Latest news with #Microsoft365Copilot
Technical.ly
15 hours ago
- Business
- Technical.ly
AI tools won't replace storytellers, but these 7 tools can make the job easier
AI won't replace human storytellers, but it can supplement their approach for a wider reach. That was the underlying message of 'AI Tools for Storytelling: For Places, Companies & Brands,' a panel at the 2025 Builders Conference that drew professionals across civic, nonprofit and private sectors. Moderated by GateCheck Studio's Sean Blanda, the conversation featured Alanah Davis, Baltimore's chief storyteller, and Tim Kulp, chief innovation officer at Mind Over Machines. While AI is a powerful assistant, storytelling still needs human direction, according to the panelists. Plus, there are certain things the tech just can't replicate. 'Don't go to [AI] for expertise,' Kulp said. 'You have the expertise. Go to it to help you format and formulate that expertise.' At Mind Over Machines, Kulp's team uses Microsoft 365 Copilot and a custom agent called 'Katie' to track projects, extract useful case studies and support onboarding. For teams just starting with AI, Kulp warned against treating it as a low-stakes sandbox. 'You want to have a use case that is actually going to create the impact and change,' Kulp said, 'and that's not going to happen if everybody has a mindset of 'that's just the playground.'' Start with tasks like repurposing content or summarizing transcripts, he said, and measure against manual workflows to establish return on investment. That clarity helps with internal buy-in, builds momentum and encourages what he called 'the curious mindset.' Using AI doesn't mean losing authenticity As Baltimore's first chief storyteller, Davis faces the challenge of sharing narratives from a city government that's still catching up with 21st-century tech. In her role, Davis wants to use AI tools like for transcription, but municipal IT restrictions often block or delay access. That means finding workarounds, like off-platform Google accounts or partnering with freelancers who can use the tools she can't. Still, Davis remains optimistic about what AI can offer, particularly when it comes to outreach. 'I think it's important that we're learning it and that we're not afraid of it,' she said. 'I like to embrace it, even though I'm all about connection, humanity [and] authenticity.' The AI tools worth your time So what tools are worth checking out? The panelists shared a short list. But keep in mind, panelists said: Whether you're working in city hall or a startup accelerator, the human component is irreplaceable. 'In order to do this, you have to have good storytelling already,' Davis said. 'Get the basic thing right before you extend it.'
TimesLIVE
4 days ago
- Business
- TimesLIVE
How AI can power a new era of growth for South African SMMEs
As small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) increasingly turn to technology for a competitive edge, the South African economic landscape is changing. Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a transformative force, offering these businesses new ways to enhance operations, drive innovation, and contribute to job creation at a time when unemployment remains high. Similarly, many small businesses are already experimenting with AI, using it to communicate with customers (34%), manage information (32%) and analyse data (31%), according to a survey conducted by Xero. AI offers powerful capabilities that can revolutionise small business operations, including delivering data-driven insights to support better strategic planning and market intelligence to enable agile and informed decisions without large research teams. Beyond enabling smarter decision-making, AI enhances efficiency by automating routine tasks and enabling scalable growth — factors that directly contribute to increased profitability. Forrester's report, New Technology: Projected Total Economic Impact of Microsoft 365 Copilot for SMB, underscores this connection, projecting that SMMEs leveraging AI-powered tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot could achieve a return on investment of up to 353% over three years, with a 20% drop in operating costs and a 6% revenue increase. For SMMEs, this kind of impact can be game-changing.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Mike Morse Law Firm Uses Microsoft 365 Copilot to Boost Legal Efficiency and Security
SOUTHFIELD, Mich., May 27, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mike Morse Law Firm, Michigan's largest personal injury firm, is transforming its legal operations with Microsoft 365 Copilot. By embedding AI across its workflows, the firm is streamlining document creation, improving communication, and enhancing security while increasing capacity and performance across its existing team. Chief Information Officer John Georgatos led the initiative, preparing the firm by adopting Microsoft 365 in 2022 and launching Copilot in 2024. "When I first heard about Copilot, I expected a steroid-infused Clippy," said Georgatos. "But it helps us orchestrate business processes, uncover insights, and bring out the best in our people." Attorneys and staff use Copilot in Word, Outlook, and Excel to automate tasks and create content faster. Georgatos says the technology has shifted the firm's growth strategy. "Our original plan was to grow to 500 employees. With Copilot, we can now enhance our team's efficiency and productivity, allowing us to handle more clients and deliver even better work," he said. Founder Mike Morse sees the firm's investment in AI as part of a broader strategy to rethink what a law firm can be. "We've always run our firm more like a business than a traditional law office," Morse said. "Leveraging AI through Copilot is the next evolution in how we provide best-in-class service to our clients." Appellate attorney John R. Nachazel Junior uses Copilot in Outlook and Word to draft legal documents with help from the CoCounsel Drafting add-in. "With Copilot and CoCounsel, I can write case documents without exposing client data to the internet. It's secure and saves me hours," said Nachazel. Jennifer