At its core, phishing is just someone pretending to be something they’re not. Typically acting as a trusted company, coworker, or system to trick you into giving up credentials, money, or access. Phishing is one of those things that keeps working because people move fast and don’t stop to think. It's a challenge for every organization, department, and person as the methods used by attackers continues to evolve. Here are three things to always check before clicking anything: The sender isn’t what it claims to be. Don’t trust the display name! Look at the actual email address or domain. Attackers love using slight misspellings or lookalike domains (like “micros0ft” instead of “microsoft”). If it’s coming from outside your org but pretending to be internal, that’s already a red flag. The message is trying to rush or scare you Anything pushing urgency should cause you to pause. For example: “your account will be locked” “immediate action required" "payment overdue" Real companies don’t operate like that. If it feels like pressure, slow down, evaluate, and verify through a separate channel if you are not sure. Links and attachments don’t line up Hover over links before clicking. If the URL looks off, shortened, or unrelated to the message, don’t touch it. Same with attachments.(especially unexpected ones!) If you weren’t expecting a file, assume it’s malicious until proven otherwise. Wrap-Up Phishing works when people trust too quickly. Take 10 seconds, verify the source, and you’ll avoid 95% of this garbage. If you sense anything is suspicious, taking the time to review can prevent security incidents before they happen! When in doubt, contact your IT to have them review with you. Phishing methods is also much more than just an e-mail. Click here to learn more about the different types of phishing. Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request or email info@aevotec.com.

In the world of Generative Artificial Intelligence, an "Agent" is a piece of software that acts on your behalf to achieve a goal or end result using AI. Agents are a big deal and becoming a key component to useful and functional AI solutions that can do more than just answer a few questions. Recently Microsoft has rolled out the "Facilitator" Agent into Microsoft Teams. It can transcribe meetings, take notes, create action items, provide meeting recaps, and even create a mini podcast about your meeting to make it easy to catch up while on the go! Let's take a look. Enabling Facilitator Facilitator requires a Microsoft Copilot license, as long as the host of a Teams Meeting has this license the feature is available. While not required, putting some kind of agenda in your meeting can keep it organized as well as provide Facilitator with insight on the goal or intended flow of your meeting. It is enabled as an option to a scheduled meeting: (If you do not see the same options as these screenshots, verify that you have the correct license.) In Outlook Create a new meeting in Outlook Select to make it a "Teams Meeting" Select to turn on Facilitator If you don't see the option, click options -> "Copilot and other AI" -> Turn on Facilitator In Teams - When Scheduling a Meeting Create a new Scheduled Event Make sure you toggle it to be a "Teams Meeting" if it isnt' by default Select to turn on "Facilitator" If you don't see the option, click options -> "Copilot and other AI" -> Turn on Facilitator In Teams - Enabled During a Scheduled Meeting Join the scheduled meeting Select "..." more Select "Turn on Facilitator" With it enabled, transcription and notes features will also be enabled, and Facilitator will get to work with its Meeting tasks. Facilitator Enabled. Now what? During the meeting, you'll see star icons to indicate AI is being used in the meeting. You can use Copilot during the meeting to interact with AI, but Facilitator will work automatically to bring things together. Facilitator will begin to take notes and update as the meeting progresses automatically: Depending on your agenda, Facilitator will also prompt with topic and pacing recommendations! At the end of your meeting, Facilitator will finish its tasks and send you a message in Teams with a full summary: Additionally, you'll get a message with a "recap" of the meeting: This recap will include notes, summaries, transcriptions, and more: When possible, it will even include suggestions for follow up tasks based on the meeting: It can even provide an audio recap of a meeting, essentially a mini podcast: CLICK HERE to listen the actual audio recap for the meeting in this article! The recap can be shared (following your organization's sharing policies): Well, that's pretty cool! Is it safe to use? The quick answer is, yes. However, make sure your organization has approved it for usage. Meeting AI is a topic every business should have a policy for. It's a very useful tool that can improve your meetings in progress and provide useful documentation and follow up steps post meeting. As these tools become more common, employees may use them without realizing when they can record, capture, and store data offsite. Businesses should educate staff, so they know when to request AI be disabled in sensitive situations. Facilitator is designed to align with your company’s security and compliance policies, making it a more controlled alternative to typical Meeting AI tools. Files it creates are stored in your work profile on your company’s systems. The data is owned by your identity and organization, not an outside service. It follows Microsoft’s data security and privacy standards, and your data is not used to train models. It is a safe AI solution, but check with your manager and/or IT department for clarity on when and when not to use it. Wrap-Up Facilitator is an agent that can do more than what we showed in this post. Microsoft is rolling out new features. Down the road you'll be able to interact with it more during and after a meeting, request it to create documents tied to the meeting and much more. Click here, for more training on Facilitator. For a quick video showing Facilitator in action, click here. Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request or email info@aevotec.com.

