Category: Creativity

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Incorporating Microsoft Designer into family life.

In my work life, I am a Technology Officer for Cisilion (a leading UK Microsoft and Cisco technology and service integrator and enabler), but beyond work, I love technology and more importantly, I love to find ways in incorporate new and emerging (or just plain cool) technology into the everyday lives of myself and my family. I’m also a Microsoft MVP, which means I have even more reasons to be a fan and supporter of some of the best and Microsoft – these include Microsoft Designer, Microsoft Clipchamp and of course Microsoft Copilot!

In this blog (with some videos along the way), I’ll show you some of the ways we incorporate the latest Microsoft products into our family activities, routine, and life.

This blog will focus around the recently released Microsoft Designer – which we have been using throughout its development – you’ll see just what a simple to use, yet powerful tool this is and how it has allowed me to blend my professional expertise with my role as a parent and cub leader.

For those new to Designer – you can access it on the web https://designer.microsoft.com or via the mobile app on iOS and Android.

Setting the Scene – About our Family!

I’m married, we have a cat and two young boys (currently nine and seven), the youngest is autistic and the eldest is ADHD (though not officially diagnosed). This means attention to detail is really high, yet patience is low, and they both hate waiting for things or things that take too long and are “boring” are a no no! One loves trains and the other planes (and trains). We created this design in Designer for Christmas Cards in December 2023 🙂

In my work life, I am a Technology Officer, my wife is a teacher that specialises in Special Educational Needs, and in my “spare” time I am a Cub Scout Assistant Leader in my hometown of West Wickham in Kent. My kids love trains, and everything related to them and much of our family time is spend satisfying their craving for train related activities…

Work / Technology Blogs

In my line of work, personal (technical life as a Microsoft MVP) and side-blogger, I use Designer to create inspiring, original and personalised images for blog covers and articles.

The example below is an image design I asked Microsoft Designer to create introducing the new Cyber Security bill announced at the recent Kings Speech in July 2024.

Image Created with Microsoft Designer for a recent Blog

Inspiring Young Minds – Scouting

Consistently looking for ways to ensure young people are ready for the world and life ahead of them, scouting is great. The children learn about working together, solving problems, critical thinking, empathy, the role of people in a community as well some great “life” skills such as exploring the great outside, camping, orienteering, first aid and safety and caring and supporting others.

Technology is a given in schools (well many), the workplace and in the home, but less so in scouting. In the past year, we have been looking at more ways to integrate technology into what we do in simple, yet inclusive ways.

This past year we have been using technology subtly within the “curriculum” without impacting the practical and outdoor nature of the groups purpose. We have digital badges and creative projects and decided early last year (2023) to blend AI design creation into the Cub Scout Group.

After some simple interactive design sessions, we soon had the Cub Scouts designing custom badges, event posters (for a gang show), and promotional advertising (shared over parent social media groups, which not only added a digital touch to what we did, but sparked curiosity and awareness.

Then, last Christmas, the Cubs raised some money for Crisis at Christmas (which fund Christmas dinner and shelter for homeless people) and they together in in groups, created some banner/posters. This was the “winning” one which we used to share the donation to Crisis with

Winning Designer Image from 1st West Wickham Cubs

New Business Ideas

In May 2024, my wife, marketing manager, turned mother, then childminder and now Deputy Pre School manager is looking to venture out and start her our Pre-School aimed at children with Special Education Needs. She had contacted a couple of small graphic design companies to get quotes for a logo design, but then turned to Microsoft Designer Image Creator to see what it could produce. Once she overcame the DALLE-3 “wording and spelling challenges”, she very quickly has a design she loved which she then polished off in Designer Editor. This took minutes and saved her at least £100!

Logo for a new “coming soon” Pre-School

Educating Young People – Showcasing AI Design to Year 2 and Year 4

Towards the end of the summer term, parents were invited to come into my children’s school and talk a bit out their job and an what they do. I had 30 minutes with two classes of year 4 children, followed by a the same with two classes in year 2.

Part of my “talk” involved an interactive session with the children, where we talked about how AI would impact every part of their lives and jobs and used a combination of Microsoft Designer and Microsoft Copilot to create a class mascot and a story to go with it.

End of School Year – Thank you gifts

As the school year ended for my children at the end of July, we bought small teacher gifts and my eldest (nine), took to Designer to create some stickers we could print on sticker paper and attach to the gifts to give them a personalised touch.

Microsoft Designer sticker creation handled the task nicely. We took the images, dropped into PowerPoint to duplicate, and size them, and printed out the stickers to add to plants and chocolates we’d bought/grown for the teaching staff and assistants.

Supporting my children’s passion for Trains

My wider blog on Designer’s capability, is focussed heavily on how we use Designer to add some flair into my son’s hobby around trains and travel. We spend most weekends riding trains, visiting train museums and doing videos about different trains, train lines and doing little challenges.

As we aim to “promote” his videos a little more, we have taken to Microsoft Designer to advertise his work.

Using Microsoft Designer to promote upcoming videos….

Endless fun creating different train related images on Microsoft Designer.

Improving our promoting skills

Finally, working with Gen AI tools is a skill in its’ own and takes practice and experimenting to get the “perfect image”. There is a great community of people on social media, including some of the @MSFT365Designer team and users. It’s great to get inspiration from others, share your prompts and take on the challenges of creating new and exciting images.

Why not get involved… Don’t forget to #MicrosoftDesigner.

Get involved in the AI Design Promoting Community

Thanks for Reading

Thanks for reading – I hope this gives some inspiration around how you could use Microsoft Designer for work, personal life, hobbies and more.

I have written a wider blog with video guides about how to use Microsoft Designer, which goes into examples of different ways to use it.⬇️

You can read/watch this here.

