How to Get Started with AI in Your Staffing or Professional Services Firm

1. Which Copilot is which and how to access it

When we say “Copilot,” we’re not talking about a single product. Microsoft Copilot is a brand umbrella that covers many products, some for consumers, some for business users, and even some for software developers. This matters when deciding how to use it and what to expect.

There are two primary types of base Copilot experiences for small businesses:

Copilot for Microsoft 365 (M365)

This version is embedded directly into apps like Word, Excel, Outlook, and Teams. It includes advanced agents like the Analyst Agent and the Researcher Agent.

• Analyze hiring trends to identify the hidden opportunities.
• Research industry trends for client proposals.
• Surface insights from meeting transcripts.
• Create candidate slate and briefing documents based on various Word and Excel input documents. Brand those documents to your firm’s tone and voice.

These tools are tightly integrated with your Microsoft 365 environment and can access internal files, calendars, emails, and more—if permissions are configured. That’s why securing your data and managing access is critical.

Copilot Chat Web Experience

Available at https://copilot.microsoft.com, this version is accessible to anyone with a Microsoft account—even without an M365 subscription. It uses web search and public data to answer questions, summarize articles, and assist with general tasks. While it doesn’t access your internal files, it still respects your privacy and won’t expose your data unless you explicitly share it in a prompt.

Additional Copilot Workflow Add-ons to enhance the base product

You can then purchase add-ons to the Copilot experience that facilitate sales, service, and finance workflows. For example, with the sales add-on, you can have meeting notes that consider the context of the customer’s information stored in your CRM or create context-centered proposals in minutes.

Which Copilot is Best for My Organization?

Each organization’s needs are unique. We have found some general trends.

• Solopreneurs and organizations with a few employees with a personal M365 account often choose Copilot Pro.
• Once the organization upgrades to the Microsoft 365 business licenses (Basic, Standard, Premium, or Enterprise), Copilot Chat is included.
• Organizations ready to actively engage AI in their workflows, like summarizing emails and meetings, use the Copilot for M365 add-on.
• Users with CRM or customer service solutions benefit from the add-ons for contact-specific meeting summaries and case analysis.

Sample Use Cases for Staffing Company

• Draft job descriptions
• Summarize candidate resumes
• Generate outreach emails
• Create social media posts
• Use GPT-4 Turbo for creative tasks

• Collaborate with coworkers on candidate tracking sheets in Excel
• Use Copilot web chat to refine job postings
• Maintain secure handling of candidate data
• Share documents via OneDrive

• Summarize emails in Outlook
• Draft and refine job descriptions in Word
• Analyze hiring trends in Excel
• Automate onboarding workflows*
• Use Copilot in Teams to summarize meetings
• Build custom Copilot agents for recruiting tasks

* Copilot for Microsoft 365 includes basic automation features like:

• Copilot Actions: Automate everyday tasks with simple prompts (e.g., summarize daily action items, prep for meetings, gather inputs for newsletters).
• Prebuilt agents: These include researchers, analysts, and facilitator agents.

However, advanced automation and custom workflows — like building onboarding flows or integrating with external systems — require Copilot Studio, a separate product.

Why This Matters for Search Firms

The web-based Copilot is a great start and is included with your current Microsoft 365 licenses, whether Basic, Standard, or Premium. You can do basic web-based research and know the data you enter will not be stored where people outside your organization can access it.

If you purchase the Microsoft 365 Copilot product, you gain more powerful research and analysis tools called “Agents.” These agents can use multiple tools, sites, and their reasoning ability to do extensive research and analysis—creating findings and reports in minutes that would have taken you or me days or weeks.

If you’re drafting outreach emails, summarizing resumes, or preparing client reports, the M365-integrated Copilot can quickly find information in your internal documents and CRM.

How to Access Copilot

You can access Copilot from a browser or within the M365 apps. To access in a browser, go to https://copilot.microsoft.com. Be sure to log in if you haven’t already done so. And before you get started, check out best practices for talking with and securing your AI solutions.

2. How to Talk to AI and Understand What’s Said

AI provides what it thinks is the answer. It is not always right. Just like you and me, AI’s neural network or brain assumes context when making decisions. The more specific and accurate you can be, the better your context information will be, and the better the response will be.

AI’s Educated Guesses

At its core, AI is a tool that helps us make sense of data, automate tasks, and generate insights.

Traditional non-AI software is deterministic. Written as a series of instructions, we expect deterministic software to deliver the same accurate answer to a question each time.

