Microsoft Viva Copilot: How to enhance the employee experience

Microsoft Viva, the employee experience platform from Microsoft, continues to evolve to help organizations improve the well-being, productivity, and engagement of their teams. With the introduction of Copilot in Microsoft Viva, the platform has been further enhanced, offering an AI-powered tool designed to simplify and optimize employees' daily tasks.

Directly integrated into Viva applications, Microsoft 365 Copilot leverages advanced AI capabilities to provide personalized assistance, predictive analytics, and tailored solutions, boosting efficiency and enhancing the overall workplace experience. In this article, we will explore Copilot's integrations within Viva's key modules and how it extends their functionality with the power of generative AI.

Microsoft Viva Copilot: an introduction

In today's fast-paced corporate world, employee productivity is often seen as a key factor for improving performance—and that’s certainly true. However, it’s important to remember that productivity alone cannot guarantee lasting success. In fact, relying solely on productivity risks stifling creativity, limiting teamwork, and increasing employee burnout.

Microsoft's research in this area reveals that the most successful organizations prioritize both productivity and employee engagement. Companies with an engaged workforce have achieved financial results that are twice as strong as those with a disengaged team.

With this understanding, Microsoft originally launched Microsoft Viva, a suite of tools designed solely to enhance employee engagement and improve internal corporate communication.

Now, with Copilot, Microsoft Viva leverages the power of next-generation AI to accelerate this new performance equation, where engagement and productivity combine to drive better business outcomes and success. Viva Copilot is built on the Microsoft 365 Copilot system, combining the power of large language models (LLMs) with data from Microsoft Graph and Viva applications.

This gives leaders a new way to understand and engage their workforce.

But what exactly does this integration include, and what features does it offer? Let’s explore this together in the upcoming sections.

What are Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Viva?

Before diving into the integration between Copilot and Microsoft Viva, let’s take a moment to revisit the basics for those who may not be familiar with these tools or who might have missed some key points along the way. Let’s take a closer look at the two main players in this article to better understand what they are and what they offer.

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered digital assistant designed to simplify users’ daily tasks, boost productivity, and foster creativity. Its primary focus is on code generation, writing assistance, and collaboration. Seamlessly integrated with popular Microsoft 365 applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams, Copilot provides contextual suggestions and helps users better understand information.

Powered by the cutting-edge GPT-4 language model, Microsoft Copilot boasts impressive features such as auto-completion of code, documentation search, and collaborative writing. Microsoft continues to enhance Copilot over time with new features, showcasing how heavily the Redmond-based company is investing in its Gen AI solution to shape the future of its business products.

The AI digital assistant caters to a wide range of users and professionals, including developers, content creators, and workers seeking AI-powered assistance for their tasks.

Here are the main ways to leverage Microsoft Copilot:

• Adopting Copilot: Microsoft provides various Copilot assistants to enhance productivity and creativity. Integrated across a range of Microsoft products and platforms, Copilot transforms the digital workspace into a more interactive and efficient environment.
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• Extending Copilot: Developers can incorporate external data into Copilot, simplifying user operations and reducing the need to switch contexts. This not only boosts productivity but also promotes greater collaboration. With Copilot, integrating external data into commonly used Microsoft products becomes straightforward.
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• Building your own Copilot: In addition to adoption and extension, users can create a custom Copilot for a unique conversational experience using Azure OpenAI, Cognitive Search, Microsoft Copilot Studio, and other Microsoft Cloud technologies. A personalized Copilot can integrate business data, access real-time external data via APIs, and embed itself within enterprise applications.

Microsoft Copilot is available in various forms, with pricing packages tailored to different use cases, such as:

• Copilot (Free): provides access to generative AI capabilities for managing your computer (on Windows), online searches (in Edge), and general conversations with the web chatbot.
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• Copilot Pro: designed for individual users who want to maximize the potential of generative AI. For around $20 per user per month, this plan provides access to Copilot across tools like Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
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• Copilot for Microsoft 365: tailored for individuals and teams working with Microsoft apps. This version provides access to Copilot Studio, enterprise-grade security, privacy, compliance, and advanced capabilities.

