Microsoft 365 Copilot represents a fundamental shift in how we work. However, successful adoption isn’t just about switching on a license; it requires a strategic approach to ensure security, accuracy, and user engagement. As a Microsoft Copilot Partner we help businesses roll out Copilot for Microsoft 365 securely and to drive business value, here are 5 tips for how to implement Copilot for Microsoft 365.
5 Tips for Implementing Copilot for Microsoft 365
- Establish Robust Governance and Security
Before deploying Copilot, you must ensure your Microsoft 365 tenant is in order. Copilot respects existing permissions, which means if a user has access to a sensitive document they shouldn’t, Copilot will find it and potentially use it in its responses.
Make sure you review your Microsoft 365 tenant’s data governance and permission approach. Use Microsoft Purview to apply sensitivity labels and prevent data leakage. The principle is to enforce least privileged access to users to keep as much data secure as possible.
- Clean Your Data for Better AI Results
The quality of Copilot’s output is directly linked to the quality of the data it scans. The expression garbage in, garbage out applies here. If your SharePoint sites are cluttered with outdated versions or redundant files, Copilot may provide inaccurate or obsolete information.
It is key you undertake a data hygiene project. Don’t just keep old out of date files, archive these to leave yourself with a much better data source for Copilot which will drastically improve the quality of Copilot’s output.
- Prioritise Comprehensive User Training
Using AI is a new skill known as prompt engineering. Many users may initially treat Copilot like a search engine using keywords rather than a digital assistant that requires context and instructions.
Rolling out a program of training that teaches the fundamentals of good prompting, setting goals, providing context, being clear on your expectations and directing Copilot to good sources of reference will all improve the quality of the output. Also, learning how to build up prompts and refine and improve as you go is key.
- Start with a Pilot for Advanced Use Cases
While everyone can benefit from easy productivity savings like email summaries, the true ROI of Copilot is found in complex, department-specific workflows. Rolling out to the entire company at once can dilute the impact. Finding some key processes that could be overhauled by Copilot will not only help drive more business value but help you showcase the benefits of the platform.
Identify some key champions across core business departments such as Legal, HR, Sales and Finance, and work with them to identify processes that have lots of wasted, manual effort that would be good cases for an overhaul with Copilot.
- Measure, Iterate, and Scale
Successful implementations of Copilot are not one-off projects. You need to understand how the tools are being used to justify the investment and identify where further support is needed.
Continuing to improve usage across your business will drive more productivity and this can be monitored on the Microsoft 365 Copilot usage report or the Copilot dashboard in Viva Insights. Adding additional training and support in areas of poor usage will be key to improving productivity over time.
Through our Copilot readiness services, we help businesses apply the above methodology to ensure they buy the right licenses, complete the training and start seeing the benefits of Copilot. The move to AI is a disruptive one but it is not guaranteed to be a success without the right framework and data work to support it. Visit our Copilot Partner services here to learn more about our Copilot readiness service.