Whether you have jumped in or not yet, Artificial Intelligence continues to be a hot technology across all industries. At this point, you've likely heard of products like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, Anthropic, and/or Perplexity. At this stage, hopefully your business has educated itself on the risks and benefits of AI and is well on its way towards a planned and healthy adoption of the technology. AI as a whole is a technology that is rapidly expanding with new capabilities and features, and a large step forward recently is the introduction of an "AI Agent". What is an "AI Agent"? An AI agent is a type of software that uses artificial intelligence to operate on its own. Essentially a software robot that can specialize on certain information and tasks. Every major software vendor is working on developing and implementing agents into their platforms right now. Here’s how it works: Agents can observe: It watches and gathers information about its environment. Agents can make decisions: Based on what it observes, it decides what to do next. Agents can take actions: It performs tasks to achieve specific goals. The best part is that it can do all of this without needing constant help from a human. However, a human still creates, configures, and supervises agents. Humans decide what information an agent can see, what decisions it can make, and what actions it can take. Additionally, IT needs to ensure proper privacy and access protocols are in place to secure agents, similar to how they do so for your computers and identities. Introducing Microsoft SharePoint Agents Pretty much all AI vendors at this point are building AI Agent platforms that require minimal training for you and your Staff to use. Business focused platforms, such a Microsoft Copilot, are designed to protect your data, to keep it private, and to limit access only to those that need it. A " Microsoft SharePoint Agent " is part of that same Copilot platform. It is an AI agent that can access a limited set of files within a SharePoint Team Site, becoming a subject matter expert on that data, then provides an easy-to-use interface for you and your Staff to interact with it. Some example use cases: An agent called "The Manual Reader" that has access to a folder filled with manuals for different devices. It's able to pull specific instructions about a specific model to help with troubleshooting. "The Contract Researcher" that is the subject matter expert for a collection of contracts. You can compare, review, and provide feedback on contracts. It can provide insights on a new contract, pulling information from existing documents. "The HR Policy Master" , an agent that knows everything there is to know about HR and Benefits within a folder. It can be used by Staff to ask benefits and policy questions to get quick answers before asking management. Another could be a "Best Practices Helper" that reads through a collection of your company processes, handbooks, and guides. It can help answer "How To" questions about your internal workflows as well as provide advice on situations that come up day to day. When set up correctly, a SharePoint agent can save your business time and help your team become more efficient and accurate, while still keeping your data secured. They are also relatively easy to create! Let's look into that next. Creating a SharePoint Agent The best way to learn how to use a SharePoint agent is to just go ahead and make one! Requirements: You'll need to be a licensed Microsoft 365 User You must have a Copilot for 365 License You need to be an Owner or Member of a SharePoint Site or Microsoft Team For this scenario, we are going to create a "Bike Sales Agent" that can read data from a folder in our SharePoint. I've copied that data into the folder called "Bike Sales": Agents can access Word, Excel, and many other file formats! This folder is part of a Microsoft Team and this folder is already configured for access to those that should have access. Next up, I create the agent inside this folder: AI Actions -> Create an agent Agent Creation Screen Now that we are in the agent creation screen, we can: Give our agent a name Change the picture of the agent Give a purpose/description On the right, at any time we can test the agent via "Agent preview" to see if it is working the way we expect The tabs are how we navigate configuration options Overview = Where we are now Sources = Where we control what data the agent has access to Behavior = Where we configure the agent and "teach" it I click the "Sources" tab, and I can see that it already added my "Bike Sales" folder as a source: From here, you could add other sources if desired. Note that I've selected "Prioritize knowledge sources you added before the agent's general knowledge" . This means that my data is more important than other data. Onwards to the "Behavior" Tab: Behavior is where you customize the agent to really make it your own. I'll go ahead and make the following changes: Welcome Messaging These are the words everyone using your Agent will see whenever they start a conversation with it. Starter Prompts The prompts listed here should be relevant to your content. They help you and your Staff get started with using the bot. Agent Instructions Other than Data, this is the most important component for configuring your Bot. Use this section to define its "voice", explain your business/product/information, and to set limitations on what it can and can't do. As you use SharePoint Agents more, this is the spot you'll find yourself making adjustments to fine tune it into a reliable tool! With those now set, before I click create, I want to test and make sure it looks right. Let's do some tests in "Agent Preview": Looking good so far! 100% Accurate Now... I'm ready to "Create" my Agent. I click "Create". This will publish the Agent into SharePoint. Anyone with access to the folder I published this into will have access to the Agent (assuming they are licensed to use it). A new "Bike Sales Agent.agent" file is created. This a shortcut that loads the Copilot Agent we just created: It can be clicked or shared like any other file. Clicking it will take me to the agent in the Copilot App: Now let's test it out: It not only answers the question, but it crosschecks for relevant information, such as the return policy for Bob. To check this, I click "Sources" and open the documents it used to get this answer: Sure enough, I can see there is a single "Bob" sales entry and in the contract, there is a specific return exception that permits Bob to return his bike if desired. The Agent is now published and active. Anyone on my Team can access it, and if I wanted to, I can send them a direct link to use it. The agent will routinely and automatically update its knowledge based on the data sources you give it access to. Additionally, as our needs develop, I can adjust its instructions and fine-tune its behavior to make it even more useful. Pretty cool right? Wrapping Up The feature is available to anyone with a "Microsoft 365 Copilot" license. If you already have a license, it's ready for you to start exploring. Other AI vendors are in different stages of similar solutions; just make sure you aren't exposing data you don't intend to! Here's more training an info on SharePoint Agents: Quick-Start Guide Getting Started Guide Video Overview Click-Through Demo If your business is already using Copilot and you aren't licensed, if needed, please reach out to your manager to request a license. Still not using business grade AI at your business or lack a cohesive AI strategy? This company can help. Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business?   Send in a contact request  or email info@aevotec.com .

