Date: Wednesday, February 21
Meeting Title: Microsoft Copilot 101 for Business Leaders
Participants:
Discussion Points:
Action Items for Business Leaders:
global.hitachi-solutions.com
Date: Wednesday, February 21
Meeting Title: Microsoft Copilot 101 for Business Leaders
Participants:
Discussion Points:
Action Items for Business Leaders:
global.hitachi-solutions.com
[Brad Koontz
Hello everyone and welcome to our Exchanges, a podcast by Hitachi Solutions.
0:0:4.700 --> 0:0:9.750
Brad Koontz
I'm your host, Brad Koontz, and today we're unpacking copilot for business leaders.
0:0:10.60 --> 0:0:18.800
Brad Koontz
I'm sure many folks have caught the copilot Super Bowl commercial in between glimpses of Taylor Swift and the Chiefs.
0:0:20.780 --> 0:0:23.240
Brad Koontz
But the the copilot Super Bowl commercial.
0:0:23.250 --> 0:0:25.200
Brad Koontz
What you saw there is is one point of entry.
0:0:25.210 --> 0:0:27.260
Brad Koontz
I would definitely want to kind of unpack that.
0:0:27.520 --> 0:0:31.100
Brad Koontz
Understand what it is, what it isn't, and what are the extendability options.
0:0:32.550 --> 0:0:36.780
Brad Koontz
Beyond that, so copilot is everywhere.
0:0:36.790 --> 0:0:51.80
Brad Koontz
It is what Microsoft is leading with now in in all of their advertising and all of their corporate communications really is the kind of the first step in in an AI journey.
0:0:51.250 --> 0:0:53.480
Brad Koontz
And it's super powerful.
0:0:53.490 --> 0:1:1.240
Brad Koontz
Super easy to use so, but the the the problem is that not everyone knows what to do with it just yet.
0:1:1.330 --> 0:1:4.460
Brad Koontz
So today I've asked two of our copilot experts to join me.
0:1:4.730 --> 0:1:5.720
Brad Koontz
And unpack all that.
0:1:5.730 --> 0:1:8.800
Brad Koontz
Copilot is and can be for your organization.
0:1:9.10 --> 0:1:11.740
Brad Koontz
We've got Adam Piercy and Joe Unwin.
0:1:11.860 --> 0:1:13.140
Brad Koontz
Adam, can you introduce yourself?
0:1:13.780 --> 0:1:14.150
Adam Piercy
Yeah.
0:1:14.160 --> 0:1:14.590
Adam Piercy
I, Brad.
0:1:14.600 --> 0:1:16.730
Adam Piercy
Hi everyone, my name's Adam Piercy.
0:1:16.740 --> 0:1:30.760
Adam Piercy
I'm a fast track recognized solution architect here at Itachi, responsible primarily for sales delivery, but also heavily involved in copilot and generative AI endeavours.
0:1:32.360 --> 0:1:32.790
Brad Koontz
Awesome.
0:1:32.800 --> 0:1:33.50
Brad Koontz
Great.
0:1:33.60 --> 0:1:33.770
Brad Koontz
Thanks Adam.
0:1:34.240 --> 0:1:38.750
Brad Koontz
Uh and Joe, or as many of you in the community might know him as Joe Flow.
0:1:38.760 --> 0:1:39.750
Brad Koontz
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
0:1:41.70 --> 0:1:45.40
Joe Unwin
Everyone is nice to be speaking to you all, and my name is John Wynn.
0:1:45.50 --> 0:1:47.600
Joe Unwin
I'm also known as flojo in the community, as Brad just mentioned.
0:1:47.990 --> 0:1:53.260
Joe Unwin
I'm a Microsoft MVP and I'm also a fast track recognized solution architect in the power platform.
0:1:53.440 --> 0:2:0.700
Joe Unwin
I focus mostly on automation as well as AI and copilot studio and stuff like that.
0:2:0.710 --> 0:2:3.610
Joe Unwin
So that's what I really do and focus on that Hitachi.
