Copilot: your generative AI best friend 
Dynamics 365 AI is low risk, easy to implement and an instant increase in efficiency

We asked Sven about the opportunities Copilot has to offer Dynamics 365 users and what companies can expect from these out-of-the box Generative Dynamics 365 AI capabilities.

Q: First of all: where and how can I get my Copilot apps?

A: “That’s a good question. At the moment, quite a few Copilot apps are still available in Preview, and only if you have your data hosted in the US. We expect it to become available in Europe soon though. In the meantime we are doing demos, inspiration sessions and preparing use cases with various customers.”

Q: What are some examples of that immediate value?

A: “The biggest advantage of Copilot is that it’s out-of-the-box, adding immediate value at low risk and low investment. To name a few:

Copilot for Customer Service and Sales offers quick summary options, which means that when there has been a lot of communication, in a sales process or service ticket for example, you can get all key information with just one click. That saves a lot of time going through long strings of emails and messages."

"Another example is using Copilot to discover and retrieve knowledge. Customer Service agents rely on their knowledge base a lot, but it can be time consuming to manage a high quality information base. Using Copilot you can connect to specific websites and documents and Customer service teams just ask Copilot any question in natural language. Dynamics 365 AI will retrieve the right articles and information, including the data source, which supports validation of the output.

In Dynamics 365 Sales, we have seen that the Copilot opportunity summary is pretty powerful. The success rate view and next best action work well. In addition, you can ask questions about the prospect’s or customer’s company. Via Bing Search all relevant company information can be found. With the outlook integration available for Sales and Customer Service, users can easily track relevant information from CRM and have Copilot help draft an email.

All this saves users a huge amount of time on research, clicks, searching for information. It’s a massive increase of efficiency.”

Q: Copilot almost sounds too good to be true. Do you see any risks?

A: “There are three things I would like to point out. First is that users have to learn how to ask Copilot the right questions. But I expect that people will learn quickly. Second, is that the data underlying the application has to be correct, which includes your own CRM data but also data from external sources, if you connect those.

A third potential risk I would like to mention is that users might rely on Copilot too quickly too soon. And they overestimate results and see it as being the truth, while the technology does not have more wisdom than the data it’s using. Quality of output largely depends on the quality of the input and therefore I would always recommend a certain level of validation, especially in the beginning. The good thing though is that Copilot is adding the data source to the results, which makes this easier.”

Q: Could Copilot be seen threatening people’s jobs?

A: “I would turn that phrase around. If you could manage for example 12 accounts, and with Copilot you can manage 15, that does not mean more work, but an opportunity to meet your targets faster. If you can automate typing long reports or doing tedious research, when asking 2-3 questions in natural language can provide the same output, that’s a great chance to focus on more enjoyable and profitable work.

In my view, Copilot is an extremely fast way of automating and eliminating repetitive, manual and simple tasks. And your teams can focus on the work where human beings can make a difference.”