Why SharePoint Online is Indispensable for Copilot
Tags: sharepoint, githubcopilot, microsoft365
Published: 2023-10-03 08:03:56

Microsoft Copilot is a cutting-edge AI-powered tool designed to enhance your everyday productivity. This tool seamlessly integrates with familiar Microsoft 365 applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and Loop, making it easily accessible and user-friendly.

Copilot's primary function is to assist you in creating, understanding, and editing documents. Whether you need to write, edit, summarize, or create documents, Copilot has got you covered.

![Picture by Judy Beth Morris from Unsplash](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b1ab664-caea-47f5-95b4-d3ce36c0bd0e_640x480.jpeg "Picture by Judy Beth Morris from Unsplash")

With just a brief prompt, Copilot can generate a first draft for you, drawing from your organization's knowledge base. It can add content to existing documents, summarize text, and even suggest appropriate tones for your writing. Plus, it's designed to maintain your organization's security, compliance, and privacy policies set in Microsoft 365.

You can access Copilot in Windows 11, Microsoft 365, and through web browsers using Edge and Bing. It's a handy tool that aims to streamline your document-related tasks and boost your overall efficiency.



## What data sources does Copilot utilize?

Microsoft Copilot employs a diverse array of data sources to facilitate content generation and enhance user support in document-related tasks. These essential data sources encompass:

- **Large Language Models (LLMs):** Copilot taps into LLMs hosted within the Microsoft Cloud via the Azure OpenAI service. These LLMs undergo extensive training on vast quantities of publicly available data, including books, articles, and websites. This training equips them with the ability to understand language, context, and meaning, enabling Copilot to provide insightful assistance.
    
- **Content in Microsoft Graph:** Copilot gains access to valuable content and contextual information through Microsoft Graph. This includes emails, chat logs, documents, calendars, meeting data, and contact details. Leveraging this data, Copilot can generate responses grounded in an organization's specific information, such as user documents, emails, and chat transcripts.
    
- **Natural Language Prompts:** Users can interact with Copilot using natural language prompts, typically in the form of statements or questions. Users also have the flexibility to craft prompts with additional information, which the LLM incorporates when formulating its responses.
    
- **Prompt Flow:** A robust feature within Azure Machine Learning, Prompt Flow streamlines the development, evaluation, and continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) of prompt engineering projects. It empowers data scientists and LLM application developers with an interactive environment that combines natural language prompts, templating language, an array of built-in tools, and Python code for enhanced efficiency.

Additionally, Copilot seamlessly adheres to an organization's predefined security, compliance, and privacy policies established within Microsoft 365, ensuring data protection and regulatory compliance.


## How does SharePoint Online contribute to Copilot?

The Microsoft Graph API serves as the gateway to SharePoint's rich resources, including sites, lists, libraries and folders. These SharePoint document libraries are integral components of Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Graph entities often encompass multiple libraries and folders. 

The API also works with OneDrive, which is a place to store your files, and it's used in OneDrive for Business, SharePoint libraries, and Office Groups. This means apps can use the same instructions to read and save files in all these places.

In essence, the Microsoft Graph SharePoint API extends accessibility to SharePoint sites, lists, libraries and folders, seamlessly integrating with Copilot's capabilities. SharePoint Online documents become integral parts of Microsoft Graph, empowering Copilot to enhance content creation through the vast array of SharePoint functionalities.


## What happens if SharePoint Online is not in the picture?

When a company lacks documents in SharePoint Online while utilizing Copilot, it can impact the tool's effectiveness in several ways:

- **Limited Information Access:** Copilot heavily relies on SharePoint Online to access information and provide valuable responses. Without documents in SharePoint, Copilot may struggle to access the necessary information, potentially reducing the quality of its responses.

- **Response Accuracy:** While Copilot can attempt to help by using other sources like language models and text prompts, its responses may not be as accurate because it lacks detailed information from SharePoint.

Furthermore, the absence of documents in SharePoint Online can have broader implications:

- **Challenges in Collaboration:** Without documents in SharePoint Online, employees may find it more challenging to collaborate effectively. SharePoint Online is a collaborative platform that allows people to create, organize, and work together on documents and files.

- **Optimized Copilot Performance:** Copilot functions at its best when integrated with SharePoint Online, as it's designed to leverage all the features of SharePoint for tasks like content creation and productivity. Having documents in SharePoint Online can significantly enhance Copilot's ability to assist with various work-related tasks.

In essence, having documents in SharePoint Online not only benefits Copilot but also improves collaboration and productivity within the organization.


## Summary

SharePoint Online plays a pivotal role in managing vital company information when integrating Copilot to deliver valuable insights across various contexts, from Word and Excel to PowerPoint and Teams. Here's why SharePoint Online is indispensable:

- **Rich Information Source:** Copilot relies on content within Microsoft Graph, which includes SharePoint Online, to craft informative responses. When SharePoint Online lacks sufficient information, Copilot may struggle to generate relevant answers.

- **Streamlined Collaboration:** SharePoint Online offers a versatile platform for content creation, management, and collaborative efforts. Copilot seamlessly harnesses SharePoint's capabilities, enabling real-time collaboration and simplifying document handling.

- **Robust Security:** SharePoint Online provides top-tier enterprise-grade security, ensuring data processing remains within the secure confines of the Microsoft 365 environment. Copilot automatically adheres to an organization's security, compliance, and privacy policies defined in Microsoft 365.

In summary, SharePoint Online is indispensable for effective company information management when integrating Copilot to deliver valuable insights across diverse contexts. It serves as a collaborative hub for content creation, with Copilot further enhancing this process. The combination of SharePoint Online and Copilot ensures secure, efficient, and collaborative information handling throughout your organization.


## References

* *How Microsoft 365 Copilot works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2-8wrF9Okc*
* *M365 Copilot, Microsoft’s generative AI tool, explained: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3700709/m365-copilot-microsofts-generative-ai-tool-explained.html*
* *Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft 365 Copilot: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/microsoft-365-copilot-privacy*
* *Announcing Microsoft 365 Copilot general availability and Microsoft 365 Chat: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2023/09/21/announcing-microsoft-365-copilot-general-availability-and-microsoft-365-chat/*
* *Judy Beth Morris from Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/es/@judy_beth_morris_idaho*