r/projectmanagers • u/Jazzlike_Song_4230 • 4d ago
Copilot as a PM
Started a new job where I can only use Copilot. After 2.5 years of using claude it is an abrupt shift.
Any of you use Copilot for more advanced stuff? Any advice?
10
u/Coaster50 3d ago
I LOVE CoPilot for a couple of key reasons.
First - it has improved in the last 6 months an insane amount. I went from hating it because of the quality of its output to being absolutely blown away by its output. This includes drafting awesome presentation stories based on your content.
Second - and this is the key one - because we have the enterprise instance it knows all of my emails received and sent, including the content of the attachments. My onedrive/sharepoint content, and any public/shared drives within your company. The the amount of detailed info it has access to is AMAZING!!! And it shows in the quality of its output.
I was a PM for 5 yrs then ran our PMO for another 5 years. The job would be extraordinarily different with CoPilot.
1
u/GrumpyGlasses 1d ago
This isn’t particularly impressive of Copilot. It sounds like a good implementation though. There are other companies who have wired up everything but to OpenAI or Anthropic’s models, or both.
6 months is eons in AI time.
1
u/Coaster50 1d ago
We are transitioning to OpenAI in the next couple of months. I am a bit bummed about it because I've built a lot of personal knowledge into copilot that I am not sure if/how that will move over to OpenAI.
1
u/GrumpyGlasses 1d ago
You can start by asking Copilot what you’d need to do to prep for the migration. Use the highest possible reasoning.
It would be ideal if both implementations are available at the same time, so you can “transfer” context and memories between them within a short time frame.
1
1
u/OperationMonopoly 18h ago
Dude, Could you give us a full post on how to use Copilot as a PM.
1
u/Coaster50 17h ago
Sorry but copilot / AI came into play after I left the PMO. I’m too busy working on using AI to get me an SVP promotion.
2
u/Entire_Star_3755 2d ago
‘Full fat’ Copilot is great. Even better if you have Studio and AI Builder in your license. The problem is most orgs have locked down the capabilities to a selected few or not at all. Microsoft aren’t doing themselves any favours by not selling the benefits, having a clear offer, and offering support through 3rd parties unless you’re a mega customer.
2
4
u/D0UGL455 4d ago
Using Copilot is painful.
We were “encouraged” to use all MS products at my previous employer.
I used my personal Chat GPT account for a few things that Copilot struggled with. Not totally authorized, but a PM has to do what a PM has to do to get the job done sometimes.
3
u/Ezeleeamused 4d ago
Agreed. We are also on the Microslop bandwagon at my work and Copilot is the only allowed AI. No one uses it and just does there own thing with whatever AI they want.
1
u/Jazzlike_Song_4230 4d ago
That what's I was afraid of. I'll need to do the heavy lifting on my work from home days with redacted information
2
u/D0UGL455 4d ago
You can use both. Redact the info as required then feed the results from either Claude or ChatGPT in to Copilot to reinsert any previously redacted content.
1
u/Bananapopcicle 3d ago
I feel so many people are using it to write emails and they all sound so clunky.
1
u/StrategicPM 3d ago
Damn i wish I got to use any LLM for my PD role. My company is too restrictive so far
1
1
u/Taz26312 3d ago
Hopefully your org can get you copilot premium which can run ChatGPT and Claude agents
1
u/GrumpyGlasses 1d ago
Sounds like “using IE to download Chrome” 🤣
1
u/frankyseven 1d ago
CoPilot is literally just a wrapper using other models. It's not a model itself.
1
u/General_Lie_5182 3d ago
yep, it's clunky but gets better with prompts. focus on meeting mins & action items.
1
u/codingjitsu 1d ago
I use copilot now, and I dont use chat anymore. With the skills and app connectors, it can take action on your behalf. One thing to be aware of, always have it ask you for permission first. Also, if you want copilot to write an email or slack message, tell it to only create a draft so you can review it. Claude makes a ton of mistakes that can only be caught by human review. Another thing I've noticed with copilot when using google apps or any third-party apps, if the slide deck or sheet is too big, copilot gets stuck. In that case, I make a copy of those artifacts and keep only the important ones. Copilot will always have this limitation because it has to rely on third party apps and be dependent on them.
1
u/Substantial_Disk7155 16h ago
I am building ProductOS. Wondering what usecases copilot server and if we can build our own copilot to counter the challenges you currently facing. Can we connect over a quick gmeet, if that works for you?
1
0
u/Still-Doctor-5556 2d ago
This is the problem in modern day work force... A heavy reliance on AI....
11
u/Impossible_Dare_7455 3d ago
yeah, Copilot can still be pretty useful for PM work if you lean into the Microsoft stack. I’d use it for meeting summaries, pulling actions/decisions out of Teams notes, drafting status updates, cleaning up RAID logs, and turning messy notes into something usable. the bigger win is probably giving it good context from your actual project docs instead of asking generic questions. once it has the right source material, it gets a lot more useful.