In this blog, we’ll explore common Dynamics 365 Copilot issues and provide essential tips and tricks to help individual users optimize their Copilot experience, ultimately benefiting the entire organization.
Dynamics 365 Copilot is an AI feature that performs various tasks automatically on behalf of the user. You can simply ask Copilot to do something you would normally do, and it jumps into action. This can save you many hours each week when summarizing meeting transcriptions, analyzing data, writing proposals and emails, creating marketing content, and a range of other tasks.
However, the moniker “Copilot” is a misnomer in some ways. In an airplane cockpit, both the pilot and copilot are qualified with the skills and judgment to fly the plane on their own. This isn’t the case with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot. Your “copilot” needs help. Its performance may also depend on a few technical factors that you need to be aware of before jumping into the Dynamics 365 cockpit.
Copilot may build content that misses the mark, provide unhelpful analysis, or suffer from technical issues that impact the quality and accuracy of its performance. But with the following Microsoft Copilot tips and tricks, you can optimize your usage and soar to new heights.
Common Dynamics 365 Copilot Performance Hiccups
Three categories of issues can cause performance problems with Dynamics 365 Copilot: those stemming from the user, system-related problems, and integration with other apps.
User-Related Issues
While the Copilot workflow may feel relatively intuitive, getting the most out of it takes skill and avoiding hiccups. Due to a lack of training or misuse, some employees may introduce issues, such as:
- Inaccurate interpretations of meeting notes or other documents. If the documents are missing details that humans may naturally infer or implicitly understand, such as the historical context of a news release or the specific job role of someone in a meeting. In that case, Copilot may inaccurately represent a text.
- Emails or content with the wrong tone. You have to tell Copilot the kind of tone you want explicitly. For example, an email to an investor may have a more serious tone than someone sitting in the next cubicle. Depending on the context, you may have to let Copilot know how serious or professional its tone should be, especially because its tone selector feature is going away.
System-Related Issues
The device you use for Dynamics 365 Copilot could also introduce some performance concerns, especially if it lacks memory or processing power.
For example, a device with less than 4 GB of RAM may experience issues. For instance, for Dynamics 365 Commerce recommends a minimum of 4 GB RAM. Older processors can also be an issue, especially single core processors or those lacking speed. Returning to the Commerce example, Microsoft recommends a CPU with at least two processing cores, each of which should have a peak speed of 1.6 GHz.
Integration-Related Issues
As you may know, Dynamics 365 can integrate with third-party apps, and, depending on the app or version, this could also introduce Copilot problems. For example, suppose you’re integrating a legacy customer relationship management (CRM) solution with Dynamics 365 — an app your company has been using for years. Even though the app may function well on its own, its age may cause lags or failures as Dynamics 365 tries to pull data from it.
When you introduce Copilot into the mix, relatively simple requests may produce incomplete or inaccurate AI responses. For instance, suppose you were to ask Copilot to list the companies your organization sold to over the past year. If the data from your legacy CRM hasn’t finished importing, Copilot may respond with only a small percentage of your B2B clients.
By understanding these hiccups, you put your users in the best possible position to get the most out of Dynamics 365 Copilot. They know the issues to look for and can start figuring out ways to circumvent them. Here are some practical tips to help your users get the most from Copilot.
Dynamics 365 Copilot Tips and Tricks for Optimizing Performance
Generally speaking, Copilot is a powerful, dependable tool, especially if you can preempt the issue listed above. Here are some Copilot tips you may find effective.
Regular Self-Training, Experimentation, and Upskilling
You should view Copilot as an assistant with a lot of potential yet some limitations, too. Like a human assistant, the best way to explore what Copilot is capable of is to ask it to do things and then carefully examine the results. The best way to do this is to jump in and give it a shot — using several different scenarios and commands.
For example, suppose you missed a company meeting because you were sick, but someone took detailed notes. You have to step into another meeting in 10 minutes and don’t have time to read the notes in detail. You can ask Copilot, “What happened in last Friday’s meeting?”
This simple prompt may be enough for your needs. At the same time, it may be helpful to experiment with more detailed prompts, such as:
- “Provide a list of every question Roger asked during Friday’s meeting.”
