In this blog series, Ray Meiring, CEO and co-founder of QorusDocs, shares his thoughts on the transformation of proposal and content management as generative AI tools propel a rapidly-shifting B2B tech landscape. Plus, Ray offers a behind-the-scenes look at QorusDocs’ vision and strategic path and offers insights to help your professional services organization optimize the response process and stay one step ahead of the competition.
In this post, Ray compares the generative AI tools QorusDocs QPilot and Microsoft Copilot and their respective roles in business development practices, highlighting the specialist capabilities of QPilot designed to help professional services organizations thrive.
Imagine tackling a weekend project at home. You've got some basic tasks and some that are a bit more complex. For the easy stuff, such as fixing a leaky faucet or painting a room, you might call in a handyman. They're great for a variety of tasks and can handle a lot without breaking a sweat.
But when it comes to something riskier and more complicated, such as rewiring your house, you'd likely prefer to call in an electrician, someone who specializes in precisely that kind of work.
This analogy can be applied to choosing the right tool for specific tasks at work, especially when it comes to AI and business development.
QorusDocs’ AI Assistant, QPilot, is like that specialist electrician—but for businesses aiming to expand their client roster and grow their revenue. QPilot is specifically designed for service organizations and built with input from leading firms in legal, professional, and technical services.
Considering how much businesses invest in making their teams more efficient and specialized, it makes sense to want an AI assistant that's equally as specialized. While general AI tools like Microsoft Copilot might be helpful for a wide range of tasks, QorusDocs QPilot is the expert you need for the more specific, complex jobs in business development.
Think of it like this: Microsoft Copilot might be a jack-of-all-trades, handy for many things companies need to do. But when the task requires deep expertise and a tailored approach—like crafting personalized response documents that win new business or tackling complex client projects across multiple locations and stakeholders—that's where QPilot shines.
QorusDocs QPilot is your go-to AI specialist, bringing precision and expert knowledge to your business development efforts. QPilot ensures you're not just completing tasks but you're leveraging the full power and potential of generative AI to craft proposals, RFP responses, and pitches that win deals consistently.
Let's have a look at how QorusDocs QPilot is several steps ahead of Microsoft (MSFT) Copilot when it comes to business development tasks and processes.
| Microsoft Copilot | QorusDocs' QPilot | |
| Runs securely on Microsoft Azure |  |
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| Integrates with Microsoft Office 365 | |
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| Available as an AI Assistant users can prompt | |
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| Connected to approved content and generate answers |  |
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| Centrally managed skills |  |
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| QorusDocs best skills library |  |
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| AI in Excel designed for text-processing and question answering | .svg){kind=small} |
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| AI-powered smart automated Word and PowerPoint templates | |
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| Target key libraries to search | |
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| Shared history across apps | |
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| Access AI while previewing a variety of file formats, including PDF | |
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| Reference files by name with an ‘@’ mention | |
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Common Ground
Both QorusDocs QPilot and MSFT Copilot come equipped with a formidable toolkit that integrates seamlessly into the tech ecosystem many businesses already use.
Here are the features and capabilities they have in common:
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Run securely on Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure is designed to meet the most stringent security and compliance requirements. Both QorusDocs QPilot and Microsoft Copilot run on Azure, which means they’re built to be secure from the ground up.
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Integrate with Microsoft Office 365
QorusDocs QPilot and Microsoft Copilot both integrate with Microsoft Office 365 which means you can use them alongside your existing productivity tools.
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Available as an AI Assistant that users can prompt
Both QPilot and MSFT Copilot are available as AI Assistants that users can prompt to perform a wide variety of tasks. This feature also means there’s no need to learn a new interface or memorize commands; you can just ask your Assistant for help.
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Connected to approved content and generate answers
Both QPilot and MSFT Copilot can generate answers to questions and source information directly from your organization's approved content. But here is where the two tools begin to differ noticeably.