How to use Microsoft Designer – “free” AI Powered Design Revolution

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Microsoft Designer – “free” AI Powered Design Revolution

Microsoft is yet again at the forefront of an AI powered design revolution with formal launch of their AI-powered Designer app which is available on web, and mobile (iOS and Android) after being in preview for a year.

Designer can be accessed on the web (mobile download links included) by visiting https://designer.microsoft.com

Designer is built all around speed and simplicity, empowering users of any level to quickly create custom images, stickers, greeting cards, and invitations with a professional touch using a wide array of tools, simplified editing tools, a fresh and clean UI and rich AI editing capabilities.

Designer is also free though it does require sign-in with a Microsoft MSA app or Microsoft 365 Personal or Family account. Designer features are also popping up on Commercial apps and services such as Teams. More on this later in the blog.

To do this, simply add square brackets round the elements you want to be “custom” and share the prompt… You can also try many of the pre curated prompts that Microsoft provides in the examples in app.

One of the newest things which was introduced at launch was the concept of design prompt templates. These make help #DesignerCreators with ideas, along with editable prompts to help creative minds get to work quickly. You can simply make any prompt you love (or that people share) with you in a sharable and editable prompt.

To do this, simply add square brackets round the elements you want to be “custom” and copy the prompt to share it with others… You can also try many of the pre curated prompts that Microsoft provides in the examples in app.

Everyone gets get 15 AI Boosts a day (which speed up the AI creation process. If you are a Copilot Pro subscriber, this is further boosted to 100 boosts a day. Copilot Pro, also includes the use of Copilot across your Microsoft 365 Personal and Family apps and services for £19 per month.

How we use Microsoft Designer in our Family

Let’s dive into some of the key features. For those that know me, my children love London trains, so the theme of my feature explanation and examples will be very “train centered“.

Firstly, Designer has a rich set of starter apps and templates to help you achive a particular design related task – these range from AI image creation, to greeting cards, social media posts and much much more. You also get some great starter prompts too or creations you can use to get you started if you are having a bit of mind blur! You can access these visually or from the <create> menu at the top of the home page.

Powerful integrated or standalone apps and tools

Designer comes with a full design canvas (this was actually the first part of Designer that was built when the beta debuted about a year ago) along with a growing number of mini apps which make doing simple AI assisted tasks easy and quick. Many of these can also be accessed via the main Designer Canvas (which I highlighted above).

Creating a design from scratch with Microsoft Designer.

The video above is aimed to be a simple whistle-stop tour of the Microsoft Designer Interface. I have used a blank canvas to show just how easy and intuitive it is to create a design from scratch – which in this example is a new design that we will use to promotes my son’s next Train Themed YouTube video.

The sections that follow focus on some of the standalone apps and features that Designer brings in its AI Image Treasure Trove – keep reading!

Using the Designer (mini-apps)

The mobile app – Bringing AI Editing on the Go

The Designer mobile app brings the power of AI editing into the palm of your hand.

It’s a modern, clean app and provides most of the features you get in the browser version with a few things missing – more on that later. In short, you can use the mobile app to easily create images, cards, collages, invitations, drawings and generate decorative borders. The app is also slick and fast – a well-designed and written app.

Since our boys are really into trains, the theme of this and most of the examples will be around trains, as most of our weekends involve trips to train stations and journeys on different trains!!

Starting off, here’s how we used designer to create some inspiring images around the London Underground – using the Designer Mobile App.

The app’s intuitive interface makes it simple for anyone to enhance their creations with a professional touch.

The image below was created with a simple prompt. Designer will even suggest tweaks as you type to help make the image more vibrant and exciting.

Example: Image Restyling

Imagine you’ve taken a photo that’s perfect except for one detail. With Designer, you can easily edit that detail without affecting the rest of the image. The AI-powered tools can recognize and isolate different elements in your photo, allowing you to make precise edits.

Again, this is so quick and easy to use – simple open the tool, select a picture from your gallery (if you have pictures you want to use from your mobile, then you can either use the Phone Link or app, or the QR Code which you can scan with your phone that opens on your phone and lets you simply choose images from your mobile).

You then just choose the restyle image type you would like such as drawing or Claymation, add an optional element and off you go.

Now my only critique with this service/tool is that is not yet available on the mobile app – which to me seems an obvious one to include in mobile – shoot ➡️restyle ➡️post on social.

Example: Collage Creation

Creating a collage is usually quite a time-consuming task and tricky, but not with Designers Collage Creator. Here you can choose/select the photos you want to use, and the Collage app will automatically arrange them into a stylish collage. You can then adjust the layout, add text, and apply filters to perfect your collage.

When you open the Collages app, Designer gives you a set of example designs to give you inspiration or you can start from scratch. You can upload images from your device (or mobile using the QR Code), select background frame design you want and let Designer do its thing. Let’s see in action below…. again, sticking to the train theme!!

Greeting Cards

So, following a trip to London Charing Cross, where my boys got to have a tour of the station (behind the scenes, we used Designer to quickly create a thank you card. For this, we used one of the sample cards and simply modified the prompt. Let’s see this in action.

Create your own ClipArt (and Stickers)

One of the other cool features in Designer is the ability to create Stickers and Clipart. These are quite similar and create process is the same. The main difference being that Stickers have a nice cut-out-able border round them whereas Clipart does not. The main reason for separating them out (I think) is that it’s easier to distinguish between the two types of images – as in, it helps spark imagination.

Designer Clipart (and sticker) creation with a simple prompt.

Here’s another “Train” themed image we created – this was ClipArt using Designer. In the screen shot above, you can see the simple prompt we used and the options it gave us.

