Discover our comprehensive guide to the benefits of Microsoft Copilot in SharePoint.
AI is bringing significant changes to the way people work, manage their daily workflow, and how organisations operate overall. Businesses want to leverage artificial intelligence in all aspects, as it offers numerous benefits and helps them to thrive in today’s competitive landscape. SharePoint is a powerful tool that is already helping organisations by bringing documents, communications, and business processes together in one place. So far, businesses have benefited a lot from this valuable collaboration tool; it’s time to take it to the next level with SharePoint Copilot.
While it might be unfamiliar to many, top SharePoint consulting firms are already leveraging it in their services. This integration shows the significant importance of AI in not just automating manual, time-consuming processes but also deriving insights from data, boosting productivity, and efficiency.
In this blog, we will discuss all the important aspects of SharePoint Copilot and how SharePoint consulting services can help businesses to leverage its full potential.
Understanding the Role of Copilot in SharePoint
Microsoft Copilot, a conversational, AI-powered assistant that simplifies automation, offers contextual intelligence, and boosts productivity. When a business hires SharePoint development services, their team of AI developers ensures a successful integration of Microsoft Copilot into SharePoint. This helps boost productivity and collaboration, and streamlines interactions within your team. Out of many advantagesMicrosoft Copilot has to offer, its main aim is to automate repetitive tasks such as drafting, scheduling, and data analysis, so that the team can focus more on high-value work. When Microsoft Copilot is integrated into Microsoft 365 apps such as SharePoint, Outlook, Word, and Teams with the help of reliable and trustworthy SharePoint consulting services, productivity doubles, reducing manual efforts and time. Microsoft Copilot integrated into SharePoint enhances the user experience, with much better collaboration, information sharing, and document management.
As per Microsoft, integrating Copilot in SharePoint represents one of its most significant advancements in over two decades. Let’s see how Copilot, integrated with SharePoint, is revolutionising the workplace:
- By using Microsoft Copilot, content can be generated, summarised, and rewritten in various tones such as friendly, easy, tech-friendly, etc.
- Individuals no longer need to multitask between attending the meeting and jotting down notes, whether it’s about summarising a meeting transcript, converting raw data into insightful, easy-to-understand content, or building attention-grabbing pages. Microsoft Copilot can help you with everything.
- Sometimes finding that one document can become a headache when you have a huge bunch to search from; such events in corporate are not uncommon, and they are also very time-consuming. Microsoft Copilot in SharePoint helps by replacing the need for manual document classification with advanced document tagging and metadata suggestions.
- Users don’t have to use robotic language while they are looking for something; they can use any language in any way they like, which might not always produce the right results. Microsoft Copilot focuses on the intent of the user query, and it produces the most accurate, relevant, and precise answer.
- SharePoint Copilot acts as a fellow writer who can help you in brainstorming content, rewriting, and fine-tuning content in very little time. Basically, it improves your writing process.
Step-by-Step Process to Enable Co-Authoring in SharePoint Online
To enable successful co-authoring in SharePoint Online, follow the step-by-step process:
- Log into sharepoint online and navigate through the site with the target document library.
- The next step to be taken is to open the library; there would be a visible gear icon on the top, right side. You need to select the library settings.
- Then click the Versioning setting under the general setting.
- In the document version history, select create major versions, add create minor (0.x) versions.
- Make sure to check Advance settings.
- Click on the OK button to apply.
- By now, the Co-authoring would be enabled for documents in the library. Only users with permission can edit documents that are saved in this library.
How to Enable Microsoft Copilot in SharePoint Online?
Enabling Microsoft Copilot in SharePoint is a straightforward process, as it’s already embedded in SharePoint. First things first, ensure that you have the following prerequisites:
➔ Microsoft 365 E5
➔ Microsoft 365 E3
➔ Microsoft 365 F1
➔ Microsoft 365 F3
➔ Office 365 E1
➔ Office 365 E3
➔ Office 365 E5
➔ Office 365 F3
➔ Microsoft 365 Business Basic
➔ Microsoft 365 Business Premium
➔ Microsoft 365 Business Standard
➔ Microsoft Entra ID
➔ Microsoft 365 Apps
By following a few easy steps, Microsoft 365 admins can transform Microsoft Copilot in SharePoint Online. This allows the entire team to utilise AI features such as intelligent content generation and automation within SharePoint.
