It’s no surprise that artificial intelligence is an increasing priority for small businesses, especially with the rise of AI tools directly integrated within everyday applications, such as Microsoft® 365 Copilot®. In fact, Microsoft’s latest survey of small business trends, challenges, and opportunities revealed that one-third of SMBs consider AI a “top four” priority, and 71% have plans to either begin or accelerate AI investments within the next year.  

Although still new, the benefits of AI for SMBs, such as simplifying both common and complex tasks, are already clear. According to Microsoft, 84% of those surveyed believe AI has a positive impact on their business, and those who regularly use it see an average increase of 40% in productivity. So, the real question is not “if” tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot can give SMBs a competitive edge, but rather “how.”  

How is Microsoft 365 Copilot optimizing ROI for small businesses? 

The first step in maximizing your opportunity with AI tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot is understanding what they can do. While Microsoft is always expanding the product’s capabilities, there are plenty of current use cases for SMBs available now and in the immediate future. 

Here are a few examples of how SMBs are using Microsoft 365 Copilot to enhance productivity and innovation throughout their business processes: 

• Creating a cohesive experience across M365 applications – Through "graph grounding" when the product responds to user prompts, it enhances its responses by seeking additional context from relevant information stored in Microsoft 365 repositories via Graph requests. This is achieved by accessing and utilizing data from Microsoft Graph, a collection of APIs that provide access to data stored in Microsoft 365. 
• Refining strategic content creation – Copilot for Word reduces the need for redundant or time-consuming tasks by paraphrasing existing content, expanding relevant information in detail, or enhancing documents with statistics. 
• Sorting and managing email conversations – Copilot for Outlook locates specific emails based on topic or custom prompts, summarizes meetings, outlines to-do lists, and drafts or edits email messages, which saves precious time. 
• Boosting form, survey, or poll response rates – The product offers proactive recommendations for follow-ups, including generating form completion reminders or crafting messages. 
• Reviewing and summarizing videos – For Teams meetings, Microsoft 365 Copilot identifies relevant points, including timestamps for topics or speakers, a list of calls to action, or searches for specific topics, words, or phrases  
• Customizing and automating business tasks – Copilot extensions or API plugins can be built to interact with and process data from various sources, such as targeted searches, natural language queries, and custom pre-defined prompts derived from your graph data. 
• Eliminating manual typing or formula creation – Copilot for Excel can leverage verbal prompts to assist with data analysis or generate formula column suggestions, show insights in charts and PivotTables, and highlight interesting portions of data. This includes the ability to automatically create and calculate formulas for complicated spreadsheets based on user prompts. 
• Reviewing content management and data governance practices – Copilot for Restricted SharePoint Search allows users to disable organization-wide search, and to restrict both Enterprise Search and Microsoft Copilot experiences to a curated set of SharePoint sites of your choice. Additionally, whether you have enabled Enterprise Search or Restricted SharePoint Search, users can interact with files and content they own or that they have previously accessed in Microsoft Copilot.  
• Gaining key insights from employee feedback – The product can document comments to help users easily act on suggestions based on Microsoft 365 Copilot summaries, reports, and analysis across M365 applications. 
• Transforming the collaborative project management process – Copilot for Planner (Preview) streamlines the planning, management, execution and analysis of major projects. 
• Training employees on effective prompt generation – Copilot Lab helps teams learn the drivers of AI-enabled business practices. 
• Supporting the development of secure applications – Microsoft 365 Copilot can effectivity ground, write, analyze, or troubleshoot code and other data or security challenges. Understanding the usage of prompts is key. 

The list above is far from comprehensive, with more features and updates coming every month. For more information on the product’s AI capabilities, check out Microsoft’s AI Copilot Success Kit. 

How SMBs can use Microsoft 365 Copilot to drive greater success 

Of course, knowing what the product can do is only half the battle. As a recent report on SMB technology adoption shows, a staggering 77% of SMBs say the number one barrier to AI success is a lack of knowledge. In other words, the best way SMBs can set themselves apart is through early adoption and continuous training with AI tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot.  

If you’re new to AI and want to make the most of a potential investment, you can easily become a Microsoft AI expert by taking advantage of their free Microsoft 365 Copilot training modules. Or, if you’re not sure how the product can optimize your business processes, consider the following use cases based on your industry. 

For product-based, supply chain industries such as retail, manufacturing, or transportation, the product can help you:  

• Predict product demand fluctuations with greater accuracy based on your sales data 
• Optimize delivery routes by analyzing financial and geographical data 
• Monitor weather and world events that impact the supply chain, including situations influencing your materials, carriers, or distribution networks 
• Automatically draft emails to alert impacted partners or customers to mitigate potential disruptions 
• Support customer service through the creation and analysis of support forms, surveys, and polls 
• Generate insights into order status, delivery schedules, and shipping options 

For service-based industries such as insurance, legal, consulting, or real estate, Microsoft 365 Copilot can help you: 

• Draft, review, and summarize essential documents based on business and industry data 
• Generate compelling copy for marketing campaigns, targeted sales outreach, or other important customer-facing messaging 
• Translate documents, presentations, or sales and marketing collateral into 27+ languages 
• Design engaging PowerPoint presentations based on industry data and customizable themes 
• Develop comprehensive project management plans including automated progress reports 
• Automate data entry tasks and improve data analysis along with suggestions for data clarity 
• Respond to customer inquiries with increased efficiency using the AI-powered suggestions 

Microsoft 365 Copilot is not just another product update – it’s a game changer for SMBs. What’s more, Microsoft is dedicated to its continuous improvement through expanded language support, SKU eligibilities, new product features, and performance updates. To stay current on what’s ahead for the product, be sure to check out the Microsoft 365 roadmap. 

How partners can seize the opportunity 

Microsoft 365 Copilot offers a lucrative opportunity for resellers and managed service providers. Partners can boost their earnings significantly through various revenue streams, including foundational productivity setup, integration of business premium add-ons, and specialized training services. By helping organizations lay the groundwork for a Microsoft 365 Copilot environment, partners can sell essential services such as end-user training on how to write effective prompts and interact seamlessly with AI tools. Additionally, partners can qualify for the Tier 2 accelerator, offering an attractive 10.75% rebate—exceeding their profit margin. Supplementing these offerings with SMB workshops and ongoing support services further enhances the value proposition, creating multiple touchpoints for sustained revenue growth. This robust opportunity not only diversifies income but also maximizes profitability through comprehensive incentives and rebates. 

Next steps: Gain the AI advantage with OpenText Cybersecurity 

Now that you know how Microsoft 365 Copilot can give you a competitive advantage, the next step is to work with a knowledgeable partner who can help you optimize and customize the product to support your unique business needs. OpenText™ is here and ready to help businesses like yours on the journey to AI-powered productivity.  

In addition to offering Microsoft 365 Copilot and licenses through our Cloud Service Provider (CSP) network, we work with you one-on-one to develop an effective adoption strategy to optimize specific business challenges or create long-term AI initiatives. We can also help train your teams to expand your knowledge of AI tools to further set you apart in your industry with our AI masterclasses and technical bootcamps. 

Ready to get started? Supercharge your business with Microsoft 365 Copilot. 

The post How SMBs can use Microsoft® 365 Copilot® for a competitive advantage appeared first on OpenText Blogs.