Beginning in December 2025, Microsoft has launched a new "Microsoft Copilot for Business" license. This license is only available for customers with less than 300 users that utilize the "Business" SKUs for Microsoft 365. As of now, the new license has feature parity with the more expensive "Microsoft 365 Copilot" license. Here's a quick comparison: Aspect Microsoft Copilot for Business Microsoft 365 Copilot Price (Annual Per User) $252​ $360 Base License Req. M365 Business Basic/Standard/Premium microsoft+1 ​ M365 E3/E5, Office 365 E3/E5 learn.microsoft +1 ​ User Limit ≤300 per tenant No cap​ Key Features AI chat w/ work data, reasoning, Teams/Outlook integration; full Copilot in apps AI chat w/ work data, reasoning, Teams/Outlook integration; full Copilot in apps​ Availability Available Starting December 2025 Available since 2023 With the new license, the cost for a small business to have access to the same Copilot features as an Enterprise license has dropped by about 30%! Out of the loop on AI? Check out these posts to help catch you up: A Crash Course on Copilot & AI (Part One) A Crash Course on Copilot & AI (Part Two) Training In a Minute - Using AI to Make a Data Table from a Screenshot Training In a Minute: Using Copilot in Microsoft Clipchamp To Create A Video With AI Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business?   Send in a contact request  or email info@aevotec.com .

This is a scenario you may have experienced before: There is a table of data that you want to use in an application like Microsoft Excel. However, that data is "trapped" or formatted in a way that you can't easily grab. You copy and paste, but the data doesn't look right. You try to convert the page to excel, but the columns are scrambled. You know you can manually fix it, but that's going to take too much time. What if there was a way to grab the data you needed in just a few seconds? Turns out, there is a way! And it's pretty darn cool! How to use a screenshot to make a data table with AI For our example, we are going to use Microsoft Business friendly AI, Copilot. However, this method will work with most AI tools. (Protect your data: Do not use free/personal AI for work purposes ) In this scenario, I want to make a table from a "Top 10 Movies of All Time" list that I found online: Create a screenshot or copy the image Open Copilot Paste your Screenshot Type in "Turn the data in this screenshot into a data table" There are many prompts you can use, experiment by being more specific with what you want From there, you can tell Copilot to export the table into Excel (or a CSV if you prefer) End result That's it! Wrap-Up Pretty cool right? This works with all sorts of data in many different formats and structures. It's something that can save a lot of time and is easy to learn and utilize! Like with anything AI, always double check the output for accuracy. Make sure you are using a business approved AI tool that is designed to protect your data and privacy. Don't have a proper AI tool in place for you and your Staff? Here's a company that can help you implement one! Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business?   Send in a contact request  or email info@aevotec.com .

