Microsoft's GPT-4 AI-powered Co-Pilot Changes Office Work Forever.

Momentous News: Microsoft Co-Pilot. Period.

Usually I have multiple items you should be aware of here.

This week all other news dwarfed in comparison to Microsoft Co-Pilot. 

Even GPT-4 isn’t as big of news. Mainly because Co-Pilot is using it.

Co-Pilot is Microsoft’s new assistant to significantly improve your productivity, streamline and prioritize tasks, and create a more efficient user experience across various applications, making it a valuable addition to the Microsoft ecosystem.

If you have used or currently use the Microsoft 365 platform for your business. You understand that it is the backbone of your business. Providing you with email service, a full office workspace, cloud storage and office, and many other applications to power your work day.

This platform significantly reduces the reliance on your IT personnel as you no longer have Exchange servers, licensing management, etc. It puts all of that in one, simple platform.

Microsoft Co-Pilot gives this same level of efficiency now to the everyday users of the Office suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook). These kind of prompts are now powering employees work day:

• Draft a two-page project proposal based on the data from [a document] and [a spreadsheet].

• Give a breakdown of the sales by type and channel. Insert a table.

• Project the impact of [a variable change] and generate a chart to help visualize.

• Model how a change to the growth rate for [variable] would impact my gross margin.

• Create a five-slide presentation based on a Word document and include relevant stock photos.

• Summarize the emails I missed while I was out last week. Flag any important items.

This all sounds great right? Why would you not want these kinds of tools powering you and your employees?

In my experience as a network and cloud engineer, there are a few concerns that come to mind.

1. Security of company data:

   1. The protection of sensitive company information is always at the forefront of my thought when implementing these emerging systems. Data may be processed or stored externally, potentially exposing it to security breaches or unauthorized access. You are relying on Microsoft to ensure that all of your questions and answers with Co-Pilot are secured and protected.

2. Intellectual property issues:

   1.  The content created by Co-pilot might lead to copyright or intellectual property disputes. Employees should be using this to help ideas flow faster. Not generate the whole idea. Especially when we need to make sure that our information is factual.

3. Resistance to adoption:

   1. You will face push back on this. Some employees might be skeptical of adopting the Co-pilot due to concerns about job displacement or the reliance on AI-generated content, which may result in a slower adoption rate and reduced return on investment for businesses implementing the technology.

I'd love to hear what you think about Microsoft's new AI-powered Copilot.

Reply to this email with your questions, concerns, or even just to share how you would fit it into your workflow. I’d love to share your thoughts in upcoming newsletters.

Let's chat and explore the exciting world of AI in our everyday tasks together!