In addition, there are various Copilot versions designed for specific Microsoft tools. For instance, there are Copilot solutions integrated into Microsoft Dynamics for sales and customer service teams, as well as security-focused Copilot tools embedded in Microsoft Purview.

Recently, Microsoft has also begun rolling out and updating a series of industry-specific “Agents” for sectors like finance, customer service, and marketing, equipped with tailored training and features for these specific domains.

Although many Windows 11 users were initially skeptical when Microsoft first began emphasizing Copilot, the service has grown significantly since its preview launch and is now considered one of the best productivity tools in the age of artificial intelligence.

Microsoft Viva

Microsoft Viva is designed to help organizations develop their culture in the era of remote work. In this new modern work experience, applications like SharePoint and Teams have become essential elements in the lives of many companies. Microsoft built upon this concept and introduced Viva as a solution to address the challenges of remote work while preserving its benefits.

Remote work offers advantages such as reducing commuting time, providing the freedom to work without being tied to a specific geographic location, and allowing more time to spend with family. However, as we know, remote work also comes with several disadvantages, including increased distractions and a lack of communication among colleagues.

As an employee experience platform, Microsoft Viva is designed to help companies adapt to a work-from-home environment and overcome these challenges. It is primarily targeted at HR and internal communications; however, it offers multiple uses suited to various management styles. Viva integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Teams and Outlook, meaning that companies can leverage the applications they already use with little to no additional training required.

The main modules of Microsoft Viva are:

• Viva Connections: provides a central access point within Microsoft Teams for corporate content, such as news, communications, and company resources, fostering a sense of belonging and alignment.
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• Viva Insights: offers insights to improve employee well-being and productivity. It provides data-driven suggestions on better time management and reducing work overload stress. Features include planning breaks and tracking working hours.
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• Viva Learning: delivers training content directly in Teams by aggregating courses from Microsoft Learn, LinkedIn Learning, and other platforms. It allows employees to easily access continuous learning opportunities.
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• Viva Topics: uses artificial intelligence to organize company knowledge. It gathers scattered information from documents and conversations to make it easily accessible to employees, reducing the time spent searching for information. While this service is currently available, Microsoft will no longer support it starting in 2025.
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• Viva Goals: focused on OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to improve alignment and focus on outcomes. It helps teams define clear objectives, monitor progress, and align with business strategies.
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• Viva Engage: enables employees to connect, share experiences, and participate in discussions. Formerly known as Yammer, it was rebranded and integrated into Viva by Microsoft with an increased focus on engagement.

Microsoft Viva Copilot: features and functionalities of the integration

Copilot in Viva is the integration of Microsoft 365 Copilot within the Viva platform. Built on the Microsoft 365 Copilot system, it leverages the power of Microsoft 365 apps, LLMs (Large Language Models), Microsoft Graph data, and Viva applications to help engage and understand the workforce, thereby boosting productivity.

Microsoft considers employee engagement a priority for improving business outcomes and success, which is why Microsoft Viva Copilot was introduced. It is a next-generation AI technology designed to enhance productivity and engagement within organizations.

Copilot in Viva promotes clarity and alignment across the workforce and prepares employees for success. Its features are aimed at increasing engagement and productivity in the workplace. For instance:

• Simplified goal setting: Thanks to Copilot integration, leaders and teams can set and track goals more intuitively and quickly. Using AI, Copilot analyzes existing business documents, such as strategic plans and reports, to automatically suggest objectives and key results (OKRs). This approach saves time and ensures clear and consistent alignment with business priorities. The AI also helps identify potential obstacles and monitor progress in real time, enabling more efficient resource and deadline management.
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• Personalized messaging: Copilot's personalized messaging feature helps leaders communicate more effectively with employees. Using AI, Copilot analyzes the tone, context, and communication preferences of recipients, suggesting messages that are empathetic and appropriate. This feature allows managers to reach employees with messages that not only inform but also motivate and engage, improving internal communication. Personalized messages are particularly useful for maintaining regular connections and addressing specific topics such as company updates, recognition, and feedback.
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• Tailored learning programs: Copilot in Viva Learning enables the creation of highly personalized and targeted training programs for employees. Based on roles, required skills, and individual development goals, Copilot suggests customized learning paths. Additionally, the AI identifies the most relevant content from various sources, including Microsoft Learn, LinkedIn Learning, and other platforms, organizing them into structured learning collections. This tailored learning approach allows employees to acquire specific skills to enhance their job performance, making continuous learning an integrated and accessible process.

