Natasha Bezuidenhout, Business Executive: Microsoft at First Distribution.

With AI becoming increasingly integrated into our businesses and daily lives, it presents challenges and opportunities for business leaders. The correct and strategic use of this technology can offer powerful advantages, giving a business and its employees the edge.

“The new AI assistant and productivity tool, Microsoft 365 Copilot, is the equivalent of a competent, creative and super-speedy assistant who will improve the quality and efficiency of all your communications and tasks,” says Natasha Bezuidenhout, Microsoft Brand Executive for First Distribution, South Africa’s leading ICT distributor for datacentre, enterprise and cloud solutions.

Copilot is designed to superpower your productivity and creativity across all Microsoft programmes, whether it’s helping write or edit a Word document, work on an Office email, an Excel spreadsheet, or transcribe notes from a Teams meeting. Copilot can even carry data seamlessly between programmes. For business leaders, it allows you to make data-driven insights and predictions, which will help you plan more effectively and ensure more successful business outcomes. 

MS Copilot is not designed to replace jobs, but, rather, to empower employees and business leaders with all the tools they need to work faster, better, and more efficiently. “Exactly as its name suggests, it’s a powerful piece of technology that steers the plane with you. It improves communication, streamlines tasks, assists with transferring data, and enhances creativity in the workplace,” Bezuidenhout says. “One of its particular strengths is the ability to concisely summarise text. This is incredibly time saving and convenient when it comes to making notes after Teams meetings, or condensing long email threads.”

It’s now easy to be more creative when using Word, more analytical in Excel, more impactful in PowerPoint, a better communicator in Outlook, and to enhance your collaborative ability in Teams.

Automating routine-based tasks to free up time is hugely beneficial to a business, as it will allow employees to focus on strategic, tactical work. Everyone wants to feel that their job makes a difference, and that they have the power to innovate, rather than being mired in routine tasks. Copilot technologies are aimed at increasing efficiency and productivity in ways that can improve employees’ job satisfaction, freeing them up to think creatively and focus on the bigger picture rather than the smaller, laborious details. This allows them to channel their skills into growing the business.

Whether it’s using your branding to create a customised presentation, identifying trends and patterns in your data, or rewriting and editing text for you in a different tone, Copilot’s versatility makes it the perfect “right hand man” to enable you to do more, faster.

You’ll be able to get real-time assistance and feedback as you write, with suggestions for relevant content, and improved collaboration. You can source images and citations without leaving the document you’re working on. And if you feel your message needs to be stronger, Copilot is ready to help you rewrite your content in an even more engaging and compelling way. With access to your business content, everything that it creates will have relevance to your work environment and role.

Over time, most people fall into a comfort zone when using Microsoft programmes, and never go beyond the few apps with which they are familiar. Copilot ensures that you are able to easily harness all the functionality that the Microsoft 365 programmes offer, with only a simple prompt needed to unlock thousands of solutions that are available within the programmes themselves. Bezuidenhout believes that organisations will need to prepare and educate employees so that they are ready for the impact that AI will have from a business transformation perspective, and equipped to use it to its fullest. As AI becomes more prevalent, businesses need to consider the ethical implications of using this technology. This may include challenges like data privacy, transparency, and accountability.

“A key question for business leaders is to establish whether their organisation is AI-ready. Leaders need to ring-fence the ways in which their employees are leveraging these exciting technologies, while maintaining top-class security and the protection of sensitive data. It’s critical to understand that AI readiness starts with security. Implementing encryption protocols and robust data protection measures is required,” Bezuidenhout says. The digital landscape is constantly evolving, and new threats are emerging all the time. Businesses require continuous monitoring tools in all aspects. Familiarising yourself with the best practices for securing your data before the transition into Copilot will ensure that you are fully prepared for the move to greater speed and productivity.

“Ultimately, the question that you need to ask is: are you constantly reinventing yourself to be better than your competition? I personally love this technology because it makes the results of my work more powerful and effective. So much so, that I’d love to keep it for myself, as my best kept secret to greater productivity!” Bezuidenhout admits. For resellers, First Distribution is launching an exciting Copilot campaign, and there are great incentives to be earned. Resellers can offer clients a Copilot Assessment that will establish the needs and solutions for each organisation. Copilot’s settings are customisable, and a help page as well as video tutorials will help every user familiarise themselves quickly with Copilot’s abilities.

“The age of AI presents both opportunities and challenges for business leaders. By embracing this technology now, learning to channel its power and understanding its implications, organisations can position themselves for greater success in the years ahead,” Bezuidenhout emphasises.

Prepare for Remarkable Innovations with Microsoft Copilot – First Distribution:

https://microsoft.firstdistribution.com/ prepare-for-remarkable-innovations-with-microsoft-copilot/

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