Microsoft Copilot for Finance, the latest use-case-specific generative AI solution from Microsoft, is now available in public preview. The new offering joins a wide range of “Copilot” tools designed and introduced by Microsoft in the last few years.
Companies can already access Microsoft Copilot for their Microsoft 365 apps, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Dynamics. Plus, Microsoft has already introduced dedicated Copilot offerings for sales and service teams and security experts.
The Copilot for Finance offering comes at a time when many business software providers are looking for ways to supercharge specialist teams with generative AI. Companies like HubSpot and Salesforce, for instance, have already offered their own AI-powered apps for sales teams.
According to Microsoft, this new offering represents an important step in bringing generative AI to every department and employee. Here’s everything you need to know about the dedicated solution for finance professionals.
What is Microsoft Copilot for Finance?
Microsoft Copilot for Finance is a dedicated generative AI solution created by Microsoft to support and empower finance teams. Like Microsoft Copilot for Sales and Service teams, it comes with Copilot for Microsoft 365 included, so you won’t need a separate license.
In a blog post announcing the latest Gen AI assistant, Microsoft noted that financial teams today are often overwhelmed by increasingly complex tasks and huge volumes of data. Currently, more than 80% of finance leaders and teams are struggling to take on more strategic tasks to enable business growth because they’re spending all their time on repetitive, time-consuming processes.
Infact, Microsoft’s blog post noted that 62% of finance professionals are often stuck dealing with data entry and review cycles, making it tough to access true productivity.
Microsoft Copilot for finance addresses this problem, unlocking AI-powered solutions for finance professionals, within the apps they already use. It can connect with financial software, such as SAP and Microsoft Dynamics 365, for role-specific workflow automation.
The solution works seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook, Excel, Teams, and other Microsoft 365 applications to give employees access to a comprehensive Gen AI assistant. Microsoft says its Copilot offering will support the 68% of CFOs who anticipate they’ll be able to grow revenue and boost performance using generative AI.
Microsoft Finance Copilot: The Features
Since Microsoft Copilot for Finance is currently only in “public preview”, there’s a good chance we’ll see a few feature upgrades in the months ahead. For now, the AI solution aims to streamline financial tasks, like data audits and reconciliation, with intelligent automation.
Users can interact with the tool in various ways. For instance, you can access intelligent suggestions from Copilot in the workflow by “talking” to the bot with natural language prompts. The toolkit can draw on essential context from your financial data sources, ERP systems, and other productivity tools to rapidly answer questions and organize data.
For instance, you could ask Copilot to help you conduct a variance analysis in Excel, to review data sets for unmatched values, risks, and anomalies. Features include:
- Full integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot (so you can access the generative AI features within tools like Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and more). You can even turn data into presentation-ready visuals you can share via Teams and Outlook.
- Integration with Enterprise Resource Planning and critical financial software, such as SAP and Microsoft Dynamics 365. You’ll be able to access pre-built connectors for all of your apps, and you can customize the experience with Microsoft Copilot Studio.
- Intelligent automation, with options to review transactions across systems, streamline variance analysis with reports from various records and simplify labor-intensive processes like invoice and contract capture.
- The conversational interface allows you to speak to Copilot, ask questions about your data, and access specialized prompts and guidance. Copilot can even provide the first draft for crucial customer communications with relevant attachments.
- Comprehensive security features to ensure your Copilot inherits the security, compliance, and privacy policies you’ve already set up for Microsoft 365.
What Can Companies Do with the AI?
Microsoft Copilot for Finance is basically just a version of the Copilot generative AI assistant, specifically trained to support finance professionals. Microsoft says it will provide financial professionals with a simple way to automate processes, surface insights, and ask questions about data. In other words, it will help reduce your time spent on repetitive tasks.
Microsoft has already shared various potential use cases for the tool, such as:
- Auditing financial information: Traditionally, auditing financial statements required companies to pull data manually from various records, format it in Excel, and search for inaccuracies themselves. With Copilot, you can complete all of these actions with a simple natural language prompt.
- Simplifying collections: Collections coordinators in a finance team often spend a lot of time manually reviewing outstanding accounts and connecting with customers. Microsoft Copilot for Finance can streamline the process by summarizing conversations, suggesting priority accounts, and designing custom payment plans.
- Reducing risks: Copilot for Finance will also help analysts to reduce risks caused by reporting errors and missing data. Users can prompt the system to detect outliers automatically, and identify reasons behind variances. Copilot can even gather supporting data automatically, and create comprehensive reports and summaries.
How to Access Microsoft’s Finance Copilot
Currently, Microsoft Copilot for Finance is available in a public preview demo. Like the other versions of Copilot, there’s a good chance Microsoft will roll out a specific pricing plan for the finance solution, including Microsoft Copilot 365.
It’s likely the pricing will be similar to the packages offered for things like Microsoft Copilot for Sales, which costs $50 per month and requires a product license for Microsoft’s 365 apps. If you already have a license for Microsoft 365 Copilot, you can also add the Sales solution for an extra $20 per month. Similarly, I’d predict Microsoft will offer a similar option for its Finance app.
You’ll also need to enable Microsoft Copilot for Finance and assign licenses to your users. Each user will need Microsoft 365 licenses, Native Microsoft Entra IDs, and access to the Power Platform for cross-channel automation.
Currently, the solution is only available as an add-on (in public preview) from within the Microsoft 365 admin center. To get started, you can log into your account, select “Settings and Integrated apps,” and click on “Get Apps.” Once you reach the AppSource window, search “Copilot for Finance.”
Notably, Copilot for Finance is only available in US-based English, although additional languages will be available later. You can learn more about setting up Microsoft Copilot for Finance here.
What’s Next for Finance Copilot?
Microsoft Copilot for Finance is still in its early stages. However, the tech company says it’s already using the technology. Microsoft’s team members say that the solution has significantly improved employee productivity. For instance, financial analysts using the app have been able to reduce the one or two hours they spend reconciling data to as little as 10 minutes.
As Microsoft continues to build on the functionality of its Copilot technology, we’ll probably see more features and functionality available to access in the future. There’s a good chance we’ll also see Microsoft releasing additional “role-specific” copilots going forward.
You can check out the Microsoft Worklab newsletter for insights into how the company is investing in generative AI for the future of work. Alternatively, stay tuned here for more updates on Microsoft’s latest AI solutions.
FAQs
How do I install Copilot for Finance?
Currently, Copilot for Finance is only available in public preview. You can access the demo app by signing into the Microsoft 365 admin center, and clicking on “Settings” followed by “Integrated apps”. Select “Get Apps” and search for Copilot for Finance.
Is Microsoft Copilot free to use?
While some of Microsoft’s copilot solutions are free (such as the Microsoft Copilot search experience, previously Bing Chat), most have an additional cost. Pricing for Microsoft Copilot for Finance has yet to be revealed, but it will include access to Microsoft Copilot 365.
Is Microsoft Copilot for Finance secure?
Microsoft Copilot for finance will automatically inherit all of the compliance, security, and privacy policies you’ve already implemented in Microsoft 365. It can also securely connect with the ERP and other financial software solutions you use.
