AI is rapidly becoming part of everyday business, but with another monthly licence to consider, many organisations are asking the same question: is Microsoft 365 Copilot worth it?
For UK businesses already using Microsoft 365, Copilot has the potential to change how employees manage emails, meetings, documents, spreadsheets and everyday administrative tasks. Rather than introducing an entirely separate system, Microsoft 365 Copilot works alongside familiar applications such as Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Teams.
But simply having access to AI doesn’t automatically make a business more productive.
The real question is whether Microsoft 365 Copilot can save enough time, improve productivity and support your employees sufficiently to justify the investment.
Let’s look at what it can do, where businesses can benefit and what you should consider before introducing Copilot to your organisation.
What Is Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI-powered assistant designed to work within the Microsoft 365 environment.
It can help employees create, analyse, summarise and organise information using natural language prompts. Instead of learning complicated commands, users can ask Copilot to perform tasks or help them work with information.
For example, you might ask it to summarise a lengthy document, help draft an email, identify key points from a meeting or create the foundations of a presentation.
The important difference for businesses is its integration with the Microsoft applications employees may already use every day.
If you want a broader introduction, read our guide to Microsoft 365 Copilot for UK businesses.
What Can Microsoft 365 Copilot Do for Your Business?
The value of Microsoft Copilot becomes much easier to understand when you look at everyday tasks rather than AI technology itself.
Save Time Managing Emails in Outlook
A busy inbox can consume a surprising amount of the working day.
Copilot can help users understand lengthy email conversations, summarise important points and assist with drafting responses.
Instead of reading through a long chain of messages to understand what has happened, employees can potentially get up to speed much faster.
For managers and employees receiving large volumes of email, those small time savings can quickly add up.
Get More From Microsoft Teams Meetings
Meetings don’t necessarily end when everyone leaves the call. Someone may still need to organise notes, identify actions and update colleagues who couldn’t attend.
Copilot can help users work with meeting information and identify important discussion points and actions.
This can be particularly valuable for businesses with hybrid teams or employees regularly moving between customer meetings, the office and home.
AI is also changing how people collaborate within Teams. You can learn more in our article about AI teammates in Microsoft Teams.
Create Documents Faster in Word
Starting with a blank document can often be the hardest part.
Microsoft 365 Copilot can help create initial drafts and organise information, giving employees something to work from rather than starting from scratch.
That might include:
- Reports
- Proposals
- Internal communications
- Meeting documents
- Project information
- Policies
- Customer communications
AI-generated content should still be checked by a person, particularly where accuracy, confidentiality or important business decisions are involved. However, using AI to create a starting point can significantly reduce the time spent on routine writing.
Use Copilot to Help Analyse Information in Excel
Spreadsheets can contain valuable business information, but extracting useful insights from them isn’t always straightforward.
Copilot can help users explore and understand data using natural language.
This could help businesses identify patterns, investigate figures or understand information without employees necessarily needing advanced spreadsheet knowledge for every task.
It doesn’t remove the need to understand your business data, but it can make working with that data more accessible.
Create Presentations More Efficiently
How many hours does your business spend turning existing information into PowerPoint presentations?
Sales meetings, internal updates, training sessions and customer presentations can all take considerable time to prepare.
Copilot can help users develop presentations from existing information and provide a starting structure that can then be reviewed, edited and branded appropriately.
Again, the goal isn’t to remove the human from the process.
It’s about spending less time on repetitive preparation and more time refining the message.
How Much Time Could Microsoft Copilot Save Your Business?
This is where the question “Is Microsoft 365 Copilot worth it?” becomes particularly interesting.
Consider an employee who regularly spends time:
- Catching up on long email conversations
- Writing routine emails
- Creating meeting notes
- Producing first drafts of documents
- Looking through information
- Preparing presentations
- Analysing spreadsheets
Copilot doesn’t need to save hours on every individual task to make a difference.
