Microsoft launches Copilot for finance teams, including some nifty new Excel tools that data nerds will love
A new launch of Microsoft Copilot aims to bring the benefits of generative AI tools to finance teams, helping them increase productivity and efficiency across the board.
Microsoft says the cleverly named Copilot for Finance will help finance teams put an end to monotonous and time-consuming manual tasks, allowing them to focus on a more strategic part of their business.
The launch includes several new AI-powered additions to favorite Microsoft 365 apps like Excel and Outlook, giving finance teams an additional tool to influence and even make important business decisions.
Microsoft Copilot for Finance
“Finance departments are critical partners in strategic decisions that impact the direction of a business,” said Charles Lamanna, CVP, Business Applications and Platform at Microsoft, in a statement. blog post the launch announcement.
“Copilot for Finance can help free up time for the finance department to play a more strategic role in delivering advice and insights to the business by streamlining finance tasks, automating workflows and providing visibility into the workflow. “
As with other similar releases, Copilot for Finance is introducing Microsoft 365 tools, which the company says will be boosted through its AI platform, in addition to traditional ERP systems such as Microsoft 365, SAP and Microsoft Graph.
This includes Microsoft Excel, an essential tool for many finance teams, which now allows financial analysts to quickly perform variance analysis using natural language prompts, assessing data sets for anomalies, risks and unmatched values, providing much deeper insight into where improvements can be made. can be applied. can be made, or that successes can be achieved.
Copilot for Finance can also simplify the reconciliation process in Excel with automated data structure comparisons and guided troubleshooting, which Microsoft says can help ensure financial data is reliable and accurate.
When it comes to Outlook, Copilot for Finance can quickly create summaries and reports on customer accounts, providing information such as invoices and balance statements so that action can be taken faster.
And like other models, Copilot for Finance can take raw data from Excel and turn it into “presentation-ready” reports and even visuals, which can then be shared across the Microsoft 365 platform.
Businesses looking to try out the new tools can try the new Copilot for Finance add-ons now in public preview, with a wider launch sometime in the near future.