Harvala, Chief Learning Officer and Head of Pre-Litigation, uses Copilot to streamline training content and foster firm-wide learning. "Copilot guides us through difficult conversations and eliminates the blank page," said Harvala. "It reviews internal documents and helps us work more efficiently." "Microsoft 365 Copilot is designed to empower businesses of all sizes and industries, including law firms like Mike Morse, to achieve significant returns on investment," said Brenna Robinson, GM, SMB, Microsoft 365. "By leveraging AI, firms can streamline operations, enhance productivity, and focus on delivering exceptional service to their clients. We are thrilled to see Mike Morse Law Firm experiencing such success with its early results." The firm also uses Microsoft Defender, Intune, Entra ID, and Surface devices with biometric logins and conditional access to protect sensitive client data. To read the full Microsoft customer story, visit: About Mike Morse Law Firm Mike Morse Law Firm is Michigan's largest personal injury law firm, with over 250 legal professionals dedicated to helping accident victims win the justice they deserve. Since its founding, the firm has recovered over $2 billion for more than 100,000 clients. More information available at View source version on Contacts Media Contact: Jason Brown, PublicCity PR, jbrown@ 248-663-6166 Sign in to access your portfolio
Business Wire
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Mike Morse Law Firm Uses Microsoft 365 Copilot to Boost Legal Efficiency and Security
SOUTHFIELD, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Mike Morse Law Firm, Michigan's largest personal injury firm, is transforming its legal operations with Microsoft 365 Copilot. By embedding AI across its workflows, the firm is streamlining document creation, improving communication, and enhancing security while increasing capacity and performance across its existing team. "AI is helping us handle more clients and deliver even better work," says Mike Morse Law Firm on its transformation with Microsoft 365 Copilot. Share Chief Information Officer John Georgatos led the initiative, preparing the firm by adopting Microsoft 365 in 2022 and launching Copilot in 2024. 'When I first heard about Copilot, I expected a steroid-infused Clippy,' said Georgatos. 'But it helps us orchestrate business processes, uncover insights, and bring out the best in our people.' Attorneys and staff use Copilot in Word, Outlook, and Excel to automate tasks and create content faster. Georgatos says the technology has shifted the firm's growth strategy. 'Our original plan was to grow to 500 employees. With Copilot, we can now enhance our team's efficiency and productivity, allowing us to handle more clients and deliver even better work,' he said. Founder Mike Morse sees the firm's investment in AI as part of a broader strategy to rethink what a law firm can be. 'We've always run our firm more like a business than a traditional law office,' Morse said. 'Leveraging AI through Copilot is the next evolution in how we provide best-in-class service to our clients.' Appellate attorney John R. Nachazel Junior uses Copilot in Outlook and Word to draft legal documents with help from the CoCounsel Drafting add-in. 'With Copilot and CoCounsel, I can write case documents without exposing client data to the internet. It's secure and saves me hours,' said Nachazel. Jennifer Harvala, Chief Learning Officer and Head of Pre-Litigation, uses Copilot to streamline training content and foster firm-wide learning. 'Copilot guides us through difficult conversations and eliminates the blank page,' said Harvala. 'It reviews internal documents and helps us work more efficiently.' 'Microsoft 365 Copilot is designed to empower businesses of all sizes and industries, including law firms like Mike Morse, to achieve significant returns on investment,' said Brenna Robinson, GM, SMB, Microsoft 365. 'By leveraging AI, firms can streamline operations, enhance productivity, and focus on delivering exceptional service to their clients. We are thrilled to see Mike Morse Law Firm experiencing such success with its early results.' The firm also uses Microsoft Defender, Intune, Entra ID, and Surface devices with biometric logins and conditional access to protect sensitive client data. To read the full Microsoft customer story, visit: Mike Morse Law Firm is Michigan's largest personal injury law firm, with over 250 legal professionals dedicated to helping accident victims win the justice they deserve. Since its founding, the firm has recovered over $2 billion for more than 100,000 clients. More information available at
Business Wire
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Wire
WorkBoard Announces General Availability of Its Digital Chief of Staff and Leadership Coach Agents, and Expanded Capabilities for Microsoft 365 Copilot Agent
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--WorkBoard Inc., provider of the leading enterprise strategy execution and OKR platform, WorkBoardAI, today announced general availability of its Chief of Staff and Leadership Coach agents, expanded functionality in its Microsoft 365 Copilot agent, and broader integration with next-generation agentic ecosystems from Microsoft and Workday. 