How Copilot AI Makes SharePoint Search 2X Faster for Enterprise Teams?
Global studies show that most SharePoint users spend around 4 hours per week, just to find the right document. With a Copilot powered SharePoint search, you can reduce the time spent searching for the right documents by leveraging the power of AI. Here, we will look at the practical steps to follow to make search 2X faster with SharePoint AI search.
What Makes Searching Documents Difficult in SharePoint?
Here are some of the common reasons why SharePoint users often find it difficult to find the right document at the right time.
Too Many Documents, Too Little Context
When you search for a document on SharePoint, you get hundreds of results without any indication of which file is the right one. Finding the correct version becomes a tedious process.
Poor Metadata and Inconsistent File Naming
We have seen many businesses not having strong document governance policies. As a result, they save files using inconsistent naming conventions. Apart from that, missing metadata makes SharePoint search results unreliable.
Duplicate Files Across Departments
You have different departments. Often, they store slightly different versions of the same document. So, when you run a search, you get documents that look similar, but you don’t know which is the right one.
Challenges in Finding the Most Relevant Version
Even when documents exist, you and your team members struggle to identify which version is approved, which needs validation and from whom. All this creates confusion about which is the right document.
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What are the 4 ways Copilot makes SharePoint search 2X faster?
Let us now look at the different ways in which you can use Copilot SharePoint to search the right documents more than 2 times faster.
Also read: – Microsoft Exchange Migration Process Guide
What is Microsoft Copilot in SharePoint?
Microsoft Copilot in SharePoint is a purpose-built AI agent in SharePoint that helps users to execute actions with the help of simple, natural language prompts. It can help you with tasks like finding files, summarizing documents, or getting insights.
There are two types of Copilot AI agents that you can use. One is the prebuilt Copilot AI agent that comes embedded in your SharePoint Online environment. The second is your own custom AI agent, which can be built using Microsoft Copilot Studio.
But more than that later. Let us look at how you can make SharePoint search 2X faster with a Copilot AI agent.
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It Helps You Find the Right Documents Faster
Scenario: Someone from the sales team may find five versions of the same proposal in different folders. This creates confusion, delays, and might also expose you to serious compliance risks.
How Copilot Helps: When you ask your Copilot for the document, it understands the context, recency, and relevance unlike your standard search which just matches the keywords. This allows you to find the latest and approved version faster, without manually checking for it.
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Find Documents from Different Platforms
Scenario: Your team has important knowledge spread across SharePoint, Teams, Outlook and OneDrive instead of being in one central location.
This wastes time for the users as they must search across multiple platforms.
How Copilot helps: Copilot connects multiple Microsoft platforms like Outlook, Teams and more and pulls information from different systems. Therefore, you can quickly find the right information from different platforms.
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Making Information Quickly Accessible to New Employees
Scenario: During the onboarding, the new employee spends a lot of time asking around for policies, SOPs and other documentation. This slows down the onboarding process.
How Does Copilot Help
Your new employee can ask a direct question like
“What is the procurement approval process for new vendors?”
They will get instant access to summarized answers and relevant documents without having to wait for support
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Leaders need Quick Insights, Not Full Documents
Scenario: Senior executives often don’t have the time to go through entire documents. They need summaries and insights from the document, but that is not readily available.
How Copilot Helps:
You can get instant summaries of important documents. Just ask simple questions like
“What were the top risks identified in last quarter’s compliance review?”
And Copilot will offer you instant answers without you having to go through lengthy documents. This saves 80% of your time searching for documents.
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How to use in-built SharePoint Copilot for faster search?
As said before, SharePoint comes with an inbuilt Copilot agent. Here, we will talk about how to implement and how to use the solution.
How to Implement Copilot within SharePoint?
STEP 1: Verify Microsoft 365 Eligibility
- You need to make sure that your company has the required M365 subscription that supports Copilot.
- Along with the eligible license plans, you will also need the required admin permissions
STEP 2: Purchase and Assign Copilot Licenses
- Purchase the necessary Copilot licenses separately.
- Assign the licenses to the selected users.
STEP 3: Enable Microsoft Graph and Connected Experiences
- You will need to activate Microsoft Graph so that Copilot can access data across SharePoint and other connected Microsoft applications
STEP 4: Review SharePoint Permissions and Access Controls
- Copilot follows existing permissions. So, users will see only what they are allowed to see.
- Therefore, admins should review user permissions, group access, department controls, and restriction settings for confidential documents.
STEP 5: Enable Copilot within SharePoint
- Once the licensing and permissions are configured, Copilot becomes enabled inside SharePoint
- Copilot will also be accessible across Microsoft 365 apps like Microsoft Teams, Outlook and other applications
STEP 6: Configure Admin Policies and Governance Rules
- Make sure that your administrators should define usage policies, data governance policies, AI usage standards, and monitor security.
STEP 7: Testing
- Make sure that you test the Copilot with a small pilot group before you roll it out for the entire team.
- Make changes to the system as per the feedback received from the system.
How to Use SharePoint Copilot for Faster Search?
Once the Copilot is enabled within SharePoint, here is how you can use Copilot SharePoint search.
STEP 1: Open SharePoint and Access Copilot
Click on the SharePoint icon on your SharePoint site or SharePoint document library.
STEP 2: Ask Natural Language Questions
Instead of using queries like:
“Vendor contract template final”
Try to use simple text phases like
“Show me the latest, approved vendor contract”
This improves accuracy and reduces search time by as much as 80%
STEP 3: Be Specific About Your Intent
When you make your prompts specific, you get better answers. So, you need make your prompts specific.
For example, instead of using prompts like
“Onboarding process”
You can use,
“What is approved onboarding process for remote employees?”
STEP 4: Get Summaries for Large Documents
If the document is large, there is no need to spend hours reading through it. You can simply ask for summaries of documents
For example, you can make ask Copilot in SharePoint to summarize documents for:
- Summarize detailed contracts
- Understanding the payment terms
- Discovering the key findings in a report
Within seconds, you get the information in a summarized format. This will save you a a great deal of time in having to search and read the file.
STEP 5: Search Across Teams, Outlook and OneDrive
One of the biggest advantages is that Copilot allows you to search across SharePoint as well as other Microsoft applications. So, even if the file or data is not available inside SharePoint, you will still be able to search for it using Copilot SharePoint search.
Just ask it to search for data across connected platforms, and it will surface the right document and/or data for you.
STEP 6: Try to Ask Follow-up Questions for Deeper Insights
To get deeper insights, you can always ask follow-up questions. For example, when you have already asked:
“Search and summarize the vendor agreement”
You can follow it up with:
“What renewal terms are included?”
This helps you with faster knowledge discovery and further reduces the time to search.
This is how SharePoint Copilot search helps you to reduce the time to search for documents by 2X.
Build Your AI Agent with Copilot Studio
Explore how Evolvous can help you build a personalized AI agent for SharePoint with Microsoft Copilot Studio. Contact our team to know more.
Make SharePoint 2x Faster with Custom Copilot
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much does it cost to set up SharePoint Copilot?
Copilot is charged on usage. So, the more you use the more you have to have to pay. In Canada, the basic business plan starts from CAD $25 per user/month.
- How long does it take to set up Copilot in SharePoint?
The actual process takes just a couple of days. However, you should take your time planning the usage policies, permissions and procuring the right number of licenses?
- Is Copilot Secure?
Yes, if you have configured it correctly, then Copilot is completely secure. It comes with in-built protection measures that keeps your data safe.
