Exercise 2, Task 1: Use Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat to identify upcoming Microsoft 365 features

In preparation for VanArsdel’s upcoming IT leadership meeting, you must create a summary of upcoming Microsoft 365 features that might affect users in the next quarter. You need this information quickly so that your IT team can plan communication and support strategies. Your goal is to identify and summarize the most relevant new features that can affect VanArsdel’s end users within the next 90 days, with notes on potential IT actions.

Historically, this process required your team to review blogs and admin center updates, consolidate findings, assess each feature’s implications for end users, evaluate its operational effect on IT, and prioritize the eight most significant items for presentation. Now, instead of spending hours completing this process, you plan to use Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat to gather and summarize what’s coming—all in about a minute, showcasing the dramatic time savings Copilot delivers.

Using Copilot Chat

In Copilot Chat on the web, the response mode selector lets you control how much time and reasoning Copilot uses when answering your prompt. You can leave it set to Auto (the default option) so Copilot balances speed and depth for you, or choose a faster or more in depth response style depending on the task.

When Copilot Chat opens in Work mode, the response mode selector isn’t shown. In Work mode, Copilot is optimized for secure, work context queries, so it automatically manages response depth for you. When you switch to Web mode, the response mode selector appears, allowing you to choose between faster responses or deeper reasoning. Once the selector is enabled, it remains visible as you switch between Work and Web modes.

If you’ve used Copilot in Excel, you know that it also includes a response control selector. However, its options are different from the Chat selector. In Copilot Chat, the selector controls how deeply Copilot reasons about your request. In Excel, the selector controls which AI model performs the work. Although these selectors might look similar, they control different aspects of Copilot and aren’t the same setting.

This task uses the default Auto selector mode.

Perform the following steps to complete this task:

  1. In your Microsoft Edge browser, sign in to the Microsoft 365 home page (https://www.microsoft365.com). Since the scenario involves finding future features that are published by Microsoft and not stored in VanArsdel’s tenant, select the Web option rather than the Work option. Leave the response mode selector set to Auto.

  2. Copy and paste in the following prompt that asks Copilot to summarize the upcoming Microsoft 365 features:

[!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.

I’m the IT Manager at VanArsdel, Ltd. Summarize the Microsoft 365 features likely to be released or generally available by Microsoft in the next 90 days that are most relevant to end users (such as collaboration, security, Teams, Outlook, SharePoint, Viva, and so on). Please list each feature along with the following information: a one-line description, why it matters for a non-technical end user, and any recommended action for IT (for example, communication, training, and change to tenant settings). Provide the result as a short bullet list (no more than 8 items).

  1. Review Copilot’s response. If it returns sources, verify a couple of them to ensure they’re valid. If it returns ambiguous items, ask a clarifying follow-up question in the Chat.

  2. At the end of the response, select the Edit in Pages icon.

  3. When editing in Pages, note how Copilot displays the Copilot chat pane along with the Pages form. In the Pages form, select the Create button and then select Document in the drop-down menu. In the dialog box that appears, select Open Word, which opens the document in Word for the web.

  4. In Word for the web, Copilot copies its entire response into a document, including the extraneous chat content that appeared at the beginning and end of the chat. Delete any extraneous text that was pasted in as well. Tag or highlight items you want to prioritize for communications.

  5. In the Word document, select the Copilot option on the Home tab. 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 select Edit with Copilot in the drop-down menu. The icon should now appear in the prompt field.

  6. In the next step, you’re going to ask Copilot to add an executive summary to the document. Before doing so, you must first place your cursor at the location where you want Copilot to insert the summary. You want the summary to appear before the feature list, so position your cursor between the document title and the feature list.

  7. In the Copilot chat pane, ask Copilot to add a short executive summary based on the content in the document.

  8. Once Copilot adds the executive summary to the document, ask it to add a one-sentence risk or opportunity for each feature.

  9. Review the content. If Copilot added the risks and opportunities in a separate section rather than in each feature, ask it to remove the risk and opportunity section that it just added and instead add the risk or opportunity at the end of each feature rather than in a separate section of risks and opportunities.

  10. Review the new content. If you aren’t satisfied with how Copilot formatted any of the new content, then make any adjustments that you want.

  11. You plan to use this document in Task 3, so make note of the file name that appears above the menu bar.