Building Your First Copilot Use Cases — A Practical Starter Kit
We’re nearing the end of this Copilot beginner’s series with just one more episode to come after today. In the last few episodes we’ve seen who benefits from Copilot and how it fits into everyday SME roles. But now in the penultimate episode we’ll cover the part that turns interest into real value:
Choosing your first Copilot use cases.
Following along the same introduction theme, this episode gives you a practical, realistic starter kit, and provides the approach SMEs can use to build momentum with very little impact on their teams. No buzzwords. No “AI transformation” clichés. Just real simple tasks, real examples, and a clear path to getting started.
🧭 Why Start With Use Cases?
Well because Copilot succeeds when it solves actual specific problems, not when it’s handed out and left to chance.
SMEs that get the best results start small, test the water so to speak and begin to understand the value using:
- A handful of tasks
- A small group of users
- Clear wins within the first week
This will help build confidence, reduce resistance, and show the business what’s possible. These steps show how:
Step One: Identify the “High‑Friction” Tasks
These are the tasks you can identify that:
- Take too long
- Are repetitive
- Always or even sometimes require rewriting
- Involve summarising or explaining
- Are important but not enjoyable
Every Company and SME will have them.
Some examples to think about with high‑friction are:
- Writing follow‑up emails
- Summarising meetings
- Drafting proposals
- Creating reports
- Analysing spreadsheets
- Preparing job descriptions
- Tidying up documents
- Creating SOPs or checklists
Those tasks that people loath or make people sigh before they start it, that’s a good candidate.
Step Two: Match Tasks to Roles
Use the role mapping from Episode 8 to identify where Copilot will have the biggest impact first.
Here’s a quick cheat sheet:
| Role | High‑Value Use Cases |
| Business Owners | Email summaries, strategy drafts, meeting insights |
| Admins | Reports, agendas, follow‑ups, document clean‑up |
| Sales | Proposals, call summaries, follow‑ups |
| Finance | Spreadsheet analysis, financial summaries |
| HR | Policies, job descriptions, onboarding docs |
| Marketing | Social posts, newsletters, content repurposing |
| Operations | SOPs, checklists, incident summaries |
| IT/Security | Policy drafts, incident summaries, documentation |
Start with the roles that feel the most pain.
Step Three: Pick around 5–10 Starter Use Cases
Here’s a practical starter kit designed specifically for SMEs. These are those use cases that consistently deliver quick wins.
⭐ Starter Use Case #1: Summarising Emails and Threads
Why it works: Everyone drowns in email. Copilot cuts through it.
Real example: A director asks Copilot:
“Summarise the last 20 unread emails and highlight anything urgent.”
They get a clean digest in seconds.
⭐ Starter Use Case #2: Drafting Customer or Supplier Emails
Why it works: Email writing is repetitive and time‑consuming.
Real example: An office manager says:
“Draft a polite follow‑up email to a customer who hasn’t replied for a week.”
Copilot produces a ready‑to‑send message.
⭐ Starter Use Case #3: Summarising Teams Meetings
Why it works: Meetings generate actions, but people forget them.
Real example: A salesperson asks:
“Summarise today’s call and list the customer’s requirements, concerns, and next steps.”
Copilot extracts everything automatically.
⭐ Starter Use Case #4: Turning Notes Into Documents
Why it works: Most SMEs rely on handwritten notes, voice notes, or rough drafts.
Real example: A field supervisor uploads rough notes and asks:
“Turn these into a customer‑ready service report.”
Copilot formats it professionally.
⭐ Starter Use Case #5: Analysing Spreadsheets
Why it works: Finance teams spend hours interpreting data.
Real example: A finance manager asks:
“Explain the main changes in our monthly expenses and highlight anything unusual.”
Copilot spots trends instantly.
⭐ Starter Use Case #6: Drafting Policies, SOPs, and Guides
Why it works: Documentation is essential but time‑consuming.
Real example: An HR manager asks:
“Create a first draft of a remote‑working policy based on our existing documents.”
Copilot produces a structured draft.
⭐ Starter Use Case #7: Content Repurposing
Why it works: Marketing teams need more output than time allows.
Real example: A marketer asks:
“Turn this webinar transcript into a blog post and three LinkedIn posts.”
Copilot handles the heavy lifting.
⭐ Starter Use Case #8: IT & Security Documentation
Why it works: IT teams are overloaded with admin.