0:2:5.790 --> 0:2:6.230
Brad Koontz
Awesome.
0:2:6.240 --> 0:2:6.720
Brad Koontz
Thanks Jeff.
0:2:6.730 --> 0:2:6.970
Brad Koontz
Flow.
0:2:6.980 --> 0:2:7.790
Brad Koontz
Appreciate it.
0:2:7.850 --> 0:2:9.420
Brad Koontz
Great to talk to you guys today.
0:2:10.430 --> 0:2:12.720
Brad Koontz
The topic conversation is copilot.
0:2:13.150 --> 0:2:17.20
Brad Koontz
Obviously that is the I would say the starting point for.
0:2:17.30 --> 0:2:21.540
Brad Koontz
Like I said, your AI journey and we want to go through what it is, what it isn't.
0:2:21.850 --> 0:2:22.800
Brad Koontz
Do you already have it?
0:2:22.850 --> 0:2:26.500
Brad Koontz
And in what can you do to extend it?
0:2:26.650 --> 0:2:29.680
Brad Koontz
So Reddit interesting gardener stat.
0:2:29.830 --> 0:2:39.530
Brad Koontz
Said by twenty 2630% of work activities will involve the use of technology that will be conversationally enabled, which I thought was interesting.
0:2:40.970 --> 0:2:42.420
Brad Koontz
So let's dive right in.
0:2:42.630 --> 0:2:44.640
Brad Koontz
Adam, tell us what is copilot.
0:2:45.550 --> 0:2:47.500
Adam Piercy
Yeah, I Brad, yeah.
0:2:47.550 --> 0:2:56.140
Adam Piercy
So I actually think of copilot, Microsoft copilot as the the versatile assistant for your whole Microsoft 365 workspace.
0:2:56.410 --> 0:3:6.300
Adam Piercy
So whether you're in teams, outlook, word, or PowerPoint, copilot is right there using AI to help you craft emails, create documents prepared for meetings.
0:3:6.670 --> 0:3:18.50
Adam Piercy
It's embedded directly into those daily apps, so helping you kind of supercharge your productivity, providing assistance in real time listed on the work you're doing right there and then.
0:3:18.560 --> 0:3:22.370
Adam Piercy
But then that's the copilot from M365.
0:3:22.440 --> 0:3:28.690
Adam Piercy
But then you've also got the copilot for your business applications for dynamics, and I'm going to give some examples.
0:3:28.700 --> 0:3:38.970
Adam Piercy
Just real quick, but I'm gonna focus on sales, but for any listeners out there who are also working with D365 for service, it's very similar and the operating in kind of the same way.
0:3:39.380 --> 0:3:48.800
Adam Piercy
So you've got the Microsoft copilot for sales, and that's all about making the sales process as smooth as possible within M365 and teams.
0:3:48.870 --> 0:3:51.940
Adam Piercy
So that's outlook teams and other apps like Word.
0:3:52.570 --> 0:3:56.660
Adam Piercy
It helps sellers manage tasks without switching contexts.
0:3:57.240 --> 0:4:2.280
Adam Piercy
It helps them create summaries, draft emails and all of that kind of fun stuff.
0:4:2.550 --> 0:4:6.480
Adam Piercy
It's also available interestingly for Salesforce customers as well.
0:4:6.930 --> 0:4:11.240
Adam Piercy
But then there's copilot that lives within Dynamics 365 for sales.
0:4:11.350 --> 0:4:13.400
Adam Piercy
So not the copilot for sales.
0:4:13.670 --> 0:4:23.960
Adam Piercy
It's kind of complicated, but the copilot that's in dynamics 365 for sales is a bit like a specialist doctor for you.
0:4:24.20 --> 0:4:24.530
Adam Piercy
You're in.
0:4:24.540 --> 0:4:25.250
Adam Piercy
Bear with me.
