Microsoft Copilot & Copilot Studio: Intro for Leaders ISI-1615
A gentle, hands-on introduction to Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio
- 0 upcoming dates
- $1,995 per seat
About this class
A gentle, hands-on introduction to Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio designed for small cross-functional teams of leaders and power users. This two-day course focuses on building familiarity and confidence through practical application rather than complex implementations. Participants learn to use Copilot effectively across Microsoft 365 applications with reusable prompt templates, understand how to ground responses with organizational content from SharePoint and OneDrive, and create simple Copilot Studio bots with built-in actions that can be tested safely in the organization's environment.
The goal is practical competence and confidence, not mastery of complex features. Through eight guided labs and team activities, participants will develop a personal prompt set for daily workflows, understand when and how grounding improves responses, apply basic security and quality practices, build simple Studio bots with topics and actions, produce structured outputs for business use, and identify one feasible pilot idea with a clear implementation outline. By the end of the course, each team will have a concrete, scoped pilot plan ready to present to stakeholders.
Who is this class for?
This course is designed for business leaders and executives seeking to understand Copilot capabilities and organizational impact; power users and champions who will drive Copilot adoption in their teams; IT decision makers and technical leaders evaluating Copilot implementation strategies; and cross-functional teams with mixed business and technical backgrounds planning pilot projects. The course assumes no programming experience and focuses on practical application over technical complexity.
What you'll be able to do
- Copilot in Outlook, Teams, Word, PowerPoint
- Grounding Basics with SharePoint/OneDrive
- Safe and Effective Usage
- Quality Without Complexity
- Day 1 Close: Quick Look at Copilot Studio
- Copilot Studio Tour
- Add a Single Action
- Simple Structured Outputs
- From Idea to Pilot
- Capstone: Planning Workshop (Not a Full Build)
Course outline
Module 1Copilot in Outlook, Teams, Word, PowerPoint
- A. Effective Prompt Patterns for Business Scenarios
- P rompt anatomy and structure
- Tone controls and context setting
- Common patterns: reply, recap, draft, summarize
- B. Meeting Recaps and Document Intelligence
- Teams meeting summarization with citations
- Document drafting workflows
- Summarizing long documents and threads
- C. Guided Lab 1: Build Personal Prompt Set for Daily Tasks
- Identify 5- 10 common tasks for automation
- Create reusable prompt templates
- Test prompts across different scenarios
- Document personal prompt library
Module 2Grounding Basics with SharePoint/OneDrive
- A. Understanding Grounding Concepts
- What grounding is and why it matters
- When grounding improves accuracy and relevance
- How Copilot accesses organizational content
- B. Content Readiness and Access Management
- SharePoint and OneDrive integration
- Permission requirements and access patterns
- Content organization for effective grounding
- What makes content "AI - ready"
- C. Guided Lab 2: Compare Grounded vs Ungrounded Responses
- Test prompts without organizational content
- Enable grounding with SharePoint documents
- Compare response quality and accuracy
- Identify scenarios where grounding adds value
Module 3Safe and Effective Usage
- A. Security Best Practices
- Sensitivity labels and data classification
- What not to paste into Copilot prompts
- Understanding data residency and storage
- Audit logging and compliance considerations
- B. Simple Review Steps and Guardrails
- Human- in - the- loop review patterns
- Spotting hallucinations and inaccuracies
- When to trust and when to verify
- Building organizational safe usage guidelines
- C. Exercise: Rewrite Risky Prompts with Safety Patterns
- Analyze example prompts with security issues
- Apply safety patterns and data protection
- Add appropriate review steps
- Create "safe use" note for prompt library
Module 4Quality Without Complexity
- A. Quick Rubrics and Spot Checks
- Simple pass/fail criteria for prompt outputs
- Key quality dimensions: accuracy, relevance, tone, format
- Rapid evaluation without complex frameworks
- When to invest in deeper evaluation
- B. Building a "Golden Set" of Test Cases
- Selecting representative test scenarios
- Creating expected outputs for comparison
- Maintaining small, focused test sets
- Using golden sets for ongoing quality checks
- C. Exercise: Create Five Test Cases for One Workflow
- Select one business workflow to evaluate
