Hey everyone — it’s John from On The Pulse.
How are you all doing this week?
In this week’s edition of On The Pulse, we’ll give you the best method for rescheduling meetings in Microsoft Teams. Also, we’ll show you some updates for Excel and OneNote that are coming soon.
This week’s topics include:
🤖 Microsoft’s Data Helps Determine Which Jobs Can Benefit The Most From Copilot
🔄 Copilot in OneNote Now Analyzes Handwritten Notes
📊 2 New Functions Coming Soon to Excel for Language Translation
🕟 Speed Up Meeting Rescheduling With This Simple Trick
Let’s Go!👇
Also — I’d love to hear what you think of On The Pulse. Whether you love it or hate it, or there’s something new you’d like to see included, hit “reply” and share your thoughts!
✉️ TOP STORIES (WITH OUR INSIGHTS)
🤖 Microsoft’s Data Helps Determine Which Jobs Can Benefit The Most From Copilot
Microsoft has released data from the Copilot Usage in the Workplace survey that suggests jobs in cybersecurity and sales benefit the most from Copilot’s AI in terms of saved time, while jobs in legal and supply chain benefit the least.
Full Story and Our Insights:
Microsoft has released data on which jobs benefit most from AI, and the results might change perspectives on AI adoption.
In the Copilot Usage in the Workplace survey, 1,300 early users of Copilot were asked about their daily time savings, with options ranging from no savings to over an hour saved.
By segmenting this data by job function, Microsoft discovered the following:
Roles in cybersecurity, product development, and sales/business development report the most time savings.
Roles in procurement, legal, and supply chain report the least time savings.
Source: Microsoft Copilot Usage in the Workplace survey.
Microsoft's findings suggest that AI's value is currently more apparent in roles with straightforward use cases. For example:
Sales: Copilot helps prioritize leads and draft emails quickly, freeing up time to build customer relationships.
Cybersecurity: Professionals need to stay ahead of emerging threats, necessitating rapid adoption of new technologies.
Law: Strict confidentiality and privacy requirements make it more challenging to adapt to AI.
Supply Chain: Integration of new technology is slower due to the complexity of operations and the need to manage a range of vendors and legacy technologies.
Understanding these nuances is crucial for guiding AI rollout across a company. But with 75% of global knowledge workers already using AI, as reported in Microsoft's 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report, it's clear that AI is already transforming work.
🔄 Copilot in OneNote Now Analyzes Handwritten Notes
Insiders now have access to a new Copilot feature in OneNote that allows them to analyze handwritten notes.
Full Story and Our Insights:
Initially launched in November 2023, OneNote Copilot could only analyze typed text. Now, it can also interpret handwritten (inked) notes both from the ribbon and directly on the canvas.
Availability
This feature is currently available to Insiders using OneNote on Windows Version 2404 (Build 17628.20006) or later, and is likely to become generally available later this year.
How to Use OneNote Copilot
Via the Ribbon:
Open OneNote and navigate to handwritten notes.
Click the Copilot icon on the ribbon to open the Copilot pane.
Ask Copilot a question about your handwritten notes.
Via the Canvas:
Select a group of ink strokes using touch, pen, or mouse.
Click the Copilot icon to open the dropdown menu.
Choose a Copilot prompt to summarize, rewrite, or create a To-Do list.
📊 2 New Functions Coming Soon to Excel for Language Translation
Two new Excel functions are now available in Preview that allow users to translate text into different languages and detect languages: =TRANSLATE() and =DETECTLANGUAGE().
Full Story and Our Insights:
Two new functions are coming to Excel soon that will allow users to translate text into different languages and detect the language of text.
Availability
These functions are currently available to Beta Channel users running:
Windows: Version 2407 (Build 16.0.17808.20000) or later
Mac: 16.87 (Build 24062430) or later
Translate Examples
=TRANSLATE("Hello", "en", "es")In the example, “en” is English, which is the source language, and “es” is Spanish, which is the language we want to translate the text into.
=TRANSLATE(“text to translate”, “source language”, “new language”)Detect Language Examples
=DETECTLANGUAGE(“Hola”)This function will return the language of the text in the quotations. In this example, the function will return “es” for Spanish.
=DETECTLANGUAGE(“text to translate”)For more information, please refer to Microsoft’s documentation on the TRANSLATE and DETECTLANGUAGE functions.
🕟 SPEED UP MEETING RESCHEDULING WITH THIS SIMPLE TRICK
Have you ever needed to reschedule a meeting, and found yourself manually editing the start time and date? Thankfully, there’s a faster way to reschedule a meeting, which involves a simple click-and-drag.
In Microsoft Teams:
Click the calendar in the left menu.
Locate the meeting you want to reschedule.
Click and drag the meeting to a new time or day.
In Outlook:
Click the calendar in the left menu.
Locate the meeting you want to reschedule.
Click and drag the meeting to a new time, day, or week.
✅ WRAPPING UP!
That’s all for this edition of On The Pulse.
Thanks for reading and see you soon! 👋