Getting started with Copilot - Microsoft 365 App

2. Getting Started with Copilot - Microsoft 365 Copilot App

In this Video:

Unlock the full potential of Microsoft 365 with our guide to using Copilot effectively in your daily workflow.

In this video, we explore the essential features of Microsoft 365 Copilot, focusing on how to enhance productivity and streamline your tasks. You’ll learn how to navigate the app, identify the right version, and utilize the workspace for seamless interactions with SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, and Outlook.

Key points covered include:

  • Getting Started: Discover how to access Copilot and recognize the interface that indicates you’re in the right environment.
  • Work IQ Feature: Understand the importance of enabling Work IQ to enhance Copilot’s integration with your company’s internal data.
  • Prompting with Precision: Learn effective prompting techniques to obtain specific information from your calendar and internal documents, ensuring you maximize Copilot’s capabilities.
  • Scheduled Prompts and Researcher Agent: Explore how to automate daily tasks with scheduled prompts and leverage the Researcher agent for in-depth analysis on complex topics.
  • Managing Settings: Gain insights on how to adjust web search settings and personalize your Copilot experience for optimal performance.

By the end of this video, viewers will have actionable insights on leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot to improve operational efficiency, enhance collaboration, and streamline workflows. Whether managing busy schedules or conducting in-depth research, Copilot is designed to support your business needs effectively.

Join us and transform how you work with Microsoft 365 Copilot, ensuring you harness its full potential for your organization’s success.

FAQ

1. What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?

Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI assistant built into the Microsoft 365 environment to help your team work more efficiently across tools such as SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams and Outlook. It can answer questions, find relevant information, and help people get more value from the systems they already use.

2. How do I open Microsoft 365 Copilot?

To open Microsoft 365 Copilot on a Windows device, click the Windows button and search for Microsoft 365 Copilot. Make sure you open the business app rather than the consumer app simply called Copilot, as they are different products with different access and protections.

3. How can I tell if I am using the right Copilot app?

A simple way to confirm you are in the right place is to look for the green shield that shows Enterprise data protection is on. This indicates you are using the Microsoft 365 business experience designed for work data and internal systems.

4. What can Microsoft 365 Copilot connect to?

Microsoft 365 Copilot can work across your Microsoft 365 environment, including SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams and Outlook. This allows it to help with everyday tasks such as finding information, reviewing calendar items, checking messages, and bringing together useful context from across your business content.

5. What is Work IQ and should I turn it on?

Work IQ helps Copilot make better use of your Microsoft 365 environment by improving how it works with internal company data. If you want Copilot to reference business information from your workplace systems, it is generally best to leave Work IQ turned on.

6. Can Microsoft 365 Copilot search the web as well as my business data?

Yes. Web search is available by default, and you can turn it off if needed in the settings. In practice, Copilot is usually good at following clear instructions, so if you ask it to look through your internal business content, it can prioritise those sources without switching unnecessarily to the web.

7. What are scheduled prompts in Microsoft 365 Copilot?

Scheduled prompts let you save a useful prompt and run it again automatically on a regular basis. For example, you might schedule a Monday morning prompt to review the week ahead, or an afternoon prompt to check for messages, follow-ups or urgent items that still need attention. You can also choose to receive the results by email, which makes this especially useful for busy teams.

8. What is the Researcher agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot?

The Researcher agent is designed for deeper, long-running analysis rather than quick answers. It can ask a few clarification questions first, then spend time exploring a topic and return a more detailed report with citations. This makes it a useful starting point for research, provided the results are reviewed carefully before being shared or relied on.

