How to Add Microsoft Copilot to Office 365 — and Get the Most Out of It

Microsoft Copilot is increasing productivity across business lines by integrating AI capabilities directly into Office 365. With its ability to analyze data and automate repetitive tasks, Copilot empowers every employee to work smarter. If you’re considering adding Microsoft Copilot to your Office 365 suite, this guide will walk you through the setup process and explore strategies for maximizing its potential.

What is Microsoft Copilot?

Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered assistant embedded into Office 365 applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. The software uses advanced generative AI models to automate tasks and provide intelligent recommendations for specific organizational workflows.

From creating dynamic data visualizations in Excel to generating polished presentations in PowerPoint, Copilot can refocus and entire workforce on higher-value tasks while leaving routine work to the AI.

Why Add Microsoft Copilot to Office 365? 

Integrating Copilot into your Office 365 suite offers several advantages:

• Enhanced productivity: Automate repetitive tasks, saving valuable time for strategic activities.
• Improved accuracy: Reduce human error in data analysis and report generation.
• Streamlined collaboration: Use AI to summarize discussions and suggest action items.
• Data-driven insights: Leverage Copilot’s AI capabilities to extract actionable insights from complex datasets.

How to Add Microsoft Copilot to Office 365

Adding Microsoft Copilot to your Office 365 environment requires the right licensing, configuration and integration steps. Here’s a detailed walkthrough.

Check Licensing Requirements

Microsoft Copilot isn’t included in all Office 365 plans. To use it, ensure your organization has the necessary licenses. As of 2024, this includes:

• Current eligible plans: Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3/E5 or Business Standard/Premium.
• Add-on licensing: In some cases, Copilot requires an additional subscription fee as an AI-powered add-on.

To verify your eligibility:

• Log in to your Microsoft Admin Center.
• Navigate to the “Billing” section and check available add-ons for your current plan.

Enable Copilot in the Admin Center

Once you’ve confirmed licensing, enable Copilot in the Microsoft Admin Center:

• Sign in as a Global Administrator.
• Go to Settings > Integrated Apps.
• Search for “Microsoft Copilot” in the add-on list.
• Select the app and click “Deploy.”

During deployment, you’ll assign licenses to individual users or groups.

Configure Permissions and Security

Copilot requires access to organizational data to deliver personalized recommendations. Configure the following settings to maintain security:

• Data access controls: Use role-based access control (RBAC) to define who can access specific data.
• Compliance settings: Ensure Copilot follows your organization’s data governance policies.
• Integration settings: Connect Copilot to applications like Teams and SharePoint for seamless workflows.

Test and Optimize

After deployment, test Copilot to ensure it functions as expected:

• Run sample tasks: Test common workflows like creating automated summaries in Word or generating formulas in Excel.
• Gather feedback: Encourage employees to provide feedback on performance and usability.
• Iterate Settings: Adjust permissions or configurations based on user feedback. The goal should be to keep Copilot optimized even as end-user or corporate strategies change.

Getting the Most Out of Microsoft Copilot

Adding Microsoft Copilot to Office 365 is a significant first step toward enhancing productivity. However, to truly unlock the software’s full potential, feature customization, team training and performance monitoring are necessary for making the most of this powerful AI tool.

Red River specializes in helping businesses optimize their Microsoft stack, ensuring tools like Copilot are deployed and configured to align seamlessly with your organization’s unique workflows. However, if you’re doing it in-house, here’s how you can get the most out of Microsoft Copilot and maximize its impact on your business operations:

• Train your team: To ensure adoption, provide training sessions that highlight Copilot’s capabilities. Focus on:
  • Application-specific features: Demonstrate how Copilot works differently in Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Teams.
  • Time-saving tips: Share practical examples of how Copilot can reduce manual effort.
  • Error handling: Teach users to verify AI-generated outputs for accuracy.
• Customize AI behavior: Customizing Microsoft Copilot’s behavior aligns the software with your organization’s specific workflows and goals. Customization helps companies tailor Copilot’s responses and capabilities to fit their unique business needs, improving both its effectiveness and adoption rate.

