Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Hi there, and
welcome back to the Simply
SharePoint podcast.
I'm Liza, and today I want totalk about something that's been
on my mind a lot lately.
Something that sits right at theintersection of technology,
content creation, and trust.
We're all seeing the same thing.
Microsoft Copilot is everywhere.
It's in Word, Excel, Outlook,Teams, SharePoint, offering
(00:26):
prompts, writing summaries,generating slides, drafting
emails.
And don't get me wrong, it'spowerful.
It's useful.
It saves time.
And it's here to stay.
But with Copilot now embedded inevery Microsoft 365 app, I've
found myself asking, where's theline?
(00:48):
Where do we let AI assist andwhere do we need to keep it
human?
Because the more we automate,the more we risk losing the one
thing that still matters most inlearning, communication, and
connection.
And that's our voice.
Today's episode is part personalreflection, part quiet rebellion
(01:09):
against the rise of perfectionin the corporate world, and part
reality check.
Brought to life by a story frommy sister and a very telling
reaction from my mum.
So let's talk about what we'regaining with Copilot and what we
might be giving up if we're notcareful.
Firstly, the pressure to beperfect.
(01:29):
When I first started creatingtraining content for Simply
SharePoint, I was surrounded bycontent that looked flawless,
perfect audio, perfect slidedecks, perfectly written copy,
delivered by perfectly calmvoices, often not human ones.
It was slick, it was shiny, andit made me pause because it
looked like that was thestandard.
(01:52):
I felt like I had to keep up.
So I started experimenting withAI tools, voiceover generators,
video narration, even creating asynthetic version of me.
I uploaded my scripts, used anAI version of my own voice, and
tested what it would sound liketo have a digital avatar deliver
my training videos.
(02:12):
And technically, it worked.
But when I watched it back, Ifelt something sink.
It didn't feel like me.
It looked good.
It sounded clean.
But it was empty.
It had no life, no personality,and no rhythm.
Just a faceless voice recitinglines.
(02:33):
And here's the thing.
We've seen this pressure beforeon Instagram with perfect lives,
in magazines with perfectbodies.
Now we're seeing it creep intothe corporate world.
Perfect presentations, perfectscripts, AI-generated voices and
avatars pretending to be us.
And it's dangerous because itcreates this illusion that if
(02:55):
you don't sound like a robot orlook like a broadcast presenter,
you're not professional.
And that's just not true.
And it made me realize we'veallowed this Instagram-style
perfectionism to quietly seepinto professional spaces.
Everything's starting to looktoo perfect, too scripted, too
(03:16):
polished.
And that might seem harmless,but it's not.
Because in trying to make thingslook and sound professional,
we're creating content thatdoesn't feel real anymore.
And when content loses thathuman touch, people stop
trusting it.
Now, the feedback that changedeverything.
(03:36):
When I shared my AI-generatedcontent with a few people I
trusted, the reaction wasinstant.
It sounds robotic.
This doesn't look or feel likeyou.
I don't trust it.
I want to hear a real voice.
And I agreed because what I do,what we all do when we teach,
(03:56):
explain and share knowledge isabout more than words on a
screen.
It's about trust and trustdoesn't come from a perfect
voiceover.
It comes from presence.
So around that time, I waschatting with my mum, Judy.
Now, my mum's not your averageend user.
She's a retired scientist, anacademic, and one of the
(04:18):
smartest people I know.
She's a power user who's beenwriting, researching, and
thinking deeply her whole life.
She opened Word one day, satdown to write something, and I
popped Copilot.
And her reaction?
It's just sitting there,watching me.
I don't want help.
I just want to write.
She didn't want assistance.
(04:39):
She didn't want prompts.
She wanted to think.
to get into flow, to work onsomething important without
being interrupted by a tool thatassumed it knew what she needed.
And I thought, wow, that's thequiet tension a lot of people
are feeling right now.
We've gone from tools beinginvisible helpers to being very
(05:00):
visible presences, suggesting,pushing, even demanding input
before we've had time to processour own ideas.
And it's not fear of technology.
its resistance to beingover-automated.
She's also not anti-AI.
I recall a conversation we hadmonths ago when she had finally
listened to me and tried outChatGPT.
(05:22):
She was on the phone to me forabout an hour going on and on
about how wonderful it was andhow it has changed her life.
