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Interesting question posed to me yesterday
Since MS's Nonprofit Global Leaders Summit, I have been talking to many people in our organisation about the benefits of Gen AI and trying to allay fears that it is going to take their jobs. However, yesterday a person getting started with her career asked me an excellent and very valid question that I did not know how to answer. I thought I would bring it to this community to see if anyone had thoughts or ideas on how to respond to it. This person is a creative person. The question: "I understand that AI can help me do my job. However, I get immense job and self-satisfaction from the creative process and knowing that I am the one who created the content, design, whatever it might be. If I offload that to AI, where does the job satisfaction come in?" Thoughts?Copilot Products: Breakdown
We've seen a lot of copilot demos in the last couple of days: here's what the products are and what they do: 1. Microsoft Copilot: Formerly Bing chat has access to the internet but not your email or calendar 2. Microsoft 365 Copilot: Everything in MS copilot plus access your 365 email, calendar, etc. 3. Microsoft CoPilot Studio: low code interface to customize virtual power agents that enable customization of your AI Community and Microsoft team- please add or correct!Tech and AI for Nonprofits webinar
Want to know how your nonprofit organization can thrive through AI? Check out this webinar on January 16th from 8:00-10:00 AM Pacific as subject matter experts share the latest on tech and AI, success stories, best practices, and practical guidance. Save the date and register for the event here: Tech and AI for NonprofitsThe very first organizational adoption of AI steps ... your experience!
I've been reflecting on what I'm hearing about nonprofit AI adoption from leaders in the early stages of the journey. That critical first step is to understand and listen to staff concerns about how AI might change their jobs and other real or perceived concerns. * Fear of job of obsoletism due to “offloading” tasks to the AI - that their job might go away or be revert from full-time to part-time contract work. * Discomfort over the rapid pace of change and perceived steep learning curve while being overwhelmed with current workloads. * Worry about the impersonal nature of AI, which might diminish human interaction and decision-making in professional settings. * Concerns about losing their sense of purpose and job satisfaction. Once people put their hands on the tech, they realize that some of these are a perception. I've also heard concerns at this stage - something along the lines of "It takes too much to experiment, I could just write the **bleep** email myself in less time." I think that is more about habit change and acquiring a new skill. What concerns are you hearing and how have you addressed them?
Copilot nonprofit grant proposal/request/suggestion
Having recently attended Microsoft 365 Community Conference in Florida I came away with a far better understanding of how Copilot could be so useful in the nonprofit sector but that the cost is real block for nonprofits I deal with so wanted to share (partial) email I sent to try to spread the word a bit .. "Whilst I’m pretty up on things in the 365 area, I did find the various (!) sessions on Copilot very useful to me in moving my somewhat sceptical pre-conference thoughts on AI/Copilot in general 🙄 to a realisation of just how useful this could be, especially with the Copilot for Microsoft 365 integration with tenant data, to all of course but especially to SMB’s and nonprofits that I deal with. It’s a fantastic new tool across the spectrum of 365 apps and with SMB’s and nonprofits having little if any internal IT resources to help, I believe it can prove to be of major benefit to them, providing the knowledge, data and reporting that traditionally they’d turn to IT folks for and that’s not counting the productivity and AI benefits outlined throughout the conference on top. My wave of enthusiasm for Copilot is tempered however with the realisation of the significant cost of Copilot ($30 / month / user) as that even at the corporate level must be a tough call to justify but for SMB’s it’s vastly worse with their limited financial resources to try and come up with decent ROI details and for nonprofits, who I mainly now work with these days, it’s effectively impossible to consider, even to the extent that I doubt many will even get the chance to look at or use it at all! Given that Microsoft do a great job with providing the various offers and grants for nonprofits currently (the two main nonprofits I work with currently benefit tremendously from the Business Basic licences across the board, the 10 user Business Premium grant and the Azure $2000 / annum amongst everything) so it would be so useful if say a 10 or even 5 user licence for Copilot could be provided on a grant basis (as with the Business Premium) so that nonprofits could at least get a chance to try Copilot with then perhaps a reduced price for them on a licence basis over and beyond the initial 5/10 grant ones." I don't know what others think, especially Microsoft :), but does this strike a chord with anyone? Thanks - Derek PapworthJoin the AI Skills challenge now through 4/19
Are you looking to develop your technical AI skills? Do you have a team member who is looking to incorporate AI into your organization's technology? Join thousands of other learners all working together to get skilled fast and earn an industry-recognized certificate! The Microsoft Learn AI Skills Challenge is a month-long immersive challenge experience to help learners accelerate their AI skilling and prepare to earn a Microsoft Credential. There will be four challenges for a range of experiences that will cover AI Fundamentals, Azure Open AI, Azure Machine Learning, and Microsoft Fabric. A selection of complementary live and on-demand engagements across Learn Live, Community, and Exam Readiness will guide learners through their AI journey and culminate in a FREE certification exam. The challenge will run from 3/19 to 4/19. Start the challenge
Integrate MS AI into our 3rd party app
Is there a way to integrate AI (copilot) into our 3rd party app? Our app is used by large number of users to access technical content. They have to navigate through tons of content which is not very efficient. The AI for example could based on the user profile, push matching content on the top. This is just one example, there are many more. I am not sure whether MS NP division has any dedicated team who collaborate with NP organisations like us on such needs, is there a way to contact someone there? Luckily, I found this community while looking for ways to contact MS. I can already see some interesting discussions in different sections.Demo Days for Nonprofits
Looking for live training on AI for your organization? Do you want to learn how to use AI-powered tools and technologies to help you automate processes, streamline everyday tasks, analyze existing data, ensure accessibility, generate new ideas, and craft relevant messaging? If so, join us for Demo Days: Microsoft Tools and Technologies for Nonprofits, a series of live trainings that will show you how to make the most of Microsoft products for your nonprofit mission. Each event focuses on a different AI-powered tool available in the Office Suite and is tailored to the most common functions at a nonprofit: program management, marketing, fundraising, people development, and administrative tasks. Learn more and register below! All sessions are scheduled for 8am PDT, and on-demand recordings will be available for all who register, even if you cannot make that time. Sessions will be held in English with captions available in Arabic, Hindi, Chinese (Traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish. You can register for one or all the sessions, depending on your interest and availability. Each session will last for one hour and will include a live demonstration of Microsoft features and scenarios as well as a Q&A session with the presenter. Topics include: Prompt engineering for Nonprofits Reimagine your workflow with Copilot Power Platform Citizen Developer I: Where to start? Making your content more inclusive and user-friendly with Microsoft Accessibility tools How to create and deploy conversational bots in minutes with Copilot Studio. Don't miss this opportunity to learn how to use Microsoft tools and technologies for your nonprofit mission. Register today for Demo Days and get ready to transform your nonprofit work with Microsoft products! These sessions are open to any nonprofit so please feel free to share with others.
