What if your employer won't let you use ChatGPT?

Author : Rob Ashton

Posted : 03 / 12 / 24

There’s one critical problem with most articles and videos on ChatGPT. And it’s glaringly obvious to anyone who works in a sizeable organisation.

Not that there’s any shortage of professionals who are now leaning on AI to make writing easier. As each month goes by, more and more people on our training courses are telling us that they’re doing exactly that.

Nor is it hard to see why, given that it can certainly be a huge help when it comes to planning, brainstorming or focusing on the reader’s needs, for example. (Although it’s still not a good idea to outsource the actual writing to a bot.)

The problem is that most big employers don’t want them to do it.

Confidentiality nightmare

IT managers usually have kittens at the mere mention of ChatGPT, but not because it isn’t useful. It’s because it learns by storing and analysing user content. So the information you feed it could, in theory, appear in its responses to other users.

They see ChatGPT as a confidentiality nightmare. Which is why, at the time of writing, not a single client has told us they plan on advising staff to use it.

Of course, they’re not naive enough to think people will always follow that advice. They know that many employees will still access ChatGPT on their personal devices even if corporate web servers block it.

Feeding it sensitive information is certainly risky. (Seriously, don’t try this at home – or anywhere else.) But it’s also understandably tempting. After all, the two things that made ChatGPT popular in the first place are still true: (1) writing is now more important than ever and (2) writing is hard.

So forward-thinking employers who do want to embrace the AI revolution tend instead to use Microsoft Copilot, which offers them much greater data protection. (It’s built on Azure, the same secure software platform as Microsoft 365.)

Secure AI

If your company has stumped up for a corporate subscription, you’ll now have a secure generative AI tool in all MS 365 writing apps, including Word, Outlook and PowerPoint.

(Don’t worry if they haven’t. I’ll explain how to use it for free later.)

You access it simply by clicking the Copilot icon:

In fact, you may have already found it offering to help, whether you asked it to or not.

The only trouble is that, as some Writing Matters readers have discovered, its help isn’t always that, well, helpful – especially when it comes to writing emails.

For example, one senior lawyer client wrote this feedback in a covering email about his revisions to a report:

Thanks, and back to you with a handful of questions in the margin and one suggestion at the end. The new page count makes it look as if I’ve done a lot, but mostly I have just reduced (by about 25%) the number of words and moved a couple of passages into places that felt a bit more logical.

And here’s how Copilot thought he should rephrase it:

Thanks for your contribution. I have a handful of questions in the margin and one suggestion at the end. The updated page count gives the impression of significant revisions, although primarily I have streamlined the content by approximately 25% and reorganised a few passages for better coherence.

‘To be fair, the assistant reduced my word count,’ he admitted. ‘But it also ramped up the proportion of words of more than one syllable (13/59 in my version; 18/46 in the assistant’s).’

Less flexible

As he pointed out, it took a couple of unobjectionable sentences and turned them into Documentese.

Part of the problem is that Copilot in Outlook is less flexible than ChatGPT.

Customisation is possible, but it’s very basic. You can choose a tone – direct, formal, neutral or casual – and set the email length to short, medium or long. That’s it.

Still, Microsoft does at least have you covered should you ever want to rewrite an email to your boss as a poem. (Sorry, what?!)

It had a complete meltdown when I asked it to write a more concise response than its default one.

Me:

Copilot:

Do it yourself

In my experience, it’s usually quicker, easier and more effective to write the email yourself. (These Knowledge Hub guides will help you.)

But the good news is that using Copilot in other MS 365 apps, like Word, is better. And it will feel pretty familiar if you’ve already used ChatGPT.

Just click the Copilot icon or type ALT + i (⌘ + \ on a Mac) to get started. Then write your prompt in the dialogue box that pops up.

Copilot in Word is also much more flexible than in Outlook. You can, for instance, tell it to adopt a persona or particular style, simply by typing that in the prompt.

That allows you to harness AI’s power in your documents without sending your company’s closest secrets into cyberspace.

We’ll have more advice on how to make the most of Copilot in Word and Powerpoint in the new year. So stay tuned and be sure to subscribe to make sure you never miss an update.

No subscription? No problem

If your organisation hasn’t shelled out for the Copilot add-on, don’t worry. It doesn’t mean you just have to use ChatGPT and hope for the best.

You can access most Copilot features for free in its web or mobile app, or through the Edge web browser.

I’d love to hear about your experiences of using AI at work, whether you use ChatGPT, Copilot or something else. Send me an email and let me know.

We’re also building an exciting new programme to show you how to power up your professional writing with AI. Register your interest here if you’d like us to let you know when we open the doors.

Image credit: Tada Images/Shutterstock