Clever ways Microsoft 365 Copilot can ease the weight of work for SMEs

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the lifeblood of our economy and inherent innovators. Nearly three-quarters report they are familiar with artificial intelligence (AI) and half use it daily, according to Forrester’s New Technology: The Projected Total Economic Impact Of Microsoft 365 Copilot for SMB study^*.

It is clear from this study that SMEs (or SMBs - small and medium businesses) are ready to leverage new technology to help them grow faster, be more efficient and compete more effectively.

By spending less effort on the time-consuming day-to-day work, entrepreneurs and SMEs can focus more energy on what they love — their business. And, Microsoft 365 Copilot can help them do just that.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is a generative AI companion that is always at hand and ready to help, while you’re working with the same Microsoft 365 apps you use every day. With Copilot, you can experience new levels of creativity and productivity.

And you’ll get this help from a partner you trust, not just to provide the best security for your data, but to deliver responsible AI as the technology evolves. 

Moving forward faster

To better understand how generative AI can help, let’s consider a day in the life of Thandeka, the CEO of a successful graphic design firm.

Thandeka’s business landscape has become much more competitive and is moving faster than ever. She knows she must continue to grow her business and keep her team both aligned and innovative.

Fast-track to an empty inbox

Every day Thandeka deals with non-stop meetings and a constant flurry of emails from inside and outside her organisation, which consume hours of her time each day.

With Copilot in Outlook, Thandeka can quickly summarise lengthy email threads and get footnotes of related emails, so she can get up to speed in discussions quickly. 

By using the “Sound like me” feature, she can ask Copilot to draft responses using her own writing style. Then she can just edit and send. Or, if she writes the first draft herself, Microsoft 365 Copilot will offer her coaching tips and suggestions on clarity and tone, so she can put her best foot forward without spending time rewriting.

Managing time and collaboration with intelligence

With email behind her Thandeka can move on to her schedule, usually a tangled web of managing time and priorities — but not with Microsoft 365 Copilot.

When Thandeka is faced with two important meetings occurring at the same time, she can use the “Meeting follow” feature to monitor them.

When a meeting ends, Copilot notifies Thandeka in Microsoft Teams and builds her a summary of the meeting, including attendees, topics discussed, important notes, and any action items. Thandeka can ask Copilot to drill down on individual points made in the meeting for additional clarity. Now Thandeka has a whole new level of control over her meeting schedule.

Amplify creativity

Freed from her email responsibilities and equipped with all the recent meeting updates, Thandeka gets to work responding to an opportunity in her inbox — a customer wants to update the marketing plan Thandeka designed for them last year and needs new collateral quickly. 

To build a pitch deck with design concepts, Thandeka’s team gets busy with Copilot in PowerPoint. They start by choosing an embedded template and then Copilot steps in to help by pulling in relevant content from other campaigns. The team polishes this first draft and delivers it to Thandeka in hours rather than days.

Using Copilot in Word, the team asks Copilot to rewrite their initial concept brief with a more professional tone and create custom graphics right in the document with Microsoft Designer.

Microsoft 365 Chat

To finalise the presentation, Thandeka and her team use Microsoft 365 Chat, a powerful new capability in Microsoft 365 Copilot that goes far beyond simple questions and answers to tame the complexity, eliminate the drudgery and reclaim time at work. 

Microsoft 365 Chat combs across your entire universe of data at work — all your emails, meetings, chats, documents and more, plus the web — to tackle your to-do list in a fraction of the time.

For more information on how you can harness the power of AI to boost your SME’s business operations, click here.

This article was sponsored by Microsoft SA.

^{*'New Technology: The Projected Total Economic Impact Of Microsoft 365 Copilot for SMB' is a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft. Results are based on Microsoft 365 Copilot customer interviews and surveys of over 200 companies with up to 300 employees across various industries, from retail to financial services.}