The last quarter of 2025 is near. Your company has a great IT partner. You have MFA , you are on top of patching for your servers and workstations (Windows 10's End of Life is October 14th, 2025!), you use modern identity, your company is even embracing the right amount of AI to help keep its edge. Your tech is working for you, your team is productive, and everyone is happy. You are well on your way with your objectives for a digital transformation . However, securing your Business and its data is an ongoing objective and a forever moving target. Your strategies and solutions must evolve with technology and your industry. Here are three IT Security Must-Haves to put on your roadmap to implement in the next 0 to 18 months: 1. Security Awareness Training Program A great security awareness program is a combination of training, simulation, and discussion. While some businesses are required to have a solution for industry or insurance compliance, it's really a solution that helps any business. Think of security awareness training as superhero school for your team. Every day, sneaky cyber villains try to trick employees with phony emails and clever scams. However, with a little training, your staff learns to spot the bad guys and stop trouble before it starts. This helps keep your company’s data safe, avoids expensive mistakes, and shows everyone you take security seriously. When everyone’s in on the action, your whole business becomes stronger, smarter, and ready for anything. 2. Vulnerability Scanning Another increasingly important security solution involves scanning your networks and IP addresses for known vulnerabilities on new and old equipment. Vulnerability scanning is like sending a team of friendly robots to check your office and servers for hidden doors or loose windows before burglars show up. These scans continuously search your computers, networks, and apps for weak spots. By running regular scans, you can quickly find and fix problems, keeping your business safer and stopping trouble before it starts. It’s a smart, simple way to patch up your cyber “house” before the bad guys even have a chance to try the locks. 3. A Company Artificial Intelligence Usage Policy Does your current computer usage policy cover AI? It needs to, even if you aren't officially using Artificial Intelligence in your workflows. At this point, whether you personally are using it or not, someone in your business is likely using AI, and there is a big difference between a corporate AI tool your business provides vs a consumer solution they provide for themselves! Think of an AI usage policy as the playbook for your team’s new favorite tool. It spells out the rules, so everyone knows how to use AI the right way, without sharing secrets or causing confusion. With clear instructions, your Staff can use AI confidently and cleverly, keeping things smooth and fair. Plus, it helps your business stay legal and shows customers you’re on top of smart, safe tech use! Wrapping Up If you have all three of these solutions in place already, high fives in your general direction! Not only are you ahead of the pack, but you have also put your business in an excellent position to stay ahead! If not, it's time to add these to your business roadmap and create a vision plan for technology in your organization. Don't have a vision plan for tech? Consider utilizing a great IT partner to help you bring it all together. This same partner can help you with all three of these services and more ! Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business?   Send in a contact request  or email info@aevotec.com .

Microsoft Clipchamp is a video editing tool in Windows. It is intended to be a quick way to create and edit videos that you can export to be used elsewhere or publish directly to an online video platform like YouTube or Instagram. If you have never heard of it, it's likely already installed on your computer and just waiting for you or you can download it from the app store. Recently, Microsoft added the ability to have Copilot generate AI videos that you can then edit directly with Clipchamp. The feature is currently in preview, but you can use it to generate full videos and scripts which you can then edit to make your own. Here's an example (Note that you will need a Copilot license to use this feature!) While signed in to Clipchamp with a Copilot license, start by creating a new video in Clipchamp: Then enter a prompt for your video and clicking the arrow to begin generating your video. In our example, we want to create a teambuilding video: Your Clipchamp video will be generated within a couple of minutes: The end result will lead to a generated file with multiple videos, text, and audio: You can then use Clipchamp to edit and adjust the video. If you haven't used Clipchamp or you are unfamiliar, here's some more training and documentation on it: Clipchamp Training Center Clipchamp Video Training With some quick tweaking here's how our example ended up: Wrapping Up This was just a quick example of this new feature. As Generative AI technologies continue to evolve, new tools like this will mature and become more readily available to more people. We fully expect Microsoft to continue to improve and create new tools for the Copilot platform. More info on using Copilot to generate videos. Learn more about Clipchamp Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business?   Send in a contact request  or email info@aevotec.com .

Microsoft Outlook is one of the most common applications used in in the business world. It's also very common that we will meet people that have never explored the numerous features of the application to help make it their own. Outlook "View" customization is an overlooked feature that can help improve your personal efficiency and organization. Let's take a look. Exploring "View" Options To access "View", simply click the "View" tab in Outlook. If your screen looks different, click the arrow on the right side of your screen and select the "Classic Ribbon". Highlighting a few features from left to right: Select "View Settings" to fully customize the columns and formatting of your mailbox Check and Uncheck "Show as Conversations" to set the message view you prefer Click "Message Preview" to adjust if you want to see part of a message without needing to open it Click "Use Tighter Spacing" to have Outlook squish more messages into your view "Folder Pane" will adjust how or if your folders are displayed "Reading Pane" lets you control if and where your messages will display without opening them "To-Do Bar" controls a pane on the right of Outlook that can display different kinds of information (Try out the Calendar setting!) Did you know about Conditional Formatting? When you select "View Settings" you can configure rules to automatically format your mailbox. Multiple conditions can be set to change how messages look inside your mailbox. You can use this to color code, change sizing, and restructure how your inbox looks: Example of using a color coding system with a custom view in Microsoft Outlook Wrap-Up Changing outlook views can be highly beneficial as it allows individuals to gain new perspectives, enhance productivity by organizing tasks more effectively, and improve overall time management. Learn more about customizing your view here . Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business?   Send in a contact request  or email info@aevotec.com .