'The digital Chief of Staff and Leadership Coach agents are a force multiplier that helps managers operate at a more strategic level and marshal company resources more effectively,' said Erik Huddleston, CEO, Aprimo. WorkBoardAI's Digital Chief of Staff and Leadership Coach Agents Now Generally Available WorkBoardAI's Digital Chief of Staff and Leadership Coach agents are now generally available to enterprise customers, marking a paradigm shift in driving predictable and profitable strategy execution. Effective managers are the lynchpin in strategy execution and how organizations align efforts on the most important outcomes, sustain focus, and create performance accountability. While the top 2% of leaders often have a chief of staff and executive coach to elevate their effectiveness, the other 98% of managers have less skill, capacity, and resources for peak performance. With these agents, enterprises can afford to extend these resources to all managers, tripling their competency and productivity. Built to help managers perform at their best, the digital Chief of Staff proactively drives strategic alignment, creates team operating rigor, and reinforces accountability on behalf of the manager they serve. The Leadership Coach agent helps managers navigate difficult conversations, be better coaches themselves, and lead more skillfully. Unlike ChatGPT, WorkBoardAI agents have deep context on company strategy, ever-changing strategic priorities, the org structure, team member responsibilities, current objectives and historical performance. With this continuous context, agent insights and actions are grounded in company and manager reality as they: Orchestrate OKR alignment and accountability for managers and teams, reinforcing habits many managers have not yet built Manage the operating, meeting and reporting cadence for managers, freeing them to do more meaningful, nuanced work that requires their judgment Suggest crucial follow through and take follow up actions at the manager's direction to improve execution quality and speed Identify where feedback is needed, suggest messages, and guide managers through difficult conversations so team friction is quickly addressed Prepare managers with the facts, issues and talking points ahead of every 1on1 and operational meeting to maximize time and progress Thought partner on OKRs, operational issues, and team dynamics with the context of team members and responsibilities 'The digital Chief of Staff and Leadership Coach agents are a force multiplier that helps managers operate at a more strategic level and marshal company resources more effectively,' said Erik Huddleston, CEO, Aprimo. 'Unlike chatbots, WorkBoardAI agents behave proactively and, because they are embedded in our strategy execution system, they know the ever-changing strategic priorities which makes them a powerful way to scale the workforce.' New Features in Microsoft 365 Copilot Agent WorkBoardAI also released two new capabilities in its Microsoft 365 Copilot agent, bringing strategy execution into daily workflows with even more intelligence and actionability: OKR Suggestions: Based on the teams you manage or co-manage, the agent now proposes relevant OKRs to kickstart the goal-setting process. This makes it easier for managers to draft aligned and impactful objectives. Update Key Results: The agent highlights overdue key results and provides one-click access to update them directly in WorkBoard. This helps managers stay on track and reduce slippage without switching context. These additions make it even easier to align and drive OKRs directly from Copilot in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, reducing friction and accelerating execution across the organization. Modern Architecture in the Agent Ecosystem: A2A, Workday, and Microsoft Ecosystem WorkBoardAI continues to lead in open, interoperable AI by adopting the Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocol and supporting the Multi-Agent Communication (MCP) protocol – both vendor-neutral standards embraced by Microsoft and Google that enables agents to discover, communicate, and collaborate securely across platforms. While A2A facilitates secure cross-platform communication, MCP adds orchestration capabilities, allowing agents to coordinate complex, multi-step workflows across distributed systems. With these protocols, WorkBoardAI agents can participate in multi-agent workflows. This enables actions to be chained across HCM, CRM, ERP, ITSM, and more; the WorkBoardAI Chief of Staff and Leadership Coach agents will incorporate information from Microsoft Teams and Slack channels, Jira, and Salesforce in their actions, suggestions, and responses. By combining conversational AI, agentic orchestration, and deep integration across enterprise platforms, WorkBoardAI makes it easier for organizations to align on strategy, drive progress, and adapt faster in a rapidly evolving world. 'Our agents learn from their managers and become more helpful over time, just like a human team member would,' said Daryoush Paknad, WorkBoard's CTO and Co-founder. 'Combined, the WorkBoardAI architecture and agent capabilities bridge skill gaps, save time, and connect disparate enterprise systems to profoundly improve how organizations operate.' WorkBoard is an inaugural design partner with Workday on its Agent System of Record. With unique digital Chiefs of Staff and Leadership Coaches for each manager in the enterprise, customers will be able to see and manage the thousands of WorkBoardAI agents as part of their digital workforce via Workday's Agent System of Record. WorkBoardAI is available for purchase via the Azure Marketplace and its Copilot agent is rapidly increasing its skills to bring strategic priorities into day-to-day work across M365 applications people use daily. The Copilot agent was included in Satya Nadella's keynote at Microsoft Build 2025 and is available in the new Microsoft Agent Store. Availability and More Information The digital Chief of Staff and Leadership Coach agents are available to WorkBoard customers who have purchased or upgraded to the WorkBoardAI platform. Pricing is based on usage. See a demo of the Chief of Staff agent and Leadership Coach agent and learn more about WorkBoardAI's capabilities, architecture and impact at Get the M365 Copilot agent in the new Copilot Agent Store, the full WorkBoardAI solution in the Azure Marketplace and in the Workday AI Marketplace. About WorkBoard WorkBoard is the leading provider of enterprise strategy execution and OKR software. The platform enables high alignment, accountability, and transparency across global organizations. Enterprises have trusted WorkBoard with their strategic ambitions and the actions to achieve them for a decade. WorkBoard counts 3M, AstraZeneca, Boeing, Cisco, Elevance, Ford, Humana, Renault, State Street, UBS, Unilever, UnitedHealth, and their peers as customers. Its investors include M12 Microsoft's Venture Fund, Workday Ventures, SoftBank, Andreessen Horowitz, Notable Capital, and others.