Answering RFP questions: QorusDocs QPilot has the upper hand
One distinct advantage QorusDocs QPilot has over Microsoft Copilot is that QPilot can be directed to source information from highly-specialized subject-matter-focused libraries at each prompt, ensuring the context is always spot on.
The result is much more accurate responses compared to MSFT Copilot. Microsoft’s AI assistant has to sift through and make sense of a potentially vast reservoir of unrelated organizational content; domain-specific context gets lost and sometimes MSFT Copilot is simply unable find the answer to your question.
Case in point: we put QPilot and MSFT Copilot to the test by asking them exactly the same RFP question. The answer to this question was stored in a SharePoint Online library that both QPilot and Microsoft Copilot have access to.
Here's how they performed:
- Microsoft Copilot was unable to find the answer in our organizational content and instead provided a generic response.
- QorusDocs' QPilot sourced the information quickly and easily from three different documents, referenced those documents, and produced a proposal-worthy answer.
Work-winning capabilities of QorusDocs QPilot
Next, let's examine the standout work-winning capabilities that QorusDocs QPilot has over Microsoft Copilot for your proposals, RFPs, and pitches.
The QPilot features we’ve highlighted below are designed specifically with revenue and business development teams in mind and are not available with MSFT Copilot.
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Target key libraries to search
With QorusDocs QPilot, you have the ability to connect multiple sources of information as distinct subject-matter-focused libraries. For example, you could connect a source for corporate information, another source for product or service information, and yet another for bios.
Users can pick one or more libraries they’d like QPilot to source information from at each prompt and choose whether to broaden the search or keep it very narrow and focused. This flexibility and the ability to provide the right context every time results in higher-quality and more compliant answers—especially critical for RFPs.
MSFT Copilot, however, only allows access to specific files without offering a search feature.
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Centrally-managed skills
As most pitch, proposal, and bid teams know (and sometimes dread), the response process inevitably includes a series of repetitive tasks that need to be followed—and for good reason—for each proposal that goes into the queue. Skipping essential steps or completing them incorrectly can seriously jeopardize your chances of winning. And while there are industry best practices, each organization has its own unique approach.
To address this challenge, we’ve built QorusDocs QPilot in a way that allows you to build and share a collection of centrally-managed Smart Skills (aka prompts) with your team—tailored to your organization’s processes—to expertly tackle a wide variety of common proposal tasks.
For example, you can configure a Skill to analyze RFP requirements, outline a proposal narrative, draft an executive summary, or check for red flags and inconsistencies.
The end-user experience is seamless and intuitive: users simply pick the Skill they need and execute it with one click—without having to type anything into the prompt box.
From a management perspective, you can freely fine-tune and improve your collection of Smart Skills. You can also control which Skills each user can access and where they can access them. Plus, any updates or improvements you make become instantly available to all those with access.
In contrast, Microsoft Copilot lacks the capability to centrally organize and promote prompts, requiring each user to maintain their own prompt library without central promotion or management.
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QorusDocs best Skills (prompts) library
With generative AI, it’s all about the prompt—which is why QorusDocs curated and maintains a collection of the best prompts for business development professionals that we are constantly adding to and improving.
You can pick the ones you’d like to make available to your team and either save them “as is” or customize them to suit your needs.
Microsoft offers a Copilot labs capability that includes a list of Microsoft curated prompts. While these prompts are useful for many tasks, they are not designed specifically for business development.
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Highlighted text
QorusDocs QPilot offers the capability to reference any highlighted text in the currently open document or email in prompts across Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook. This feature is particularly useful when looking for answers to questions, rewriting sections, or conducting other section-specific proposal tasks.
Currently, Microsoft Copilot only offers this capability in Word.
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Shared history across apps
QorusDocs QPilot lets you pick up a conversation right where you left off, even when you switch apps.
For those working on strategic deals that require multiple documents in multiple formats, being able to continue the conversation you were having with QPilot in Word while drafting an executive summary, and then switch to PowerPoint to instantly turn that executive summary into bullet points for a bid presentation, is a huge time saver.