One of the best tools we can recommend for anyone dealing with scenarios that involve multiple tasks, layers, or teams is to utilize some kind of project or task management tool to help organize their work. Do you find yourself forgetting what needs to be done or scouring through notebooks, emails, and papers to sort out who needs to be on top of what? That's what this type of software is designed to help with. There are tons of tools out there that can help, one of our favorites is Microsoft Planner . If you have Microsoft 365, you already have Planner. Planner is included with most Microsoft 365 solutions. It's designed to integrate directly with your existing security and identity policies. In most cases, it's already there and ready for you to use. A "Plan" consists of: A Plan Part of a Microsoft Team Where all data is stored Buckets Where tasks are created Can be renamed and shuffled around Tasks Where you put your "To-Do"s Can have status and due dates (optional) Can be moved into different buckets These three components allow the plan to dynamically track progress, create schedules, assign others in the team to be part of it, add reminders, and give you a centralized way to keep track of everything going on. Example of a plan to help with office move planning. There isn't a single "right" way to organize a Plan. You can model it based on how you already organize your tasks and think. It's very common that your Planner will start out one way and then evolve over time as you move forward. There is a lot of training available for Planner: Microsoft Learn Microsoft Videos YouTube Beginner's Tutorial An example from a few years ago we wrote about Another example from a few years ago we wrote about Then many videos on YouTube ! Wrapping Up Utilizing modern task management tools can be a game changer for how you work. The best way to learn is to just dive in and make a Plan for something you are working on. If there's one thing to try out in the new year, this is it! Seriously, it's right here . Click it and try it out! Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business?   Send in a contact request  or email info@aevotec.com .

Today, Microsoft Teams separates "Chats" and "Teams Posts and Announcements" into two different areas of its application. While functional, we've seen that it causes confusion in practice as it separates conversations that can sometimes be difficult to track. Recently, Microsoft announced that is going to change: The idea here is to simplify conversations in Teams into a single area for all chats, posts, and announcements. This helps with the goal to make it easier to communicate and locate the various conversations in your organization by finding them all in the same place. The preview for the new features starts rolling out later this month. You can read the entire announcement here . For an even bigger breakdown of what is coming, Microsoft's Teams Blog posted more details with more screenshots here . Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business?   Send in a contact request  or email info@aevotec.com .

Utilizing a Table of Contents in your documents enhances organization and facilitates easier referencing. This user-friendly feature is readily accessible in Microsoft Word and can be applied to any document. How to Create the table of contents Apply Headings to your document to organize it E.g., set a section's title to "Heading 1" In your document, click where you want to add your table of contents Go to "References -> Table of Contents" (You can also search for "Table of Contents") Select an Automatic Table To update the table of contents after making changes to your document, right-click on the table of contents and select "Update Field" or "Update Table". Interested in learning more? Click here . Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business?   Send in a contact request  or email info@aevotec.com .

For years, the Windows "Snipping Tool" has existed to provide a simple and quick method to grab a screenshot or "snip" of your screen to save or copy into a document or message. A couple of years ago, Microsoft released updates to the Tool that enabled better control over how you "snip" and use your screenshots. Even more recently, the ability to record your screen was added! How to record your screen with the Snipping Tool Open the Snipping Tool Open "Snipping Tool" App or, use the Keyboard Shortcut "Windows Key + Shift + S" Select the "Video Camera" toggle Click "+ New" Click and drag an area of the screen you want to record Click "Start" on the top center of your screen By default, you'll see a 3 second countdown Perform the work you want to record Click "Stop" when you are done Edit or Save the Video You can copy the video directly from the Tool You can save the video You can edit the video in Clipchamp if you want to shorten or remove parts of the recording. Done! You can even use Clipchamp to export to a GIF, example below! You can see it in action here: Wrapping Up Adding the ability to screen record makes the "Snipping Tool" an even more valuable tool that is ready for anyone to use! For even more info about Snipping Tool, click here. For more info about using Clipchamp, click here. Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request or email info@aevotec.com.

