I've been playing around with Copilot for Microsoft 365 for a few months now. I like to think of Copilot as my new interns:
- Copilot is still learning what I do and what is helpful for me - the more descriptive I can be in my questions, instructions, 'prompts', the more helpful I find the information Copilot provides
- Copilot is eager to help, sometimes so much so that it makes things up - don't assume that just because it provided a reference for its information that what it has provided is accurate. I truly wish some of the Excel functions and formulas it has provided me exist, but alas they do not. Copilot often jumbles different languages, gets confused, or even just pulls things out of thin air. It is a generative AI tool, so it's really great at generating new content, and sometimes that includes things that don't exist and aren't helpful.
- Copilot is conversational - talking to it like a human intern (rather than trying to craft a search result like I normally do in Google) seems to get better results. I have learned that adding in those extra words and providing some additional context are really helpful.
- Copilot needs breaks too - sometimes starting a new chat will give better results. Copilot remembers what you've discussed earlier in the conversation, so if you are stuck in a loop where it's making up unhelpful information, try opening a new chat and starting fresh.
- Copilot for Word has different capability to Copilot for Excel, which is different again from Copilot for PowerPoint, etc - treat each Copilot as a different 'intern'. Copilot for PowerPoint isn't that great at generating new content, but Copilot for Word does a fantastic job at this. I find that I often need to swap between the different Copilots to complete a single task.
- Copilot is constantly evolving - I am starting to actually like Copilot for Excel, whereas my first impression was that it was slow and not very useful. I have learned that Copilot evolves quickly, and it's not always obvious. Asking the exact same question two days in a row can produce different results. So, while first impressions are lasting, it's important to keep an open mind about what Copilot may be capable of tomorrow.
Below are some of the things I've found most helpful about Copilot so far.
Copilot for Teams
This is probably where people are most buzzing about Copilot. It will take very detailed notes for you. If you'd like Copilot to record something specific as an action, state that during the meeting. If there are multiple people in the same room, let Copilot know who the action is for or who's speaking.
Copilot for Excel
Clean Data with Copilot
I use lots of tables in my Excel files, and I'm fairly detail oriented, so for the most part my tables are consistent and there are some clear patterns, but I am human so I'm not perfect.
Copilot pops up when I open an existing spreadsheet and offers suggestions for how I might like to tidy up my raw data - it's really clear which cells of the workbook it's going to edit before I click apply, and it lets me step through each suggestion so I still feel like I'm in control.
If the 'Clean Data' prompt doesn't appear but you think there might be something in your table to clean up, you can find the 'Clean Data' button in the 'Data' tab in the ribbon:
Explain Formula
Copilot is fantastic and deciphering formulas and explaining them in plain English. It does this for existing formulas, and formulas that you ask it to help write.
Unfortunately for existing formulas it can't yet read directly from the selected cell:
But once you provide Copilot with the formula, it happily explains it for you. Below is an example of Copilot explaining the formula:
=IFERROR([@[Total Price (NZD)]]/([@[End Date]]-[@[Start Date]]), "")
The explanation it provided me with is:
This formula calculates the average daily price by dividing the total price by the number of days between the start and end dates. If there is an error in the calculation (e.g., if the start or end date is missing), it returns an empty string.
[@[Total Price (NZD)]]: References the total price in the current row.[@[End Date]]-[@[Start Date]]: Calculates the number of days between the end date and the start date in the current row.IFERROR(..., ""): If the division results in an error, it returns an empty string instead of an error message.
I think it consistently does a good job of explaining formulas. If I ask it to simplify the formula, I get a nice compliment that my formula is already quite simple, but it offers an alternative, inside a code box with an icon that makes it easy for me to copy this formula and paste it into Excel:
I still would like Excel Copilot to interact more with my data, I think it's a bit silly that I have to copy the formula into the table myself for example, but at least it helps guide me on what to do.
Generate Formula Columns
Excel Copilot may not edit existing columns, but it's quite good at generating new columns. When you ask it to create a new column, you have the option to click the 'Insert column' button and Copilot will add the new column to your table automagically. Clicking on the 'Show explanation' button will provide a similar explanation to the one we saw in the example above. I have found the Generate Formula Columns experience with Copilot to be very consistent, and helpful when I'm not sure how to approach the problem, or if I'm trying to explain something in plain English to a new user.
If I already know the formula I want, I find it's still quicker to just do it myself as Copilot spends a bit of time thinking.
Show Data Insights
The Show Data Insights can be hit or miss, but I do like how it creates a dashboard style page of my insights, and gives me some design inspiration for how to format the charts.
Copilot for PowerPoint
I am still learning how to get Copilot for PowerPoint to interact directly with my presentation. I want it to be more helpful with formatting images and layouts, etc. It does a great job of telling me what I need to do, but won't do it for me.
Create a presentation from file
Where I've found it really helpful is in turning a word document into a presentation. Copilot takes the content and breaks it down into bite-size (or slide-size) chunks. Any text from the Word doc that it doesn't put in the slide itself, it adds to the notes section. From here, it's easy to change the images, delete or add a few things.
Make information easier to understand
I am really liking the create presentation from file so much, that I'm giving it two headings. While Word's Copilot can do a great job of summarizing documents for me, the PowerPoint Copilot makes documents visual - which for me is much easier to understand. I've started turning Word docs into PowerPoint presentations simply for my own benefit and understanding, even if I don't need to present the content to anyone else. I have a feeling PowerPoints are going to make a big comeback.
Creating placeholder slides
One thing that took a bit of trial and error, was getting PowerPoint to split my Agenda slide into one slide for each item. Slides that I could use as section headers or starters for the content. I find this works best when the Agenda slide is simple, and the details are in the notes or elsewhere in the presentation.
Conclusion
Copilot is definitely helpful, but needs to be used by a knowledgeable and responsible human in order to get helpful results.
