I recently attended the Microsoft 365 Copilot ‘Prompt-a-thon’ roundtable, an event that provided insight into the potential of Copilot 365 within the public sector at their office in London. A few of us on the team have licenses for Copilot 365 and have been giving it a go in our day-to-day work (read Michael’s thoughts here). We know that many of our members are currently exploring using the standard Copilot and starting to evaluate Copilot 365 options. See our Licensing Options for Generative AI blog for further advice on this.
The session at Microsoft offered practical use cases, latest updates, advice around prompt engineering and data security, along with opportunities to chat with other professionals about their experiences using Copilot 365 at work. Here’s a summary of the key takeaways from the event.
A case study from Barnsley and Ealing council
The morning began with a keynote from both Barnsley and Ealing Council.
Barnsley Council deployed their Copilot 365 licenses on mass with the aim of demonstrating significant productivity improvements. To support this, they organised hackathons, set up Teams sites, conducted workshops and placed a strong emphasis on training and collaborative prompt building. The council provided training to users and received substantial backing from the senior leadership team to ensure a successful rollout. Additionally, they engaged in conversations with staff to address concerns about job safety, encouraging them to participate actively in the deployment process.
Ealing started smaller, taking more of a phased trial approach. They prioritised user support and confidence-building through a centre of excellence, Teams sites and prompt libraries. To support the rollout of Copilot 365, champions have taken the responsibility of supporting colleagues and regular bi-weekly meetings have allowed for continuous feedback and adaptation, helping staff become comfortable with using Copilot.
Data labelling and use cases
Following this, there was another session which highlighted the importance around data labelling to prevent confidentiality breaches. If Copilot 365 uses a document that is labelled as confidential, it will issue a warning. However, it’s important to note that if this document hasn’t been properly labelled, potential data breaches could occur. There was also discussion on its positive use in social care so far, particularly for summarising lengthy and sensitive documents, highlighting how valuable it has been for these departments.
A useful slide was shared which listed tasks where Copilot 365 can be leveraged, offering inspiration for users. Some examples included:
- Meeting notes and actions
- Day planning/Data sifting
- Writing reports based on templates
- Creating training material
- Assisting 1:1s
- Setting individual and team goals
Prompt Engineering
This part of the morning looked at effective prompt creation and highlighted the ‘4 key ingredients’ needed to prompt well;
- Goal: What response do you want from Copilot?
- Context: Why do you need it and who is involved?
- Source: Which information sources should Copilot use?
- Expectations: How should Copilot respond to meet your expectations?
We then had a conversation with other attendees around what makes a good prompt and how we are utilising Copilot web/365. Recommendations included tools like PromptBuddy, which was highlighted as an interesting and useful resource.
Copilot 365 latest updates
- Copilot Success Kit – this has quite a lot of useful tools, including their Microsoft Copilot Scenario Library and a ‘Top 10 to try in Copilot handout’.
- A new dashboard is being introduced that can identify who is and isn’t using Copilot 365 within your organisation.
- Excel is currently still in beta stage compared to the more developed Word and Outlook functionalities.
Overall, the session offered great insights and strategies and has equipped me with new ideas to experiment with Copilot 365. I look forward to refining my prompts and exploring the full potential of this tool.
And a call to action…
We’re aware that a number of Colleges and Universities are also trying Copilot for Microsoft 365, and we’d love to share experiences, even if it’s just that you are evaluating it but don’t have any firm outcomes. If you are and can share details drop us an email at ai@jisc.ac.uk and we’ll collate what is happening across the sector and share back in a future blog post.
Find out more by visiting our Artificial Intelligence page to view publications and resources, join us for events and discover what AI has to offer through our range of interactive online demos.
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Get in touch with the team directly at AI@jisc.ac.uk