 

All right, so let’s get to your first prompt. So to, to open up Copilot, just click the Windows button and type Copilot. Now, you might see on your environment that you have just the Microsoft 365 Copilot, app. On my screen here, you can see I’ve got a second one there.
It’s just called Copilot. That’s not the one we want. That is the consumer version of Copilot, and that’s not what your newfound license, gives you access to. So this one here, the Microsoft 365 Copilot, that’s the one we want. So jump into that one, and that’ll load up.
So this is your, you know, primary workspace for interactions with Copilot. This is where you can ask it questions, and it’ll go through SharePoint and OneDrive, Teams and Outlook. And so this is your kind of day-to-day thing. Now, this window, this experience is the same whether you’re on the desktop app, in the browser, or even on your mobile.
So both iOS and Android, both have a Copilot. app  and so you’ll get the same experience there. Now, you can tell you’re in the right place when you start seeing this little green shield that says, “Enterprise data protection is on.” and so as long as you’re seeing that, you’re kinda golden.
Now, there’s a couple of things to call out here, immediately. One is there’s a button up here. called Work IQ. Now, Work IQ basically, uh, enhances Copilot’s ability to. integrate with your, 365 environment. So if you’re looking to do things where it want… you want it to reference, uh, internal, uh, company data, I would always have it turned on.
Uh, and so then you’ll, you’ll see that it, that it’s able to search through all of those things. Uh, now, Copilot. does have access to- the web by default. Uh, to turn it off, it… the setting’s actually a little bit, uh, a little bit dug in. Uh, you’ need to go through the settings down in the bottom left here.
and go to Settings, and then go down to Sources. I think it’s Sources. Oh, making a liar out of me. Personalization, Web search. There we go. So, uh, things do move around in Copilot a little bit, so if this isn’t the same, don’t be, don’t be upset. It’s probably just shifted somewhere else.
But you can, you can turn off web search if you would like. Um, for the most part, I leave it on.” It’s pretty good at, taking direction, and so if I say, you’ know, “Hey, go through my SharePoint for something,” it’s not then gonna go search the web if it finds some things in SharePoint.
And so, you know, it’s, it’s pretty good at taking that direction. So, you know, out of the box, um, you can ask it questions, right? And it can go through your, through your data sources. So I’ll run a prompt, uh, that I, that I ran to make sure it wouldn’t surface anything unusual, uh, uh, previously.
So I’ll say, you know, um, “Have I, uh, book leave for next Friday?” Now, it’s got some things that it’ll take away from that you see at the OOF, right, out of office. So it already knew, okay, this is some sort of Teams or, or Outlook calendar thing.
Cool. And it’s found two. So there’s the one I created, which was labeled, you know, day with the family, and then there’ was the other, which was added by our HR system automatically. Uh, and so it says there’s two, but the end result is, based on your calendar, yeah, you’ve got it booked.
And so I can follow up on this, um, uh, with, with additional questions if, if necessary. You know, I could ask it things like, you know, “Have I received approval for it yet? Has my manager signed off on it?” Uh, I expect I would get an email from employment hero to say, “Hey, yep, your leave’s been approved.” Uh, so I could follow that up.
Um, equally though, I could say things like, you know, “When’s my next leave after that?” And have it scan even further into the future. Uh, and so that’s, that’s the basics of, of prompting, uh, with Copilot. One cool thing about Copilot’ is it has the, uh, the idea of scheduled prompts.
And so once you’ve run a prompt s- successfully, you can actually schedule it to run again as often as you need. Um, now, I wouldn’t run this, “Have I,” you know, “Have I booked leave for next Friday?” That’s not very, very helpful to, to schedule. Uh, but there are two really common use cases we see.
Uh, one is the look ahead. Look at my week ahead, you know, first thing Monday morning, right? Look ahead at my week. What’s my week look like? Who am I meeting for the first time? You know, do a bit of research. What else have we done with that client?
So I’m going into a meeting, you know, with more context about how we’ve worked with them in the past, uh, rather than coming in cold. The other one is the look back. So, you know, about four o’clock, 4:30, look back at my day. What haven’t I responded to?
What Teams messages haven’t I responded to? Um, who hasn’t come back to me on something, uh, that I’ve flagged as urgent? You, you can have it do that kind of, uh, analysis of your, of your communication to come back and tell you, “Hey, you need to chase up XYZ,” or, “You haven’t responded to s- uh, you know, someone, uh, specific.” If you tick on…
