Microsoft Copilot: 5 Productivity Tips for Marketers
Almost two thirds — 63% — of CEOs believe AI will have a larger impact on the world than the internet, according to PwC’s Annual Global CEO Survey. As AI adoption continues to grow and accelerate the efficiency of businesses in the tech industry, the effects will have a significant impact on the future of work across all industries. For example, Microsoft Copilot is already proving just how valuable integrating AI into existing applications can be — and given that over 345 million people are currently using Microsoft 365, I believe Copilot will have a huge impact on how we work, especially for marketers.
Here are five ways I believe Copilot will accelerate marketers’ productivity and, as a result, drive more rapid innovation for their businesses.
Word: Generate First Drafts to Hit the Ground Running
Copilot can be your personal editor-in-chief when you need to generate content quickly or on short notice. The proofreading features already present in Microsoft Word can assist the clarity of your writing, but Copilot can also generate first drafts of content, based on your ideas, to provide a starting point for your writing. Just give Copilot your notes documents to generate first drafts of proposals or reports that would otherwise take more time to create independently.
For example, if you just got off a call about a topic for a new blog post that needs to be published in two hours, simply ask Copilot to create the proposal using notes you took in a Word document. The AI can then provide you with a full first draft of the content you can then edit and bring to life with key messaging and insights. Still feel like your final draft isn’t striking the right tone? Ask Copilot to adjust it based on your knowledge of how your company positions its products or services.
Related Article: How Copilot In Microsoft 365 Will Impact Productivity
PowerPoint: Generate Presentation Structure From Notes
What marketer hasn’t been asked not only to join a meeting last minute but also to present? Instead of combing through your library of past PowerPoint presentations to cobble together your pitch, let Copilot provide the foundation by quickly creating first drafts of slide decks based on meeting transcripts or Word documents — complete with speaker notes. This is an often overlooked but important aspect of presentations, especially ones created for senior leaders to present.
Marketers are asked to create presentations all the time, and this can save you significant amounts of time. Gartner projects that organizations that adopt AI across the marketing function will shift 75% of their employees’ operations from production to more strategic activities by 2025. By using Copilot, you can spend less time generating content and more time shaping it to be clear, compelling and actionable. Using natural language commands, you can refine the length of presentations, adjust the layouts, reformat text and more.
Excel: Identify Trends and Generate Insights From Data
Without proper knowledge or training, extracting meaningful insights from data captured in Microsoft Excel can be time consuming. But Copilot helps identify trends in data within seconds, without the need for entering any formulas or complex commands.
Asked to deliver a content audit in advance of a major product rollout? You don't need to search for a tutorial on how to create pivot tables to glean the key insights necessary after spending hours reviewing content. Copilot in Excel enables you to ask natural language questions to identify key takeaways and will quickly organize data to create customized reports you can share with key stakeholders. Your time is better spent on exploring the data and driving the right outcomes — that’s exactly where marketers can put Copilot in Excel to use.
Learning Opportunities
Teams: Quickly Summarize Meetings and Initiate Action Items
Marketing, when done right, is a team effort – and often spans multiple business functions. As a result, marketers find themselves in many cross-departmental meetings to advance key projects, and making sure everyone is clear on what they need to do to drive projects forward is paramount.
While you can already generate meeting transcripts in Microsoft Teams, Copilot takes it one step further by summarizing the key points of a meeting, identifying action items and sending tasks — with due dates — to specific individuals. Manually delegating action items and responsibilities can be tedious, and aligning team members after a long strategy meeting isn’t always easy. Copilot can quickly align tasks, allowing team members to spend more time on the work at hand to achieve key objectives.
Related Article: Microsoft’s Copilot in Viva Engage and the Trouble With AI Overreliance
Outlook: Maximize Your Communication Practices
Even with the plethora of other messaging and collaboration tools available today, most workers still prefer email to other digital communication options. Copilot for Outlook can be key for days when marketers are unable to check their inboxes for extended periods of time — especially if they’re on-site supporting an in-person event or going to customer meetings with their sales colleagues. No matter what the reason may be, you can spend less time digging out of your inbox and more time truly communicating with Copilot.
Ask Copilot to summarize email chains and even pick out key items that require immediate attention, allowing you to get back up to speed as quickly as possible. Turn your quick notes into clear and actionable messages, by accessing information from other emails or information you already have access to across Microsoft 365.
Microsoft Copilot is a powerful tool that can help marketers increase productivity and efficiency by automating routine tasks and generating content in a clear and actionable way from the information they already have. With its integration into heavily used Microsoft applications Copilot is making AI more accessible and user-friendly. Having the ability to use these AI tools without needing to be a technical expert opens the door to you saving time and elevating your marketing practices. You can focus on where you provide real differentiation in your organization — specialized, higher-level work. When Copilot is released in July, I encourage you to see how it can transform your work routine and drive growth in your organization.
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About the Author
Dux Raymond Sy is the Chief Brand Officer of AvePoint and a Microsoft MVP and Regional Director. With over 20 years of business and technology experience, Dux has driven organizational transformations worldwide with his ability to simplify complex ideas and deliver relevant solutions.
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