In recent years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has played a central role in the productivity debate, both locally here in Queensland and across Australia. AI has the potential to change the way businesses operate and to transform workplaces as we know them today, but for many Queensland businesses, their focus is on simply getting started.

Last year, our Digital Future of Work Report found almost 30% of Queensland businesses didn’t use AI at all, and an additional 25% were only using it in a basic way when built into other programs.

To help businesses take their first steps towards implementing AI, we teamed up with NBN and Microsoft to deliver the ‘NBN Connects with Microsoft’ event series which included practical workshops on using AI in a small to medium-sized (SME) business setting.

At the second event in April, Technology Evangelist Rishona Elijah unpacked some of the ways businesses can use AI technology, in particular Microsoft Copilot, to support their sales and marketing efforts.

Here are our five biggest takeaways:

1. AI speeds up, rather than replaces, the work businesses do

Copilot’s strength lies in accelerating the work businesses already do, for example, creating content for their website, writing direct sales outreach, or planning campaigns to support the sales cycle. SMEs don’t always have a dedicated marketing or sales team; so much of their content is being written by business owners or managers, rather than communications experts. This can be extremely time consuming and while important for business growth, often ends up in the ‘too hard’ basket.

Copilot can enable businesses to promptly create first drafts or industry-based marketing templates which they can adapt to suit their specific needs, for example:

• Customer self‑service content such as product FAQs
• Lead‑generation emails and outreach
• Campaign calendars and content plans
• Personalised customer messaging

These are the kinds of tasks that can require hours of manual drafting. Copilot turns them into minutes. The key is giving clear instructions as the quality of a prompt directly shapes the quality of the output.

2. Research and insights are now faster – and more actionable

Businesses looking to optimise their marketing and sales strategy often struggle with data overload, streaming from market trends, customer feedback, campaign results, and sales spreadsheets. Copilot helps teams cut through the noise by:

• Summarising large datasets
• Identifying trends and anomalies
• Highlighting opportunities
• Turning raw data into charts, summaries, and recommendations

Tools like the Analyst agent make it possible to upload a monthly or quarterly dataset and instantly see what changed, why it matters, and where to focus future efforts. For businesses, this means faster decision-making and more confident planning.

3. AI agents are a valuable tool for consistency and speed

One of the biggest AI opportunities businesses should consider is the use of AI agents. Agents are customised AI assistants which are trained on a business’s existing content and data.

Agents are ideal when:

• Information is scattered across documents
• Teams need consistent, accurate answers
• Repetitive tasks follow a predictable structure
• First draft work takes too long

For example, a sales enablement AI agent can maintain product information, generate one‑pagers, and ensure everyone is using the latest approved sales content. Businesses that invest early in agents will see major time savings and fewer errors.

4. Strong prompting is now a business skill, not a technical one

One of the most important things businesses need to know is that Copilot’s effectiveness depends heavily on how people ask for help. Using the ‘GCSE framework’ which refers to goal, context, source, and expectation, can help people craft more effective prompts and is a key foundational skill for using AI.

A vague prompt like:

“Write a sales email.”

…will never perform as well as a structured prompt that includes the target audience, the businesses’ tone, existing examples, product and service details and any preferences or constraints.

Businesses that train their teams in effective prompting will see dramatically better results, faster.

5. Copilot works best when it’s used across the entire workflow

If businesses choose to implement Microsoft Copilot, it’s important to understand that rather than being a separate tool, it’s embedded across Microsoft 365, meaning it integrates across the existing technology stack. Businesses get the most value when they use it end‑to‑end:

• Teams: Meeting recaps, follow‑ups, preparation
• Outlook: Drafting and summarising emails
• Word: Reports, rewrites, structured documents
• Excel: Trend analysis and visualisations
• PowerPoint: Branded presentations

This means a business can research a trend, build a campaign brief, generate presentation slides, and report results – all with Copilot accelerating each step.

Businesses that embrace AI now will gain a meaningful competitive advantage. Whether it’s improving customer engagement, speeding up campaign execution, or empowering teams with better insights, Copilot helps businesses focus on high‑value work instead of repetitive tasks.