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Learn How Copilot AI Can Improve Your Productivity

March 4, 2025

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force reshaping how businesses operate, innovate, and compete. To help organizations navigate this paradigm shift, Microsoft released "The AI Decision Brief" - a comprehensive guide offering insights from Microsoft leaders and AI innovators on maximizing the potential of generative AI, including their flagship AI tool, Microsoft Copilot.

What is AI?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the capability of a computer program or machine to emulate human-like behaviors, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and natural language understanding. Rather than a standalone technology, AI represents a goal pursued by technologists to replicate human intelligence.

AI capabilities are advancing at a pace four times faster than historical trends. This exponential growth indicates the impacts of AI-driven automation, scientific discovery, and innovation will also accelerate. Generative AI is expected to transform operations, enable new and disruptive business models, and reshape the competitive landscape in many ways, including:

The future of work: As generative AI becomes more prevalent in companies, employees are beginning to collaborate with AI rather than just using it as a tool. This involves learning to work with AI iteratively and conversationally. “Effective collaboration involves setting expectations, reviewing work, and providing feedback—similar to managing an employee,” explains Jared Spataro, Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer, AI at Work.

Leading innovation: Startups, software development companies, research organizations, and co-innovation labs where startups and software giants collaborate on solutions will continue to drive AI innovation.

What is Generative AI?

Generative AI is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI). While AI can predict outcomes, detect entities, or classify documents, generative AI, also known as GenAI, creates content such as images, videos, code, or text. The goal is for this AI-generated content to be as useful as content created by humans. This is made possible by language models, which are complex AI models applicable to a wide range of use cases.

For example, generative AI can be used to develop follow-up questions for a meeting, create an image from text, or explain the punchline of a joke, even if the joke is in a video.

Watch the video below, "AI in a Minute: Generative AI," from Microsoft's YouTube channel.

What is Responsible AI?

AI has significant disruptive potential, which is why it must adhere to the highest ethical standards. Responsible AI encompasses the principles and best practices that ensure AI work is accountable, inclusive, reliable, safe, fair, transparent, secure, and respectful of privacy. For example, AI could generate a video depicting a real person at an event they never attended. Responsible AI involves refraining from using such technology for deceitful purposes, as it would violate privacy and lead to unfair consequences.

Copilot is designed to follow the principles of Responsible AI. This means it attempts to have interactions that are accountable, inclusive, and respectful of privacy.

STACK Cyber recently asked Copilot if it was a responsible AI.

Copilot's response: "Yes, Copilot is designed to follow the principles of Responsible AI. This means ensuring that interactions are accountable, inclusive, reliable, safe, fair, transparent, secure, and respectful of privacy. For example, I avoid providing misleading information, respect user privacy, and strive to offer helpful and ethical responses."

Then STACK asked: "Who is your source?"

Copilot's response: "My understanding of Responsible AI principles comes from guidelines and best practices established by leading organizations and experts in the field, including Microsoft. These principles are designed to ensure that AI systems are developed and used in ways that are ethical, fair, and respectful of privacy."

Copilot Response About Responsible AI
Copilot response to responsible AI question

Understanding Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Microsoft as their primary AI assistant, replacing the discontinued Cortana. It represents Microsoft's commitment to integrating AI across their product ecosystem:

  • Originally introduced as Bing Chat in February 2023, it has evolved into Microsoft's unified AI assistant
  • Integrated directly into Windows 11 through the taskbar, with new Windows keyboards featuring a dedicated Copilot key announced in January 2024
  • Powered by the Microsoft Prometheus model, built upon OpenAI's GPT-4 large language model
  • Offers both free tier access for most features and a "Microsoft Copilot Pro" subscription for priority access to newer features and custom chatbot creation

What's Inside the AI Decision Brief

Microsoft's AI Decision Brief explores the current state of generative AI adoption, future potential, and practical strategies for implementation across your company The document is structured into three key chapters:

  • Current State of Generative AI - Explores the AI platform shift, adoption challenges, and winning formulas for implementation. Includes perspectives from Microsoft leaders like Brad Smith on AI access for all and Jared Spataro on the AI-powered future of work.
  • Future Potential of Generative AI - Examines who's driving innovation, from startups to established software companies, and how AI is transforming industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and sustainability.
  • Advancing Generative AI in Your Firm - Provides best practices for implementing AI at scale and actionable strategies based on the five drivers of AI value.

Copilot's Capabilities

Microsoft Copilot's capabilities include:

  1. Conversational interface similar to ChatGPT
  2. Source citation for factual information
  3. Creative content generation including poems and songs
  4. Multilingual support across numerous languages and dialects
  5. Image generation through Microsoft Designer (in the free version)
  6. Data analysis
  7. Rewrite and restructure lengthy reports, blogs, news releases, and sales summaries in seconds

Why This Matters

The brief reveals that organizations in the "realizing" stage of AI readiness are achieving up to 4.9x return on investment compared to those just starting out. With 75% of enterprises now using generative AI (up from 55% in 2023), understanding how to progress through the stages of AI readiness has become a competitive necessity.

As Microsoft's Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff notes in the brief, "There has never been a more opportune moment to fulfill our mission of empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more."

The Five Drivers of AI Value

The Decision Brief outlines five critical drivers that organizations must address to maximize their AI implementation success:

  • Business strategy - Aligning AI initiatives with core business objectives
  • Technology and data strategy - Ensuring the right infrastructure and data quality
  • AI strategy and experience - Building expertise and selecting appropriate AI models
  • Organization and culture - Managing change and encouraging AI adoption
  • AI governance - Establishing transparent processes, controls, and accountability structures

Download the Full Brief

To help you on your AI transformation journey, we're making Microsoft's complete AI Decision Brief available for download. This document will provide you with the insights, strategies, and inspiration needed to navigate the generative AI platform shift successfully.

Whether you're just beginning to explore generative AI possibilities with tools like Microsoft Copilot or looking to scale your existing implementation, this resource offers valuable guidance from those at the forefront of the AI revolution.

Ready to accelerate your AI transformation? Download Microsoft's AI Decision Brief today and join the thousands of organizations leveraging generative AI to drive unprecedented growth and innovation.

Want to know more about Microsoft AI solutions?

Call STACK Cyber at (734) 744-5300 or Contact Us to learn how we can evaluate your AI readiness and help you implement Microsoft Copilot and other AI solutions for your company.