If you leave ticked on, sorry, the receive an email, the message doesn’t even just come through Copilot. You’ll get an email that says, “Hey, your prompt’s been, your prompt’s finished. Click here to find out more detail.” Uh, it gives you a brief summary, and then you’re kind of off and running.
So if you set this to run at 4:30, but you happen to leave a little, a little early that day, you still get the email. Um, you don’t have to worry about, you know, having that, um, having Copilot prompts and notifications and all that kind of thing enabled.
Uh, so it’s quite, quite useful. The other part of Copilot that is very useful, uh, out of the box is the Researcher agent. So the Researcher agent’s whole shtick is that it’s meant to do long-running, uh, analysis and exploration of a topic that you provide it. Um, and so the idea here is you’ll, you’ll give it, you’ll, you’ll give it a prompt.
It’s probably gonna come back with a couple of clarification questions very quickly. You’ll answer those clarification questions, and then it goes off running, right? It can take 30 or 40 minutes to come back with an answer. But the goal is it comes back with a very lengthy report.
Uh, it’s not just a simple yes/no answer or a little bit of, you know, information. For those kinds of queries, just go to Copilot normal chat. Um, but if you want. something in-depth, the Researcher is the way to go. And so, um, I, I ran one, uh, previously.
I’m getting a lot of questions about Granola AI around recording phone calls. Uh, and so I want to understand some of the, some of the legal issues around that, right? Just as a baseline, start my, my, uh, discovery in that, in that area. And I said, “Cool, I want to understand the legal issues around the use of it.” And it came back and said, “Okay, cool.
You know, are you interested in, in, in law or surveillance or, you know, what are you most focused on? Um, you know, uh, do you want this or this or both?” All these options had an all the above or both. Uh, and it also gives you the option just to say, “Go ahead,” and it’ll do its best to figure out, you know, what’s a, what’s a good, uh, path to take, and then it asks for the length of the, of the report.
So I said one to five. Doesn’t need to be super lengthy. Uh, it came back with a couple of questions, so I answered them. Uh, I didn’t answer them in, in, in any particular order. I just, you know, went top to bottom, right? I didn’t say question one answer is this.
Uh, it just inferred that stuff. And then it said, “Okay, cool. Thanks. I’m going away to do the research now.” So it set out a plan, uh, and then went and executed on. that. And the result is a pretty comprehensive report on some of the issues with, um, you’ know, doing voice recording, but Granola specifically.
The core part about this that I like is the citations piece. So it’s claimed, hey, you’ know, there’s this like practical starting point, uh, for New South Wales jurisdiction. Okay, well how have you come to that conclusion? Okay, legislation from New South Wales government, so I can click that link, it’ll take me out to the browser.
The other one, Hamilton Locke. Cool. That, that’s a law firm. Okay, they’ve got an article on recording private conversations. Seems pretty relevant. And so I can dig into those to make sure that if it’s misinterpreted something or it’s, you know, understood something a little differently or it’s using out of date, uh, reference, which can happen, uh, you know, I can, I can see that.
I can dig into it.. So I would never, you know, take what research it gives me and send it out to a client or, or share it with the team. But the… It’s a great starting point for my exploration because to figure out what, eight jurisdictions for this kind of thing, that’s eight different searches through eight different government portals.
That doesn’t sound like a great afternoon. I’d rather have this do that, that cursory pass for me. Um, and so that’s, that’s an agent that comes straight out of the box. Now, in terms of the, uh, the chats you’ve had, I’ve got them hidden at the moment, but your chat history is just on the left.
Um, and so you can click into your old chats and you can go back to them, um, a- as you need. Um, but yeah, that’s, that’s really the, the 101s. You can tweak, uh, the model choice. So if I go to new chat, you can tweak the model choice with Copilot.
If, if you really have just started with Copilot, don’t worry about this. It’s fine. You’ll do a good enough job. Don’t worry. Once you get more familiar with AI, um, you can opt for, you know, I want quick responses, you know, I want you to take a little longer.
You can pick between the different models that are, that are offered. Uh, you’ll notice that Anthropic’s models are here, but this isn’t Claude. Um, and so, you know, you’ve got some options there. But if this is day one, don’t worry about it. I, I assure you, it’s not gonna be the make or break for your experience.
Um, and so just, uh, yeah, forget about that for now. Uh, but that’s it. That’s, that’s the basics of the Copilot app.

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