Wait there is more – Integration across your Microsoft Apps

The standalone Microsoft Designer app, whilst super intuitive and packed full of features is just the beginning – yet this is just the beginning of the Designer journey. Whilst much of the roadmap is under NDA still, what I can tell you is that Microsoft has already (just) seamlessly integrated Designer into Copilot (both in Copilot Pro for consumer and in the corporate Copilot for Microsoft Space). This has the effect of enhancing capability in apps like Word and PowerPoint, whereby users can now ask Copilot to generate images and designs directly within their documents, streamlining the creative process and making content more personalised and unique.

We have also seen Designer get native integration into Teams Channels and Chat and you’ll start to see it make more appearances across the other Microsoft apps and services.

Designer Document Integration in PowerPoint and Word

Imagine you’re working on a report in Word, or PowerPoint and you need an AI generated graphic to illustrate your point. Instead of switching apps and copying and pasting, you can now use Designer right within Word and PowerPoint to create a custom graphics that fits perfectly with your document’s style and content.

To do this, you can simply ask Copilot in Word or PowerPoint to create an image for you.

Why You Should Try Designer

The Designer app is more than just a tool; it’s a gateway to unleashing your creativity. With its user-friendly interface, AI-powered editing tools, and seamless integration with other Microsoft apps, Designer simplifies the design process, making it accessible to everyone, regardless of their design experience.

Whether you’re a professional designer looking for a convenient way to work on the go, a marketeer who needs some new ideas, a student needing to create presentations for school, or someone who enjoys creating personalised greeting cards for friends and family, Designer has something for you.

Moreover, with the daily boosts offered by Microsoft, you can explore the full potential of the app without any cost. And if you find yourself needing more, the Copilot Pro subscription is a worthwhile investment for the additional benefits it provides.

Conclusion

Microsoft’s Designer app is a game-changer for creators of all levels. With its user-friendly AI tools and cross-platform availability, the possibilities are endless. Embrace the future of design with Microsoft Designer. Try it and use it for free today and see how it can transform your creative process.

https://designer.microsoft.com

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Copilot+ PCs are now available – What you need to know.

Last month, Microsoft announced the next generation of AI powered PCs from Microsoft and many other OEMs including Acer and Lenovo which leverage the latest Snapdragon ARM chipsets from Qualcomm. I covered this on a previous post here....

Yesterday (June 18th 2024), Microsoft’s own devices (the Surface Laptop 7 and Surface Pro 11) were officially available today to buy and any pre-orders were shipped to customers worldwide 🙂

Microsoft describes Copilot+ PCs as the “most intelligent” Windows PCs ever created. These new processors are capable of performing over 40 trillion operations per second. These PCs also offer long long long battery life and give access to advanced AI tools.

These latest Copilot+ PCs from Microsoft are sleek, lightweight, and elegantly designed to enhance productivity They ship with dedicated NPUs (for processing AI workloads on-chip) and have the longest battery life of any Surface ever.

Microsoft say that the new Surface Laptop and Surface Pro are Copilot+ PCs, are the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs on the market. They are available in four colour options and start at $999 Estimated Retail Price (ERP) USD on Microsoft.com or at a Microsoft Experience Center (aka store).

What is a Copilot+PCs?

Copilot+ PCs represent a new category of Windows 11 PCs, equipped with a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU), which is a specialised type of processor designed for AI-intensive tasks such as real-time translations and image generation, capable of executing over 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS).

Are Copilot+PC only available from Microsoft?

No. Copilot+PCs are a new generation of PC devices which combined Windows on ARM (WoA) technology, Snagdragon powered chipsets and new updates and features built into Windows.

Other manufacturers are also making Copilot+PCs include (but not limited to).

Are Copilot+PCs for Consumers or for Business?

Copilot+PCs are designed for personal, small business and commercial/enterprise. Devices for Business such as the Surface for Business Range will start shipping in September 2024. More details can be found here.

What can Copilot+PCs do that others cannot?

Microsoft refers to new Copilot+ PC experiences which will be baked in to the next versions of Windows 11 and are advanced AI features unique to Copilot+ PCs that accelerate your productivity and creativity. This will include new AI features such as Recall, Cocreator in Paint, Windows Studio Effects, automatic super resolution and Live Captions.There are many more coming and expect to see new AI powered experiences such as offline Copilot coming to Copilot+PC devices in the future. These features require powerful neural processing units (NPUs) –so will be exclusive to the Copilot+ PC class of devices.

One super cool feature to call out for gamers is the new Auto Super Resolution (Auto SR) feature which integrates smoothly with Windows, automatically boosting the frame rates of existing games in real time and delivering detailed visuals. This feature is said to surpasses the capabilities of standalone PC hardware. Initially, Auto SR will be exclusive to Copilot+ PCs that have a Qualcomm Snapdragon® X Series processor and will support a select list of games available at a third-party open-source site, which Microsoft has provided compatibility data for.

Do I need a special version of Windows 11?

No – all new Copilot+ PCs running a Snapdragon® X Series processor will have Copilot+ PC experiences pre-installed. Microsoft will be continuing to update and enhance the Copilot+ PC experiences, so there will be new Windows Updates coming which will enable new features delivered as part of the usual Windows Update process. Only Copilot+PCs will get the new AI features.

What about devices with the latest AI chips from Intel and AMD ?

Microsoft are partnering with Intel and AMD as well to bring Copilot+ PC experiences to PCs with their processors in the future.

Microsoft also have a real good FAQ section on their website about Copilot+PCs.

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Using Copilot in Whiteboard.

Copilot inside Microsoft Whiteboard

Microsoft Whiteboard is a blank canvas where users can draw, sketch, and write, just like a physical whiteboard. It allows multiple users to collaborate on the same Whiteboard in real-time. Whiteboard offers a range of features that enhance collaboration, creativity, and productivity in both professional and educational settings.

