Copilot for M365

Course Overview

1. Section 1

   Copilot Basics

   What you will be able to do: Understand what generative AI is and where it goes wrong, work inside Enterprise Data Protection with your organisation's data, and write a GCSE prompt that gets a usable answer first time.

   • Introducing Generative AI

     What generative AI is, how it predicts rather than knows, where it came from, and why its output always needs checking.

   • Sarah: Review the lease document safely

     The lease for the new building is forty pages, and you'll need to review it.

   • Safety first

     Enterprise Data Protection and the green shield, the Work IQ toggle, business versus personal sign in, and how to bring a document into a prompt. You review a confidential lease safely.

   • Sarah: Project plan required

     Develop a project plan

   • The GCSE framework

     Goal, Context, Source and Expectations: Microsoft's framework for a prompt that has everything Copilot needs.

   • Prompting with purpose

     The tips that lift a prompt from adequate to good, plus custom instructions, saved memories and chat history so you stop retyping the same context. You turn a lazy prompt into a project plan.

   • Sarah: One-pager summary

     generate a one page summary of a document.

   • Case study: The office move

     Consolidate the lease, the risks and the timeline into a one-page project charter in Copilot Chat, and spot when Copilot invents a number.

   4 quizzes

2. Section 2

   Copilot Skills

   What you will be able to do: Hand a real job to Copilot inside Word, Outlook, Forms, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams, scope what it may touch, and check the work before it goes anywhere.

   • What has changed

     Copilot now works inside your files. What the word agent means, the three questions to ask before you delegate, and how closely to check each application.

   • Sarah: Staff move guide

     Generate a document with Microsoft Word using Copilot.

   • Drafting and Editing (Word)

     Edit with Copilot in Word, version history as your safety net, grounding a request with a forward slash, and scoping a change so there is less to read afterwards. You draft the staff move guide.

   • Sarah: Outlook email to staff

     Draft an Outlook email with Copilot

   • Communication (Outlook)

     Draft Instructions that teach Copilot how you write, the two places Outlook says custom instructions, and two ways to draft an email. You write Sarah's all-staff announcement.

   • Sarah: Staff feedback needed

     Generate a staff survey.

   • Data Collection (Forms)

     The Copilot chat panel in Forms: build a survey from a prompt, then improve it by conversation, add branching, and analyse the responses. You build the staff move survey.

   • Sarah: Make sense of the responses

     Generate a report.

   • Analysis and Modelling (Excel)

     Allow editing, Plan and Chat only modes, the .Rules sheet that travels with a workbook, and how to trace a number back to its source. You turn three unmatched quotes into a budget.

   • Sarah: Staff townhall presentation

     Create a powerpoint Presentation with Copilot

   • Visual Storytelling (PowerPoint)

     Build a deck from your own documents, Edit with Copilot, Brand Images, Design Suggestions, and why you save a copy first. You build the townhall deck.

   • Sarah: Give me a meeting summary

     Generate a Meeting Summary

   • Meeting Management (Teams)

     Whether Copilot needs a transcript, Facilitator and who can see it, and downloading or summarising a transcript. You pull the issues and actions out of the townhall recording.

   6 quizzes

3. Section 3

   Copilot Advanced

   What you will be able to do: Brief Researcher with a CLEAR prompt, get Analyst to tell you what the data says, build a custom agent on your own knowledge, and pull a whole project into an executive report.

   • Sarah: Let's check our setup.

     Research with Copilot

   • Advanced Prompting (CLEAR)

     Concrete, Logical, Extensive, Authoritative, Relevant: the framework for a research brief you hand to Researcher.

   • Sarah: Research this.

     Generate a research summary.

   • Deep Research (Researcher)

     How Researcher clarifies, reaches approved sources and reports, and how to check a confident brief before it goes to leadership. You benchmark the move against New Zealand practice.

   • Sarah: Analyse the team sentiment

     Analyse data with Copilot

   • Deep Analysis (Analyst)

     Analyst versus Copilot in Excel: make something or know something. Scheduled prompts. You analyse the post-move staff sentiment survey.

   • Sarah: I need help!

     Help staff answer common questions faster.

   • Custom Agents

     Agent Builder, instructions, knowledge sources and their limits, and the governed path to sharing an agent. You build the Harbourline FAQ assistant.

   • Sarah: Let's wrap it all up!

     Final report generation.

   • Case Study

     Pull everything you produced into a post-move review for the board, using the frameworks you have learned.

   4 quizzes

4. Section 4

   Conclusion and thanks

   What you will be able to do: Wrap up the office move, and see where your organisation sits on the AI Playbook.

   • Benchmark

     A free 20 minute benchmark of where your organisation sits on the AI Playbook's five stages.