Together with

Microsoft 365 Copilot is here - my advice? Wait.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is a new productivity tool that integrates next-generation AI with Microsoft's suite of apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and Teams. It aims to enhance creativity, productivity, and collaboration by understanding natural language prompts and helping with tasks such as summarising emails, generating content, and automating repetitive tasks.

I’ve been sharing videos off Copilot ever since it launched to Fortune 500 companies early in 2023. Has the marketing lived up to its hype?

Now available to home, student, and business users without a minimum license requirement, you might be thinking about whether it’s worth the price of getting as an add-on for your team.

At CoLab, we've invested over $5,000 for our team to use this tool, but the journey hasn't been without its bumps. We've encountered technical issues with Word (and we’re not the only ones), where the Copilot sidebar functions seamlessly online but not on the desktop application. Despite reaching out to Microsoft, the lack of response is disappointing, considering the investment.

The 'new' Outlook forces users into an interface that lacks the robust features of its predecessor, making it a downgrade in the guise of an upgrade. As a workaround, I've been drafting emails in Outlook on the Web and then transferring them to the desktop app — a cumbersome process at best.

When it comes to document referencing within Word, the desktop version falls short, showing only a few options and often failing to find the specific files needed. The online version is more efficient, allowing for direct selection of up to three reference documents from the cloud.

Copilot shines in Excel, interpreting data in tables, suggesting Pivot tables, and offering insights which can help to boost productivity. In Teams, Copilot now works live without the need for transcribing meetings, although any dialogue with the AI vanishes once the meeting concludes.

My current take is to hold off on Microsoft 365 Copilot. For now, I'm leaning more towards ChatGPT Plus, especially with its recent launch of ChatGPT for Teams, offering better functionality and value.

While others may have varying experiences, from my perspective, Copilot's current form doesn't justify its cost or the hype.

Stay up-to-date with AI.

AI won’t replace you, but a person using AI might. That’s why 500,000+ professionals read The Rundown– the free newsletter that keeps you updated on the latest AI news, tools, and tutorials in 5 minutes a day.

Sign up today.

ChatGPT for teams

Not big enough for OpenAI to treat you as an Enterprise customer? That’s all right because they’ve now released their middle tier called ChatGPT for Teams.

It’s the perfect option for SMEs who want all the core functionality of GPT-4, but centralised billing, plus security and privacy.

The key features are:

• GPT-4, with 32k context

• Latest DALL·E 3 model for image generation

• Advanced Data Analysis

• Browsing, for up-to-date information from the web

• Image and voice input & output

• Create customized GPTs

• Share GPTs and chats with your workspace

• Admin console

• Bulk member management

• Admin roles

• They never train on your business data or conversations - read more about this here

Our team had been paying for individual subscriptions for each planner, however, have jumped on the opportunity to have one subscription, plus the assurance that information is not used to train their AI model.

You don’t have to forfeit your personal account but won’t want to be paying for both.

ChatGPT for Teams is a little more expensive than paying for individual Plus personal accounts, but the convenience of centralised management and increased privacy and data security is worth the added cost.

AI in Planning: A Year On – New Tools, Uses & Insights

Some of you will recall that I delivered an online seminar in April 2023 on AI in Planning via NZPI. For those that missed it, you can still enroll and watch the recording here.

On 28 February I will be back with more lunchtime learning, with “AI in Planning: A Year On – New Tools, Uses & Insights”.

I will be getting my PowerPoint presentation out, giving it a good dust, and making sure it’s up to date with all the innovations and learnings from the past twelve months - so much so, that I have scheduled in an extra 30 minutes.

If there is anything you’re interested in being covered, just hit reply, and send me a note.

Rewrite with Copilot

The new 'Rewrite with Copilot' feature in Microsoft Edge is a free tool designed to enhance and refine written content. By simply highlighting text or using the Alt-I shortcut, users can engage AI to suggest alternative ways of expressing the same content. This feature is particularly useful for those looking to polish their writing or find new perspectives on how to convey their messages.

For the avoidance of doubt, you don’t need to pay for Copilot for this feature. This is embedded into Microsoft Edge along as an add-on to its sidebar functionality which I shared back in May last year.

Note - Microsoft are removing referenced to ‘Bing’ from its AI toolset. Everything is now branded as Copilot only, regardless of where it’s accessed from.

The End (for now)

Thank you for reading AI-mpowered. We hope you found the content valuable and inspiring. You can find all issues here.

We would also love to hear your feedback and suggestions for future newsletter topics.