Here are some key features of using Microsoft Whiteboard:

  • Flexible and infinite digital canvas
  • Provides ink to shape and Intelligent Ink Recognition
  • Supports co-authoring
  • Allow simple ways to create and annotate content using sticky notes and text boxes
  • Insert images and documents
  • Fully integrated into Microsoft 365 and can be used in Teams Meetings.

Using Copilot in Whiteboard

Using Copilot in Whiteboard revolutionises idea generation and project collaboration, by helping people get started quickly with brainstorming and ideas . This is great when you want to use Whiteboard to collect and inspire ideas but don’t know where to start.

Copilot in Whiteboard makes it super easy to:

  1. Instantly generate fresh ideas and envision concepts in innovative ways to kick start a brainstorming session.
  2. Transform abstract thoughts and words into captivating end engaging visuals.
  3. Arrange and re-arrange ideas into logical categories to make Whiteboards easier to work with – improving clarity.
  4. Create new ideas and angles and overcome obstacles.

Getting Started with Copilot In Whiteboard

When you first start Whiteboard (assuming you are signed in with a Microsoft 365 account that has a Copilot license assigned). You can use Copilot on a new Whiteboard or on an existing whiteboard you have already created Whiteboards.

From a new or existing Whiteboard, you can summon Copilot by clicking on the familiar Copilot button which sits at the right of the tool bar.

On summoning Copilot, you are presenting with a “familar” Copilot prompt. From here you can simply describe what you want. In example below, I wanted to create a new whiteboard space to help me capture ideas about an upcoming team away day.

Within a few seconds, you’ll see Copilot come up with some discussion ideas as per the example below.

From here, we can edit our prompt, modify the prompt, ask for more ideas or simply accept and insert it. In this case Copilot has sugested Post it notes, which makes sense based on my prompt. Here, am going to Click on insert.

I am quite happy with this, but i do want to add a section about where we should have our offsite and what activities we should do.

I can of course, just add to this myself, or if I am feeling (lazy) or just keen to use Copilot. In this example, I’ve added my own postit and asked Copilot to suggest some locations and activities we can use for the away day.

Using Copilot with an existing Whiteboard.

You can also use Copilot with an existing Whiteboard to do things like create a summary of your Whiteboard content and notes. To do this, open a Whiteboard, click the Copilot button and ask it to summarise, suggest new content or catagorise any post its etc into catagories.

You can also, of course, also use as above to add new content or help you with inspiration.

What can’t Copilot do?

At the moment Copilot is mainly focussed around activities that involve post it notes. I’d like to see this extend to drawing visualisations, recommending templates, populating post it notes and changing layouts based on content. I’d also like to see it be able to take a set of bullet points from an email or Teams chat and create a whiteboard from that!

Don’t get me wrong, it’s helpful and really great and these idea generation and kick starting a whiteboard but there are other applications I’d like to see.

Interested to hear how you get on with Copilot in Whiteboard…..let me know in the comments!

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Windows 11 PCs to get Copilot key as Microsoft embeds AI in Windows.

Windows Keyboard with Copilot Button

Microsoft today, 4th Jan 2024, announced that Copilot in Windows is coming out of preview. They also announced the next significant step forward for Copilot in Windows and the future of the AI Powered PC. Microsoft say that the future of Windows, Silicon and Copilot, are the next stage of enabling the significant shift towards “a more personal and intelligent computing future where AI will be seamlessly woven into Windows from the system to the silicon, to the hardware“.

The next technology shift, driven by AI innovation is continuing to grow exponentially and is posed to fundamentally change the way we use and access technology forever.

“From reinventing the way people search with Copilot in Bing, and unlocking productivity with Copilot for Microsoft 365, to reimagining how people get things done on the PC with Copilot in Windows”.

Yusuf Mehdi | Chief Marketing Officer | Microsoft


Microsoft, in their blog, talk about 2023 being the year of the birth of Generative AI, with 2024 being the year of the AI Powered PC.

The AI Powered PC

As significant as the introduction of the Windows Key was in the 1990s, the introduction of a new Copilot key will be the first significant change (in over 30 years) that is coming to the Windows PC keyboard starting with new devices shipping this year.

The Copilot key, which will sit near the space bar and replace the right ALT-GR key on most keyboards, will invoke the Copilot in Windows experience to make it seamless for people to engage Copilot in their day-to-day work or lives and is designed to make it easier for everyone to be part of the AI transformation more easily.

AI – from Chip to the Cloud

In same way Microsoft approaches security – Chip, OS and Cloud, they are taking the same approach with AI. Starting with their own NPUs in Surface and now across their eco system OEM partners, Microsoft say that there is huge momentum from AMD, Intel and Qualcomm, all of whom have launched dedicated NPUs to unlock the power of edge AI processing in their latest chipsets and with the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) just round the corner, we expect to see many new innovation and advances coming from Microsoft and the rest of the Windows OEMs this year. This powerful combinations and advances coming to Windows OS, their Copilot Cloud system and advances in NPUs, the next twelve months seem very exciting.

Microsoft say they are committed to the pace of development in Copilot and Windows and are positioning Windows to be “the destination for the best AI experiences”. This combined with the development of their AI Cloud Services and the new local processing made possible by new hardware and silicon, will allow Windows to be an “operating system that blurs the lines between local and cloud processing“. The year ahead promises to be nothing short of extraordinary!

Note: Copilot in Windows is being rolled out gradually to Windows Insiders in select global markets. The initial markets for the Copilot in Windows preview include North America, United Kingdom and parts of Asia and South America. It will come additional markets over time.

Microsoft Surface first?

It’s unknown at the moment what OEMs will start to ship devices with the new Copilot key, but according to leaks and social media, Microsoft is rumoured to be launching updates to the Surface Pro Surface Laptop family this year and these will ship with the new Copilot key.

If you want to lean more.

