Welcome to Copilot: AI at Work
Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant built into the apps you use every day. Here's what it actually does, how it works, and why everyone's talking about it.
What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Imagine you hired a brilliant assistant who’s read every email, document, and chat message in your company — but only the ones YOU have access to.
That’s Copilot. You ask it something like “What did our team discuss about the budget last week?” and it finds the answer across your emails, Teams chats, SharePoint files, and calendar — then gives you a summary in plain English.
It works inside the apps you already use: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. No new software to learn. No coding required.
The most important thing to remember: Copilot can only see what you can see. Your permissions are its permissions.
Meet the teams you’ll follow
Throughout this course, you’ll learn through four organisations — each using Copilot to solve real business challenges:
| Team | Who They Are | What They Need |
|---|---|---|
| 📢 BrightLoop Marketing | Digital agency, 80 people. Ava Chen leads the marketing team | Faster campaigns, better content, trend analysis |
| 🏭 Horizon Logistics | Supply chain company, 300 people. Marcus Webb runs operations | Streamlined reports, meeting recaps, workflow efficiency |
| 👥 Oakfield Healthcare | Private hospital group, 500 staff. Dana Okafor directs HR | Employee onboarding, policy management, training materials |
| 💰 Peak Solutions | B2B tech sales, 120 people. Jordan Park leads the sales team | Customer communications, pipeline reviews, proposal drafts |
Why four different organisations?
The AB-730 exam tests your ability to use Copilot in business contexts, not just memorise features. By seeing how marketing, operations, HR, and sales teams each use Copilot differently, you’ll be better prepared for scenario-based questions.
You’ll also meet their colleagues along the way: Tomas and Leah at BrightLoop, Kenji and Fatima at Horizon, Sam and Dr. Anika at Oakfield, and Raj and Chloe at Peak Solutions.
How Copilot works — the simple version
Here’s the flow every time you use Copilot:
- You type a prompt — a question or instruction in everyday language
- Copilot checks your data — it queries Microsoft Graph for relevant emails, files, chats, and calendar events
- The AI generates a response — grounded in YOUR data, not generic internet answers
- You review and refine — Copilot drafts, you decide what’s good enough
Key concept: Copilot doesn’t “know” things on its own. It reads your data at the moment you ask and generates a response. Your prompts and responses are stored as interaction history in your Exchange mailbox (subject to your org’s retention policies), but your data is not used to train Microsoft’s AI models. Copilot can also build personalised memory from your conversations — more on that in Module 20.
What makes Copilot different from ChatGPT?
| Feature | ChatGPT (consumer) | Microsoft 365 Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Data source | Internet + what you paste in | Your M365 data + internet (optional) |
| Knows your work | No — no access to your work data | Yes — reads your emails, files, chats, calendar |
| Built into apps | Separate website/app | Inside Word, Excel, Teams, Outlook, PowerPoint |
| Data privacy | Consumer-grade | Enterprise — your data stays in your tenant |
| Permissions | Not applicable | Respects your existing M365 permissions |
Real-world: Ava's first day with Copilot
Ava Chen at BrightLoop Marketing used to spend Monday mornings catching up on weekend emails. Now she opens Copilot Chat and types:
“Summarise all emails I received over the weekend about the Q3 campaign. Highlight anything that needs my action.”
In 30 seconds, Copilot surfaces 14 emails, pulls out 3 action items, and even identifies that Tomas shared a draft campaign brief she hasn’t opened yet.
What happened behind the scenes: Copilot queried Microsoft Graph for Ava’s recent emails, filtered by the keyword “Q3 campaign,” summarised the content, and identified action-oriented language. It could only find emails Ava has access to — if someone BCC’d her boss but not her, Copilot wouldn’t see it either.
Where you’ll find Copilot
Copilot lives inside the apps you already use:
- Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat — the standalone experience at m365copilot.com, in Teams, or in the M365 app
- Word — draft, rewrite, summarise
- Excel — analyse data, create formulas, build charts
- PowerPoint — create presentations from prompts or documents
- Outlook — draft replies, summarise threads, coach your tone
- Teams — meeting summaries, chat catch-ups, action items
You’ll explore each of these in detail in the next module.
🎬 Video walkthrough
Flashcards
Knowledge Check
Ava at BrightLoop asks Copilot: 'What did the client say about the logo redesign?' Copilot responds with details from an email thread. How did Copilot find this information?
Marcus at Horizon Logistics is worried that Copilot might access confidential board meeting documents he doesn't have permission to view. Is his concern valid?
Which TWO statements about Microsoft 365 Copilot are TRUE? (Select two)
Next up: Copilot works differently in each M365 app. Let’s explore what it can do in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and Copilot Chat.