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 behave in two different ways, depending on whether Edit with Copilot is enabled. 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 Edit with Copilot is enabled, 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 Edit with Copilot is disabled, Copilot behaves more like Copilot Chat. It can still research topics, summarize information, and draft text, but it doesn’t automatically modify the document. Instead, responses appear in the Copilot pane, and you decide what—if anything—gets 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 what content is inserted.

This task uses the Edit with Copilot 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 Microsoft Edge browser, sign in to the Microsoft 365 home page (https://www.microsoft365.com), select Apps in the navigation pane, and then select Word from the Apps menu.

  3. In Word for the web, create a blank document.

  4. On the Home tab ribbon, select Copilot. In the Copilot pane, verify the Edit with Copilot icon appears in the prompt field next to the plus (+) sign. If you don’t see it, select the plus sign, and then in the drop-down menu, select Edit with Copilot. The icon should now appear in the prompt field.

  5. In the Copilot prompt field, select the plus (+) sign, and then select Add work content in 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. At the end of Copilot’s response in the Copilot pane, select the Copy response icon. Select into the start of the document and paste (Ctrl+V) the copied text into the document.

  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. You like what you see, so you want to copy and paste the content into the document. Select the Copy response icon at the end of the results in the Copilot pane. Then place your cursor in the document at the location where you want to insert the new material and then paste in the content.

  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, select the Copy response icon and paste the chart at a spot 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, 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 response icon. Then open a new blank document, paste in the copied content, and save the document for your own personal preparation.