Microsoft Copilot & Copilot Studio: Intro for Leaders ISI-1615

Module 1Copilot in Outlook, Teams, Word, PowerPoint

• A. Effective Prompt Patterns for Business Scenarios
• Prompt 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
• Minimal 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