Read the full article from the Windows Blog.

Read more about Copilot in Windows on my blog here.

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Microsoft Copilot now fits in your pocket with new Android app

The world of Copilot is evolving quickly… You take a couple of days of downtime over the Christmas break to find that Microsoft has launched a new Copilot app for Android which can be downloaded from the Google Play Store.

The Copilot app (which is essentially just the Copilot bits of the Bing App), allows users to interact with Copilot like they would with the standalone Open AI ChatGPT. It can be used to ask questions, get help with stuff, creating images using Bing’s Image Creator all from text (or voice) prompts.

Copilot app for Android

Today, the app allows consumer users (you need to sign in with a Microsoft account) to access the app but doesn’t yet allow sign in from commercial Microsoft 365 accounts but presume this will be added in due course.

It is only available on Android today, but has the same functionality as the Bing app, so iOS users can still use that.

Copilot is powered by GPT-4 and DALLE 3, which provide fast, complex, and precise responses, as well as the ability to create breathtaking visuals from simple text descriptions.

Here’s some of the text-based things you can do with Copilot app:

  • Draft emails or re-phrase pretty much any piece of text
  • Create stories, scripts, plays, or game ideas.
  • Summarise complex or long documents including PDFs.
  • Translate documents of text from one language to another
  • Proof-read documents and compare against a scoring document.
  • Create personalised travel itineraries.
  • Write and update CVs and more.

Here’s some of the image-based things you can do with the Copilot app:

  • Create images, or complete pictures using text input.
  • Leverage a different set of styles such as cartoon, photo realistic or pop-art
  • Generate custom backgrounds images.
  • Create logo designs for blogs or your new company ideas.
  • Create illustrations for books.
  • Create images for blogs, cards, eBooks or social media.
  • Use or take a photo and have Copilot describe it create a new image based from it.

Example

In the example below, I am using Copilot to create a new image from a photo of some batteries. You’ll see how Copilot also tries to be smart and give some valuable tips about battery disposal.

Getting the best from Copilot

Getting the best results from using Copilot (or any Generative Chat based AI tool), is all about the prompt (the instruction we use to ask Copilot what we want it to do).

Check out my blog and example videos on how to get the best from these tools.

You can download the app for Android -> here.

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Prompt Engineering: AI prompts that punch!

What is an AI prompt?

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Bard and Microsoft Copilot in are becoming increasingly popular among developers, content creators and, now almost any and everyone with the release of Copilot Edge (formerly Bing Enterprise Chat) and of course, Copilot for Microsoft 365.

I often hear “of ChatGPT is better than XYZ or Copilot is better than ABC. The fact is, whilst these tools can yield incredible results, getting started can be challenging, and getting the prompt to do exactly what you “had in mind” takes practice – especially for those who are new to generative AI.

In this blog post, I provide some tips on how to work with generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot, including how to write, and perfect, good AI prompts. Prompts are essentially instructions that are used to tell/ask the AI what you’d like it to do…

Understanding how Generative AI works

Generative AI chatbots use complex language models (LLMs), machine learning algorithms, internet data and organisational data (in the case of Microsoft Copilot) to generate text, create, summarise, rewrite or transform content, write code, generate images and even help people build low code workflows or model driven apps in Power Platform. These GenAI tools do this based on user input and context, known as “prompts”.

Whilst these tools are incredibly smart (having been trained on a decade of data, images, writing styles and even the works of Shakespeare, the results are not perfect and can sometimes generate inaccurate or irrelevant content, known as hallucinations.

These hallucinations are usually caused by a lack of understanding of the ask from the user, conflicting requests or poor data upon which they base their response. Remember these tools can access your company data (under the context of the user) and the web.

Writing good AI prompts – the ingredients

To get the best results from generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot, it’s essential to write good AI prompts. Here are some AI 101 tips on what good AI prompts look like:

  • Be specific with the ask: Make sure you are being clear about what you want the AI model to do. The more specific you are, the better the AI model can understand your prompt and provide accurate results.
  • Avoid using ambiguous language: If what you ask could be interpreted in different ways, you may not get the result you hoped for. Be clear and concise in your prompt to avoid any confusion.
  • Provide context: this is crucial to ensure that the AI model understands the intent behind your prompt. The more context you provide, the better the AI model can understand your prompt.
  • Use simple language: that is easy for the AI model to understand. Avoid using complex words or phrases that the AI model may not be familiar with. Slang words are generally OK but take your time to read the prompt back to make sure it makes sense.
  • Take advantage of turns: A turn is essentially your response to the AI’s answer. You can use this to either rephrase your ask or to fine tune the response and is a good alternative to trying to write long complex prompts in one go.
  • Make it a conversation: Building on the above, think of how you might ask a human to help you with a task. You can use the “turns” to perfect the prompt and even ask the AI why it gave a particular answer or to explain something you don’t understand. This may feel unnatural at first but soon it’s just IM’ing a friend or co-worker.

Good and bad prompt examples

Here are some examples of good and bad AI prompts. Try these and see how you get along.

I’ve included a video which walks though these and shows the differneces in the results based on the prompts we gave. You’ll see we can be quite specific in what we want. The video also showcases how we can “perfect” our answers through additonal turns.

Goal: Create a product update for the Flux Capacitor 2

Bad prompt: “Create me a product update for the Flux Capacitor version 2”.

Good prompt: “Create me a product update for the Flux Capacitor version 2. This is a fictional product, based on the original flux capacitor used in the film Back to the Future 2. Make up some new improvements that the Flux Capacitor V2 could have over the first version. Be creative with improvements.”

Write a product brief in Copilot.

Explanation – the second prompt is better because we have firstly provided context of the ask (this is a fictional product), been specific with the ask (we have told it what we expect).

