Building end-to-end workflows with Microsoft 365 Copilot

"As early adopters have discovered, Copilot delivers real transformation only when it becomes an integral part of critical workflows. Enterprises are beginning to treat generative AI not as an isolated productivity tool, but as the connective layer linking business applications, data, and human judgment. Nowhere is this shift clearer than in organizations using Microsoft 365 Copilot as part of a broader architecture that spans CRMs, low-code platforms, and specialized AI systems."

"But according to Will McKeon-White, senior analyst at Forrester, it's not always easy to build that architecture. "Integrations can prove difficult and usually require cooperation between subject matter experts and technical personnel to get them to work right and ensure the Copilot knows how and when to use different integrations," he said. Two early adopters - Monica Washington Rothbaum, COO of J&Y Law, and Patty Patria, CIO of Babson College - illustrate how successful implementations look."

"When Rothbaum arrived at J&Y Law, she quickly realized the firm's rapid growth in personal-injury cases demanded a more intelligent and consistent process. With a headcount of around 100 and the ambition to scale, the firm needed a way to manage high case volumes without sacrificing accuracy or human oversight. Her background in business growth and IT leadership helped her see an architecture forming across the firm's systems."

Copilot achieves substantive impact when embedded within critical workflows and connected to enterprise applications, data, and human judgment. Integrations across CRMs, low-code platforms, and specialized AI systems create a broader architecture that enables reuse of structured data and orchestrated processes. Integration projects often require collaboration between subject-matter experts and technical teams to ensure Copilot uses integrations correctly. Successful deployments depend on deliberate choices about integration design, data modeling, governance, and change management. J&Y Law re-engineered a personal-injury case pipeline to scale volume while preserving accuracy and human oversight through an architecture spanning the firm’s systems.

Read at Computerworld