The world of Artificial Intelligence is rapidly developing at a rate faster than most people truly understand. As the science evolves so does the numerous products being marketed by major tech companies in all industries. Regardless of what role you play in your organization and whether or not you decide to incorporate AI into your work, it is essential that there is a basic understanding on what AI is and what it isn't. Our goal is that by the end of this post, you feel better equipped to explore and discuss AI in your personal and work lives. This is the second part of a two-part post, click here to read part one. So what the heck is Copilot? Copilot is a platform for AI. The term "Copilot" is heavily used and it can mean many things. But when it comes down to it, Microsoft uses it as a platform for many products. At the current rate, there are new Copilots popping up every week or two and it doesn't seem like Microsoft intends to slow down. Development is moving along so quickly that this article might be dated by the time you read it! We are going to focus on Copilot here, but keep in mind that competitors do exist for some of the products Microsoft is offering. As part of Microsoft's offerings, the business focused AI products offer commercial data protection to protect your data. Each offering should be considered more of an assistant rather than as a robot to do work for you. Here is a breakdown of just some of the Copilots that exist: Copilot A general term for Microsoft's various AI products Copilot for Web An internet connected AI that can analyze and interpret data Similar to ChatGPT Copilot for Edge Browser Basically, Copilot Web, but in your browser. Addes different ways to interact with websites as you browse Copilot for 365 An AI model that has access to your email, messages, and files If you are in the business world, this is the one to focus on! Copilot for Windows Today, this is just an interface on windows that displays Copilot for Web and 365 Soon, this will have more locally processed AI models via Copilot+ (more on that soon) Copilot Studio A platform for creating custom GPTs within the Copilot platform GPTs that can be used internally and externally Another one to focus on for business users! Security Copilot An AI model designed to monitor and secure data within your IT infrastructure. Sales and Services Copilot AI designed specifically for Dynamics ERP/Sales/Services products GitHub Copilot This model literally helps developers write code for applications with integrations for Visual Studio So as a platform, there is a lot. These are just some of the products that exist today with more coming. But that's not all. There are two big components that are going to change things up even further: Copilot Plugins Built into the platform is the ability for a vendor to create a plugin that directly integrates into Copilot. This allows you to give your Copilot access to data sources and take actions outside of the Microsoft ecosystem. Some examples: Your accounting solution could have a plugin that allows you to ask financial questions and then bring those results into Excel Your Document Management System could integrate directly with Copilot so you can ask it questions about every document you have access to A plugin to handle flight or hotel bookings, not just to give you information, but to take the next step of creating the booking for you Your prompt could be sent to a song generation model to create a custom song, extending copilot's ability beyond its own model limitations Copilot+ This is admittedly the most confusing component of the platform. Recently Microsoft and the PC Industry announced the "Copilot+ PC" aka the "Windows AI PC". This announcement actually included two major changes to the computers you knew before: New computers will have the option to use ARM based chips from Qualcomm Much better battery life for laptops. Comparable performance to Intel/AMD x86 chips (though not on Desktop... yet) This doesn't really have anything directly to do with AI, it's just good healthy competition for Intel and AMD We could write a whole article just on this :) Microsoft has created minimum requirements for local AI processing Manufacturers have created Neural Processing Unit ("NPU") chips that are specially designed to process AI Models locally The minimum rating for the local AI processing is measured in Trillion Operations per Second ("TOPS") The minimum requirement to be called a "Copilot+" computer is 40 TOPS Everything we have talked about so far involves cloud processing to run AI prompts and responses. With the exception of hobbyists with expensive graphics processors or certain phones with newer chips, it's not really possible for AI to actually be processed locally on your computer. The goal of Copilot+ is to change that. Today, this doesn't mean much, but it is an essential pillar to the long term strategy that is Microsoft's Copilot platform. Some of the examples given from Microsoft of what a Copilot+ PC will be able to do: Recall The ability for your local comptuer to memorize all actions taken on your computer and help you find information faster than a typical search Note that there are some privacy and security concerns with this feature. Your IT should review it when released before enabling it for your organization! Cocreator in Paint You can draw a sketch in Microsoft paint, then have it create an image based on that sketch Live Captions Real-time captioning and translation during a meeting Studio Effects AI camera and video enhancements Windows will soon receive updates to enable developers to utilize AI models and create AI applications that run directly on your computer if it has the capability of doing so. Today, this won't change much, and much like AI in general, this is just the beginning. As adoption grows, the expected end result will lead to much faster and more intelligent features that don't rely on the cloud to function. At the same time, the technology should become more affordable as it doesn't rely on cloud compute! Wrapping Up If you made it this far, we commend you! AI will continue to be a hot topic in every industry and we hope this post helped provide clarity! For consumers/personal/365 users, try out Copilot for Web: https://copilot.microsoft.com/ For a business, there is more to AI than just enabling it. It is important to pay attention and approach the adoption of any AI solution cautiously, especially in your organization. Take into consideration the impact to your culture and workflows. When ready, consider piloting Copilot for 365 for a small number of users in your organization: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/copilot-for-microsoft-365 This is the second part of a two-part post, click here to read part one. Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request or email info@aevotec.com.