Goal: Create a Lego avatar of yourself

For this, I am using Microsoft Designer Image creator.

Bad prompt: A picture of a person with brown hair as a Lego man.

Good prompts: A person with short dark brown hair, wearing a tuxedo and holding a glass of champagne sitting on a chair outside a large country house on a cold dusk evening in the summer. Lego Style, illustration, 3d rendered.

Explanation: The second prompt is better (well depending on what we want) because again we have given specific asks about what we want, been specific with the ask, provided some context about what we want to produce and described the image we want.

Goal: Write a story about a dog called Benji

Bad prompt: Write a story about a dog named Benji

Good prompt: Write a story about a dog name Benji. Benji a small puppy and lives a family with four people including two young children called Jack and Jill. Benji is a lazy dog but discovers a passion for going for walks to train stations and barking at trains. Creative Style writing.

Explanation – the second prompt is better because we have firstly provided context of the story we would like and have also given a background to the story. We have guided the AI to how we’d like the story to flow and then left it to the AI to write. We have also specified a mode we want it in “be creative”. We can use another “turn” to make the story shorter or to write a catchy title for the story.

Goal: Extract key information from a document

Note: For this example, I am using a document here: Energy Consumption in the UK 2023 (publishing.service.gov.uk). I have opened this page in Microsoft Edge and am using Copilot in Edge to ask about the document.

Bad Prompt: Tell me about this document.

Good Prompt: Read this document and create a table that shows the main energy usage across different key areas in order of highest to lowest. Also provide a short commentary after the table that describes more about these areas and whether these are increasing over time or reducing.

Using Copilot in Edge to discuss and extract data from a document.

Explanation: the first prompt simply creates a summary of the document. This is useful (try it), but we haven’t told it what we actually want to see (which might be fine) and usually we have a specific thing we are looking for when we analyse a document. The second prompt is much more specific. It gives the AI clear direction (specific ask) about what we want and how we want the data presented.

Perfecting your “Prompts”

Writing good AI prompts is just the first step in working with generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot. To get the best results, you need to perfect your prompts over time and practice. Don’t think of it as a chore. Enjoy it as you learn… You’ll soon become a pro.

Here’s my tips on how to perfect your AI prompts:

  • Timing: I find it best to think of a task you need to perform and use a real example to see if you can get what you need. As an example, if I’m doing a customer demo on AI, I tend to use an example relevant to organisation I am working with and make the request about them (or make up a scenario specific to them).
  • Experiment: Don’t be afraid to experiment with different prompts and see what works best. Try different variations of your prompts and see which ones generate the best results.
  • Adapt: Generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot are constantly evolving and improving, so it’s essential to adapt your prompts to keep up with the latest changes. This also means the result you get from the same prompt may change a week or month later. The data it’s referencing may also change.
  • Enjoy the learning experience: Working with generative AI tools can be challenging, but it can also be a lot of fun. Enjoy the learning experience and don’t be afraid to try new things.
  • Use image creation as a fun way to learn whilst text-based requests are usually caused hat we need to do, practicing on image creation using something like Microsoft Designer is great fun and people tend to share their prompts on social media… Here is an example of one I shared.
Bing Image Creator in Designer.

Conclusion

Working with generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot can be challenging, but it can also be rewarding. By following the tips outlined in this blog post, you can write and perfect good AI prompts that generate accurate and useful results. Remember to experiment, adapt, and enjoy the learning experience.

With practice, anyone can become proficient in working with generative AI tools.

The video I have included hopefully provides more context – feel free to follow along in Copilot in Edge or ChatGPT

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Preparing for Microsoft Copilot

Everyone got very excited when Microsoft introduced the world to Microsoft Copilot back in March this year and just yesterday they reached a new milestone, after annoucing a private preview with just 600 global customers.

But… One of the questions I get asked a lot (between colleagues, partners and customers) is “…are there things we need to do to be ready for Copilot when it becomes available”.

The simple answer is yes – if you want it to work as expected

The longer answer is “it depends” on if you plan to use it, how well your current data is structured, organised and governed, and what processes you have in place around user education, training and change management.

Based on the work I have been doing with Microsoft, this list is aimed to provide the key things, suggestions and considerations for IT, managers and leadership on things you’ll want to get ship-shape while we wait for Copilot to be more generally available, which my sources tell me will be late 2023 to Q1 2024.

1. Get your data in shape.

The reason Microsoft 365 is the productivity suite of choice for so many (arguably most) organisations is because it brings together applications, data, groups, users and services into a common and integrated suite, as well as providing thousands of connectors to allow organisations to connect third-party apps and data into mix.

Powered by the Microsoft Graph, Microsoft 365 already has the power to connect people, teams, and organisations across all their apps and services in an intelligent and context aware, with AI powered services scattered across the Microsoft 365 apps and services you use every day….

With Microsoft Copilot….this will move to a whole new level.

Copilot will put conversational AI at the front and centre of every app and service you know and use. Leveraging personal context, re-generative learning and of course the Microsoft Graph, Copilot will make its’ own deductions on what you ask, what you mean, and how you work. Whilst it will learn and evolve, it will of course, still be dependent on your organisational data, and how its structured, governed and secured.

This means if you have say 50 different documents spread out in 15 different locations that talk about your company strategy or business objectives, and only one of them is the up-to-date version. How will Copilot know which version is correct when it needs to surface information based on a request? In the same way, if the management and reporting structure, job titles and other information is incorrect in Azure AD, Copilots’ decisions and advice around people will also likely be incorrect.

To help, organisations get AI-ready, Microsoft have announced that they will soon start to roll out a service known as Semantic Index for Copilot. This is a new service coming to Microsoft 365 which will create a sophisticated map of your data to help you test how Copilot will ingest and act on your data. Image for example a sales manager asking for “FY23 Sales Report,”. Copilot will be data and context aware, meaning that it will not simply look for documents that contain keywords in the filename or text body. Instead, Copilot will try to “understand” and “learn” about who within the organisation produces such reports, when they are shared, and where they are shared to.

