Every time a 'new' tech goes mainstream, we see a similar pattern.
Hype, demand, launch, incredible uptake, plateau, novelty fatigue and then we get a real picture of what the usage is really going to look like.
It has been the same across the years, faxes, emails, chat, video calling and Gen AI is the current one. I recall receiving many emails when I first got a corporate system (back in the days where you had to at '@internet' on the end to indicate it was an external email and your email address was something akin to <numbers>@compuserve.com - remember them?) saying 'hello, I've got an email address', and 'email me, please' - it was exciting and new and was used as a new toy for any old chatter you could think of.
We are now in the position of finding out what people and businesses are really using Gen AI for. Copilot for M365 and the other Copilots and Gen AI solutions are now settling in for the long haul. We have had the initial burst of 'I got AI to create a picture of a dog driving a car whilst smoking a pipe and eating a burger' phase. We are now seeing how businesses are using it in everyday life.
I'm not going to talk about use cases or prompts or the benefits, that is being done to death and beyond. No, I want to talk about inspiring your Copilot users and line of business owners, to start getting really creative.
As humans, many of us will be curious and push the boundaries to see what it can really do, but the vast majority will pick on the core things that are easy to identify, and stick with using those on a regular basis. In terms of Copilot for M365, this is using it to summarize meetings or emails and capturing minutes etc. and there is nothing wrong with that. You will easily recoup the monthly license fee through that alone, but you aren't going to see the real benefit.
What I would like to see, is businesses encouraging users of Gen AI, to take time out of their day to learn what these tools can really do! It is a little like owning a supercar and using it to drive to the shops and back. It's perfectly capable, but you aren't touching the sides of what it is capable of.
Businesses need to understand this is not a silver bullet, the more you put into learning what it can do for you, the more it can do for you. If you are serious about using Gen AI to transform your internal ways of working, then here are suggestions that might help.
'Promptathons' - Run a promptathon. Yes it is a thing. (Give me a shout if you want to know more) - but you get people in from various parts of your business, identify challenges and where Gen AI could help, and then you help users create prompts that will help them do their jobs more efficiently.
Assign time to your users as part of their performance goals. Set aside an hour a week, learning how to write a prompt that will return them 2 or 3 hours a week. There is no particular target, but you can gamify the concept, and reward the person who manages to liberate the most time or the most create solution.
Share, Share, Share. There are apps out there to help you share ideas. The Prompt Buddy is one that is very useful. Any useful prompt that you create, you drop into the library so that others can make use of it too... Now you have just saved other people time - you noble creature, you!! You can also hold a call once a fortnight and ask everyone to bring their most effective prompt to the table. Help your licensed users learn. Those who pick it up quickly, should be championing those for whom it does not come so naturally. You all work for the same company and that company pays your bills, so it is in your interest to help improve the overall efficiency.
Now is the time to start pushing the boundaries of what Copilot for M365, Copilot Studio and all the other Copilots and Gen AI tools can do for you. Don't fall in to the trap of remaining static. If you remain static in the world of AI, you are falling behind - rapidly!
Now go and create an organization of open learning, and change the way your business works and thinks.
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