Microsoft’s finance team tests Copilot as part of transformation

Microsoft is using its own AI-powered virtual assistant known as Copilot to streamline workflows in the software giant’s finance department, which employs about 5,000 people, according to Cory Hrncirik, the company’s director of modern finance.

As Hrncirik said in an interview, finance professionals at the company rely on the tool to complete routine tasks faster and deliver data-driven insights.

“Finance has become one of the top Copilot users at Microsoft,” the executive said. “Along the way, we’ve built great use cases and our own library of tips, as well as videos and demos.”

Microsoft Finance has identified Copilot as a priority for its broader digital transformation efforts. Hrncirik is helping lead the initiative as the company’s modern finance leader, a position he took on in 2018.

The software giant is also in a race with other big tech companies for dominance in the artificial intelligence market. Since 2023, Microsoft has released several different Copilots, conversational chatbots embedded within the software giant’s portfolio of apps and services that help users get things done.

Last February, the company unveiled Copilot for Finance, a feature in Microsoft 365 apps like Excel, Outlook, and Teams that was introduced to streamline and streamline financial processes. The tool is still in ““in public viewing mode,” the spokesman said.

Microsoft has released similar virtual companions designed for sales and customer service professionals.

Top Finance Use Cases

At Microsoft, one of the most common uses of Copilot for Finance is reconciling data in Excel, Hrncirik said. “We use this tool a lot for reconciliation, especially in some teams,” he said.

In an internal case study, accounts receivable reconciliation capabilities helped reduce the time it took Microsoft’s global treasury and financial services team to compare data from multiple sources, saving an average of 20 minutes per account, according to results shared with CFO Dive. In another example, Microsoft’s financial planning and analytics team was able to reduce the time it spent reconciling data each week from an average of 1-2 hours to 10 minutes.

Microsoft’s finance team is currently testing the capabilities of variance analysis, and so far, so promising, according to Hrncirik. Variance analysis refers to a method of comparing forecasted or planned financial results with actual results.

Copilot for Finance “simply helps you get the information you need faster than was possible in the past using traditional, manual methods,” Hrncirik said.

Microsoft on Monday launched what it calls the “next wave” of Copilot, including a new feature called Copilot Pages that lets multiple users collaborate on AI-generated content.

“Over the past 18 months, working with Copilot has become a daily habit for people around the world, helping them get work done faster, have more purposeful meetings, collaborate more effectively, and streamline business processes,” said Jared Spataro, corporate vice president of AI at work at Microsoft, in a blog post announcing the change.

Among other case studies cited in the article, customer service representatives at virtual healthcare provider Teladoc saved up to five hours a week by using Copilot to prepare answers to common customer questions.

The statement comes after Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said last month during an earnings conference call that “many customers are disappointed with what they’ve purchased from Microsoft Copilot because they’re not getting the accuracy and responsiveness they expect.”

Salesforce is preparing to launch its own artificial intelligence (AI) platform known as Agentforce.

Resistance from Microsoft

Benioff’s statements were met with a negative reaction from Microsoft.

“Every customer is at a different point in their journey, but overall we hear very different things from our customers using Copilot for Microsoft 365” Spataro said in an emailed statement. “In the last quarter alone, we saw our customer base grow by over 60% and our daily user base more than doubled — a clear indicator of Copilot’s value in the market.”

According to Hrncirik, the quality of the results Copilot provides largely depends on the instructions provided by the user.

“I think there’s definitely something to learn to become a really advanced user,” he said. “The more context you provide, the more obvious it is that it will give you the foundation you need to give the best possible answer.”

Microsoft has created a public website called Copilot Lab that provides resources, including training videos and sample tips, to help users use the technology.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s finance division is working on its own library of financial tips, Hrncirik said.

“I think we’ve collected about 300 (sample) financial prompts that have been incredibly helpful in helping people learn something more advanced than just the (basic) prompts,” he said, adding that the library is private and internal for now.