downsides to using this tool for productivity. Namely, the learning curve and dependence on AI are quite concerning.
The issue with the learning curve lies in the fact that this is not the only tool you’re using and that you have to master. The problem is that, by the time you’re already considering a productivity tool, you’re in a bit of a problem and need a solution. What you don’t need is another side-quest and a new tool that you’ll have to watch tutorials of.
Now, we’ve also mentioned dependence on AI. Some people get so accustomed to working with AI assistance that their independent creative abilities atrophy completely. After using it for a while, they won’t even be able to get back to the pre-Copilot level of productivity. This could be a problem in a scenario where the service is unavailable.
However, there’s no reason for the service to be unavailable, and the reliability of the tool will only increase in time.
Wrap up
The last thing you need to keep in mind is that, while there are other tools out there, Copilot is a Microsoft software. Therefore, it comes from a highly-trusted developer and, most importantly, it has a seamless integration with other tools. In other words, it has all the advantages of other AI-based productivity tools, with a couple of extra perks. Its only downside is the learning curve and the unlikely scenario of service being unavailable.