It’s been just short of a year since the Copilot for Microsoft 365 announcement — and hype has peaked. I knew we’d reached maximum hype when I saw the Super Bowl commercial for Microsoft Copilot. Then, just over a week later, the Wall Street Journal proclaimed “Early Adopters of Microsoft’s AI Bot Wonder if It’s Worth the Money” — a headline that many others have since echoed.
To Insight’s credit, we saw this coming and responded to the market with our own take. (If you need proof, this article compares Copilot for Microsoft 365 to an astute nine-year-old.) I’ll admit that I was on the hype train for quite a while. Someone recently reminded me that I told them that the Copilot for Excel video was going to “blow their minds.” But then reality hit when we entered the Partner Early Access Program back in August 2023 and I got my hands on a license. Months ago, after my first interactions with Copilot for Microsoft 365, I would’ve said it’s not worth it. But time, experience with the product, and feedback from co-workers and clients have changed my mind.
Reason #1: Feature functionality is continuously improving.
First, we’ve seen exponential improvements in Copilot for Microsoft 365’s functionality over the last six months. I experienced issues with note taking in the early days of Copilot in Teams meetings. There were inaccuracies and fabricated assumptions. But within the last month, it’s been very accurate. It can even tell you the mood of the meeting with [creepy] precision.
Similar improvements have come to Copilot for Microsoft 365 Chat and Copilot in Outlook and Word (and to a certain extent PowerPoint), although its choices for design and graphics have room for improvement. Despite any shortcomings with Excel, given the weekly improvements that have been made to Copilot’s functionality, it’s only a matter of time before I’ll be writing another blog correcting my opinion of that too.
Reason #2: Real feedback across the org shows productivity gains with Copilot.
I’ve seen the impact that Copilot for Microsoft 365 has had on our clients and people within Insight — much to the surprise of technical audiences. Many in IT (me included) are naturally tough technology critics, frequently focusing on everything a product doesn’t do rather than its possibilities because this is our job. We evaluate, sell, support, and deploy and are impacted by technology in ways that highlight its shortcomings.
Now let’s consider that in most organizations, it’s IT that is evaluating, making decisions and purchasing technology that impacts end users on every level. The opinions about Copilot for Microsoft 365 are as lukewarm as they are in the WSJ article — technologists read it, formed a collective opinion and gravitated toward its shortcomings.
To drive this point home further, I’ve had at least one client a day talk to me about the WSJ article. Not one of them mentioned Lenovo’s good experiences or Dow’s investment in more licenses. Since Microsoft announced the removal of licensing purchase minimums, we’ve seen many IT organizations purchase only a handful of licenses for testing.
If you are in IT and are buying just a few licenses for evaluation, I’d like to say this loud and clear: You are not the primary audience for Copilot for Microsoft 365.
I’m not saying that IT shouldn’t evaluate it, but think about what it can do for roles throughout your organization. If you are only going to test 10 licenses, give eight of them to the business. Give it to the project manager who is on calls all the time, or the person in marketing who can use it to write first drafts of copy, or the user who can apply a solution built in Copilot Studio to make answering customer inquiries easier.
If you bring Copilot for Microsoft 365 to your business, you might be as surprised as I have been by the feedback from end users, its use cases and more. Here at Insight, we’ve received feedback from end users like:
- I needed to create a communication plan for a project I'm working on. Using Copilot, I saved at least an hour of work, and it provided a solid draft that I can build on. (Client Operations Manager)
- I am testing this out to create a technical proposal for an… identity and access management RFP… and the initial results are very promising. It provided me a timeline, budget, staffing plan, roles and responsibilities, which was much more than I asked for or expected. (Solutions Architect)
- Who hates having to read long email threads? The Copilot summary feature for long email threads is a game changer! 🔥👌 (Cloud Systems)
If your end users can find just $1 a day worth of time that they can be more productive because of Copilot for Microsoft 365, it is worth the investment.
Reason #3: A thoughtful adoption strategy at the right time has made long-term success highly likely.
ROI and good end-user feedback do not exist in a vacuum. When we first received licenses at Insight, we didn’t undertake adoption activity beyond communications. It was only after we put a plan in place that we began to see adoption and receive positive feedback. Making Copilot “worth it” will take thoughtful planning with two main considerations:
- For various reasons, Copilot for Microsoft 365 isn’t going to be for everyone. Find the right people in your organization with the right use cases who will have the most immediate success and ROI with Copilot for Microsoft 365.
- Even if you find the “right” people, you still need to work with them to help them understand how Copilot for Microsoft 365 can help them every day. Adoption activities are key to success. I tell people all the time that we should never underestimate how much people outside of IT do not care about AI. Give them a reason to care by making adoption activity a priority.
Need more guidance on Copilot? At Insight, we’re helping clients across industries understand their Copilot readiness, pinpoint the best use cases and drive ROI.