Microsoft say that Semantic Index for Copilot will be a vital tool to help organisations ensure that employees will get predicable, relevant, accurate, and actionable responses to their asks of Copilot and will help your organisation to “tweak” their data lifecycle and governance to ensure that the data Copilot acts on is correct and accessible (or not) by the right people. 

What should you do?
1. Check and refine your SharePoint and Teams lifecycle, governance and compliance policies
2. Speak to your Microsoft partner about a funded data governance workshop 
3. Review and update Active Directory (or connect to HR to ensure these are up-to-date)
4. Look out for the release of Semantic Index for Copilot to "test your data"

2. Get your security in order

In a similar fashion to making sure our data is correct from a version and validty perspective, if we dont get our security and access control polcies in shape, we risk Copilot duiscovering data that a employee or team may not “meant to have access to”.

In the much the same way that the Office 365 apps “discover” the data around you – presenting files that your collegaues and teams are working on together, Copilot will do the same but on a whole new level, as what is searches for, indexes and uses, will be instructed by the user rather than simply surfaced.

Just like the rest of Microsoft 365, Copilot will adhere to the security, privacy, data governance and data sensitivity policies that has been set-up within your organisation, and will not provide information that the user doesn’t have access to. It may suggest for, example, “you dont have access to that, you may need to request this from Pam in accounts”.

The potential problem of course is that many (ok most) organisations have a sprawl of Teams sites, poor or inconsistent data governance, and inadequate user training, meaning that put simply, you may not realise the sheer amount of information and documents that is being shared within your organisation, and more importantly who actually has access to what data and how many copies may exist and where!

We all worry about Security – do we have MFA? Do we have conditional access configured? Are account protected? Is sensitive information protected? etc. We know the slogan “hackers dont hack in, they login” – just imagine if you have Copilot, and a users’ identity gets compromised. They log in, and with Copilot at their fingertips, they don’t need to worry about where stuff is stored as Copilot will do all the discovery for them!

So what can you do?
1. Review and refine your document management, security and privacy policies - perhaps introduce or enforce DLP and Data Classifcation  - aka Microsoft Purview
2. Review your security posture, MFA enforcement, risk based conditional access etc 
3. Create straightforward instructions and train people where to store documents and how to protect and secure them
4. Run a pilot and look at adoption data loss prevention and information classification to protect sensitive data.
5. Speak to your Microsoft partner about a funded workshop for 1, 2 and 3.

3. Explore, Plan, Experiment – but treat it as organisational change!

The release of Microsoft Copilot is still a little way away (it is a closed Private Preview today with around 600 global organisations) and there are currently no dates on the roadmap for a public preview mainstream release. There is also no pricing yet about pricing.

What we do know is – it is coming and it will fundamentally impact and change how your people and teams will work. Yes, there is still an element of hype, lots of desire to test it out, loads and loads of questions and lots of unknowns.

Communication and training is going to be a key part of sucess. How do you interface with AI? Yes its’ intelligent, but it’s not a human, therefore people need to be taught how to best work with Copilot. Bear in mind most people use around ten percent of the functionality of say Teams (with most just using basic functions like chat and calling), but to get the most from it, users need to know what to expect, how to use it and how the organisation wants (or not) employees to use it…

Create a pilot group and mini success team. Use this team to keep up-to-date with the news and blogs and above all make sure leadership, management and IT are “in the know”.

Start communicating your plans for Copilot and AI in general. Employees will and should have questions. Are there roles that might change or not be needed? Will you stop hiring? Will you wait and see? It will be important to talk to, and listen to employees, and ideally form a “success with AI” unit, bringing people together from different parts of the business, to discover the challenges they face in their everyday work and how they think and hope AI will help them.

Above all – think of this like a project (one of continual change). Depending on your business, AI will have an impact, and the whole organisation will need to understand and embrace this change (once we have it all working of course). Consider an AI abmassador and follow your usual approach to change management with a roadmap, PoCs, pilots and feedback groups so you hit it head on, with ideas, and a solid vision but with room for hiccups, course changes and surprises on the way.

That sounds like a lot - what can we do?
1. Build a success unit (could be a Team site of Viva Community)
2. Get onto early adoptor programmes when availble, go to the AI conferences and start to leverage demos etc when available. 
3. Talk to your peers, partners, and Microsoft Team and look out for funded workshops which will likely be available from summer.
4. Read Microsoft's Worklab report on working with next generation AI (it's a good read).

4. Keep Calm – it is coming but there is time to prepare

Microsoft has just announced the launch of their Microsoft 365 Copilot Early Access Program. It’s an invitation-only, paid preview program that’s set to roll out to only 600 clients across the globe at first in the coming weeks.

They say that they have received overwhelming feedback from their initial early preview clients, they have been “testing the concepts” with. They say those clients have indicated huge benefits to business and the ways in which it can transform and reshape work. In recent months, Microsoft have also released further information around how Copilot will will impact other applications such as Viva, Dynamics 365, Teams and more with new capabilities being announced almost weekly.

This new generation of AI will remove the drudgery of work and unleash creativity…There’s an enormous opportunity for AI-powered tools to help alleviate digital debt, build AI aptitude, and empower employees

Satya Nadella |Chairman and CEO |Microsoft

We will know more as we move forward – there are lots of moving parts – previews, public previews, (potentially) governments getting in the way, data soverignty issues (today data is only processed in the US and not local in local geo), licensing prices and of course availabilty….

In fact – this is probably already out of date as its a rapid moving landscape, and this is just the tip of the iceberg and just Microsoft. 

