Course description

Your organisation has switched on Copilot in Microsoft 365. This course shows you how to use it well in the apps you already work in: Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams and PowerPoint, plus Copilot Chat. You learn to ask clearly, check what it gives you, and keep within data protection law and your workplace's rules.

It's written for office staff who are new to Copilot and want practical, honest guidance rather than hype. You learn to write prompts with a goal, context, source and expectations, and to point Copilot at the right file, email or meeting. You then work through each app: drafting and rewriting in Word, summarising and replying in Outlook, recaps and catch-ups in Teams, analysis and formulas in Excel, and slides in PowerPoint. Every section shows where Copilot gets things wrong, and how to catch it before anyone relies on it.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, each with a worked example, common slips, questions people often ask and a short exercise to try, and each section ends with a short quiz. You follow Yashvi, the office coordinator at a made-up cleaning and maintenance firm in York, through a three-month Copilot pilot. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, example answers, a cheat sheet and worked examples, plus practice files with made-up data: Word documents to draft and summarise from, an email thread, a meeting transcript with a draft recap to check, a supplies spreadsheet, a handbook to turn into slides, prompt cards, an output checking checklist, meeting notes, a team use policy template and a routine planner.

What you'll learn

• Getting started with Copilot: what Copilot is, the difference between Copilot Chat and the licensed version, where to find it in each app, what it can see and a first-week checklist.
• Prompting Copilot well: the four parts of a good prompt, pointing Copilot at the right file, following up, building a prompt library and reading answers before you use them.
• Copilot in Word: drafting from an outline or your own notes, rewriting without changing your meaning, summarising long documents and finishing a document you can stand behind.
• Copilot in Outlook: summarising threads, drafting replies that promise only what's agreed, coaching, inbox and calendar help, and safe email habits.
• Copilot in Teams meetings and chats: how meeting transcripts and the organiser's settings work, asking questions during a meeting, checked recaps and fair, open meetings.
• Copilot in Excel: getting data ready, charts and PivotTables, formula columns with explanations, text analysis and lookups, and checking every number.
• Copilot in PowerPoint: slides from a prompt or a Word document, checking slides and speaker notes against the source, and choosing the right app for the job.
• Copilot Chat, Pages and agents: work and web answers, catching up after time away, Copilot Pages, the Researcher and Analyst agents, and planning a task across apps.
• Checking, data protection and policy: an output checking checklist, UK data protection basics, oversharing, decisions about people and being open about Copilot.
• Your Copilot routine and final project: a weekly routine, a team use policy, a final project and a case review of a first draft policy.

Who it's for

Office staff whose organisation has given them Copilot in Microsoft 365, whether Copilot Chat or the full Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. You need to be comfortable with the basics of Word, Outlook and Teams. No experience of AI is needed.

What this course is, and isn't

This course is about the Copilot built into Microsoft 365. For AI assistants in general, see AI at Work for Beginners: Use ChatGPT, Copilot and Other AI Assistants Safely and Well. Copilot changes often, so the course describes what Copilot does rather than exact menu paths, from Microsoft's own support pages read on 1 November 2026. Data protection and workplace policy are explained as general information, not legal advice, and your organisation's own rules come first. It doesn't cover IT administration, licence buying or prices. Haxtonby Facilities, Yashvi and every other person and file in the course are fictional.

What will I learn?

• Explain what Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat are, what each can see, and how to find out what your organisation has switched on
• Write clear prompts with a goal, context, source and expectations, and point Copilot at the right file, email or meeting
• Draft, rewrite and summarise Word documents with Copilot, and check every fact against your sources
• Summarise email threads and draft replies in Outlook that promise only what has been agreed
• Use Copilot in Teams meetings and chats, and turn a transcript into checked meeting notes
• Get data ready for Copilot in Excel, ask questions of it, add formula columns and check every number
• Create and check presentations in PowerPoint from a prompt or a Word document
• Use Copilot Chat, Copilot Pages and agents such as Researcher for catch-ups, briefings and research
• Check any Copilot output for clarity, accuracy, tone and context, and keep personal and confidential information safe
• Build a weekly Copilot routine and a short team use policy that fits your workplace rules

Frequently asked questions