How to prepare your business for Copilot and AI
A free, no-jargon guide for owners of UK businesses around Lichfield, Tamworth, Cannock and the wider West Midlands who like the look of Microsoft Copilot and want to know what has to be true before it is worth paying for.
Tuesday 15 September, 12:30. Thirty minutes on Teams.
Read the guide, then bring your questions. Andy walks through what AI actually needs from your business before it earns its money, and stays on afterwards for anything specific to yours.
The demonstrations are impressive. What they do not show you is the preparation underneath.
Hi, I’m Andy. I have been running Initial IT from Lichfield since 2004, and at the moment almost every conversation I have with a business owner gets round to AI. They have seen someone build a report in seconds or summarise a week of email in one prompt, and they want to know whether it would work for them.
The honest answer is that it depends on things that have very little to do with AI. When you watch someone using Copilot well, you are seeing the last step of a much longer process. You do not see how their files are organised, how their permissions are set, or how consistent their processes are.
That is why two businesses can buy the same licences in the same month and have completely different experiences. This guide is the plain-English version of what I check before I tell anyone Copilot is worth the money.
No vendor pitch and no scare tactics. Read it, and you will know whether your business is ready, or which two or three things to sort out first.
Andy Price, Founder & MD, Initial IT · Lichfield
AI does not create new security risks so much as expose the ones you already had. If someone can ask Copilot to find the salary file, they could always open the salary file. The difference is that now it takes seconds instead of an afternoon of clicking about.
Andy Price, Initial IT
Copilot, explained the way I would explain it on a phone call
Read it cover to cover in about ten minutes, or skim the bits that matter to you. Written for the owner of a business up to 100 staff, not for an IT director.
Start with the time, not the tool
Every new technology arrives with the same trap, which is getting fascinated by the tool instead of the problem it solves. A better starting point is to look at where time actually disappears in a normal week, and work back from there.
Why your files decide the answer
Copilot is only as good as the information it can reach. Think about handing a filing system to a new starter. If everything is named sensibly and stored in one place they find what they need in seconds. If it is spread across desktops, inboxes and three versions of the same document, they cannot.
Who can see what, really
Permissions get more complicated than anyone intended. People change roles, temporary access quietly becomes permanent, and old folders never get reviewed. AI is a very good reason to go and look properly.
The security foundations
Weak passwords, missing updates, shared accounts and systems nobody has reviewed in years can sit in the background for a long time without causing trouble. AI makes your data more valuable and easier to reach, which is exactly when those gaps start to matter.
It is a people project too
Without guidance, people make one of two mistakes. They avoid AI completely because they are not sure how to use it, or they trust it far more than they should. Neither is much use, and the guide covers what to tell your team.
Is your Microsoft 365 ready?
Copilot works best when it can see across email, documents, Teams conversations, calendars and files in OneDrive and SharePoint. Most businesses find they are already paying for tools they are not using properly, and fixing that helps whether Copilot arrives tomorrow or next year.
You will get the most out of this if…
You are being asked about AI and want a straight answer
Someone on your team has seen what Copilot can do and wants to know when they can have it. You would rather understand the decision properly than buy on a whim or say no for another year.
You already pay for Microsoft 365
Email, Teams and OneDrive are in there. Whether the rest of it is being used properly is another question, and it happens to be the same question that decides whether Copilot will be any good.
Your files live in more than one place
Some things are in SharePoint, some on an old server, some on people’s desktops, and there are two versions of the important spreadsheet. This is the single most common reason Copilot underwhelms people.
You hold real client data
Law firms, accountancy practices, financial services, healthcare, anything where confidentiality matters. Before you point AI at that data you want to be certain the permissions underneath it are right.
This is what we actually do for clients across Lichfield and the West Midlands.
An honest look at whether your Microsoft 365 setup is ready, a permissions and access review before anything is switched on, the cyber security work that should be in place either way, and a plain-English rollout with the training that makes people actually use it. If the answer is that you are not ready yet, we will tell you that rather than sell you licences. There is more on our Microsoft Copilot and AI page.