A first look at using Microsoft’s new AI tool, Copilot

Q. I have heard about Copilot and how it might be used with Microsoft applications. Could you tell me what Copilot is and what it does?

A. Copilot is an artificial intelligence (AI) system designed by Microsoft that is replacing the virtual assistant Cortana and Bing Chat. Copilot will become an integral part of pretty much all Microsoft products and services that CPAs use. More than 175 versions of Copilot have been created or are in development, though many are not yet generally available. This article offers a brief overview of Copilot and then looks at some interactions I had with the Bing version of Copilot in the Edge browser.

Copilot is designed to integrate with Microsoft 365, Windows 11, Bing (Microsoft’s search engine), and Edge (Microsoft’s web browser). It also works with the Google Chrome web browser.

Copilot does many more things than Cortana could. For example, you can tell Copilot to create a PowerPoint presentation based on some information you provide. Copilot can also create emails and email replies. Do you have that colleague who sends five emails pertaining to the same subject? You can ask Copilot to summarize all emails from that person.

Copilot also can help you prepare for a meeting. Or if you join a Teams meeting late, Copilot will generate a summary of what you missed.

Copilot can create budget proposals, project timelines, agendas, SWOT analyses, etc. And because it can answer questions and understand commands using natural language processing, you don’t need to know how to write computer code to use it.

Pricing and availability for Copilot are as follows:

• Copilot became available in Windows 11 in the Sept. 26, 2023, update. Commercial users running Windows 11 will receive Copilot for free. There are some rumblings that Windows 10 will, at some point, also be able to integrate with Copilot, but at the time of this writing, Microsoft has not confirmed that.
• Microsoft 365 Copilot became available for purchase to all business users for $30 per user per month starting Jan. 15, 2024. It previously had been available only to Enterprise users. Microsoft 365 Copilot integrates with Word, Outlook, Teams, PowerPoint, Excel, and other Microsoft 365 apps. Copilot is generally available for free at copilot.microsoft.com. Be sure you open the link in either Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome.

I played around with Copilot in the Bing search engine in Microsoft Edge and asked: “Can Copilot integrate with Excel?” See below for the response.

This was good news. I asked a similar question last year in my Tech Q&A article “Using ChatGPT With Excel.” ChatGPT told me it was unable to integrate directly with Excel. It could give recommendations for formulas and offer helpful advice, but it could not directly create charts or analyze data in Excel. Copilot can analyze datasets in Excel and create charts and graphs.

Another feature that I really like is that the responses Copilot provides include a list of the sources it used with links. This makes it easy to evaluate the credibility of the sources and the provided information. With so much concern over the accuracy of AI responses, I find this very useful and assuring. Be sure to always confirm the accuracy of AI responses before relying on the information.

I then took Copilot’s suggestion to ask, “Can I customize the suggestions provided by Copilot in Excel?” See below for the response.

Bing Copilot is not limited to Microsoft questions. As with ChatGPT, you can ask it all sorts of things. For example, I asked it about tax deductions (see the screenshot below).

The possibilities are endless, so let’s just look at one more example. If you travel, you know the cost of airfare is constantly changing. Having up-to-date information online is great for things like making travel plans. I asked for the cheapest airfare to New York City from Nashville, Tenn., and I was given some low-cost options that I could book that day (see the screenshot below).

I am looking forward to using Copilot directly in Microsoft Office, and I hope you will get the opportunity to do so as well. I would love to hear about your experiences, discoveries, and difficulties. Keep me posted, and I will do the same.

About the authors

Kelly L. Williams, CPA, Ph.D., MBA, is an associate professor of accounting at the Jones College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University.

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