Begin by logging into the Microsoft 365 admin centre with an admin account. Click on “Admin centres”, and select “SharePoint” to enter the SharePoint admin centre.
On the dashboard, locate the Copilot section (typically under ‘Policies’ or ‘Settings’).
Switch on the AI tools that seem to be most useful for your organisation, for examples generating reports, data insights, or automating tasks. You can also customise it as per your company’s goals.
After that comes the crucial step, which is to set up permission so that no unauthorised user can access Copilot.
Lastly, ensure that everything is running smoothly and catch any fixes or bugs. When you hire SharePoint consulting services, they also ensure to conduct training sessions that educate the teammates/ employees on using it correctly and effectively.
Working with SharePoint’s AI Builder
By using document processing in Microsoft 365, individuals can build AI Builder models in SharePoint.The SharePoint library has two menus- classify and extract, where you can apply an existing AI model to a library. There are two types of models you can choose from:
1. Structured document processing: For fixed-template documents such as invoices, purchase orders, delivery orders, tax documents, and more.
2. Freeform document processing: For general documents such as purchase orders, delivery orders, and tax documents.
How can SharePoint Admins Govern AI-Assisted Content?
While different industries can use SharePoint with Copilot to store and share files, some data needs to remain hidden, and Copilot must be prevented from accessing this kind of data. For example, the healthcare industry needs to protect its patient data, as those records are confidential. To control this, AI focuses on three core governance pillars, which are data security, access controls, compliance and auditing.
1. Data Security
Data security keeps the sensitive information locked away from AI by leveraging SharePoint permissions individual can hide patient libraries from Microsoft Copilot.
2. Access Controls
You can decide what can be visible to Microsoft Copilot and what cannot, by setting “scopes”.
3. Compliance and Auditing
It’s necessary to follow laws, track what AI does, and review usage to ensure the safety and legality of AI.
Hiring the Right SharePoint Development Services Help Business to Harness the Full Potential of SharePoint with Copilot.
PSSPL has been offering SharePoint consulting services for the last twenty-six years. They specialize in enhancing the productivity of businesses of all sizes. By adopting modern technologies, they specialize in providing integration services or also help you to begin from scratch. They have a team of SharePoint consultants and Microsoft experts who leverage the right tools and strategies to make the implementation process happen.
6 Best Practices for Using Copilot Effectively in SharePoint
To utilize SharePoint at its best, below are some of the best practices one can follow:
- Customize the settings of Microsoft Copilot as per the needs of your organization.
- Review and refine the output of Microsoft Copilot, accepting it as final.
- Start using Microsoft Copilot for day-to-day tasks, such as spelling checks, grammar checks, generating content for various purposes, etc.
- Regenerate or ask Microsoft Copilot to simplify their suggestions if they are unclear.
- You can also track how it boosts your efficiency and makes changes as per your needs.
- Share prompts that generate the most relevant and accurate results with your team, so that they can use the same.
What Does the Future Look Like for AI-Driven SharePoint Governance?
Microsoft is known for its rapid innovation within SharePoint Online, introducing new features.
Modern FAQ capabilities with AI: The new dynamic FAQ web part, powered by Microsoft 365 Copilot analyzes the behavior of users and automatically updates them.
Custom File upload forms: With the advanced SharePoint, you can now build custom upload forms right inside document libraries.
Centralized site branding management: SharePoint tenant admins can now leverage PowerShell scripts to control site branding across the entire business from one central spot.
Introduction of dark themes for modern sites: Microsoft has introduced two official dark themes, especially for SharePoint sites. They aim to deliver aesthetically pleasing and relevant designs as per the users ‘ needs.
Wrap It Up
Leading SharePoint experts like PSSPL make integrating Copilot a breeze; they handle everything from setup to governance, keeping things compliant even in tricky areas like healthcare. Follow smart habits like using clear prompts, tweaking Copilot’s outputs, and sharing winning tips with your team to get the most out of it, while cool upcoming features like custom upload forms and centralized branding keep your sites looking sharp and modern.