0:4:26.120 --> 0:4:39.890
Adam Piercy
It's an AI that's kind of fully integrated into D365, focusing solely on the experience within CRM, generating summaries from opportunities and leads, prepping notes, making meetings more productive.
0:4:39.900 --> 0:4:42.570
Adam Piercy
All within the D365 ecosystem.
0:4:42.680 --> 0:4:46.580
Adam Piercy
So in essence, M365 copilot is your general AI.
0:4:46.760 --> 0:4:56.940
Adam Piercy
Listen for broad range of tasks while copilot for sales is specialized consultants to tap into specific business areas makes sense.
0:4:58.370 --> 0:4:58.960
Brad Koontz
It does.
0:4:58.970 --> 0:4:59.840
Brad Koontz
It does make sense.
0:4:59.850 --> 0:5:6.420
Brad Koontz
I think that you know one of the questions that people ask is is, is do I do I already have this right?
0:5:6.430 --> 0:5:8.200
Brad Koontz
Do already have the embedded piece?
0:5:8.210 --> 0:5:10.640
Brad Koontz
Do I have the for sales piece?
0:5:10.650 --> 0:5:11.310
Brad Koontz
How can they know?
0:5:11.970 --> 0:5:13.480
Adam Piercy
Yeah, great question.
0:5:13.490 --> 0:5:21.940
Adam Piercy
So if you are any sort of commercial customer, it's a straightforward monthly fee of $30 per user.
0:5:21.950 --> 0:5:23.220
Adam Piercy
So it's it's own skew.
0:5:23.230 --> 0:5:24.820
Adam Piercy
So it's easy to go and check. It is.
0:5:24.830 --> 0:5:27.480
Adam Piercy
Do you pay for the $30 per user skew?
0:5:27.590 --> 0:5:33.720
Adam Piercy
It doesn't matter if you're on M365D3D5 Business Standard or business premium plans.
0:5:33.890 --> 0:5:37.910
Adam Piercy
It's available to everyone when it first came out, there was the 300 seat limit.
0:5:37.970 --> 0:5:38.780
Adam Piercy
That's gone.
0:5:38.850 --> 0:5:46.250
Adam Piercy
So Microsoft had truly democratizing AI, and when we think about business applications, however, it's slightly different.
0:5:46.920 --> 0:6:5.380
Adam Piercy
So just to make it a bit spicy, if you're D365 user with a sales or service and if you have sales professional or the enterprise licenses, you don't have the full copilot for sales package, but you do get access to a AI capabilities within the application.
0:6:8.30 --> 0:6:8.380
Brad Koontz
Mm-hmm.
0:6:5.710 --> 0:6:9.800
Adam Piercy
So that's like getting an appetizer right before you deciding if you want the full course meal.
0:6:10.190 --> 0:6:19.740
Adam Piercy
If you do want the fullest cost meal, then if you're a sales premium user, you get access to it, which is the full sales copilot for sales.
0:6:20.210 --> 0:6:25.660
Adam Piercy
But if you don't, then it's an additional $20 per user per month.
0:6:26.820 --> 0:6:40.530
Brad Koontz
Yeah, the to to me, when you combine copilot with dynamics, it's it's super exciting because you've been selling dynamic CRM for for over a decade from one of the earliest things.
0:6:40.540 --> 0:6:55.170
Brad Koontz
And one of the pieces in one of the value propositions of the original product of Dynamics CRM was the the the idea that you're going to be using tools if you already use every single day, right, that the user interface was good.
0:6:55.180 --> 0:7:7.210
Brad Koontz
And when you think about the idea that we, the way we talk about it now around invisible CRM, this really helps get to that place because it's so easy to use.
0:7:7.660 --> 0:7:8.650
Brad Koontz
But it's so easy.
0:7:10.430 --> 0:7:10.720
Brad Koontz
Yeah.
0:7:10.730 --> 0:7:17.830
Brad Koontz
You you you think about user adoption and CRM, you're always talking about stick and carrot versus how you're gonna do this.