Why Customize Copilot?

Every organization operates differently, with unique processes and priorities. Customizing Copilot ensures its suggestions and actions directly address the tasks and goals most relevant to your business. For example:

• A marketing team might need templates and AI assistance for creating campaigns or analyzing audience engagement metrics.
• A finance team could require Copilot to focus on financial modeling, expense tracking or automated compliance reports.

You can customize Copilot in some of the following ways.

Context Awareness

By tailoring Copilot’s behavior, companies can ensure its recommendations are context-aware, reducing time spent revising AI outputs. For instance:

• Custom prompts can guide Copilot to prioritize data from specific internal systems.
• You can train Copilot to use industry-specific language or adhere to corporate style guides, which is especially useful for client-facing communications.

Industry Compliance

Organizations in regulated industries like healthcare, finance or legal services, may have stringent compliance requirements. Customizing Copilot helps ensure that:

• Outputs follow industry regulations (e.g., HIPAA for healthcare).
• Sensitive information is flagged, excluded or handled according to company policies.

Automation

Businesses can also configure Copilot to automate frequent workflows. For example:

• Automating expense approval processes by integrating Copilot with ERP systems.
• Standardizing data visualization formats for company reports.

Department Specific

Customizations can enable Copilot to act as a bridge between departments, ensuring seamless communication. For example:

• Sales and marketing teams might share customized templates for lead management.
• Project managers can configure Copilot to pull data from multiple tools and summarize updates for stakeholders.

How to Customize Copilot

Organizations can program Copilot with predefined prompts or commands for repetitive or complex tasks. For instance:

• A retail company might configure a prompt like: “Generate a sales report for the last quarter, highlighting top-performing regions and flagging underperforming products.”
• A project team might use the following: “Summarize the top three action items from this week’s meeting notes in Teams.”

You can connect Copilot to custom applications, databases or CRMs to enhance the applications utility. By integrating Copilot with proprietary tools, businesses can:

• Use AI to pull insights from internal dashboards or datasets.
• Automate workflows that span across multiple platforms, such as generating invoices or syncing project timelines.

Customizing Copilot to use specific language or to follow brand guidelines facilitates consistent communication. This approach is especially beneficial for industries where tone sensitivity is crucial, like healthcare or financial advisory.

Another option is to tailor the volume of features available to specific departments — not all users need access to the same data. IT departments should customize Copilot’s behavior based on job roles to enhance the platform’s usability and security. Some examples include:

• Sales teams getting tailored lead-scoring models.
• Executives receiving high-level performance summaries instead of detailed data.

Copilot helps this process along by offering pre-configured templates that generate specific outputs. For example, you can configure the platform to generate proposal templates for business development teams or format a project status report for managers.

For global organizations, enabling Copilot to generate outputs in multiple languages can streamline cross-border operations and improve inclusivity. This step helps employees and customers worldwide benefit from AI-generated content.

How to Leverage Copilot in Key Business Workflows

Beyond customization by department or job title, consider identify8ing the areas where Copilot can deliver the most value to your organization. The approach will maximize a faster return from an incredibly robust platform. Here are some go-to use cases to start the process:

• Document creation: Use Copilot in Word to draft policies, contracts, proposals or other documents based on templates.
• Data analysis: Employ Excel’s AI features to identify trends, forecast or clean data.
• Meeting management: Let Copilot in Teams generate summaries, action items or follow-up task or meeting reminders.

Monitor Performance Metrics

Tracking performance metrics will help you fully understand the value Microsoft Copilot brings to your organization. Monitoring these metrics provides actionable insights into how well Copilot works and where adjustments will further optimize its effectiveness.

One of the most important metrics to assess is time saved. By comparing task completion times before and after Copilot implementation, you can quantify how much the AI assistant streamlines workflows. For example, teams may find repetitive tasks like drafting documents or generating meeting summaries happen significantly faster with Copilot, freeing up employee time for more strategic work.

