Exercise 2, Task 1: Use Copilot in Word to create an executive briefing report

As COO of Northwind Traders, one of your responsibilities is to prepare operational summaries to the executive team, explaining how the company performed during each quarter, what drove results, and where adjustments are needed. With Q3 now finished, you must provide a concise briefing on the company’s Q3 performance. In this task, you plan to use Copilot in Word to transform raw sales data into an executive briefing report that highlights the most critical insights and presents actionable recommendations.

This task emphasizes how Copilot can turn complex business data into actionable insights that support high-level decision-making.

Using Copilot in Word

Copilot in Word can work in either Allow editing mode or Chat only mode. Understanding this distinction is important, because it affects whether Copilot can automatically apply changes to your document or just provide suggestions for you to use.

When Allow editing is selected, Copilot acts as an in-document author and editor. You can ask Copilot to create a document from scratch, rewrite sections, add summaries, or refine language—and it can apply those changes directly to the document, typically with your confirmation. In this experience, Copilot behaves like a collaborative writing partner that can both generate and revise content without requiring manual copy and paste. This is commonly the experience when prompting Copilot from within a Word document, such as using the drafting prompt above a blank document or the prompt field in the Copilot pane.

When Chat only is selected, Copilot responds in the Copilot pane without changing the document. It can still research topics, summarize information, and draft text, but it does not modify the document directly. Instead, responses remain in the Copilot pane, where you can review them and decide what, if anything, should be added to the document. This approach is useful when you want Copilot to act as a research assistant or idea generator while maintaining full control over the content that gets inserted into your document.

This task uses the Allow editing functionality.

Perform the following steps to complete this task:

  1. Select the following link to download the Northwind Traders Q3 sales data.xlsx file. Store the file in your OneDrive account for use by Copilot in your tenant.

  2. In your web browser, sign in to the Microsoft Copilot home page Microsoft Copilot at https://copilot.cloud.microsoft/, select the App Launcher (grid icon) in the top-left corner of the page, and then select More Apps. In the All apps→ window, locate and select Word.

  3. In Word for the web, select Create blank document.

  4. In the bottom-right corner of the document, select the Copilot icon to open the Copilot pane. Verify that the pane opens in edit mode—the heading should read Let’s edit your document. Below the heading, confirm that the mode selector is set to Allow editing (so Copilot can edit your document directly). If it shows Chat only, select the drop-down and then select Allow editing.

  5. In the Copilot prompt field, select the plus (+) sign, and then select Attach cloud files from the drop-down menu. In the Search field, enter Northwind, and then select the Northwind Traders Q3 sales data.xlsx file that appears.

  6. In the prompt field, submit the following prompt that asks Copilot to review Northwind Traders’ Q3 sales data and create an executive briefing report on the company’s Q3 sales performance:

    [!NOTE] For this first prompt, we’ve provided the text so you can see what an effective prompt looks like when it incorporates the four key elements discussed in the Introduction unit. You must write all remaining prompts in this exercise, but in doing so, you can use this prompt as a model to emulate.

   As the COO at Northwind Traders, I need you to create a strategic briefing report for our Senior Leadership Team that's based on the company's Q3 sales performance data, which can be found in the attached Northwind Traders Q3 sales data.xlsx file. This file contains detailed sales data for our Q3 performance this year, along with year-over-year growth percentages for Q3 revenue and profit by category and region. Please create a professional executive briefing report in Word that summarizes Q3 sales trends and highlights emerging opportunities and potential risks. The format of the report should include an executive summary, a bulleted list of key insights (including top-performing categories and regions, areas with declining performance, and emerging opportunities), and a clear year-over-year analysis (including charts) of revenue and profit growth by category and region.

  1. Review the executive briefing report that Copilot added directly to the document. Confirm that it includes an executive summary, key insights, year-over-year analysis, and charts based on the attached Q3 sales data.

  2. Review the document. After looking through the report, you realize that you forgot to have Copilot include actionable recommendations for next quarter’s strategy. In the Copilot pane, ask Copilot to add a Q4 Strategic Recommendations section that includes suggested initiatives, risk mitigation strategies, and growth acceleration ideas for Q4.

  3. Review the results. Copilot inserts the Q4 Strategic Recommendations section (including suggested initiatives and risk mitigation strategies) directly into the document, and the Copilot pane displays a short summary of what was added.

  4. While the revised report that includes the Q4 Strategic Recommendations section looks good, you feel the document is missing a final data visualization that could really enhance it. In the Copilot pane, ask Copilot to create a chart comparing Q3 revenue by region and category.

  5. Review the chart. If you’re happy with it, place the chart at a location in the document where you feel it would be most effective.

  6. Review the document. You’re satisfied with this final version, so save it as Q3 Executive Briefing.docx in your OneDrive. You plan to use this file as a knowledge source for the Business Insights agent that you create in Task 4.

  7. Now that the report is ready, you want to prepare for the executive meeting in which you must present the report’s results. To anticipate stakeholder needs, select Chat only from the mode selector in the Copilot pane, and then ask Copilot to generate a list of 10 strategic questions the leadership team might ask after reading this report. Ask Copilot to generate a recommended answer for each question.

  8. Review the questions and answers that are displayed in the Copilot pane. At the end of the response, select the Copy icon. Then open a new blank document, paste in the copied content, and save the document for your own personal preparation.