In the AI wave, companies are betting big on their Copilot AI assistant, which will revolutionize global offices and bring new vitality to Office productivity software.$Microsoft (MSFT.US)$Early adopters stated that the Copilot AI assistant did improve their efficiency and save time. However, this technology is not plug-and-play and requires companies to organize data and conduct training to effectively execute tasks, and may even require hiring consultants for large-scale deployment. This undoubtedly requires time and financial investment.

Early adopters stated that the Copilot AI assistant did improve their efficiency and save time. However, this technology is not plug-and-play and requires companies to organize data and conduct training to effectively execute tasks, and may even require hiring consultants for large-scale deployment. This undoubtedly requires time and financial investment.

Analysts suggest that it may not be until the first half of 2025 that Microsoft sees financial rewards for its Copilot investment.

From GitHub to Microsoft 365, more and more companies are adopting Copilot.

Since Open AI introduced ChatGPT to the world nearly two years ago, the tech industry has been aggressively deploying and improving tools based on large language models that support generative chatbots.

Microsoft acquired relevant technology through its $13 billion investment in OpenAI and is committed to embedding its assistant in company products. Previously, Copilot was already online at Microsoft's coding platform GitHub, and as of the end of March, the AI programming assistant had 1.8 million paying customers. Microsoft also hopes to replicate this success elsewhere.

Last fall, Microsoft widely released the enterprise version of the AI assistant M365 Copilot to major customers and began offering it to small businesses two months later, with the aim of automating Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Teams and other functions.

To ensure Copilot's effectiveness, Microsoft created a series of usage guidelines and launched an early adopters program.

Internet systems supplier Lumen Technologies was granted access to the software well before its widespread use and has already deployed M365 Copilot to thousands of employees. Lumen's marketing director Ryan Asdourian said: "The assistant saved salespeople over three hours of research time per week, which is expected to translate into about $50 million in additional annual revenue...it performs much better when your employees know how to use it."

For a company the size of Lumen, the savings in funds may be a drop in the bucket, but Asdourian said the expected increase in sales is enough to justify the additional subscription expenses.

Information technology research and analysis firm Gartner's Vice President and Analyst Adam Preset said:" As far as AI-based enterprise productivity improvements are concerned, this is a success story. "He said he had discussed deployment of Microsoft Copilots with more than 1,000 clients.

Ernst & Young announced in June that it will equip about 100,000 employees with Microsoft sales software, including Copilot, as part of a huge order.

Widespread adoption may still take some time.

Early adopters pointed out that although Copilots perform well in information refinement, there are still shortcomings in understanding the context of requests and processing commands involving multiple applications. Widespread adoption may still take some time.

Preset of Gartner also said that the cost of properly inputting information and re-designing data storage or software permissions is the biggest obstacle to widespread adoption of Copilot.

Unlike new features in software updates, successful deployment of Copilot often requires hiring consultants or investing in training resources, which could be spent elsewhere.

There are still a series of obstacles in enterprise deployment, such as if Copilots in Excel cannot understand Python, it cannot become a wizard for spreadsheets; and although Copilot can generate a fully functional PPT, outputting this result requires gradually inputting commands.

Regarding these obstacles, Jared Spataro, Vice President of Microsoft 365, stated that

These issues are being fixed or will be included in future updates.

At the same time, companies also need to learn what information to input into the software. If too little information is input, Copilot is basically an expensive email drafting tool. If too much information is input, office workers may accidentally view a colleague's salary or peek at a project that has nothing to do with them.

How far away is the profit?

Jefferies analyst predicts that Microsoft may not see a financial return until the first half of 2025.

For enterprise users, the subscription fee for this Copilot doubles to about $60 per user per month. Microsoft is expected to release performance figures next week and has not yet disclosed how many customers have subscribed to Copilot.

Although this software still faces many challenges, most industry observers expect Copilot to eventually bring significant recurring revenue to Microsoft.

Earlier this year, UBS Group analysts surveyed large enterprise technology buyers and found that they were testing M365 Copilot with about 14% of their employees. If half of those employees eventually become paying customers, it will be a win for Microsoft.

Editor/Lambor