The world of Artificial Intelligence is rapidly developing at a rate faster than most people truly understand. As the science evolves so does the numerous products being marketed by major tech companies in all industries. Regardless of what role you play in your organization and whether or not you decide to incorporate AI into your work, it is essential that there is a basic understanding on what AI is and what it isn't. We won't go over all the cool things that AI can do but will aim to provide the foundational knowledge of how it all comes together. Our goal is that by the end of this post, you feel better equipped to explore and discuss AI in your personal and work lives. Let's get started "AI" is an overused term. It's not necessarily that your computer is actually thinking (at least not yet), it's moreso just really smart at calculating things out so quickly that it feels like it is thinking. Let's go with Microsoft's Definition from their Five Pillars of AI Leader's Guide to kick things off: Artificial Intelligence (AI) (1950s): the theory and development of computer systems that are able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages Machine Learning (1990s): a subset of AI and computer science where algorithmic models are trained to learn from existing data to make decisions or predictions Deep Learning (2010s): a machine learning technique that uses layers of neural networks to process data and make decisions Generative AI (2020s): a type of AI technology that uses algorithmic models to create new written, visual, and auditory content when given prompts or existing data Today, when you hearing about or using "AI", typically this is referring to "Generative AI". Generative AI uses a "Model" which is basically a software that has been trained to simulate human style thinking. A GPT is a model that has been designed to understand how we speak and communicate and then create responses based on that information. If you have used something like ChatGPT or Copilot for Web, you are using a "Generative Pre-trained Transformer" aka a "GPT". It works by telling it something (entering a "prompt") and then it responds based on the information it has access to. A GPT is a model that has been designed to understand how we speak and communicate and then create responses based on that information. This breakthrough has led to this technology being more exciting than ever. Just remember, as smart as GPT is, it is not true "Artificial Generative Intelligence" (AGI). Meaning, it can't actually think for itself. All models today are based on a process called "training" where the model is given extraordinary amounts of data to learn from. So why is this technology so exciting? These new models fall into a couple of categories. If you have been following AI, there are all sorts of different model types that you might have heard of. A few examples might be Large Language Models (LLM), Large Action Models (LAM), or Multimodal Models. Regardless of the type of model, the excitement comes from the ability for the model to analyze, compare, create, and work faster than anything that has existed before. Some examples: A recently released "ChatGPT-4o" from OpenAI is able to have fast and incredible sounding voice chats with you Copilot for Web can gather information on the internet Copilot for 365 can analyze your calendar and help you prepare for your meetings Numerous image models can create brand new art and photos based on your description of what you want to see Notetaking models can listen in on meetings and provide notes, ideas, and action items to organize your conversation Writing models can help draft complete email and text messages Visual models can "see" through a camera and interpret the world around it Audio generation models can create brand new music, with lyrics, completely based on your description of what you want to hear Multiple vendors have models that can read documents, summarize them, and answer questions about the document In action, the technology is just impressive! There are tons of demos and videos on the internet to learn more. There's even this nifty blog post from a great IT company that goes over examples. And that's just what exists today. Almost every major technology on the planet is investing heavily into AI. For many reasons, the results of these investments will dictate who dominates the market as AI solutions mature and become viable for the public to utilize. It's scary too, so be cautious! There are many new problems that AI existing creates. These problems require each individual and organization to pause, think out, and strategize their approach to incorporating AI into their life. On one hand, you can ignore it completely, but more than likely it's coming whether you want it or not. Here's a list of concerns about AI that have been highlighted by experts: 1. **Automation-spurred Job Loss**: The potential for AI to automate tasks and lead to unemployment¹. 2. **Deepfakes**: The creation of convincing fake audio or video content that can be used for misinformation¹. 3. **Privacy Violations**: AI's ability to collect and analyze vast amounts of personal data¹. 4. **Algorithmic Bias**: Decisions made by AI could be biased if the data it was trained on is biased¹. 5. **Socioeconomic Inequality**: AI advancements could widen the gap between socioeconomic classes¹. 6. **Market Volatility**: AI-driven trading and decision-making could lead to unpredictable market behavior¹. 7. **Weapons Automatization**: The use of AI in autonomous weapons systems raises ethical concerns¹. 8. **Uncontrollable Self-aware AI**: The hypothetical scenario where AI becomes self-aware and uncontrollable¹. 9. **Disinformation**: AI's role in spreading false information rapidly². 10. **Safety and Security**: Ensuring AI systems are safe from cyber threats and cannot cause harm². 11. **The Black Box Problem**: Difficulty in understanding how AI makes certain decisions². 12. **Ethical Concerns**: Ensuring AI is used in ways that align with human values and ethics². 13. **Bias**: The risk of perpetuating human biases in AI decision-making². 14. **Instability**: AI systems might behave unpredictably in complex environments². 15. **Hallucinations in LLMs**: Large language models sometimes generate nonsensical or unrelated content². 