If you're not using Microsoft Copilot for collaboration, you're missing out big time.

First – let’s do a sense check on what collaboration means in this brave new world of ours. According to IGI Global, collaborative technologies are “an integrated and flexible set of tools that support team communication, process, and information sharing.”

So basically, collaborative technologies make it easier and faster for us to get things done and work together.

They break down those roadblocks that slow projects down to a snail’s pace and make sure everyone is on the same page at the same time and heading in the same direction.

And by default, when you improve how your people collaborate, you improve productivity outcomes.  

Microsoft Teams on steroids

Where better to improve collaboration than with Teams, Microsoft’s ultimate collaboration application? 

Back in 2019, right on the cusp of COVID-19, there were 20 million daily active users (aka DAUs) enjoying Teams collaborating from disparate locations and time zones. As of April 2023? Try 300 million.

Of course, enforced remote working played a large part in that phenomenal growth, but even post-Covid, the numbers continue to grow. So, it’s not surprising that Microsoft earmarked Teams for its very own Copilot. And Copilot for Teams truly is a bacon saver on many levels. Here’s why:

1. Never miss out on catching up with the team

We understand meeting fatigue and how hard it can be to catch up with the overflow of information and actions. But the good news is that with Copilot, if you missed a Teams meeting, turned up late, got distracted part way through by urgent emails, or zoned out, all is not lost. It’s Copilot to the rescue.

While you were physically or mentally absent (and as long as someone enabled ‘transcribe’ and it was an internal meeting), Copilot summarised the key points of the discussion, including who said what. It noted where people agreed or disagreed – and who they were, suggested actions and owners, and generally acted like the most efficient, intelligent PA ever.  

While few of us want to read a word-by-word transcript of a missed meeting, the ability to scan an accurate real-time summary of the whole thing (or just what happened while you were running late or popped away to top up your coffee) is gold.

You can even jump into the Copilot ‘compose’ box on the right of your meeting window to ask Copilot to pull out points of disagreement, pick holes in someone else’s argument, create pros and cons tables, list action items with names against them, call out questions which were raised during the meeting but not answered, generate meeting notes, and more.

You can do this at any time during the meeting – or leave it until the end and ask Copilot to make sure you have covered everything on the agenda before you wind up, so you don’t need to revisit any missing topics with yet another meeting.

2. Whiteboard wizard

Excitingly, Copilot can also automatically convert your Teams meeting content into a visual within Microsoft Whiteboard in real-time. In addition, it can suggest ideas to add to your Whiteboard as the conversation happens.

You can even ask Copilot to set up a shared workspace for you in Teams, name it and allocate editing permissions. And you don’t need to click a single button to make it all happen; just ask Copilot in natural language to ‘make it so.’ And it will.

3. Igniting a new way to collaborate

While as a Microsoft partner, we’ve had the advantage of using Copilot for Teams since December 2022 through the Early Access program, most businesses won’t have access until February 2023. But it is most definitely worth waiting for.

At this year’s Microsoft conference - Inspire, Microsoft announced the next wave of Copilot in Teams with Copilot in Teams Phone and Copilot in Teams Chat, bringing the same functionality from Teams meetings to unscheduled Teams chats and calls. Copilot in Teams Phone will enable you to make and receive calls from your Teams app on any device and generate real-time summaries, insights, notes, and discussion highlights (like tasks, names, numbers, dates, and next steps). So, you can imagine how this will transform sales calls and follow-ups. After the call, you can ask Copilot to use the summary to draft a project plan on the spot – not two weeks later – so you can strike while the sales iron is hot. (OK, that’s not collaboration, but it’s so cool we feel we had to mention it).

In his keynote speech at Ignite, Nadella said: "With Copilots, we're able to complete tasks much faster, and that's having a real cascading effect on work and workflow everywhere. People who use Copilot are spending less time searching for information; they're holding more effective meetings." And we agree.