Just a year or two ago, artificial intelligence still felt like something from the “tomorrow” file. Something interesting, even exciting… but not quite ready for real, everyday business use.
Well, that moment is officially over.
AI is no longer hype. It’s real. It’s here. And for organisations using Microsoft 365, it’s already unlocking massive value, not just for IT, but for every department across the business.
The secret? Copilot Chat, Microsoft’s secure, embedded AI assistant that lives inside your daily workflow and turns typical work friction into real productivity gains.
Where ChatGPT showed us the art of the possible, Copilot Chat makes AI personal, contextual, and immediately useful, without ever leaving the tools you already know.
So how are businesses actually using it right now? Let’s break it down.
Finance: Less Admin, More Analysis
Ask any finance team how much of their week is spent on mind-numbing manual work, reconciling spreadsheets, cleaning up inconsistent data, searching for anomalies, and you’ll likely get a sigh in response.
Copilot Chat is quietly changing that.
“Analyse this Excel workbook for duplicate entries and highlight any significant month-end variances.”
Within seconds, you’ve got clean, trustworthy data and a smart summary ready for the CFO. No time wasted, no repetitive clicking, no missed errors.
Finance teams aren’t just getting their hours back, they’re gaining the headspace to focus on strategy instead of spreadsheet firefighting.
Sales: Momentum Without the Mess
Sales thrives on pace. The more time sellers spend in conversations with clients, the faster deals move forward. But admin gets in the way, logging call notes, sending follow-ups, updating CRM entries…
Enter Copilot Chat.
“Summarise my last customer meeting and draft a follow-up email with next steps.”
Boom, it’s done. While you're jumping on your next call, Copilot’s quietly generating the perfect follow-up email, complete with client context and to-dos.
And because it all happens inside Microsoft 365, everything stays aligned across Teams, Outlook, and Dynamics, no switching tabs, no lost context, no workflow disruption.
Service & Operations: Cutting Through the Noise
Operational and service teams are the heartbeat of any organisation, but they’re often buried in complex projects, endless threads, and a never-ending list of “urgent” messages.
Copilot Chat makes it easier to cut through the clutter and stay aligned.
“Summarise this Teams conversation and list any blockers, risks, or decisions.”
That’s it. What might have taken 30 minutes of reading and note-taking is done in seconds. Teams stay in sync, tasks are clear, and decisions are documented, all without extra meetings or digging through threads.
HR & People Teams: Less Paperwork, More People Work
Hiring, onboarding, performance reviews, internal comms, HR teams juggle a lot. And a surprising amount of it is repetitive: writing similar emails, reviewing policy docs, answering the same FAQs.
Copilot Chat helps lighten the load.
“Draft an onboarding checklist for a new sales rep starting in November.”
Done. Add a welcome email, a summary of the holiday policy, or even an internal comms update, all in your brand voice, all in minutes.
For HR leaders, this isn’t about reducing the human element. It’s about giving your people more time to be human, more face-to-face coaching, more career conversations, and less time formatting PowerPoints.
IT & Security: Governance Without the Guesswork
Ironically, one of the departments most sceptical of AI is often the one that benefits most from Copilot Chat.
Why? Because it’s built with enterprise-grade security, governance, and transparency at its core.
Unlike open AI tools, Copilot Chat runs within your Microsoft 365 environment. That means:
- Your data never leaves your tenant
- Access follows existing permission structures
- Admins can monitor usage and enforce policy controls
And IT teams can even use Copilot to troubleshoot documentation, automate ticket triage, or help onboard new analysts.
“Summarise this incident report and suggest next steps.”
In other words: more visibility, less busywork and total control.
What Adoption Actually Looks Like
We all know AI isn’t a magic wand. Change management still matters. People still need to trust the tools they’re being asked to use.
That’s why successful AI adoption doesn’t start with a technology install, it starts with hands-on experience.
At CDW, we run Microsoft-funded Copilot Live Immersion Briefings that give teams a safe space to explore, ask questions, and try AI in real work scenarios.
We’ve seen it time and again:
Someone hesitantly types, “Summarise this Teams thread.”
Seconds later, their eyes light up.
You can practically see the mindset shift from “This is cool” to “This is useful.”
Those moments matter. Because when people start to trust AI with the small stuff, they’re far more open to scaling it across their roles and across your organisation.
AI isn’t replacing your people. It’s finally giving them the space to do their best work, to think, solve, create, and connect.
The question isn’t whether you should embrace it. The question is: Are you ready to make the leap from curiosity to confidence?
If so, we’re here to help.
Join a Live Copilot Immersion Briefing
Experience what AI can do, not in theory, but in the flow of work. Our briefings walk your teams through real use cases, with hands-on demos and a roadmap for adoption tailored to your environment.
Register now
Let’s reimagine productivity, together.
By Matthew Brown, Senior Solutions Architect, CDW UK