She was using it as a coach tohelp her research and among
other things.
Then came a conversation with mysister.
She's a flight attendant.
She travels constantly.
She sees a lot.
And she's also very sharp.
She noticed patterns andinconsistencies in a way most
(05:45):
people overlook.
She came across something onlinethat honestly shocked her.
She found two completelydifferent courses, one teaching
Spanish for beginners andanother offering financial
investment advice.
Different topics, differentaudiences, but both courses were
presented by the exact sameAI-generated avatar and voice.
(06:07):
Same tone, same gestures, samefacial movements.
One day, she was teaching verbsin Spanish.
The next, she was explainingportfolio diversification and
compound interest.
And that's when my sister said,this is not okay.
You can tell it's not real.
It's been thrown together.
There's no credibility.
(06:29):
Anyone can fake anything now.
And that's scary.
And she's right.
Because if we're flooding theinternet and the workplace with
synthetic experts, we're notjust lowering the bar, we're
erasing the value of realexperience.
And this isn't just a boomersversus AI thing either.
(06:51):
I've seen it in my daughter'sgeneration too.
She walked in the other day andasked suspiciously, did you do
that with AI?
There's this real caution now, apushback.
People want to know there's ahuman behind the content that
they're consuming, and I'm herefor it.
So why does this matter inMicrosoft 365?
(07:13):
Well, let's bring this back toCopilot.
We've now reached a point whereanyone can generate a
presentation, a summary, adocument, a course, an
onboarding guide, a newsletter,all without contributing any
insights.
That's great for productivity,but terrible for trust,
especially when the personconsuming that content is
(07:36):
expecting real grounded help.
If you're using Copilot to speedup formatting or summarizing
long notes, that's great.
That's amazing.
If it helps you unblock a task,save time, or reduce admin,
awesome.
Same thing.
That's great.
But if you're training others,teaching complex tools like
(07:57):
SharePoint, or trying tocommunicate something that
involves empathy, strategy ornuance, that needs you.
AI can help, but it can'treplace your judgment or your
voice or your experience.
So how do I use AI?
So here's my disclaimer.
(08:18):
I use AI.
I use it every single day.
I use ChatGPT when I get stuckon a sentence.
I brainstorm ideas with it.
I even use it to help createvisuals, but they're always
based on my ideas.
Every piece of content I producecomes from me.
AI is a tool I use to speedthings up, not a replacement for
(08:40):
my voice or experience.
So I use ChatGPT to helprephrase things or structure
rough outlines.
I use Canva for visuals,sometimes using AI prompts as a
start.
I use Adobe Enhance to clean upthis podcast audio.
and ClipChamp to record my realvoice quickly.
(09:02):
But I don't use AI-generatedvoiceovers, AI presenters, and
scripted bots delivering contentin place of me.
Because if you're learning fromme, you're trusting that I know
this stuff because I've livedit.
I've done the migrations.
I've restructured the documentlibraries.
I've worked with stakeholders,and I've cleaned up SharePoint
(09:25):
mess.
That's what I bring.
And that's what AI can'treplicate.
So here's where I'll leave you,or rather where I'll slow down,
pause and ask you to think withme.
Because while this episodestarted with Copilot and the
wave of AI running throughMicrosoft 365, it's really about
something deeper.
What kind of workplaces are webuilding?
(09:48):
What kind of content are weputting into the world?
And what kind of professionalsdo we want to be?
We're living through what Ithink will be one of the most
transformational periods indigital work history.
Microsoft isn't just suggestingCopilot, it's baking it into
everything.
Open word Copilot's there.
Start a meeting in Teams,Copilot's ready.
(10:10):
Navigate SharePoint, Copilot iswatching, suggesting,
summarizing.
Even PowerPoint, offering tobuild your slides before you've
had a chance to think.
And sure, it's exciting, it'sefficient, it's revolutionary.
but is also a little unsettlingbecause what happens when every
meeting summary, every projectreport, every client proposal
sounds the same?
(10:31):
What happens when nuance, tone,personality, things that used to
help us stand out get flattenedby templated AI suggestions?
I've already seen it happeningin client sites.
You know the kind of content I'mtalking about, the co-pilot
generated email with just enoughpolish but none of the grit.
