What Are the Data Requirements for Copilot?

In the ever-evolving landscape of AI-driven software development, tools like Microsoft’s Copilot stand at the forefront of a new coding paradigm. Preparing data optimally for Copilot is more than a technical endeavor—it shapes the very way we approach coding, product creation, and data management. The process raises important questions: How crucial is it to migrate and refine data from legacy systems? How can organizations ensure the privacy of proprietary data while harnessing the capabilities of AI?

While we grapple with these considerations, there’s also the challenge of navigating the potential (and limitations) of tools like Copilot compared to others like ChatGPT. As proficiency in data preparation grows, the future of Copilot and similar tools promises to transform the world of software development. But are we taking the necessary prepatory steps to achieve our lofty goals?

In the next #CollabTalk TweetJam taking place on Wednesday, August 30th at 9am Pacific, the community will once again join forces and have a focused discussion on the topic of “Preparing Your Data for Copilot” where we will offer insights into the intricacies of leveraging Copilot to its fullest potential, providing perspective on the future of Copilot.

In this 1-hour Twitter-based panel discussion, we’ll bring together MVPs and Regional Directors, community experts, partners, consultants, and practitioners to share their perspectives on this important topic.

Anyone can join this community discussion using Twitter and the #CollabTalk hashtag or your favorite Twitter platform. You don’t even need to be an “expert” to participate in the online conversation. Anyone can ask questions, comment on the questions posed, or just “lurk” in the background. These online discussions are open to anyone — you do not have to be on the panel to participate.

This month’s tweetjam is being sponsored by TekkiGurus. Thanks for your support!

If you have never participated in one of these tweetjams, it’s pretty simple: anyone can jump in and share their thoughts, or just lurk in the wings and absorb the wisdom of the crowd. Either way, it’ll be a TON of content to consume in a single hour. You can follow the live session using the Twitter UI of your choice (Twitter.com, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, whatever). How it works is that I’ll post a series of questions every few minutes, and people will respond to Q1, Q2, Q3 and so forth with A1, A2, A3, always including the #CollabTalk hashtag with their answers. Feel free to reply as often (or as little) as you’d like, ask your own follow-up questions, share relevant links, re-tweet others, and engage with the audience.

The questions we will discuss during the session include:

1. What types of data are most essential to prepare and train Copilot for specific tasks?
2. How important to Copilot is it to migrate, consolidate, and clean up corporate data that is stored in legacy files?
3. What are your plans to review and assess your compliance, information architecture (IA) and governance policies & procedures in preparation for Copilot?
4. How will you ensure your proprietary data and code remains private when training Copilot, and validate its effectiveness after testing?
5. How has/will preparing your data for Copilot impact the way that you code, create products, or manage your data?
6. How much should you temper the excitement around the differences between what you can do with Copilot versus ChatGPT?
7. How do you envision the future of Copilot, especially as users get more adept at preparing data for it?

Of course, there will be many side questions, side conversations, and wise-cracking shenanigans. This is open to the public, so please join in the discussion! The dialog is always thought-provoking and fun.

Participating on this panel (so far):

• Nicki Borell (@NickiBorell), Microsoft MVP & RD, evangelist & consultant for SharePoint, Office 365 and Azure
• Antonio Maio (@antoniomaio2), SharePoint MVP, managing director and senior enterprise architect at Protiviti
• Andreas Erben (@andreaserben), Microsoft MVP & RD, cto MetaVerse, mixed reality, and applied AI at daenet
• William Honeycutt (@AndyHuneyCutt), Microsoft MVP, MCT, & MCP enterprise collaboration specialist
• Ragnar Heil (@ragnarh), M365 Apps & Services MVP, Viva Explorer, global director of partners and alliances at Rencore
• John White (@diverdown1964), dual M365 Apps & Services and Data Platform MVP, cto at tyGraph, an AvePoint company
• Treb Gatte (@marqueeinsights), Business Solutions MVP, international speaker/man of mystery at Marquee Insights
• Eric Overfield (@ericoverfield), Microsoft RD & SharePoint MVP, chief product officer of Creospark
• Adam Ball (@AdamCBall), co-founder of COUCUG, Teams and Skype for Business MVP
• Martina Grom (@magrom), co-founder of atwork.at, M365 Apps & Services MVP and Microsoft Regional Director
• Hal Hostetler (@TVWizard), M365 Apps & Services MVP and senior field engineer and social media coordinator for Roland, Schorr & Tower
• Simon Denton (@buildbod), M365 Apps & Services MVP, visiting professor at Birmingham City University, and business architect at Mott MacDonald
• Stacy Deere (@sldeere), M365 Apps & Services MVP and owner of Focal Point Solutions
• Wes Preston (@idubbs), M365 Apps & Services MVP, evangelist,  and owner at TrecStone
• Mike Maadarani (@mikemaadarani), M365 Apps & Services MVP, cloud solution architect at MCM Consulting
• Toni Pohl (@atwork), founder & cto of atwork, cloud consultant, Microsoft MVP
• Matt Varney (@thevarnish), intranet manager at KCTCS
• Eli Robillard (@erobillard), SharePoint MVP, musician, fly-fisher, collaboration technology guy
• Shari Oswald (@shortcutshari), co-founder and productivity evangelist at PowerUP! Learning
• Phil Worrell (@worrelpa), ICT engineer and business analyst at Swisscom
• Sharon Weaver (@sharoneweaver), Microsoft RD + M365 Apps & Services MVP, consultant, trainer and ceo of Smarter Consulting
• Kurt Kragh Sørensen (@KurtKragh), intranet consultant and owner of IntraTeam.com
• Tobiasz Koprowski (@KoprowskiT), Data Platform MVP, founder and consultant at Shadowland Consulting
• and your host, Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), M365 Apps & Services MVP & RD, director of north american and asia-pacific partner management at Rencore, content strategy at TekkiGurus, and #CollabTalk founder

If you would like to be included on one of these panels, please drop me a line via email, LinkedIn, or Twitter. And thank you again to TekkiGurus for your support of this CollabTalk tweetjam! If you are interested in being a sponsor of a future tweetjam, please contact me.

We’ll be back on September 27th at 9am PT for the next CollabTalk TweetJam, so be sure to follow me (@buckleyplanet) for news and updates.