- “How much time did they spend talking about the Jones account during Friday’s meeting?”
- “What were the CEO’s concerns during Friday’s meeting?”
The Power of Upskilling
It can be easy to get into a rut when using Copilot for Dynamics 365. Still, by expanding your personal use cases, you may accomplish more than you ever imagined with your digital partner.
For instance, have you tried the feature that analyzes news events to predict supply chain disruptions? Copilot can surface current events, such as heavy rain, storms or droughts, then tell you how they may impact shipments to or from certain suppliers in your chain.
While you may have already used Copilot to write entire emails, you can also have it develop more granular elements, such as compelling CTAs. For instance, you can ask Copilot to develop a CTA that speaks to the needs of customers who’ve purchased a specific product — or those who live in New York City, Los Angeles, or Spokane, Washington.
Set Up Your Digital Environment for Success
Given the issues you may encounter with older or underpowered devices, it’s best to make sure you’re using Dynamics 365 Copilot in the right environment. If you have to use a device with less-than-ideal memory or processing specs, close unnecessary apps. They may require just enough resources to make Copilot lag or fail.
Updating legacy apps to more modern ones may also make a difference if your Dynamics 365 integrates with them. If that’s not a feasible short-term solution, it may help to wait a few extra moments for all integrated data to load before asking Copilot for assistance.
Best Practices for Using Copilot’s Features
Regardless of the feature you’re using with Copilot, you want to be as specific as possible. Like other generative AI solutions, Copilot can sort through redundancy in your requests. So you don’t have to worry about saying the same thing twice as you try to go into more detail.
For instance, while creating marketing collateral, you could say, “Write an advertisement targeting middle-aged wine drinkers in Vermont, New England, or the Northeast between the ages of 55 and 60 using a jovial, funny tone.”
A prompt like this may give better results than, “Write a casual ad for older New Englanders who drink wine.”
In some cases, you may want to scaffold your requests by breaking them down into pieces, and checking Copilot’s responses before moving forward with the next element of your prompt. For instance, let’s say you’re using Copilot respond to address customer feedback about a product. You have a few dozen customer responses to a brief survey and you need to report their sentiments to your team.
While you could simply tell Copilot, “Tell me how the customers felt about our product,” that may result in an overly general response.
Instead, you can break the request down into pieces by asking the following in sequence:
- Which features did customers like the most?
- Which features did customers like the least?
- Which issues came up the most often in the survey results?
- Which three features produced the most positive responses from customers?
While the questions may overlap slightly, using a series of queries like this ensures a more accurate response.
Using these Copilot tips and tricks, you can help individual users improve their experience. Now, let’s dive into how this benefits your organization.
Benefits of Overcoming Dynamics 365 Copilot Hiccups
By overcoming the hiccups mentioned earlier, you boost productivity and efficiency. Whether it’s your sales, marketing, or service departments, using effective Copilot best practices produces a smoother, more reliable digital partnership.
This directly impacts your customers’ experiences as well because your team can spend more time working with them directly than struggling through manual tasks that Copilot can handle. In addition, you alleviate the burden on your IT team as employees can work their way through optimizing Copilot on their own. With less work addressing Copilot issues, your IT team is free to explore additional ways teams can use it to improve the quality and efficiency of their work.
In this way, managing individual performance issues with Dynamics 365 Copilot helps end users be more productive and promotes the company’s overall success.
Get the Most out of Dynamics 365 Copilot
By pinpointing and resolving performance hiccups and using these Microsoft Copilot tips and tricks, your teams can spend more time exploring its features and less time working through issues. Encourage users to use Copilot in an ideal digital environment with adequate processing power, RAM, and modern integrated software. Guide them through ways to increase the specificity of their prompts and show them the value of experimenting and upskilling as they use this powerful tool.
By implementing these strategies, you can enjoy better outcomes for both individuals and your organization.
Ever feel like you’re flying solo at work? If so, Microsoft Copilot may be what you need to take the controls when the winds get rough. Download our checklist to see if your organization is ready.
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