Overview
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is an AI assistant that helps you write, summarise, analyse and automate everyday work. This course builds practical skill across Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, starting with how generative AI works, how to get access, and a simple method for writing prompts that get good results.
It then works through each application, moves on to simple automation with reusable prompts, agents and basic scripts and macros, and finishes with security, ethics and checking the accuracy of what Copilot produces.
The course works whether or not you hold a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. Every exercise has a Copilot Chat path that everyone can follow, and an in-app path for participants whose licence adds Copilot inside the apps.
Who it's for
Anyone who uses Microsoft 365 for writing, analysis or communication and wants to work faster with AI, with no prior AI or prompt-engineering experience needed. It is especially suited to:
- Business professionals who want to improve daily productivity
- Administrative, communications and data-analysis staff
- Team leaders
- Corporate teams moving to AI-enhanced workflows
Prerequisites
- Experience using Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
- An understanding of general workplace tasks involving writing, data analysis or communication
- No prior AI or prompt-engineering experience required
By the end of this course you will be able to
- Use Copilot Chat to generate content and insights for tasks in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
- Write and refine prompts with GCES, and use personas to adjust tone and style
- Generate formulas, analyses and chart ideas from plain-language requests, and verify the results
- Set up simple automation with reusable prompts, agents, and basic scripts and macros
- Apply best practices for security, ethics and accuracy, and review AI output before using it
- Know which Copilot experience fits your licence and which tasks suit each
Course outline
Times show the standard running order and can be adjusted when we tailor the course to your team. The trainer stays available during breaks to help anyone finish an exercise.
Welcome & orientation 10 min
How the two days run and how to get the most from each lab.
Generative AI and Copilot Chat 35 min
What generative AI is and what Copilot Chat is for in daily work. Where it lives: the Copilot Chat page in your browser, the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, Outlook, and Teams where your organisation enables it. How it differs from the Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, which adds Copilot inside Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Try it: Ask Copilot Chat to explain a topic from your own work, then have it rewrite the answer for a different audience.
Set-up and access 40 min
How Copilot Chat is enabled, including licensing and permissions. Finding your way around the interface: Copilot Chat on the web and in the app, the Outlook pane, and the Word, Excel and PowerPoint agents where your account can use them. Uploading a file for Copilot to work with.
Try it: Sign in with your work account, locate Copilot Chat and the agents available to you, upload a sample file and test basic questions and commands.
Prompting foundations: GCES and personas 45 min
Prompts as instructions rather than searches. GCES (Goal, Context, Expectations, Source) as a repeatable method, assigning a persona or role to shape tone and style, and refining an answer with follow-up prompts instead of starting again.
Try it: Rewrite three weak prompts using GCES, then compare results with and without a persona.
Creating effective prompts 30 min
Prompt structures that generate better responses, with practical examples for daily tasks such as summarising, rewriting, planning and analysing. Using custom instructions so Copilot knows how you like answers written, and keeping the prompts that work: Prompt Lab where your licence includes it, and a personal prompt list for everyone else.
Try it: Build a personal list of five reusable prompts for tasks you do every week.
Word: writing, editing and reviewing 35 min
Creating, editing and reviewing documents with Copilot’s help: text generation, summarisation and rephrasing, and writing scripts for presentations. Chat-first drafting with the Word agent, or Copilot in Word if you hold the licence.
Try it: Draft a one-page briefing from a file you upload, then tighten it and rewrite it for a senior reader.
Outlook: faster, clearer email 45 min
Writing emails quickly and effectively. Drafting replies and getting suggestions to improve them. Making sense of a busy inbox by asking Copilot to find, summarise and prioritise. Every draft is reviewed before it is sent.
Try it: Summarise a long thread, draft a reply, then ask for two improvements to its tone.
Excel: formulas, analysis and charts 60 min
Generating formulas from a plain description, analysing data and charts with natural-language requests, and working through complex calculations with each step explained. Where it is available to you, Agent Mode in Excel (a preview feature) can carry out multi-step analysis for you to review. Checking results by recalculating.
Try it: Upload a sample sales workbook, ask for an analysis, a formula and a chart idea, then verify one result by hand.
Day 1 lab: pick your task 35 min
Choose a task from your own week and run it through Copilot Chat.
Try it: Complete one task end to end in Word, Outlook or Excel, then share your prompt with the group.
Close 10 min
Recap of Day 1 and preview of Day 2.
Welcome back 10 min
Questions from Day 1 and the plan for today.
PowerPoint: slides, scripts and design 60 min
Creating slides from a topic or plain text, generating presentation scripts and visual suggestions, and adjusting design automatically. Chat-first with the PowerPoint agent, or Copilot in PowerPoint with the licence.
Try it: Turn your Day 1 briefing into a six-slide deck with a speaker script, then refine the design.
Teams and other Microsoft tools 40 min
Using Copilot Chat alongside Teams and other Microsoft tools: summarising a meeting or chat, pulling out decisions and actions, and moving results between apps. What depends on your organisation’s settings.
Try it: Summarise a transcribed meeting, extract decisions and actions, and draft the follow-up email.
Simple automation that saves time 50 min
Simple automation examples to save time: reusable prompt routines, and agents that carry out a repeatable task from instructions you write, including pay-as-you-go agents where your organisation has enabled them. When automation is worth setting up and when it is not.
Try it: Turn one weekly routine into a saved prompt or a simple agent, then test it on a new input.
Scripts and macros from Copilot Chat: basic level 45 min
Asking Copilot Chat to write a simple Excel macro or script, understanding what the code does, and testing it safely on a copy. Copilot writes the code; you review and run it, and your organisation’s policies may restrict macros.
Try it: Generate a macro that cleans a sample sheet, read through its explanation, then test it on a copy of the workbook.
Privacy and security with generative AI 35 min
What is and is not safe to share, work accounts and enterprise data protection, how Copilot works within your existing permissions, and what to do if it shows you content you should not see.
Try it: Sort a list of example data into “safe”, “check first” and “never share”.
Mistakes, bias and reviewing responses 35 min
Avoiding common mistakes and bias in results, spotting answers that are confident but wrong, checking facts, figures and sources, and reviewing everything before you send, save or share it.
Try it: Find the errors in a deliberately flawed Copilot answer, then ask for a corrected version with sources.
Capstone: one task across four apps 60 min
Take a brief from request to finished outputs using the skills from both days.
• Draft a short report in Word from a file you reference.
• Analyse the supporting data in Excel and add a chart.
• Turn the findings into a short PowerPoint deck.
• Write the covering email in Outlook.
Next steps & close 10 min
Agree a few things to start using straight away and where to keep learning.
What you'll need
Microsoft 365 Copilot
- A Microsoft 365 work or school account with access to Copilot Chat.
- For the in-app path, a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, which adds Copilot inside Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Without it, every exercise has a Copilot Chat path.
- The Word, Excel and PowerPoint agents, and other agent features, depend on your licence and your organisation’s settings. Features marked as preview, such as Agent Mode in Excel and Word, may change and are not available in every tenant.
- For pay-as-you-go agents, billing set up by your administrator.
- For the Teams exercise, a transcribed Teams meeting hosted within your organisation.
- For the macro exercise, Excel on the desktop with macros permitted by your organisation’s policy.
Practice files are provided for every exercise. You are welcome to use your own everyday documents where your organisation's policy allows.