Generative AI is the talk of the town, and no industry is more poised to reap its rewards than finance, thanks to Microsoft’s new tool Copilot for Finance in Microsoft 365. In next three to five years, 68% of CFOs expect revenue growth from advanced AI (Generative AI). This new tool helps finance teams save time and make more informed decisions. It provides suggestions and automates tasks by connecting apps like Outlook, Excel, and Teams to financial systems like Dynamics 365 and SAP, allowing financial teams to focus on essential work and steer the company toward success.

What is Microsoft Copilot? 

Microsoft Copilot is a smart AI tool that helps people work better and faster. It can create new content, summarize information, and help with tasks within Microsoft apps. Copilot works directly with Microsoft Teams and apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Loop, Whiteboard, and OneNote, making it easy to use in your daily work.  

Some of its key features include: 

Content Generation: Copilot can write emails, reports, and other documents. It can quickly summarize lengthy documents and assist in crafting responses to messages and emails. 

Data-Driven Insights: Copilot uses data from   Microsoft Graph to offer custom assistance based on your activities. It’s designed to use only the data you can access. 

Responsible AI Framework: Copilot is designed to comply with data privacy and security laws and standards, ensuring the safety and privacy of your data. 

Use Cases in financial services 

Financial tasks in Microsoft 365 apps, such as audits, collections, and financial reports, can be time-consuming and prone to errors. Copilot for Finance addresses these challenges by pulling data and suggesting actions, allowing users to ask questions in simple language and receive quick answers and suggestions, ultimately by saving time and money. Copilot for Finance is transforming financial work. Here’s how:  

Compliance and Document Checking: Copilot scans documents for errors and ensures compliance with rules, saving time by identifying mistakes and reducing manual checks. 

Operational efficiency:  Copilot automates repetitive tasks and simplifies data entry, allowing for more time to focus on crucial projects and decisions. 

Investment analysis: Copilot analyzes market trends and provides investment insights. It rapidly processes large amounts of data, making it ideal for analysts. 

Financial advisors: Copilot helps advisors prepare for meetings by summarizing information, creating engaging presentations, and making meetings more productive. 

Business benefits 

According to The McKinsey Global Institute, Gen AI could add between $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion each year across various industries. Banking stands to gain a lot, with an estimated annual potential of $200 billion to $340 billion. This boost in value mainly comes from increased productivity. It’s expected to benefit all parts of banking, especially the corporate and retail sectors.  

While the focus has been on productivity in initial trials, the technology might change how jobs are done and how customers interact with banks, possibly leading to new business models. Investing in Copilot for Microsoft 365 means looking at how it can help where the organization faces challenges. One big advantage is saving time by making tasks simpler, which lets workers focus on more important things. 

Enhanced productivity: Copilot helps create content faster, giving more time for important tasks. 

Cost savings: Automating tasks saves money by cutting down on repetitive work. 

Improved customer experiences: Faster responses and accurate information improve customer interactions. 

Challenges and considerations 

Bias mitigation: Copilot’s responses are influenced by its training data. Organizations must monitor and address any biases that may arise to ensure fair and unbiased outputs. 

Data security: Protecting sensitive information is crucial, especially in the financial sector. Copilot should adhere to strict data access controls and security protocols to maintain data privacy and integrity. 

Human oversight: While AI is powerful, human judgment remains essential. Organizations should strike a balance between leveraging Copilot’s capabilities and maintaining human oversight and decision-making in critical areas. 

Managing a Generative AI Solution 

As generative AI solutions like Microsoft Copilot become more prevalent, organizations must establish robust governance frameworks to manage their deployment and usage effectively. This includes developing policies, guidelines, and processes to ensure responsible and ethical use of AI, as well as ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the system’s performance and outputs.To learn more join us on our upcoming webinar, as Jed Cawthorne, Modern Work Practice Lead discusses the practical use cases and show how we helped one of Canada’s largest business and family offices unlock 98% efficiency gains with SharePoint Premium. 

Preparing for Copilot Deployment 

Successful adoption of Copilot requires careful planning and preparation. Organizations should assess their specific needs, identify potential use cases, and develop a comprehensive strategy for integrating Copilot into their existing workflows and processes. This may involve training employees, updating infrastructure, and establishing clear roles and responsibilities. 

As AI and automation get better, financial companies using tools like Microsoft Copilot early on will be ahead. GenAI makes things run smoother, helps with informed decisions, and makes work faster, leading to growth and success in finance.  

Using Copilot well can bring more efficiency, new ideas, and happier customers, making companies who adopt this tech early leaders in the digital world.