Introduction to Copilot - what you can do today and what a paid licence adds
This course is for people starting out with Copilot who want to understand what the free version can already do today, and what a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot licence would add on top. We go through Copilot’s main uses in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, Outlook, Teams, Excel and Word.
The hands-on exercises stay on what participants can use with the free Microsoft 365 Copilot. What a paid licence adds is covered as a walkthrough, so that everyone leaves with a clear sense of where a licence would earn its keep in their own day-to-day work.
What you'll be able to do
- understand the principles, limitations and risks of generative AI, and use Copilot safely
- write clear, effective prompts for a task at hand
- use Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat for everyday writing, summarising, developing ideas and analysing files
- tell apart which Copilot features are available without a paid licence and which ones require one
- use Copilot in Outlook and Teams workflows, according to what the organisation is licensed for
- find the first places in their own work where AI saves time, simplifies repetitive tasks and improves the quality of the output
Who this course is not for
It is not meant for advanced users who already use Copilot every day, or who are looking for in-depth training.
Course structure
The fundamentals of generative AI
- How AI and language models work
- The kinds of task AI genuinely helps with
- The limits and risks of using AI
Microsoft Copilot
- How Copilot differs from other AI tools
- How to use it safely
- Copilot’s main features
Prompting
- What makes a prompt good
- Writing a strong prompt
- Tips for more advanced users
Outlook
- Managing your inbox more efficiently
- Quick overviews and summaries of email
- Drafting email inside Outlook
Teams
- Turning a meeting transcript into notes
- Automatic notes alongside the meeting summary (paid licence only)
- Quick answers and interim summaries during a meeting (paid licence only)
Copilot agents
- An overview of Microsoft’s agents
- How to build simple task-based agents
- SharePoint agents (paid licence or pay-as-you-go only)
Excel
- Getting an overview of data and trends
- Processing and reshaping data automatically
Word
- Drafting quickly
- Editing, correcting and structuring text with an agent
We started to see where AI could actually be of help.
Even though AI has existed for over a decade, it's only now becoming a mainstream tool. We were aware of it, but our use was sporadic and, at times, skeptical. The greatest value of working with Eneli and her team was that we began to see where AI could truly help us and how to use this tool to achieve various goals. This journey is just beginning, but we can confidently say that our entire team is now on this accelerating train, rather than waiting on the platform. It's a good feeling because the next train won't be coming anytime soon.
JOEL VOLKOV
Creative Agency TANK,
Partner and Creative Director