Another critical metric is error rates. As Copilot automates processes and assists with data analysis or report generation, it’s important to evaluate the accuracy of its outputs. Reducing human error is one of Copilot’s key advantages, but regular audits can help ensure that the AI’s suggestions and actions remain reliable and align with your organization’s standards.

Finally, gathering employee feedback through surveys or one-on-one discussions can provide a qualitative view of Copilot’s impact. Understanding how users feel about the tool — whether it’s helpful or in need of refinement — can reveal improvement areas. You may find that some employees require additional training to maximize their use of Copilot or specific features might need fine-tuning to better serve team needs.

By monitoring these performance metrics consistently, businesses can ensure that Microsoft Copilot delivers measurable benefits, making it an indispensable tool in their productivity arsenal. Red River can help organizations track and interpret these metrics, providing expert recommendations to fine-tune settings and fully leverage Copilot’s capabilities.

Overcoming Common Deployment Challenges

Implementing Microsoft Copilot is highly beneficial, but deployment can be challenging, like any new technology. Understanding and proactively addressing these obstacles can ensure a smoother transition with higher adoption across teams.

One common hurdle is resistance to change. Employees may fear introducing AI tools like Copilot could replace their roles or add unnecessary complexity. Address these concerns by emphasizing how Copilot simplifies mundane tasks to free employees for more strategic and creative tasks. Sharing success stories from other teams or organizations, as well as conducting hands-on demonstrations, can help build trust and confidence among your end-users. Ensuring employees see Copilot as a supportive tool rather than a threat is the key to overcoming this barrier.

Another critical challenge involves data privacy concerns, especially for organizations handling sensitive or regulated information. Employees and stakeholders may worry about how Copilot interacts with company data. To mitigate these concerns, involve IT and legal teams early in the deployment and task them with establishing robust data governance policies. Microsoft leads the industry in compliance certifications, such as GDPR and HIPAA, so reassure stakeholders that Copilot meets rigorous security standards. Configuring role-based access controls and creating transparent policies around data usage can further alleviate privacy-related fears.

Lastly, organizations may face difficulties stemming from a limited understanding of Copilot’s features. If employees are unaware of the tool’s capabilities or feel unprepared to use it effectively, adoption will suffer. To bridge this gap, create a comprehensive resource hub with tutorials, FAQs and troubleshooting guides. Assign internal champions or Copilot “superusers” to provide ongoing support and answer questions as they arise. Ongoing training sessions tailored to specific roles or departments can ensure that every team member understands how to leverage Copilot in their daily tasks.

Futureproofing with Microsoft Copilot 

AI is here and with Microsoft Copilot, you can transform Office 365 into a productivity powerhouse. Adding Copilot to your Microsoft suite and equips your team with the tools to unlock significant time savings and drive efficiency across your organization.

Whether you’re drafting documents, analyzing data or managing meetings, Copilot empowers your workforce to focus on what truly matters — innovation and strategic growth.

Contact Red River’s expert team for assistance with integrating Microsoft Copilot into your Office 365 suite.

Q&A

Why would companies want to customize Microsoft Copilot’s AI features?

Customizing AI behavior goes beyond improving individual productivity — it aligns Copilot’s capabilities with organizational objectives. Here are some key benefits companies can expect:

• Greater adoption rates: Employees are more likely to embrace Copilot when it feels intuitive and tailored to their roles.
• Improved efficiency: Customizations eliminate repetitive tweaks, allowing users to focus on strategic tasks.
• Consistency across teams: Customized AI ensures that outputs maintain a unified style, format and tone.
• Competitive advantage: By leveraging AI tailored to unique business needs, organizations can outperform competitors who rely on generic solutions.

What three top things can you do when adding Microsoft Copilot to Office 365?

1. Customize AI settings: Tailor Copilot’s behavior to align with your business workflows, such as creating task-specific prompts or integrating with proprietary tools.
2. Train your team: Provide role-specific training to help employees understand Copilot’s features and maximize its potential in daily tasks.
3. Monitor performance metrics: Track time saved, accuracy improvements and employee feedback to continuously optimize Copilot’s effectiveness.