- Define five specific test scenarios
- Write expected outputs or pass criteria
- Test current prompts against golden set
Module 5Day 1 Close: Quick Look at Copilot Studio
- A. Copilot Studio Overview (Demo)
- What is a topic and how it works
- Where data comes from in Studio bots
- What actions do and when to use them
- Publishing and testing in Teams
- B. Preview of Day 2 Activities
- Building a simple FAQ bot
- Adding one built - in action
- Creating structured outputs
- Planning a pilot project
Module 6Copilot Studio Tour
- A. Studio Fundamentals
- Topics: triggers, questions, responses
- Variables and data flow
- Testing in Studio environment
- Publishing to Teams for users
- B. Building Conversational Topics
- Natural language triggers
- Response nodes and message variations
- Branching and conditional logic (simple)
- Fallback and error handling
- C. Guided Lab 5: Create Policy FAQ Bot Using Provided Content
- Set up new Copilot Studio bot
- Create topics for common policy questions
- Add responses with organizational content
- Test bot in Studio test pane
- Publish to Teams for team testing
Module 7Add a Single Action
- A. Understanding Actions in Studio
- Built - in actions vs custom connectors
- When to use actions vs knowledge sources
- Parameters and inputs
- Response handling and error scenarios
- B. Least - Privilege Thinking
- Minimizing data access and permissions
- Choosing appropriate action scope
- Review and approval patterns
- Security implications of action selection
- C. Guided Lab 6: Add Built - in Data Fetch Action
- Select appropriate built - in action
- Configure action parameters
- Map action outputs to bot responses
- Display formatted action results
- Test action with various inputs
Module 8Simple Structured Outputs
- A. Formatting for Downstream Use
- Headings and bullet structure for readability
- Consistent formatting patterns
- When structure matters for automation
- Balancing structure with natural language
- B. Basic JSON for Handoffs
- What JSON is and when to use it
- Simple key - value pairs for integration
- Passing structured data to other systems
- M inimal JSON examples without complexity
- C. Guided Lab 7: Produce Structured Response
- Design response with clear headings and bullets
- Add mini JSON summary for integration
- Test structured output formatting
- Validate structure meets business requirements
Module 9From Idea to Pilot
- A. Scoping a Small Pilot Project
- Identifying high- value, low - complexity scenarios
- Defining clear success criteria
- Estimating effort and resources
- Setting realistic timelines and milestones
- B. Data Access and Content Requirements
- Identifying required content sources
- Assessing access permissions and security
- Content preparation and organization
- Fallback strategies when content is unavailable
- C. Success Measures and Risk Management
- Defining measurable success metrics
- Identifying potential risks and mitigation
- Building guardrails and review processes
- Planning rollout and user enablement
- D. Team Activity: One- Page Pilot Outline
- Teams select one business scenario
- Define goal, users, and success metrics
- Identify inputs, allowed sources, and expected outputs
- Add review/approval steps and guardrails
- Outline next actions and dependencies
Module 10Capstone: Planning Workshop (Not a Full Build)
- A. Scenario Selection
- Teams choose one scenario for planning:
- Outlook Suggested Reply: Email thread + one knowledge base
- Basic Redaction: Replace marked entities with labels on sample doc
- Transcript to Outline: Turn short transcript into clean requirements outline
- Profile Summary: Draft appraisal paragraph from approved fields
- B. Demo Plan or Storyboard Creation
- Define user scenario and workflow
- Identify required Copilot/Studio components
- Sketch inputs, processing, and outputs
- Add quality checks and review gates
- Document risks, assumptions, and dependencies
- C. Team Presentations
- Each team presents 5 - minute pilot plan
- Peer feedback and questions
- Instructor guidance on feasibility and scope
- Discussion of next steps and implementation
Download the full outline (PDF)
Before you attend
Prior to attending, student s should have: B asic M icrosoft 365 fluency and regular use of O utlook , T eams , W ord , or P ower P oint F amiliarity with organizational business processes and common workflows G eneral understanding of document management and collaboration in M icrosoft N o programming or technical development experience required W illingness to experiment and learn through hands - on practice
Run this for a team
Private cohorts run on your dates, at your site or online, with the labs pointed at your environment. Above about four people it usually costs less than buying seats.
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