Use cases
Traditionally, some people consider a chatbot as something that organizations use to provide support to their customers. However, chatbots/copilots can be so much more. Organizations can also use copilots to support their employees.
Internal support
The following scenarios outline some reasons why an organization would build an internal copilot.
Consistent internal communication - Copilots bring consistency. The information that copilots provide to users, and steps or procedures that they use, are always the same.
Convenient and quick - Employees can access copilots inside the applications that they use every day, such as Microsoft Teams.
Available all day, every day - More companies have employees that span multiple time zones. With copilots, time zones don't matter because the copilot is always available.
Act on behalf of the user for routine tasks - Often, copilots can perform tasks, such as sending a communication or scheduling a meeting, that help save employees time.
Replace intranet or internal email for frequently accessed information - Organizations can build copilots based on knowledge repositories. A copilot provides employees access to items, such as FAQs, that are presented in a conversational experience.
For example, every organization hires employees. With more companies having remote workers, the onboarding process for new employees can be challenging. New employees could use an onboarding copilot to ask questions about benefits, policies, and more. Other areas where an organization might use a copilot to support internal scenarios could be IT support, change management, or internal process information.
The following image shows a real estate company that has created an embedded copilot in Microsoft Teams to assist agents with open houses.
Customer support
Increasingly, organizations use copilots to support a wide variety of different customer scenarios. Because copilots can include multiple topics, they're flexible enough to replace other forms of communication. For example, many organizations use web forms to capture information, such as lead generation. The lead generation form could be replaced with a copilot. The copilot could create a more personalized experience by identifying specific products that a customer might be interested in. It could capture the potential customer's information before sending details to the correct person. It represents a more effective way of identifying lead information.
A well-designed copilot becomes a virtual member of your team. Other areas where a copilot could be beneficial include:
Website search replacement - Organizations could use a copilot to help customers find a person or information instead of using a website search.
Efficient routing - Organizations could use a copilot to capture general details about a customer and then redirect inquiries to the correct person in the organization. For example, the copilot could direct support requests, customer service agents, and sales-related items to your professional services staff.
After you've identified possible scenarios for a copilot, you can start planning it.
For more information, see Microsoft Copilot Studio web app.