16. **Unknown Unknowns**: The potential for unforeseen consequences of AI actions². 17. **Environmental Impact**: The significant energy consumption required to train large AI models². 18. **Industry Concentration**: The risk of a few companies dominating AI development and use². 19. **State Overreach**: The potential for governments to misuse AI for surveillance and control². 20. **Role of Human Judgment**: Balancing AI's decision-making role with the need for human oversight³. 12 Dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI) | Built In. https://builtin.com/artificial-intelligence/risks-of-artificial-intelligence AI’s Trust Problem - Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2024/05/ais-trust-problem Ethical concerns mount as AI takes bigger decision-making role. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/10/ethical-concerns-mount-as-ai-takes-bigger-decision-making-role/ So, after all that, why are we still pushing forward with AI? Well, what it all comes down to is... it's really awesome. Much like technology advancements in the past, this is a technology that will eventually alter how we work, play, and live our lives. That said, as an individual, an employee, leader, and/or organization, it's important to be responsible and careful as you move forward with AI. Some quick notes: It is time to be curious but remain skeptical! There are many companies adding "AI" to their products that might not actually be AI Trusting AI is possible, but the need to verify will continue to be important Watch out for random companies marketing AI solutions to you! Everything that exists today will be nothing compared to where we are in a year or two, things are moving too quick! AI is expensive (for now) There are reasons that chipmakers like Nvidia are setting new profit records. People need processors that are AI capable and there are only so many resources available to make them! Companies and Governments are buying very expensive chips to use for model training and AI development, so expect there to be a cost with any AI that you use! As models and processors evolve, new types of AI processing is becoming available that is more efficient and more readily available "Free" is not Free. If you are using a "Free" GPT, your data is likely the fee. Focus on privacy and the security of your data Unless you are paying for a service (and even some of the paid services do this to) your data may be used to train models. This can create severe security and privacy issues, especially for organizations that need to protect sensitive information. Remember that AI is very fast. If I gave you 1000 pages filled with codes for Amazon gift cards and said you could enter as many as you can in 5 minutes, you'd barely get past page 1. AI can memorize all 1000 pages in seconds, but it might also be able to enter all of the codes and make recommendations and budgets on how to spend it all! Imagine it had access to your personal information or your company databases. There's a lot of good (and bad) that can happen very quickly! AI Vendors and Products are plentiful There are a lot of "AI" products that exist. There are several vendors that are incorporating "AI" into their product. Some might be developing their own models specifically for their product. However, most commercial offerings are tapping into the power of the major AI models owned by OpenAI or Microsoft. OpenAI essentially is dominating the industry in research and development of AI and GPT models Microsoft is a close partner and investor in OpenAI, and has their own iteration of OpenAI's models and technology that has been customized for business and consumer use For the vendor, they are being charged by OpenAI or Microsoft to use their computing resources ("Compute") and then the vendor passes those costs to you via a usage license or subscription. Other major vendors are working on their own models and solutions such as Google Gemini and Amazon Bedrock. Apple hasn't revealed their AI offerings yet, but that is expected to be announced soon (Likely using OpenAI's tech) Then, there are smaller vendors and developers with their own models and solutions that are specializing on specific functions to be used in their own solutions. From our perspective, as of today, Microsoft is well ahead of the pack and has created a foundation and platform that most of the industry is rallying around. If you haven't heard of the term "Copilot" get ready, cause the entire PC industry is planning a major marketing push. Wrapping Up If you made it this far, we commend you! AI will continue to be a hot topic in every industry and we hope this post helped provide clarity! In Part 2, we'll focus on Microsoft's Copilot platform, Copilot+, and the recently announced "AI PC"s that launch in Summer 2024. This is the first part of a two-part post, click here to read part two. Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request or email info@aevotec.com.

Microsoft Excel has so many neat and useful tricks and techniques to learn and use. One of the best timesaving shortcuts to learn is how to quickly select rows and columns using keyboard shortcuts. Using "Ctrl" and "Shift" to navigate Excel Let's start by making a table: Now, select a cell in your table and try the following: Hold "Shift" on your keyboard and either use the arrow keys or select another cell Excel will select the cells in between Hold "Ctrl" on your keyboard and then use the arrow keys Excel will jump to the end of the row or column Hold "Shift" AND "Ctrl" on your keyboard and use the arrow keys Excel will jump AND select the cells in between! Use "Space" to select even faster! OK, so now you are a professional Excel Cell Selector. Now, here's a few more keyboard shortcuts to know. Select a cell in your table and press "Ctrl + A" to select all data in your cell: Press "Ctrl + A" again to include the headers in your selection: But let's say you only wanted to pick a column or row? Add "Space" into the mix. Select a cell and press "Ctrl + Space" to select an entire column: Select a cell and press "Shift + Space" to select an entire row: There is a seemingly endless number of keyboard shortcuts available in excel. These are just a couple that we find ourselves using frequently. Interested in learning more? Click here. Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request or email info@aevotec.com.