0:7:17.840 --> 0:7:24.970
Brad Koontz
This to me is a big delicious carrot because it really adds so much productivity to the end users.
0:7:27.40 --> 0:7:28.750
Adam Piercy
100% absolutely.
0:7:28.800 --> 0:7:40.430
Adam Piercy
And the the way that it will fit seamlessly in that workflow, meeting the user, meeting the seller where they work, which is something I've talked a lot about, that's the beauty of the copilot.
0:7:40.440 --> 0:7:51.560
Adam Piercy
It's right there is that digital assistant helping you prepare for meetings, helping you kind of summarize meetings after the pop and and all of that data kind of feeding into your sirm super powerful.
0:7:52.380 --> 0:7:53.60
Brad Koontz
So that's great.
0:7:53.70 --> 0:8:9.520
Brad Koontz
That's a great breakdown of what these different they're really skews what these different skews are, what the cost is, what happens when you need more, when you need a customization related to this, what's the next step there.
0:8:12.310 --> 0:8:14.230
Joe Unwin
So I'll come in for that, Brad.
0:8:14.770 --> 0:8:27.230
Joe Unwin
So we've been talking about M365, copilot, right, and it's really a personal productivity assistant and an example of what you would be using this for is like find me the email I was working with Adam on on a specific thing last week.
0:8:28.750 --> 0:8:32.400
Joe Unwin
But it's it's it has its limitations, right?
0:8:32.410 --> 0:8:38.720
Joe Unwin
And you want to be able to extend it, you want to be able to add what you want to do to this copilot.
0:8:38.930 --> 0:8:41.420
Joe Unwin
Now by extension, I don't mean change.
0:8:41.430 --> 0:8:43.820
Joe Unwin
You're not actually changing the M365.
0:8:43.830 --> 0:8:45.470
Joe Unwin
Copilot, you're extending it.
0:8:45.480 --> 0:8:47.420
Joe Unwin
You're adding to it now.
0:8:47.530 --> 0:8:50.160
Joe Unwin
M365 code pilot is based on the Microsoft graph.
0:8:50.170 --> 0:8:52.500
Joe Unwin
It's the API behind Microsoft.
0:8:52.710 --> 0:9:1.100
Joe Unwin
It's it has the ability to add additional data from outside of the M365 platform and it's built on large language models.
0:9:1.110 --> 0:9:3.460
Joe Unwin
But this is just out of the box.
0:9:3.470 --> 0:9:4.150
Joe Unwin
Stop right.
0:9:4.470 --> 0:9:6.350
Joe Unwin
You can actually extend it.
0:9:6.410 --> 0:9:8.580
Joe Unwin
So what do I mean by this then?
0:9:8.590 --> 0:9:27.470
Joe Unwin
Well, they'll say you want to extend it by logging your time for your timesheet on a third party application such as work day or requesting a new computer via SAP, SAP, or updating your address in a custom HR system that you may have created as long as it's got an API.
0:9:27.480 --> 0:9:30.390
Joe Unwin
You can extend this M365 copilot.
0:9:30.880 --> 0:9:36.450
Joe Unwin
Now to do this you have to do this through something called conversational plugins.
0:9:36.800 --> 0:9:38.510
Joe Unwin
Now, what is a conversational plugin?
0:9:38.720 --> 0:9:54.480
Joe Unwin
Well, that is a part of copilot studio, no copilot studio is a completely separate product, but if you're subscribed to business M365 copilot, you actually can extend your M365 copilot with copilot studio with the licensing.
0:9:55.720 --> 0:10:4.850
Joe Unwin
So what is copilot studio Len and how do we actually go through this extension so Copilots studio is a SAS based platform.
0:10:4.920 --> 0:10:14.190
Joe Unwin
It allows you to build your own custom copilots or customize Microsoft copilots such as M365 copilot and it brings it all together.
0:10:14.300 --> 0:10:15.310
Joe Unwin
So you can host on it.
0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:20.430
Joe Unwin
You can report on it and so on, but what does it actually contain then?