On the other hand, MSFT Copilot archives chats “per document,” meaning if you want to reference a discussion from Word in PowerPoint or Outlook, you have to open the original document in Word first and either copy the content into the new prompt or refer to the file directly.
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Access QPilot while previewing a variety of file formats, including PDF
QorusDocs QPilot can be accessed directly from within the interactive QorusDocs Preview window to preview files in a range of formats—Microsoft Office file, PDF, text, html—as well as SharePoint List items. Users can prompt QPilot to analyze, summarize, compose, or retrieve information from the file they are currently previewing.
For organizations who typically receive RFP requirements from clients in PDF format, this capability is a big win. PDFs can be readily analyzed and summarized by QPilot, without the need to first convert them to Word—a welcome convenience for bid and proposal teams and business development professionals.
MSFT Copilot only works inside Office applications. In the majority of cases, you’ll need to first have the file on your computer in order to upload it into your Copilot chat. And if you’d like to ask a question about a SharePoint Online list item, you’ll need to provide a link to the list—which you might not necessarily have readily available.
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QPilot in Excel for processing text and answering questions
For teams who need to respond to client questionnaires in Excel format, QorusDocs QPilot enables you to quickly source answers to questions, compose tailored responses, and ensure that these responses comply with client requirements and restrictions (e.g., maximum character count).
Conversely, MSFT Copilot's functionality within Excel is fairly basic in comparison, and its capabilities tend to be more focused on calculation-oriented tasks, rather than on the text processing and question answering tasks that bid and proposal teams routinely perform.
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Reference files by name with an “@mention”
QorusDocs has introduced the ability to “@mention” files directly in the prompt and in Smart Skills, making it possible to reference specific documents related to the current bid you’re working on (including files received from the client), as well as knowledge library content for context and as a source of information.
This capability is especially useful for quality and compliance check, such as cross-referencing a response document and comparing it to the client’s requirements you’ve received or checking it against your organization’s policies and standards.
In contrast, Microsoft Copilot is not aware of the current proposal or bid project you’re working on and doesn't provide file access for active QorusDocs Pursuits, nor does it allow you to retrieve and reference recent files in Excel and in Outlook.
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AI-powered smart automated Word and PowerPoint templates
We’re especially excited about our new generative AI capabilities for Word and PowerPoint Smart Templates. By automating the basic personalization process and merging data and content from various sources into your beautiful branded template, QorusDocs Smart Templates empower business development teams to create customized pitches and proposals in record time.
With the introduction of QPilot AI text fields, we’re taking proposal automation one step further by using the power of generative AI to transform, rewrite, summarize, analyze and report back on the sources of data and content it references, before merging the output into your professionally-styled document or presentation template.
Imagine being able to upload all your RFP documents to a collaborative workspace and have QorusDocs instantly generate your planning documents to incorporate a summary of the RFP, an extract of the key drivers and evaluation criteria, recommendations for winning themes based on your differentiators, and much more.
AI text fields can even be used to automatically fill out entire sections of a Statement of Work (SoW) using the information from an RFP response document, or to craft a compelling and professional PowerPoint presentation from a written proposal.
Microsoft does not provide a comparable feature.
Conclusion
When it comes to business development, it's clear that having the right AI tool can set you apart.
QorusDocs QPilot offers tailored solutions that go beyond general capabilities, making it an invaluable asset for service organizations in legal, professional, and technical fields. Unlike Microsoft Copilot, which serves a broad range of tasks, QPilot dives deep into the specifics, providing precise, compliant, and high-quality responses.
With features like centrally-managed skills, shared histories across applications, and soon, the ability to target specific language models, QPilot is designed for organizations that require more than just a versatile tool; it's your business development expert, helping you respond to RFPs with accuracy, craft personalized proposals that close deals, and manage complex client projects seamlessly.
In the competitive world of business development, QPilot equips you with the expertise and advanced capabilities you need to win. To learn how QorusDocs QPilot can help you leverage generative AI to its fullest potential and elevate your business development strategy to consistently win deals, get in touch to request a demo and see QorusDocs in action.
