How can you streamline workflows in your business? Would you like to boost team productivity? How can a small to mid-sized business achieve its full potential?
According to Harish Vellat, SMC Lead at Microsoft ANZ: “Digital technology is the key to unlocking your organisation’s full potential.”
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one such technology that can help grow your business, as you deal with constant battles with repetitive tasks or communication bottlenecks. In this article, we’re zooming in on practical Microsoft Copilot prompts you can try or tweak for your needs.
The Swiftly Evolving AI Landscape
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CISRO) found that 68% of businesses in Australia have already adopted artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The National Artificial Intelligence Centre reported that AI adoption and impact are even growing.
More and more Australian businesses are using AI technologies to:
- Gain competitive advantage
- Boost strategic decision-making
- Drive business growth
- Achieve time savings and increase financial ROI
The CISRO have stressed the need to improve AI collaboration and the AI ecosystem. They noted the challenges impacting AI adoption (privacy, security, data quality, a talent shortage in AI-specific skills), highlighting the bright side that organisations “have matured their understanding of AI.”
Microsoft Artificial Intelligence Can Boost SMBs
For Australian SMBs, having Copilot as a digital assistant opens a myriad of possibilities. Being seamlessly integrated within Microsoft 365, Copilot can understand your workflow, then help you automate repetitive tasks like generating reports, summarising emails, and even writing draft invoices.
It can also suggest creative marketing ideas, brainstorm solutions to complex problems, and help you visualise data insights – while learning and adapting to your specific needs. It’s like having an assistant without hiring any additional employees. This innovation can provide you with a powerful edge if you know how to optimise it.
(For a video overview of Microsoft Copilot, watch Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot.)
Microsoft Copilot Prompts to Supercharge Your Business
To get the most out of Copilot, you can pattern your prompts on some that we’ve collated below for SMBs.
Prompts for Streamlining Operations
Increasing efficiency can reduce costs, prevent staff burnout, and improve decision-making. Prompts like these can help:
1. “Generate an email summarising the key decisions from our last meeting and outlining next steps for all parties involved.”
This prompt tackles a common pain point – post-meeting action items. Copilot can streamline that, saving your workforce and ensuring everyone stays accountable.
2. “Generate charts showing project status and insights, then share them to key project staff via email.”
Preparing reports can take hours, but now thanks to Copilot you can have AI review and analyse project data, then generate reports highlighting insightful data in Excel.
Prompts for Enhancing Productivity
Copilot can help SMBs achieve even more with fewer resources, assisting to drive growth and profitability. Here are some prompts to try:
3. “Write a bulleted list outlining the top 3 priorities for the sales team this week.”
This can boost team focus and accountability. It can help prioritise tasks and keep your sales team laser-focused on achieving their goals.
4. “Expand on this outline with 3-5 key points for each section of the presentation.” [Include the outline or a link to it.]
Struggling to flesh out a presentation outline? Copilot can lend a hand. This prompt can help transform a basic structure into a comprehensive and informative presentation, saving you time and money.
Prompts for Driving Innovation
SMBs need to stay ahead of the curve, and Copilot can assist with brainstorming and finding solutions that can provide a competitive edge. Here are two prompt examples:
5. “Generate a list of 10 creative marketing ideas to target our ideal customer demographic.”
Spark innovation within your team. Copilot’s ability to process vast amounts of information fast, can help brainstorm fresh marketing strategies you might not have considered otherwise.
6. “Based on this data set, identify potential trends and suggest data visualisations to effectively communicate the insights.”
Data analysis can be a time-consuming task. This prompt utilises Copilot’s AI capabilities to unearth trends and suggest data visualisations. Now you can transform raw data into actionable insights even faster, that can fuel better decision-making.
Prompts for Simplifying Financial Tasks
Copilot can help SMBs free up valuable time while reducing human error in financial tasks. These prompts can help:
7. “What is the impact of doubling the IT integration budget on the revenue per month?”
A financial analyst may have to crunch numbers and perform what-if scenarios. They can do this without getting a headache by using Copilot for Finance in Excel, in preparation for their business planning presentation.
8. “Summarise and analyse earnings reports across product offerings.”
After receiving sales reports for the quarter, a finance team manager can use Copilot to gain an overview of the company’s earnings. This can provide insights that can be discussed at a managers’ meeting to set direction and strategies for the next quarter.
Prompts for Personalising Customer Experience
This can foster loyalty and drive sales, as Copilot helps to craft targeted communications that resonate with individual clients. Here are some prompt examples:
9. “Draft a personalised follow-up email to a potential client, referencing their specific needs and highlighting how our services can address them.”
The key to customer loyalty is personalisation. This prompt helps craft targeted emails that resonate with individual clients, fostering stronger relationships and driving sales.
10. “Summarize the case history and actions taken to-date for [specific support case number].”
Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service can help a customer support director approach a support case when escalated to them. All the background information about the case can help to provide personalised insight and advise on next steps.
Keys to Maximising the Power of Your Copilot Prompts
Here are a few things to keep front of mind when using Microsoft Copilot:
- Engage Copilot in a conversation using plain, clear language.
- Provide context and details as you would with an assistant.
- You can follow up on your prompts or ask Copilot to refine its response.
- Maintaining a professional tone and using polite language can enhance the quality of Copilot’s responses.
- Communicate with clarity and pay attention to punctuation, grammar, and capitalisation.
- When you need specific text written, modified, or replaced, use quotation marks to tell Copilot precisely what you need.
- Each new prompt is a fresh start.
Explore More of Copilot in Microsoft 365
Inspired IT is a passionate about empowering SMBs with innovative tech solutions. To learn more about how Copilot and other Microsoft 365 features can propel your business forward, read about visit our Microsoft 365 Services page today.