Real example: An IT admin asks:
“Summarise the last 24 hours of security alerts and highlight anything unusual.”
Copilot produces a clear, actionable summary.
Step Four: Build a Pilot Group Around These Use Cases
Choose 3–5 people who:
- Represent different roles
- Are open to experimenting
- Communicate well
- Can share feedback
Give them the starter use cases and let them try them for a week.
This creates:
- Real examples
- Real wins
- Real confidence
- Real momentum
Step Five: Capture the Wins and Share Them
This is where adoption accelerates. Take the time to really understand the benefit to each of the pilot users. The more you get the easier the next stage will be.
Ask your pilot group:
- What saved them the most time
- What surprised them
- What they want to try next
Turn these into:
- Short internal posts
- Quick demos
- Team updates
People trust colleagues more than technology so even get the group together to tease out thoughts and benefits they didn’t even realise they had experienced. Get the conversation going.
⭐ Bonus: How to Pilot an Agentic AI Use Case (Simple SME Approach)
Agentic AI is still new territory for most SMEs, so the goal isn’t to automate everything at once — it’s to run a safe, controlled pilot that shows what’s possible without risking disruption. For those looking to jump into Agentic AI a different approach is similar but requires a different deployment approach.
Here’s a short, practical framework you can use.
Pick a low‑risk, high‑value workflow (A business process in need of automation)
Choose something that is:
- Repetitive
- Rules‑based
- Currently done manually
- Annoying but important
Examples:
- Chasing overdue tasks
- Checking device compliance
- Sending appointment reminders
- Notifying staff about missing information
- Monitoring shared mailboxes
These are perfect because they’re predictable and easy to measure.
Define the goal in one sentence
Agentic AI works best when the goal is clear.
Example goal: “Reduce missed appointments by automatically reminding customers and offering rescheduling options.”
Example goal: “Identify devices that haven’t checked in for 14 days and notify users automatically.”
Example goal: “Identify contracts reviews earlier and analyse the key points before it’s too late or last minute.”
Example goal: “Simplify all the HR requests and queries received ensuring accuracy backed by company policy.”
Write a single instruction (the agent prompt)
This is the part SMEs often overthink. A good agentic prompt is just a clear instruction describing the workflow.
Example:
“Check tomorrow’s appointments. Identify anyone who has missed or rescheduled more than twice. Send a friendly reminder with their appointment details and offer two alternative times. Update the calendar if they reschedule and notify me of any changes”
Or maybe a prompt for IT tasks
“Check for any devices that haven’t checked in for 14 days, notify the user, and create a ticket if they don’t respond within 24 hours”
One instruction. The agent handles the steps.
Connect the key data points.
When using Copilot Studio connect the relevant data points be it SharePoint Lists, CRM systems or Outlook data. These serve as the vital data source points from which the prompt will build its knowledge and structure the outputs.
Run the pilot for 7–14 days
Keep it small:
- 1 workflow
- 1–2 people involved
- Clear boundaries
- Daily or weekly check‑ins
You’re not testing the whole business — just one workflow.
Measure these three things
You don’t need dashboards or KPIs. Just track:
⏱ Time saved
“How long did this task take before vs. now?”
📉 Errors reduced
“Did we miss fewer follow‑ups, reminders, or checks?”
🙂 Stress removed
“Did this reduce mental load for the team?”
These three metrics tell you everything you need to know.
Decide whether to scale, refine, or stop
After two weeks, ask:
- Did it work reliably
- Did it save time
- Did it reduce admin
- Did it create any issues
- Is it worth expanding
If yes, try scaling it. If not, refine or choose a different workflow.
🧭 Why This Works for SMEs
This approach keeps the risk low , builds confidence and shows value quickly.
🧭 Episode 9 Summary
Your first Copilot use cases should be:
- Simple
- Practical
- High‑impact
- Easy to repeat
- Easy to measure
Start with 5–10 tasks across a small pilot group. Let them experiment. Capture the wins. Share the results.
This is how SMEs build momentum without overwhelming people and how Copilot becomes part of everyday work rather than a one‑off experiment.
Coming Next: Episode 10
In the last episode I’ll summarise the whole journey and cover how to measure the Copilot Success — What Good Looks Like in an SME. As a beginner series the purpose is to help you gain an understanding of the technology to take you to the next step and without being a burden.