Microsoft Copilot for Business Productivity

Course overview

Course outline

1. 1Day 1: Microsoft Copilot, Prompting and AI-Assisted Workflows

   • Understanding Microsoft Copilot and its role within the Microsoft 365 work environment
   • Identifying suitable Copilot use cases across documents, communication, meetings, presentations, and business analysis
   • Understanding how organizational content, context, and user permissions affect Copilot responses
   • Structuring effective prompts using goals, context, source information, audience, constraints, and expected outputs
   • Improving responses through follow-up prompts, refinement, verification, and human judgment
   • Practical exercise: Mapping recurring workplace activities and identifying opportunities for Copilot-assisted productivity
2. 2Day 2: Copilot in Word and PowerPoint for Business Content

   • Using Copilot in Word to draft reports, proposals, briefing documents, policies, and professional correspondence
   • Summarizing lengthy documents and extracting decisions, risks, actions, and important business information
   • Rewriting and restructuring content for different audiences, purposes, formats, and levels of detail
   • Using Copilot in PowerPoint to support presentation creation from prompts and available source material
   • Refining presentation structure, messaging, slide content, and executive-level communication
   • Practical workshop: Transforming business source material into an executive document and management presentation
3. 3Day 3: Copilot in Excel for Business Analysis and Decision Support

   • Preparing business data for effective analysis and understanding the importance of structured, reliable information
   • Using Copilot capabilities to explore spreadsheet data and support analytical questions
   • Identifying trends, patterns, exceptions, relationships, and performance differences in business datasets
   • Supporting formula development, calculations, summaries, and interpretation while validating analytical outputs
   • Applying Copilot-assisted analysis to finance, sales, operations, performance, and management reporting scenarios
   • Case study: Analyzing business performance data and converting findings into management insights and recommended actions
4. 4Day 4: Copilot in Outlook and Teams for Communication and Meetings

   • Using Copilot to support email summarization, response preparation, and professional communication in Outlook
   • Extracting important information, commitments, questions, and follow-up requirements from communication threads
   • Using Copilot capabilities in Teams to support meeting preparation, discussion review, and follow-up activities
   • Identifying decisions, responsibilities, unresolved questions, and action items from meeting information
   • Converting meetings and communications into structured tasks, summaries, briefings, and stakeholder updates
   • Practical scenario: Managing a complex project communication cycle using Copilot-assisted email and meeting workflows
5. 5Day 5: Copilot Adoption, Responsible AI and Business Productivity

   • Designing repeatable Copilot workflows for recurring individual and team responsibilities
   • Identifying high-value opportunities for AI-assisted productivity across different business functions
   • Understanding permissions, information access, confidentiality, and organizational data considerations when using Copilot
   • Managing risks related to inaccurate content, unsupported conclusions, sensitive information, and excessive reliance on AI
   • Measuring Copilot value through time savings, work quality, consistency, adoption, and process improvement indicators
   • Capstone exercise: Developing a Microsoft Copilot Business Productivity Plan covering priority use cases, prompts, workflows, controls, and measurable outcomes