Copilot in Viva Learning

Copilot in Viva Learning is designed to enhance the learning experience within organizations, enabling users to create structured training paths and quickly identify the most relevant resources for their professional development.

With the support of conversational AI, users can:

• Create learning collections: Copilot assists users in selecting and organizing learning resources to form structured paths. This ensures training content remains organized and accessible to employees with specific needs.
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• Identify relevant resources: The AI can suggest resources tailored to specific roles, projects, or required skills, ensuring employees receive the most targeted and effective training.
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• Summarize learning content: Through AI capabilities, Copilot can generate summaries of training content to facilitate comprehension and retention of key information.

In addition to these features, Microsoft has launched the Copilot Academy in Viva Learning, offering training content on how to use Copilot. Currently, the Academy is available in English and requires a paid license for Viva Suite or Viva Learning, along with a Microsoft 365 account.

Copilot in Viva Engage

Copilot in Viva Engage is designed to facilitate communication between leaders and employees, making workplace interactions more natural and inclusive.

The main features include:

• Post and conversation suggestions: Copilot automatically generates topic suggestions, post ideas, and relevant images. These suggestions help leaders communicate more frequently and consistently, encouraging employees to actively participate in discussions.
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• Employee sentiment analysis: It provides leaders with insights into employee sentiment by analyzing feedback and responses. This helps better understand the organizational climate and proactively address staff concerns.
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• Message tone and length customization: Copilot helps calibrate the tone and length of messages, making them more empathetic and authentic, thereby increasing engagement and trust in workplace dialogue.

These features support the creation of a work environment where communication is open, transparent, and aimed at fostering a sense of belonging.

Copilot in Viva Insights

Copilot in Viva Insights focuses on providing personalized analytics and reports to leaders and employees to enhance organizational well-being and productivity.

Among its key features:

• Generation of personalized reports: Using natural language, Copilot enables leaders and employees to ask specific questions about their teams or organizational performance, delivering detailed and easy-to-understand reports.
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• Simplification of query creation: Automated report generation simplifies data collection and analysis, reducing analysts' workload and accelerating decision-making processes.
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• Copilot dashboard: Integrated into Viva Insights, this dashboard offers a comprehensive view of how Copilot can optimize workflows, including summarizing meetings and updating users on discussions held in Teams.
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• Dashboard accessibility: The Copilot Dashboard is available to users with Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscriptions, ensuring easy access to critical insights.

Copilot in Viva Goals

Copilot in Viva Goals is designed to assist leaders and teams in defining and monitoring business objectives using the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework.

Some of its key features are the following ones:

• Generation and optimization of objectives: Copilot helps users create and refine objectives by leveraging AI to analyze existing strategic documents and suggest OKRs aligned with business priorities.
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• Recommendations based on existing documents: Copilot's AI suggests objectives and key results based on recent documents, such as business plans or strategic reports, simplifying the process of setting OKRs.
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• Progress summaries for objectives: Copilot summarizes progress on objectives, offering a clear and shared view at the team level. Users can identify bottlenecks and view consolidated data to make more informed decisions.
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• Personalization of OKRs: Through detailed analysis of selected documents, Copilot suggests objectives and key results that can be customized and refined to align with organizational goals.

These features enable leaders to maintain alignment and clarity on business priorities, enhancing internal communication and focusing on shared organizational outcomes.

Copilot in Viva Sales

Copilot in Viva Sales is a valuable tool for sales teams, leveraging AI to assist them in their daily tasks by integrating seamlessly with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and other CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platforms. Its goal is to simplify sales workflows, enhance the effectiveness of customer interactions, and optimize sales processes.

