Top of mind for every business leader

The computer revolutionized the world, but generative AI is quickly ushering in a new era for the working world. This technological leap (unlike anything we've seen before) is poised to reshape businesses at an unprecedented pace.  

The rate at which AI advances will be faster than we’ve ever experienced before as algorithms learn and improve automatically and independently.  

McKinsey recently analyzed generative AI’s impact on 63 defined business use cases such as AI’s ability to: 

  • support interactions with customers 
  • generate creative content for marketing and sales 
  • and draft computer code based on natural-language prompts.  

The research from Mckinsey concluded that generative AI’s impacts could add $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion annually to the global economy.

With so much ground swell around generative AI right now, executive teams and IT teams feel the urgency to prepare. 

According to a recent CNBC Technology Executive Council Survey, "More than half (55%) of top technology officers across sectors of the economy say they plan to purchase enterprise-level gen AI software, such as Microsoft Copilot, in the next six months." 

Microsoft has invested billions into its generative AI solution, Copilot, which it plans to integrate throughout the Microsoft ecosystem from security products to Outlook. And while they are rapidly preparing to roll out Copilot into their product ecosystem, most companies are simply not prepared, whether they know it or not. 

Here are five reasons your organization is unprepared for Microsoft Copilot:

1. Users already have access to Copilot but don't know it 

Your users can start leveraging Copilot today even with your current Microsoft licensing. Included in common Microsoft licensing today is Copilot in Edge, Copilot.Microsoft.com, Copilot in Bing, and Copilot in Windows. These are versions of Copilot your users already have access to but may not know about or may not know how to use effectively. 

So, start by making end users aware of current Copilot offerings and inviting them to start using them. Remember, if your employees are going to test out generative AI tools at work, you want them using a secure tool, like Copilot, which protects personal and company data.

2. You haven’t started educating users on Copilot 

Most organizations are waiting on licensing for Microsoft 365 Copilot (Copilot in apps like Teams, Outlook, and OneDrive before driving awareness in their organization). While you are waiting on licensing (or even just considering it), it’s important to start training users on how to use their current tools. 

Why? Users will undergo a paradigm shift when starting to leverage Copilot at work. Just like we all had to learn how to speak Excel, and how to find the right information with Google, we’ll all have to learn how to prompt and leverage AI well. 

Copilot only works well when it has good inputs to use. It’s important to start with teaching users how to write effective prompts in the version of Copilot they have access to today. Otherwise, Copilot will sit on the sidelines as users continue on with their day. At $30/license, that’s too expensive to be underutilized by users. Not to mention the loss opportunity for productivity gains. 

Need help? BrainStorm has resources available today to help you teach your users how to get the most from Copilot. 

3. You haven’t started driving awareness and adoption of new Teams, new Outlook, OneDrive, Whiteboard, Loop 

Perhaps your leadership team is hearing about Copilot and asking you when the organization can license it. If you haven’t yet moved users to new Teams, new Outlook, Whiteboard, or Loop, you won’t be able to get Copilot licensing any time soon.  

Why? To get the most out of Copilot licensing in apps, your organization first must do these things:  

  • Ensure your users have switched to the latest version of Teams. Microsoft 365 Copilot works with the new Teams app, so you will want to ensure your users have updated their Teams environment.  
  • Your users need to have a OneDrive account and use it. Features with M365 Copilot require minimum usage levels of OneDrive. 
  • Another requirement for M365 Copilot is enabling Microsoft Loop. Copilot works with Loop and unless you have Loop enabled for the organization, you will not be able to fully leverage Copilot.  
  • Lastly, you will need to enable Microsoft Whiteboard for your organization. M365 Copilot also works with Microsoft Whiteboard, so you will want to make your users aware of Whiteboard and how to use it. 

4. You’re not using M365 in an optimal way 

You simply won’t get value from Copilot without optimizing your current M365 environment. M365 Copilot will only work well for you if you have good inputs for it to pull from. To fully take advantage of Copilot in your key apps and use cases, your organization must have good information management hygiene. You will want to clean up files in SharePoint and OneDrive to get your M365 ecosystem ready for Copilot. This is no small feat as it doesn’t just require your IT team to re-structure data, but to get your users to change how they manage files and information.  

(Need help getting users to change their work habits? BrainStorm makes it easy and scalable through their end-user adoption platform. Learn more today.) 

Ensure your users are maximizing the tools they already have. Check your usage data and see what adoption looks like among the required apps for Copilot. Leverage our adoption optimization resources to help users maximize their use of tools.  

5. You haven’t started fleshing out use cases for M365 Copilot at your organization  

M365 Copilot could very well become an underutilized part of your tool stack without proper use cases defined for users. To plan for a M365 Copilot roll out, you will need to work with teams to identify initial employee use cases for Copilot in their day-to-day.  

You should also establish metrics for how M365 Copilot will bring value to the organization and review them regularly. In addition to usage, consider measuring user sentiment, confidence and competence with M365 Copilot over time to help leadership see its value.  

Regularly ask users about their experience with short, in-line polls. Copilot will initially provide a clearer ROI on soft business objectives like time savings and productivity. So, having data that supports your Copilot objectives is key to your success. Use BrainStorm’s turnkey adoption campaigns to reach users directly without going through HR or Comms. See the results right away. 

Frequently communicating to your end users about Copilot has to be a part of your plan. Copilot is no Outlook or Teams application that users have to use to do their job. Without planning to frequently communicate about Copilot use cases, Copilot successes, and others, the tool can be easily forgotten about.  

BrainStorm is here to help with use case resources and communications geared to end users about Copilot. Our team of software adoption experts have the tools you need to successfully roll out M365 Copilot to your organization.

Start getting ready for Copilot today. Need more resources to get your organization ready for Copilot? Watch this video. Want to learn more about getting started with BrainStorm? Talk to our team.