Chapters on Eriks training corner

Introduction to Microsoft 365 Copilot

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction to Microsoft 365 Copilot

What Microsoft 365 Copilot is

An AI assistant built into the Microsoft 365 apps. It understands plain language, writes, summarizes, analyzes and – most importantly – works with your work data: e-mails, meetings, chats and documents.

graph LR P["Your prompt"] --> C["Copilot"] C --> G["Work IQ / Microsoft Graph mail, calendar, Teams, files"] C --> W["Web (if enabled)"] G --> M["Language model"] W --> M M --> O["Answer with citations"]

Copilot Chat vs. Microsoft 365 Copilot

	Copilot Chat (free with M365)	Microsoft 365 Copilot (paid licence)
Web	✔	✔
Your mail, calendar, Teams, files	✖ (only a file you upload)	✔
Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams	limited	✔ full
Teams meeting recap	✖	✔
Researcher, Analyst, Notebooks	✖ / limited	✔

Where to find Copilot

Microsoft 365 Copilot app (m365copilot.com, Teams, Windows) – chat over all your data
Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, OneNote – Copilot button on the ribbon or in the window
Work / Web toggle (Work IQ) – decides whether Copilot searches your company data

Security and trust

Copilot only sees what you already have access to – permissions are respected.
Company data is not used to train the models and stays within the Microsoft 365 boundary.
Copilot can be wrong: always check numbers, names and dates (citations help).
You are responsible for what you send.

The 3 C rule

Check the facts – Correct the tone – Confirm, then send.

Writing good prompts

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Writing good prompts

Four parts of a good prompt

graph LR A["🎯 Goal what I want"] --> B["📋 Context for whom, why"] B --> C["📁 Source from what"] C --> D["✅ Expectations format, length, tone"]

Part	Question	Example
Goal	What should Copilot do?	Prepare a short project status
Context	For whom and why?	for the CEO, for Thursday’s management meeting
Source	Based on what?	e-mails from Tomáš Baláž and the file Zakazky_2025_2026.xlsx
Expectations	What should the output look like?	max. 1 page, 3 risks in a table, factual tone

Weak prompt: “Write a report about the project.”

Copilot in Outlook

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Copilot in Outlook

What Copilot in Outlook can do

Situation	Feature	How
Long thread, no time to read	Summary	Summarize button above the e-mail
Need to reply	Draft	Draft with Copilot, adjust tone and length
Sensitive e-mail	Coaching	Coaching by Copilot / Get coaching – tone, clarity, empathy
What do I have to do?	Tasks from mail	chat in Outlook: “Which tasks and deadlines come from my e-mails?”
Need a meeting	Scheduling	Schedule with Copilot or a prompt in chat
Meeting prep	Prepare	in the calendar event: Prepare with Copilot
Overflowing inbox	Triage	chat: “move newsletters to folder…” (new feature)

A manager’s morning routine

graph LR A["What matters? (chat)"] --> B["Summarize threads"] B --> C["Reply / delegate"] C --> D["Tasks and deadlines to To Do"] D --> E["Schedule meetings"]

Watch out for

Always read the draft – Copilot doesn’t know what you agreed on the phone.
In external communication check that the reply doesn’t reveal internal information (e.g. internal costs).
A summary is only as good as the thread – what isn’t in the e-mails, Copilot doesn’t know.

Lab

➡ Lab 02 - The manager’s morning inbox

Copilot in Word

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Copilot in Word

Four ways of working

Mode	When	How
Create	blank document, new text	Draft with Copilot + reference files with `/`
Edit	rewrite, shorten, change tone, make a table	select text → Copilot icon → Rewrite / Visualize as a table
Ask	long document, contract	Copilot pane: “Summarize”, “What are the risks…”, “Where does it say…”
Agent Mode	several steps across the whole document	in the Copilot pane choose Agent / Edit with Copilot

graph LR N["Notes meeting transcript"] --> W["Copilot in Word"] Z["Contract + internal policy"] --> W E["Excel, e-mails"] --> W W --> R["Minutes"] W --> T["Risk table"] W --> S["Management report"]

Typical manager tasks

notes or meeting transcript → structured minutes with tasks
draft contract → summary and comparison with internal rules
several sources → one-page report for management
text for a customer → change of tone and shortening

Careful

Copilot is not a lawyer. With contracts it helps you find problematic clauses faster – the decision and final wording belong to you and your legal team.

Copilot in Excel

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Copilot in Excel

Prerequisites

The file is stored in OneDrive or SharePoint and AutoSave is on.
Data is formatted as a table (Home → Format as Table) or a clean range with a header row.