0:10:20.540 --> 0:10:27.150
Joe Unwin
Well, it allows you to build plugins and as you as I mentioned before, you've got conversational plugins.
0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:30.950
Joe Unwin
So this is an extension to the M365 copilot.
0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:44.370
Joe Unwin
This is where you would actually go in to copilot studio on the left hand side menu you'd click conversational plugins and there will be a trigger there for the M365 copilot, and then you can extend your M365 copilot.
0:10:44.780 --> 0:10:49.540
Joe Unwin
But not only that, you can actually build plugins for your own costs and copilots.
0:10:50.190 --> 0:10:55.500
Joe Unwin
You can also use generative AI and in copilot studio this is known as generative answers.
0:10:56.460 --> 0:11:0.440
Joe Unwin
You can actually publish to multiple channels, such as Microsoft Teams itself.
0:11:1.560 --> 0:11:3.250
Joe Unwin
You also get analytics.
0:11:3.710 --> 0:11:5.810
Joe Unwin
You also have an automation studio.
0:11:5.860 --> 0:11:7.570
Joe Unwin
Now, what do I mean by an automation studio?
0:11:7.580 --> 0:11:15.870
Joe Unwin
Well, if you're familiar with power, automate it or one it has custom connectors, has thousands of them right, like and they were all too external APIs.
0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:22.190
Joe Unwin
Well, you can now connect your M365 copilot to third parties.
0:11:22.420 --> 0:11:27.520
Joe Unwin
You don't have to specifically stay within the Microsoft platform.
0:11:28.930 --> 0:11:45.660
Joe Unwin
Obviously this is a very big thing for a lot of people, because while M365 copilot might be great as it is, there's always use cases that you want to extend this so that people in your in your job, like your employees.
0:11:45.670 --> 0:11:55.30
Joe Unwin
Anything like that will stay within one ecosystem, but can still access data and information and push information to everywhere.
0:11:55.40 --> 0:12:0.480
Joe Unwin
So they don't have to travel around and essentially leave the system that they're in now.
0:12:0.490 --> 0:12:3.90
Joe Unwin
Brad, you mentioned Invisible CRM, right?
0:12:3.100 --> 0:12:5.940
Joe Unwin
Well, the same thing with M365 copilot.
0:12:5.950 --> 0:12:18.920
Joe Unwin
If you're in M365 copilot and you want to manipulate data, you don't want people travelling to about three or four different third party websites, you want them to be able to do that directly where they are and where they're currently working.
0:12:19.290 --> 0:12:24.840
Joe Unwin
So I mentioned that you can actually create your own custom copilot as well.
0:12:25.630 --> 0:12:26.100
Joe Unwin
No.
0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:27.720
Joe Unwin
Why would you do this then?
0:12:27.730 --> 0:12:30.240
Joe Unwin
If you've got every 65 copilot, why would you do this?
0:12:30.250 --> 0:12:34.740
Joe Unwin
Well, let's think about a situation of a user that has a website.
0:12:34.890 --> 0:12:39.140
Joe Unwin
They've got a lot of individuals working in their customer service team.
0:12:39.390 --> 0:12:41.30
Joe Unwin
They're getting quite overwhelmed.
0:12:41.40 --> 0:12:44.180
Joe Unwin
They don't want to hire a lot more people.
0:12:44.590 --> 0:12:49.80
Joe Unwin
They want to allow individuals to self service their problems.
0:12:49.510 --> 0:12:54.560
Joe Unwin
While you could create a custom copilot that sits on your website, you could embed it via an iframe.
0:13:1.440 --> 0:13:1.850
Brad Koontz
Umm.
0:12:54.570 --> 0:13:2.10
Joe Unwin
For example, the points to your website and it will gather information on your website to all the locations that you've pointed to.
0:13:2.20 --> 0:13:9.770
Joe Unwin
So let's say you point to the FAQ section and then it will take their request.
0:13:9.780 --> 0:13:11.70
Joe Unwin
So they'll ask a question.