(10:53):
The SharePoint page that looksclean but lacks real insight.
The training material that hitsthe mark technically but feels
like it could have come fromanyone.
It's all fine, but it's notmemorable.
It's not sticky.
And that's the risk we run.
AI-generated content that feelslike a checkbox, not a
connection.
(11:15):
So AI is smart, but you'rewiser.
AI has access to everythingyou've ever typed, every policy
document, every template andtraining manual in your tenant.
But it doesn't know what reallyhappens in your organization.
It doesn't know thepersonalities on your team.
It doesn't know how that onemanager likes to frame things or
how your executive prefersbullet points to paragraphs.
(11:38):
It doesn't know what went wronglast quarter and how you finally
fixed it.
That's what you bring to thetable, your lived experience,
your insight, your voice.
And that's what makes SharePointtraining, Microsoft 365
governance and workplace changemanagement successful.
It's never just about showingsomeone how to click a button.
(11:59):
It's about guiding them throughhow that button fits into a real
process with real people andreal challenges.
So don't get me wrong, though.
This isn't a call to abandonco-pilots.
I use it daily.
Like I said, summarizingmeetings, rewriting dry
documentation into somethingsnappier, drafting repetitive
(12:21):
process guides so I can tweakthe tone later.
But I don't let it lead.
And I don't hand over anythingwith my name on it until I've
had my say.
In fact, this whole episode wasinspired by AI, but shaped by
real stories, real moments, andreal people.
That's what gives it weight.
(12:41):
So here's a few questions I keepin my back pocket before I use
AI to publish or sharesomething.
One, am I trying to speedsomething up or avoid doing the
thinking?
There is a difference betweenefficiency and avoidance.
Two, will this content betrusted more because it's faster
(13:03):
or because it's real?
If it's a sensitive topic orstrategy, people want clarity
and authenticity.
And three, would I feelcomfortable presenting this face
to face?
If not, it probably needs moreof me in it.
These questions have saved mefrom publishing some very slick
but very soulless work.
(13:26):
So let's zoom in on SharePointnow.
Let me give you a SharePointspecific example because, well,
that's what I live and breatheevery day.
I recently worked with a clientwho had used Copilot to draft an
internal governance page.
It was neat.
It's tidy.
It had sections.
It referenced policies andprocedures.
(13:47):
Technically, everything, it wasthere.
It was right.
But no one read it.
Why?
Because it had no context.
It didn't say why the governanceexisted, how it affected teens,
or what decisions were made andby whom.
It lacked the subtle things Icall permission to care.
So we rewrote it.
(14:08):
We added real-world examples,which are really important.
We added a short video of theteam explaining the purpose
behind it.
We used metadata to show how itlinked to actual tasks and
documents.
We humanized it.
And then people started usingit.
The AI draft was a startingpoint, but the final piece was
something only humans could havebuilt.
(14:32):
So now back to the biggerpicture.
Yes, Copilot is here.
It's powerful, it's helpful, andit's the direction that
Microsoft is going.
But I believe the future ofwork, especially in Microsoft
365, belongs not to those whoadopt AI blindly, but to those
who use it intentionally.
Those who know when to automateand when to speak, when to
(14:56):
summarize and when to explain,when to publish and when to
pause and rewrite.
We need both automation andauthenticity.
We need both speed andstorytelling.
We need both AI and your voice.
So want to draw the line foryourself?
(15:18):
Well, I've put together a simplequick decision matrix to help
you figure this out.
It's just a one pager thatoutlines the most common
Microsoft 365 tasks.
Everything from creating meetingnotes to training materials, And
it categorizes them by, youknow, green, great for AI,
yellow, use AI with human input,and red, keep it human.
(15:40):
It's not a perfect science, butit's a start.
And more importantly, it's aconversation tool.
You may not agree with some ofthe things that I put there, but
share it with your team.
Ask them where they draw theline.
Use it to spark betterdecisions, not just faster ones.
And you'll find the downloadlink to this on my blog post.
(16:00):
So until next time, thanks forspending this time with me.
If you took one thing away fromthis episode, I hope it's this,
that your voice matters, even inan age of automation, especially
in an age of automation, becausethe tools may be smart, but
you're still the expert.
(16:20):
I'll catch you in the nextepisode of the Simply SharePoint
podcast.
Bye for now.