Saving 10 minutes here and 20 minutes there could potentially recover a meaningful amount of productive time across a working week.
Now multiply that across several employees.
For a business with 10, 20 or 50 Microsoft 365 users, relatively small productivity improvements can become significant.
However, this depends heavily on employees actually knowing how and when to use Copilot.
Buying licences and never changing the way people work is unlikely to deliver the same return.
Does Every Employee Need Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Not necessarily.
One of the most important steps when considering Microsoft Copilot for business is identifying who is likely to benefit from it.
Someone who regularly works with emails, meetings, reports, spreadsheets and presentations may find significantly more opportunities to use Copilot than an employee whose role rarely involves Microsoft 365 applications.
Rather than simply purchasing licences across the organisation, businesses should consider individual roles and workflows.
Ask:
Where are employees losing time?
Which repetitive tasks could AI assist with?
Which teams spend significant amounts of time producing or processing information?
Where could Copilot deliver a measurable productivity improvement?
A considered rollout can help businesses get more value from their investment.
Is Your Microsoft 365 Environment Ready for Copilot?
There’s another important consideration before you start buying licences: your existing Microsoft 365 setup.
Copilot works with information that users are authorised to access. That makes existing permissions, information management and security practices particularly important.
AI can make finding and working with business information considerably easier. However, businesses need to think carefully about who should have access to that information in the first place.
Before implementing Copilot, it’s sensible to review your wider Microsoft environment, licences and security arrangements.
If you’re not sure what your existing Microsoft services include, start with our guide to understanding Microsoft 365.
What About AI and Business Security?
The growth of AI has created another challenge for businesses: employees using AI tools without approval or guidance.
This is sometimes referred to as Shadow AI.
An employee may paste company information into an AI service simply because it helps them complete a task more quickly, without considering where that information is going or whether the tool has been approved by the organisation.
We’ve explored this issue further in Shadow AI: what businesses need to know about AI security.
Having an agreed AI strategy can therefore be just as important as choosing the technology itself.
Businesses should establish which tools employees can use, what information can be shared with them and how AI-generated information should be checked.
Microsoft Copilot vs ChatGPT: Which Should Businesses Use?
Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT are often compared, but businesses shouldn’t necessarily view the decision as simply choosing one or the other.
The better question is: what are you trying to achieve?
Microsoft 365 Copilot’s major attraction for organisations using Microsoft 365 is its position within that working environment. Employees can use AI while working with familiar Microsoft applications and business workflows.
Other generative AI platforms can be extremely useful for research, brainstorming, content creation and many other tasks.
The key is to choose appropriate tools for particular business purposes and establish clear policies around their use.
For more practical ideas, take a look at our AI tips and tricks for business.
So, Is Microsoft 365 Copilot Worth It?
For the right business and the right employees, Microsoft 365 Copilot has the potential to deliver significant value.
But the technology alone isn’t the answer.
The greatest benefits are likely to come when businesses identify specific productivity problems and then show employees how Copilot can help solve them.
Before investing, consider:
- Who genuinely needs Copilot?
- What tasks could it improve?
- How much employee time could those improvements save?
- Are your Microsoft 365 licences appropriate?
- Are your permissions and security properly configured?
- Do employees understand how to use AI responsibly?
- How will you measure whether the investment is delivering results?
That turns Copilot from an interesting AI product into a genuine business productivity tool.
Don’t Just Buy Copilot – Make It Work for Your Business
Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot shouldn’t simply mean adding another software licence to your monthly bill.
At Digicomm 360, we can help businesses understand their Microsoft 365 requirements, choose appropriate licences and identify where Copilot could provide genuine value.
Whether you’re considering Copilot for a handful of employees or looking at AI across your organisation, we can help you understand your options and build the right Microsoft solution around your business.
Want to find out whether Microsoft 365 Copilot is worth it for your business?
Talk to Digicomm 360 about Microsoft 365 licences and Copilot today.
