Preparing Your Business for Microsoft Copilot

A Structured Approach to Securely Boost Productivity and Scalability of AI in Your Workplace

The excitement surrounding generative AI has been immense, with many businesses eager to integrate these new capabilities into their daily operations. Tools like Microsoft Copilot promise to reshape how we work by integrating AI into familiar software such as Word, Excel and Teams. However, despite the promise of generative AI, many organizations find themselves struggling to implement it in a way that actually increases productivity. 

Currently, around 75% of knowledge workers are using AI. However, most of this usage is by the employees themselves, without clear guidance from company leadership on how AI should be used. This opens companies up to potential risks:

• Compromised Processes: To safely and effectively deploy AI, organizations need to understand how it’s being used by employees.
• Security Risks: Implementing AI without compromising data security is crucial, especially when integrating these tools into existing workflows and systems.
• Ensuring Employee Adoption: While many employees are using it, others will need more support and training to be able to take advantage of this technology.

What businesses need is a clear strategy for implementation – one that addresses these challenges and lays out a roadmap for successful adoption. In this white paper, we will provide you with practical guidance on how to implement Microsoft Copilot safely and effectively, ensuring that your organization is ready to unlock the full potential of AI while maximizing return on investment.

What Is Copilot & How Is Microsoft Implementing It?

Microsoft Copilot represents a major leap forward in the integration of generative AI into everyday business workflows. It is designed to function as an AI assistant embedded within the Microsoft 365 suite, bringing advanced AI capabilities directly into widely used applications. Through Copilot, Microsoft hopes to help businesses increase productivity and streamline time-consuming processes:

• Word: Copilot can assist in drafting, summarizing and refining written content, helping to create documents faster.
• Excel: It automates data analysis, creates complex formulas, generates insights and even helps build visualizations based on user data.
• PowerPoint: Copilot can quickly draft presentations, convert written content into slides and suggest visual layouts.
• Outlook: It assists in drafting emails, organizing inboxes and prioritizing messages, making it easier to manage communication.

Teams: Copilot can transcribe meetings, summarize key points and provide follow-up actions, making virtual collaboration more efficient.

Not “Plug and Play”

While the potential of Copilot is vast, it’s important to note that this tool is not simply “plug and play.” For organizations to maximize the benefits of Copilot, they need to prepare their infrastructure and workflows for AI integration. This means creating a strategy for data management, training staff and ensuring security measures are in place. Being “AI-ready” is crucial to unlocking the full potential of Copilot and turning it into a real competitive advantage for your business.

Microsoft Copilot will be available as an add-on to the following plans

• Microsoft 365 E3
• Microsoft 365 E5
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium

First Step: Creating an AI Policy

To successfully integrate AI like Microsoft Copilot into your organization, you need a structured approach. A well-designed AI policy helps ensure your implementation is safe, scalable and aligned with your business goals. 

We suggest your AI policy focuses on three things:

1. How you will ensure data compliance: This involves understanding what data Copilot will have access to and setting clear rules for how that data is used and protected.
2. Identifying the potential business challenges that you can solve: Determine which tasks or processes can be improved using AI to ensure that your efforts deliver measurable benefits.
3. Outlining an implementation strategy: Develop a phased approach to rolling out Copilot, starting with specific teams and expanding as you refine your strategy.

Later in this white paper, we will go into more detail on all three of these focus areas. That said, let’s start with a general overview of each as it pertains to your AI policy.

Data Compliance Policy

One of the most critical aspects of implementing AI is ensuring data compliance. As you integrate Copilot into your workflows, you need a clear understanding of what access the tool will have to your company’s data, and what access your employees will have when interacting with Copilot. This is vital because AI tools like Copilot process large amounts of data, making it essential to safeguard sensitive information and ensure that data use aligns with company policies.

Your compliance policy should take into account any industry standards or regulations that your organization may need to be compliant with, such as:

• HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) for healthcare data.
• NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) guidelines for security.
• ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standards for quality and data management.
• SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act) for financial transparency and data integrity.

Identify Business Challenges

The next step in creating your AI policy is to identify specific business challenges that AI can help address. This involves evaluating your current operations to find processes that could be automated, streamlined or enhanced through AI. 

As mentioned above, we will dive deeper into specifics later in the whitepaper. For now, just remember that you want to pinpoint business objectives and challenges that you can solve with AI, increasing the chances you’ll have a positive impact on your business’s bottom line.

Outline an Implementation Strategy

A key component of your AI policy is how you will roll out Copilot and track its impact. Implementing Copilot in a phased approach allows you to monitor how employees use the tool and assess its influence on your workflows. This ensures that AI is not only used safely but that it is delivering the desired benefits to your organization.

We recommend starting with one or two (ideally tech-savvy) teams, such as your IT department. These teams are often more comfortable with new technologies and can provide valuable feedback as they integrate Copilot into their work. This feedback will help you understand what works well, what needs adjustment and how to tailor the tool for broader use within the company.