The main features of Copilot in Viva Sales include:

Automation of administrative tasks

‍Copilot can automate various repetitive and administrative tasks, such as data entry and CRM updates. This automation reduces the time salespeople spend on operational duties, allowing them to focus more on customer interactions.

Email composition assistance

‍Copilot supports salespeople in crafting personalized emails for customers by suggesting responses based on past conversations, CRM data, and product details. This feature helps deliver targeted and professional responses more quickly, improving communication efficiency and personalization.

Customer conversation analysis

‍Through integration with Microsoft Teams, Copilot can analyze conversations from meetings and customer interactions, identifying key topics, frequently asked questions, and sales opportunities. Salespeople can access summaries and highlights of discussions, saving time on retrieving relevant information.

Action suggestions

‍Based on CRM data and recent interactions, Copilot can suggest actions like follow-ups, responding to specific customer requests, scheduling meetings, or sending tailored documentation. These suggestions help maintain continuous communication and prevent missed engagement opportunities.

Customer insights

‍Copilot in Viva Sales provides sales teams with in-depth insights into customers by gathering information on preferences, past purchases, and habits. These personalized insights enhance sales preparation and enable a more strategic and informed approach to negotiations.

Sales opportunity predictions

‍Using AI models, Copilot can predict sales opportunities and leads with higher success probabilities. These predictions help salespeople focus on the most promising prospects, maximizing their impact and streamlining the acquisition process.

Conclusions

The applications of generative AI in the workplace continue to expand, and it seems there is no field where the latest advancements in artificial intelligence are not contributing to streamlining and simplifying workers’ daily operations.

The field of internal corporate communication is no exception, and the integration between Viva and Copilot is the perfect example. Microsoft's AI assistant enhances Viva's modules with its features, making it easier to understand business objectives and boost employee engagement.

It may not manage communication entirely for you like a digital factotum, but in the right hands, Microsoft’s AI assistant offers a powerful way to streamline daily tasks and significantly simplify their optimization and expansion. This leads to substantial productivity gains that no company should underestimate.

FAQ on Microsoft Copilot in Viva

What is Microsoft Viva Copilot?

Microsoft Viva Copilot is the integration of the AI-powered Copilot assistant within the Microsoft Viva suite modules. It uses advanced language models and Microsoft Graph data to help organizations enhance employee engagement, productivity, and well-being.

What are the main features of Microsoft Viva Copilot?

Microsoft Viva Copilot offers features such as automated goal setting based on existing business documents, personalized message generation to improve internal communication, tailored training programs for employees, sentiment analysis, and detailed reports to optimize decision-making processes.

Which Viva modules integrate with Copilot?

Copilot is integrated into several Viva modules, including Viva Goals, Viva Learning, Viva Engage, Viva Insights, and Viva Sales. Each module leverages AI capabilities to enhance productivity, engagement, and corporate communication.

How does Microsoft Copilot improve training with Viva Learning?

Copilot in Viva Learning enables the creation of structured and personalized learning paths for employees, recommends relevant resources based on roles and goals, and generates summaries to facilitate learning. The Copilot Academy also provides training on AI features, making the learning process even more accessible and effective.

What are the benefits of Copilot in Viva Goals?

In Viva Goals, Copilot analyzes strategic documents to suggest objectives aligned with business priorities, provides clear progress summaries, identifies bottlenecks, and helps make informed decisions, improving alignment and teamwork efficiency.

Is Microsoft Viva Copilot compatible with all Microsoft 365 plans?

Microsoft Viva Copilot is compatible with Microsoft 365 or Office 365 licenses. However, some advanced features, such as the Copilot Academy, require specific licenses like Viva Suite or Viva Learning.

How does Microsoft Viva Copilot support sales teams?

Copilot in Viva Sales automates administrative tasks like CRM updates, suggests actions based on business data, analyzes customer conversations, and provides predictions about sales opportunities, improving team efficiency and strategy.

Does Microsoft Viva Copilot include Viva Topics?

Viva Topics is currently supported, but the module will be deprecated in 2025 and will not be part of future integrations with Copilot.