Microsoft have some great things coming with the virtual commute, suggested meditations and ways to end your day, but there are features right now that many people are not aware of or using. I work with multiple organisations dealing with many kinds of people and roles across each week, and I see similar patterns, or consistent gaps in knowledge. This is from managing personal tasks, to broader collaboration or even just managing meetings more effectively.
Today though I am focused on Cortana. My saviour, my shining light in a scattered stressful week.
I am not talking about the former consumer service, I am referring to the enterprise AI in Microsoft 365. This provides some minor features on your pc that can be helpful at times, but specifically I’m referring to the daily briefing you receive in your inbox.
You may have seen Cortana in your inbox and many quickly delete the email without a glance. I think even I was one of these people until one day it saved my bacon.
I love it when Microsoft release a feature without major impact or noise and it just organically generates its own buzz.
What am I talking about?
If you know these emails, read them.
The value is simple and effective.
What I love is, if I am having a good day or week and getting my work under control, a quick glance at these emails is validation things are on track. But on a bad day, or more scatterbrained week, opening the email can have an impact.
Take my image below.
Clearly I committed to sending someone an agenda for a workshop. And perhaps, like I can at times, got distracted by a chat or notification, then didn’t do the task. I hate not following through with something and so seeing this email helped me get on top of the tasks without the person asking for it.
It’s like she starts each day thinking “how can I make Megan’s day better today?”.
She is helpful. She takes the load off me, the little things I am trying to remember to get done.
And she saves my a$$.
If you see Cortana in your inbox, click, open and check out interacting with this kind of AI that is helping share the load.
As for MyAnalytics, well that’s requires it’s own separate blog!