As you refine your approach and address any initial challenges, you can then expand Copilot’s use to other departments, gradually scaling up your AI efforts to cover the entire organization.

Clear Your Policy With HR & Legal Departments

Once you’ve developed your AI policy, it’s crucial to review it with your HR and legal departments before rolling it out. The HR team can ensure that the policy aligns with internal employee guidelines and addresses any concerns related to training or user support. Meanwhile, the legal department can verify that your policy meets regulatory requirements and minimizes legal risks. This step helps ensure that your approach is sound from both a compliance and operational perspective, giving your organization a solid foundation as you move forward with AI integration.

Data Compliance: Cleaning Up & Securing Data

Before implementing AI tools like Microsoft Copilot, it’s essential to focus on cleaning up and securing your organization’s data. This process not only prepares your business for AI integration but also serves as a best practice for minimizing security vulnerabilities. By ensuring that employees have access only to the information they need, you reduce the risk of unauthorized data access and create a more secure IT environment.

Regardless of which Microsoft 365 plan you use, consider implementing the following security measures to safeguard your data:

• SharePoint Permissions: SharePoint is a central tool for managing files and data across your organization, and it’s important to define who has access to which files. SharePoint permissions determine not only what data your employees can access but also what Copilot can access. By carefully managing these permissions, you ensure that both employees and Copilot only interact with the data that is relevant to their roles.
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): MFA adds an extra layer of security by requiring users to verify their identity through multiple methods, such as a password and a temporary code sent to their phone. This helps prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data, even if login credentials are compromised.
• Audit Logs for Copilot Interactions: Implementing audit logs for Copilot interactions allows you to track how Copilot is being used, what data it accesses and which users are utilizing its features. These logs are crucial for maintaining accountability and can help identify any unusual or unauthorized activity.
• Retention and Deletion Policies for Copilot Interactions: Establishing clear policies for retaining and deleting data that Copilot interacts with ensures that sensitive information is not kept longer than necessary. These policies help you maintain compliance with data privacy regulations while managing storage efficiently.

If your organization uses Microsoft 365 Business Premium or Enterprise plans, you have access to advanced security protocols that can offer an additional layer of protection:

• Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Policies: DLP allows you to set rules that prevent sensitive information, like financial data or customer records, from being accessed or shared improperly. These rules can be applied to content that Copilot processes in files, emails and other communication channels, reducing the risk of data breaches.
• Sensitivity and Retention Labels: With manual sensitivity labels, you can categorize data based on its level of confidentiality, such as “Confidential” or “Internal Use Only.” Retention labels help ensure that critical business information is retained for a specific period, which can be particularly important for regulatory compliance. These labels provide an extra layer of control over how Copilot handles and stores data.

To assist organizations with setting up these security measures, Microsoft offers a wizard-based guide that walks you through the process of configuring data protection policies. This step-by-step tool helps ensure that your Copilot deployment is secure, compliant and aligned with best practices.

Managing Access: Just Enough Access

As you implement security measures, a common question arises: how much access should your employees have to different types of data? To address this, we recommend following the principle of Just Enough Access (JEA).

Just Enough Access is a security approach that gives users the minimum level of access necessary to perform their roles. By limiting access to only the data and resources an employee needs, you reduce the risk of accidental or malicious exposure of sensitive information. This principle helps create a more secure environment while ensuring that employees can still perform their tasks effectively.

For example, a finance team member might need access to financial records but not to employee HR files. Similarly, Copilot will only be able to access data that an employee could access directly. If an employee asks Copilot to retrieve information from a restricted file, the tool will not be able to access or process the request. This ensures that data remains secure, even when AI is being used to automate or streamline processes.

By managing access in this way, you can create a balance between productivity and security, making sure that Copilot’s capabilities are used effectively without compromising your organization’s sensitive data.

Identify Business Challenges: What Your Company Should Start Using AI For?

As businesses integrate AI into their workflows, it’s important to understand where these tools can have the most impact. AI is particularly effective at a few key tasks, making it a valuable resource for streamlining operations, enhancing productivity and reducing the burden of routine activities. Here are some of the specific functions that AI, including tools like Microsoft Copilot, excels at today:

The Top 10 “Try First” From Microsoft

If you want some specific suggestions, here are the top 10 tasks Microsoft recommends to begin integrating AI into your workflow:

1. Recap a meeting: Get a quick summary of a Teams meeting, including key takeaways, decisions and action items, so you can stay on top of what’s discussed without taking extensive notes.
2. Summarize an email thread: Quickly catch up on long email chains by having Copilot summarize the main points, saving you from reading through every message.
3. Draft an email: Use Copilot to create a first draft of an email, especially for routine communications or follow-ups, which you can then review and edit as needed.
4. Summarize a document: Have Copilot provide a concise summary of lengthy documents, making it easier to extract key information without going through every page.
5. Pull information about a topic/project: Quickly gather relevant information about a specific topic or project from your company’s internal files, enabling faster decision-making.
6. “Give me some ideas for…”: Use this prompt to generate creative ideas for new projects, marketing campaigns or other content, helping you jumpstart the brainstorming process.
7. “Help me write…”: Ask Copilot to help draft content like reports, blog posts or proposals, providing you with a structured starting point that can be refined.
8. “What did they say about…”: This feature allows you to search through meeting transcripts or notes, making it easy to find when a particular topic or person was mentioned.
9. Revise written content: Copilot can assist in editing and refining written content, helping you improve tone, clarity and grammar before sending it out.

Translate a message: For global teams, Copilot can translate messages into different languages, helping facilitate communication across language barriers.

Microsoft Copilot Implementation Strategy: Train, Adapt, Learn

Successfully integrating Microsoft Copilot into your organization requires a thoughtful approach that emphasizes training, adapting based on feedback, and continuous learning. The best way to ensure a smooth rollout is to start small – initially deploying Copilot to one or two teams – and then using insights from these early adopters to guide broader implementation across the organization. This gradual approach allows you to adapt your strategy as you go, refining how Copilot is used based on real-world experiences.

Here’s a suggested timeline for implementing your AI strategy:

• Month 1: Purchase 20 seats of Microsoft 365 Copilot and deploy them to a select group of employees, ideally those in tech-savvy roles like IT or marketing. Send a welcome email to these users, explaining how Copilot will be integrated into their workflows, what its capabilities are and how they can provide feedback throughout the process.
• Months 1 to 2: Introduce Copilot-relevant Microsoft 365 apps, such as Word, Excel, Teams, and Outlook. Conduct training sessions focused on real use-case scenarios, like drafting emails, summarizing documents and analyzing data in Excel. This helps employees understand how to use Copilot effectively in their daily tasks.
• Months 2 to 3: Monitor progress and maintain regular communication with the initial users. Share success stories, provide tips for maximizing Copilot’s features and encourage employees to explore new ways of using the tool. This phase is crucial for building new working habits and fostering a culture of AI adoption.
• Months 4 to 6: Expand Copilot’s use cases by deploying additional licenses to other teams. Leverage the feedback and best practices gathered from the initial group to make the transition smoother for new users. Continue training sessions and provide resources to support these teams as they adopt the new technology.
• Months 6 to 12: Begin exploring more advanced customization options, such as building plug-ins or custom AI agents tailored to your organization’s needs. These customizations can help personalize Copilot’s capabilities, allowing teams to maximize its potential for specific business processes.

Throughout this process, it’s essential to gather data on how Copilot is being used and how it’s impacting productivity. A structured weekly report from employees can provide valuable insights into which features are most useful and where improvements are needed. This feedback helps ensure that your AI strategy evolves based on real-world usage and aligns with your company’s goals.

Creating Prompt Libraries

As your team becomes more familiar with Copilot, it’s beneficial to create prompt libraries. A prompt library is a collection of effective prompts or instructions that employees can use to get the most out of Copilot. These prompts serve as templates that guide users on how to ask Copilot to perform specific tasks – like generating a report summary or drafting a client email.

Prompt libraries are important because they help standardize how employees interact with Copilot, ensuring consistency and efficiency across the organization. They also enable users to get faster results by providing proven, pre-tested ways to leverage Copilot’s capabilities. Sharing these libraries with new teams can speed up the learning curve and ensure a smoother transition as AI adoption expands.

Build A Community

Building a community around Copilot is a key part of fostering a successful AI culture within your organization. Whether through Microsoft Teams or your preferred communication platform, encourage employees to share their experiences with Copilot. Create a dedicated channel where users can discuss:

• What Copilot is particularly effective at
• Tasks or challenges where Copilot may need some adjustment or human oversight
• Creative ways they’ve used Copilot in their day-to-day work
• Tips and tricks for getting the most out of Copilot’s features

This open space allows employees to learn from each other’s experiences and discover new ways to use AI that they might not have considered. It also provides valuable insights into how Copilot is being used across different departments, helping leadership understand what’s working and where further training or resources may be needed.

Need Help Implementing Copilot?

Implementing AI solutions like Microsoft Copilot can be a game-changer for your organization, but success depends on having the right strategy, support and technical expertise. That’s where Keystone Technology Consultants comes in. With over 25 years of experience as a trusted managed service provider, we specialize in helping businesses navigate the complexities of IT. Whether you’re looking to set up advanced data compliance measures, customize AI tools for your unique needs or train your teams for seamless adoption, our team is here to guide you every step of the way.

Don’t let the challenges of AI implementation hold you back – start a conversation with Keystone today and discover how we can help your organization harness the full potential of AI to achieve your goals.

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