What Copilot in Excel can do

graph TD D["Data table"] --> Q["Questions Which branch grows fastest?"] D --> F["Formulas and columns variance %, estimate at completion"] D --> H["Highlighting conditional formatting"] D --> P["PivotTables and charts"] D --> A["Advanced analysis Python, trends, forecast"] D --> C["Data cleanup duplicates, typos"]

I want…	Example prompt
an overview	“Summarize the key findings from this data in 5 points.”
a new column	“Add a column Estimate at completion = Actual cost / Completion.”
to highlight	“Highlight in red the projects where the estimate exceeds the budget by more than 10 %.”
pivot + chart	“Create a PivotTable of revenue by branch and year and add a column chart.”
a trend	“How does revenue of the Košice branch develop compared to the others? Show a chart.”
deep analysis	“Do an advanced analysis with Python: …” / Agent Mode / Analyst agent

Check the numbers

Ask Copilot to show the formula or the steps behind a number. For important figures do a one-click check (sum, filter).

Copilot in PowerPoint

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Copilot in PowerPoint

From inputs to a presentation

graph LR W["Word: report"] --> C["Copilot in PowerPoint"] X["Excel: numbers"] --> C E["E-mail / meeting"] --> C T["Company template"] --> C C --> D["Draft deck"] D --> R["You: edit, check, speaker notes"]

What we will try

Feature	How
Deck from a file	Copilot → Create presentation from file / prompt with `/` reference to a document
Company design	start in a file with the template – Copilot uses its layouts
Add a slide	“Add a slide with a risk table…”
Edit the whole deck	Edit with Copilot (Agent Mode)
Skills	Review this presentation, Prepare for questions, Visualize this slide
Speaker notes	“Add speaker notes to every slide.”
Summarize someone else’s deck	“Summarize this presentation in 5 points.”

A good management deck

1 slide = 1 message; the title is the conclusion, not the topic (“Košice is losing margin”, not “Košice”).
Max. 3 – 5 slides for a management meeting.
Only the numbers needed for the decision.
Copilot gives the structure – the story and emphasis are yours.

Lab

➡ Lab 05 - Deck for the management meeting

Copilot in Teams

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Copilot in Teams

Copilot before, during and after a meeting

graph LR B["BEFORE Prepare: agenda, materials, what was discussed last time"] --> D["DURING Copilot in the meeting Facilitator: agenda, notes, timing"] D --> A["AFTER Intelligent recap tasks to Planner follow-up e-mail"]

Where	What Copilot does	Requirement
Meeting – during	“What did I miss?”, “Where do we disagree?”, “What are the open questions?”	transcription on (or Copilot “only during the meeting”)
Facilitator	agenda, shared live notes, timekeeping, tasks to Planner	Copilot licence; turned on per meeting
After the meeting – Recap	summary, tasks, chapters, mentions of you	transcript / recording
Chat and channel	“Summarize the last 7 days”, “What decisions were made?”	–
Planner	tasks from notes, Planner agent (“Which tasks are due this week?”)	–

Rules for managers

At the start announce that transcription and Copilot are on.
Say tasks out loud clearly: who – what – by when. Copilot will then capture them accurately.
Check the Copilot summary before sending it – names and dates.

Lab

➡ Lab 06 - D1 WIM crisis meeting

Advanced scenarios and agents

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Advanced scenarios and agents

From assistant to agents

graph LR C["Chat question → answer"] --> R["Researcher multi-step research work data + web"] C --> A["Analyst Python calculations over data"] C --> N["Notebooks project space with sources"] C --> P["Pages shareable output to co-edit"] C --> B["Your own agent Agent Builder e.g. 'SM-07 assistant'"] C --> W["Cowork delegate a bigger task across apps"]

Tool	How a manager uses it
Copilot Chat (Work)	overview across mail, meetings and files: “Prepare me for Thursday’s meeting.”
Researcher	decision support: bid/no-bid, supplier analysis, market
Analyst	calculations, forecasts, statistics over files (CSV, Excel)
Notebooks	one space for the D1 WIM project – files, e-mails, meetings, notes
Pages	chat output as a living document you share and extend with your team
Agent Builder	your own agent over company documents (policies, price lists, procedures)
Cowork	“do it for me” – several steps across apps with your approval at the end

Copilot as decision support

Collect – what we know (e-mails, documents, numbers)
Structure – criteria, options, risks
Challenge – “What speaks against it?”, “What would the CFO say?”
Decide – you, not Copilot

Warning

An agent works longer and with more sources – which makes checking the citations even more important. With agents over company documents, think about who has access to them.

Final assignment and quiz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Final assignment and quiz

How we verify what you learned

graph LR Z["Final assignment 35 min, individually"] --> H["Assessment 4 criteria, max. 12 pts"] T["Quiz in Microsoft Forms 10 min"] --> P["Certificate of completion"] H --> P

Final assignment – a model situation you solve with Copilot across several apps. We assess not only whether you used Copilot, but whether the output is usable in practice.
Quiz – a short questionnaire “How would you use Copilot to…?” (link from the trainer).

Assessment criteria

Criterion	0 pts	1 pt	2 pts	3 pts
Completeness – are all 4 outputs done?	0 – 1 output	2 outputs	3 outputs	all 4
Correctness – numbers, names, dates match the sources	several errors	2 errors	1 error	no errors
Working with Copilot – prompts with goal, context, source and expectations; iteration	no structure	partly	mostly	always + iteration
Usability – tone, format; can be sent/presented without major edits	no	with major edits	with minor edits	yes

Pass: at least 8 of 12 points.