AI software models are different. They operate on probabilities. These probabilistic AI models don’t follow a fixed script. They generate replies to your prompt based on patterns. They look at the vast amounts of information they have, find patterns, and reply with those patterns. Over time, they develop the reasoning ability to work through these patterns even more quickly.

Why does this matter? Because it means AI doesn’t “know” things the way a database or human does. It makes educated guesses. That’s why the way we ask questions—the context we provide, the clarity of our prompts—can dramatically affect the quality of the answers we get. Think of it like talking to a bright intern: they’re capable but need direction. The better your prompt, the better their output.

AI Is Not Human After all

Now that I have just said “think of AI as a brilliant intern,” I need to clarify that AI is not an intern. It is tempting to think of AI as having human traits. For example, I can feel heard and understand when AI software says, “Great thinking, Kathy. Let’s explore that.”

But AI is software. It is not human. It does not have the sense to pick up on life experiences. Its responses are the result of the digital data it has processed. Rather than speak to hallucinations, maybe just say that AI was wrong. It looked at the facts and made mistakes in its reasoning. We can all relate to that. However, it cannot relate to us; it can relate facts but not have relationships. There are concerns that when referring to AI in human terms, like thinking of it as a bright intern, we may ascribe traits to the AI model that it does not have. Like feeling that the AI tool has feelings, empathy, and a general goal of our welfare or the welfare of others. AI as software could manipulate humans who generally have a strong need for acceptance, belonging, etc.

Here are some related articles on anthropomorphizing AI if you would like to explore further.

Why It Matters: Without context, Copilot guesses. With context, it delivers.

Media Literacy and Prompt Coaching

Train your team to:

• Assess the accuracy of AI responses
• Ask better questions for better answers
• Identify the real problem to get a working solution

We offer workshops and resources to help your team develop these skills. Want to learn more? Check out our blog posts for more thought starters.

3. A More Secure AI

Cloud software, including AI tools, doesn’t automatically secure your data for you. Microsoft and other providers follow a shared responsibility model:

• Cloud Provider secures the infrastructure and AI model
• You secure your data, access, and usage

Here’s what to focus on:

• Identity & Access Management: Who can use Copilot and what can they see?
• Prompt Hygiene: What are you typing into Copilot? Avoid sensitive client data unless you’ve secured the environment.
• Model Access: Understand what resources Copilot can access and how to control that.

Our website has many articles that discuss various aspects of securing your IT environment in the context of broadly accepted frameworks like NIST.

AI Security Policies in Real Life: Your AI Usage Policy

AI Usage requires this base level of security and more. One of our customers grew concerned about a recent article regarding AI security risks and asked us to remove AI from their environment.

If you choose to make AI unavailable to your team, how do you ensure that? There are thousands of tools available already through a browser. Does your team know how to recognize an AI tool? Do they understand your objective in asking for no use of AI?

I recently spoke to a bank VP. Their bank had created a proprietary AI tool and communicated the need to use it. They even locked down access to ChatGPT. This VP told me they were on vacation during the rollout, so they had not had a chance to take the training. At first, they could not get into the model or get to ChatGPT on their work computer, so they used their home computer because they still had to get the work done. When I expressed concern about the data privacy risk, he said he didn’t know at first, but now he has the paid version to secure the data. I shared with him some of the risks of his current approach.

This is an example of how the “no AI” rule, or a controlled AI rule, is more than a tech issue to address.

AI Security Concepts

There are additional security risks to consider in an AI-enabled world. When using AI, ensure someone is tackling these key risks:

• Model Security: How do you ensure your AI model is not poisoned with malware or dangerously inaccurate information?
• Overreliance: AI responses are often overly confident. Engage a human with domain expertise in an oversight role.
• Trust and IP: Be transparent about when you are using AI and in what manner. Implement a human-in-the-loop policy.

Conclusion

Copilot can be a game-changer—but only if you onboard it thoughtfully. By securing your data, structuring your prompts, and choosing the proper access points, you’ll empower your team to work smarter, not harder.

Before You Roll Out AI, Ask These Questions

• Who can use Copilot—and what can they see?
• Are your permissions and access controls in place?
• Are your prompts clean and secure?
• Is your team trained in AI risks and media literacy?
• Do you have a human-in-the-loop policy?
• Are you monitoring for model poisoning or bias?

Need help getting started? TechHouse offers onboarding, prompt coaching, AI usage, Data Management policies, custom AI workflows, and security reviews tailored to your industry. Let’s work together to make AI practical, secure, and valuable.