0:13:11.180 --> 0:13:17.280
Joe Unwin
It will gather some information off of their website and return it to them in a generative AI response.
0:13:17.580 --> 0:13:17.930
Brad Koontz
Mm-hmm.
0:13:17.770 --> 0:13:24.540
Joe Unwin
So obviously this is a very big thing that you can do, but it's not limited to just websites.
0:13:24.550 --> 0:13:30.70
Joe Unwin
You can do internal documentation, such as an internal HR systems and other things like that.
0:13:31.710 --> 0:13:39.420
Brad Koontz
And so the the scenario you just described reminds me a little bit of the user experience with power virtual agents.
0:13:39.690 --> 0:13:48.240
Brad Koontz
So so how is this different both from a user standpoint but also from a back end architecture or U or or or where their similarities?
0:13:49.490 --> 0:13:49.820
Joe Unwin
OK.
0:13:49.830 --> 0:13:50.0
Joe Unwin
Yes.
0:13:50.10 --> 0:13:56.680
Joe Unwin
So copilot studio is built upon what was power virtual agent, so power virtual agents is no more.
0:13:57.150 --> 0:14:4.100
Joe Unwin
We you don't talk about power virtual agents anymore, especially if you're talking to customers or anything like that, because it's simply now, copilot, studio.
0:14:4.330 --> 0:14:7.740
Joe Unwin
But all of the underlying technology is still the same.
0:14:8.190 --> 0:14:10.640
Joe Unwin
But what they've done is they've improved on it.
0:14:10.650 --> 0:14:16.140
Joe Unwin
They've added additional functionality, and now they've added also generative AI.
0:14:16.190 --> 0:14:21.810
Joe Unwin
So you're talking about what's the difference between a chatbot and a copilot?
0:14:21.820 --> 0:14:23.30
Joe Unwin
Which chatbot was power?
0:14:23.40 --> 0:14:24.450
Joe Unwin
Virtual agents and copilots.
0:14:24.460 --> 0:14:34.760
Joe Unwin
Now copilot studio the difference is the generative AI aspect of it and actually being able to consume data and deliver data back to a user.
0:14:37.710 --> 0:14:38.760
Brad Koontz
Yeah, that's that's great.
0:14:38.770 --> 0:14:43.820
Brad Koontz
And this is this is an exciting time to be involved with this with this type of technology.
0:14:44.330 --> 0:14:50.630
Brad Koontz
So let let me just ask you another last question about Umm about the the copilot studio.
0:14:50.640 --> 0:15:1.50
Brad Koontz
So I assumed that it gives you the capability of extending a language model focused on very specific parts of the customers.
0:15:1.60 --> 0:15:4.550
Brad Koontz
Enterprise data is that is that a fair assessment?
0:15:5.620 --> 0:15:13.730
Joe Unwin
So what you can actually do is you can use copilot studio alongside the Azure open AI, right?
0:15:13.740 --> 0:15:23.30
Joe Unwin
So you can actually go in there, create your own module, and then click on customize in copilot studio and then you can use your module in copilot studio.
0:15:25.830 --> 0:15:26.620
Brad Koontz
That's great.
0:15:27.130 --> 0:15:27.840
Brad Koontz
That's great.
0:15:28.90 --> 0:15:30.540
Brad Koontz
I guess this has been a fantastic conversation.
0:15:30.550 --> 0:15:38.20
Brad Koontz
I really appreciate your time today and and helping us unpack the the world of copilot and always listeners.
0:15:38.30 --> 0:15:42.400
Brad Koontz
Thank you for listening today to exchanges, a podcast by Hitachi Solutions.
0:15:42.740 --> 0:15:46.280
Brad Koontz
We air regularly on wherever you get your favorite podcast.
0:15:46.350 --> 0:15:53.880
Brad Koontz
You can check out our full podcast library at global.hitachi-solutions.com.
0:15:53.930 --> 0:15:54.590
Brad Koontz
See you next time].