What should you do?
1. Keep checking with your Microsoft team,. your partner and the Microsoft 365 Roadmap
2. Start thinking roles that will be positively affected by AI in the workplace. Speak to users, buid your success team. 
3. Think about new skills your teams will need to work along side AI. 
4. Read Microsoft's Worklab report on working with next generational AI (it's a good read).

What is next in CoPilot?

A good question….

When Microsoft annouced Copilot in March, where they showed the value concepts in apps like teams, Powerpoint and Excel, they said that this was “just the beginning”. Over the last couple of months, Microsoft have continued to tease new Copilot capabilities to bring AI to every part of Microsoft apps and services. The key annoucements (since the actual annoucement include):

  • Copilot in Whiteboard – which will make Microsoft Teams meetings and brainstorms more creative and effective. Using natural language, you will be able to ask Copilot to generate ideas, organize ideas into themes, create designs that bring ideas to life and summarise whiteboard content.
  • Copilot in Outlook will offer coaching tips and suggestions on clarity, sentiment and tone to help users write more effective emails and communicate more confidently.
  • Copilot in OneNote will use prompts to draft plans, generate ideas, create lists and organize information to help customers find what they need easily.
  • Copilot in Loop will helps your team stay in sync by quickly summarising all the content on your Loop page to keep everyone aligned and able to collaborate effectively.
  • Copilot in Viva Learning will use a natural language chat interface to help users create a personalized learning journey including designing upskilling paths, discovering relevant learning resources and scheduling time for assigned trainings.

Q&A – This will evolve

QuestionWhat we knowSource
Where will the data be processed by Copilot?Microsoft have said that currently all processing will take place is the US. It will eventually be regionalised based on customer tennant. No time scales yetMay 2023: Microsoft 365 Conference
Will Copilot respect data seciuroty and soverienty?Yes -Microsoft have made it clear that Copilots’ sphere of access will be limited to the user context in which it runs, goverened by your organisation’s policies. May 2023: Microsoft 365 Conference.
When will Copilot enter public preview?No dates annouced yet. Be sure to keep an eye on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap.
Will there be charge for Copilot.No offical news but the expectation is yes.
Q&A Table.

What do you think?

Like you, I am still working out what this means for our business, my teams and my people. I welcome your feedback, thoughts and ideas.

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Microsoft takes on Canva with Designer (in Edge)

Microsoft Designer Logo

Microsoft Designer was first announced back in August of 2022 and has been available in a limited preview to since January this year to gain early feedback from users.

This week however, Microsoft announced that (whilst still in preview), the AI driven social media content creation platform would be available for anyone to try. Microsoft also announced plans to include the tools into their Edge browser in much the same way they have provided the ability to use the new Bing AI search.

Screen showing sign-up for Designer social media creation tool

Introducing Microsoft Designer

Microsoft Designer is a “Canva-like” designer tool aims to provide a simple, sleek and AI infused tool to help business and consumers quickly produce high quality online content such as social media posts, greeting cards, banners, branding, alerts, promotions etc.

Powered by DALL·E and built as a progressive web app, Microsoft Designer is the latest AI powered tool now in ‘preview-mode, which joins Bing Chat and Bing Image Creator along with many other tools which can be accessed on their own or from within the sidebar of their Chromium powered Edge browser.

Available from https://designer.microsoft.com or from the Edge side bar, users can use Designer to manage and create animations, impressive visuals, text, and design templates specifically for sharing on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, TickTok and Instagram, or of course on enterprise social tools within an organisation like Viva Engage [aka Yammer].

Example of a Microsoft Designer Page for my upcoming fireside chat!
Example Designer design (c) Rob Quickenden

Here’s some of the great things you can do today in Designer.

  • Easily create designs with >20 different social media layout sizes across Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
  • Automatic (manual override) of elements such as text, video and images to best accommodate your chosen layout, reducing time needed to manually format you posts.
  • Wide range of animation features including auto text transitions and animated backgrounds.
  • Save or share directly with social media your finished creations.

Being in preview there is still more to come and the app will continue to evolved based on user feedback and their development lifecycle. Here’s more AI powered tools that Mcirosoft are working on which will be coming “soon”.

  • New Fill tool that allows users to select an area of a design and quickly place an object in that location
  • Simple erase function which will allow the user to brush over a person/object in the design and have Designer remove the object, generate and replace it with another image
  • Expand Background tool, which will be able to quickly fill any gaps within the foreground of your design, and
  • Replace Background which will be able to switch the background to a new one preserving the rest of your design.

Why integrate into Edge?

Microsoft say that by integrating Designer into Edge, they are bringing these capabilities straight into where people work. Since it will be accessible directly via the edge sidebar, users can access it by simply clicking on the Designer icon. Microsoft say this makes the tools accessible and “in the flow of creativity“, meaning users can quickly create unique designs instantly by simply describing the graphic you want without needing to leave the page they are, switch windows, load apps, or download custom extensions to the browser.

Coming soon - designer integrated into Microsoft Edge.
Coming soon: Designer integration directly into Edge sidebar. Image (c) Microsoft.

The aim is to improve the workflow and “keep you in the moment” – since whilst creating a social media post, Designer in Edge will provide AI-powered design suggestions to include in the post, which can then be customised and published without needing to leave the browser of switch apps.

As with any preview, Microsoft encourage users to feedback on their experience of using designer – both as a dedicated service and as a Edge browser integrated experience.

Competing with the Design giants

Designer is still in preview and there is lots Microsoft need to do to get it to the level of comparison with other apps like Canva and Adobe, both of whom have recently released their own AI-powered features. Microsoft have done a great job so far and by opening the preview up to the masses and with their recent investment in OpenAI, I expect a plethora of enhancements and new features to keep coming.

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