Mark Hay

AI for Work / Copilot guide

Microsoft Copilot: set it up so people actually use it.

Start with a specific business task and the material needed to answer it. Prepare a request here, then use your organisation-approved Copilot to create a draft for you to check. This site does not connect to Microsoft or your work files.

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Guidance reviewed 3 October 2026 against the official references below. Features depend on your account, plan, administrator settings and rollout. Test a real task before choosing or changing a subscription.

First-week setup

  1. 1Use the work or school account approved by your organisation. Do not assume a personal Copilot account is approved for business information.
  2. 2Check your licence and organisation settings with your administrator. Features inside Outlook, Teams, Word or Excel may differ between accounts; a Microsoft 365 subscription alone does not establish which Copilot features you have.
  3. 3Choose one task, name the source document, email thread, meeting or worksheet, and specify the audience, output and boundaries. If the source is unavailable, ask Copilot to say so.
  4. 4Use only information your organisation permits in that assistant. Start with non-sensitive examples, review the result against the source, then save a useful request for repeat work.

Good first uses

Meeting follow-up: use approved notes or an accessible transcript to draft actions, owners and due dates. Mark missing owners or dates as unconfirmed and check against the meeting record.
Outlook reply: where available, draft from a named email thread; otherwise provide permitted excerpts in your approved assistant. Check recipients, facts, tone and commitments before sending.
Excel review: identify the workbook, sheet, columns and period, or provide an approved sample. Ask for an explanation and draft formula, then test on a copy and reconcile totals before changing the working file.

Watch-outs

  • The presence of a Copilot chat does not mean it can read every email, meeting or file. Licence, permissions and organisation settings determine the available work context and in-app features.
  • A confident answer is still a draft. Verify source references, calculations and dates; distinguish facts in the material from suggestions made by the assistant.
  • Keep private work content in the approved environment. Permission to view a file does not automatically make it appropriate to share with every recipient of your final output.