Using Microsoft Copilot in Your Everyday Work

Many staff assume that Microsoft Copilot is off-limits without a premium license, but that’s just not the case. If you haven’t explored Microsoft’s AI tool yet, you may want to give it a spin. While I’m not a fan of Copilot for image generation, I’ve found it incredibly helpful for making meeting minutes more concise, drafting training materials, brainstorming ideas, and a whole host of other tasks. It’s the assistant I didn’t know I needed to help me work more efficiently.

In my water cooler conversations, I’ve heard from many SMU staff already using AI on campus—though some still have mixed feelings about whether it’s okay to use. AI is absolutely worth exploring in the workplace. If you haven’t yet reviewed our Generative AI Guidelines and Key Considerations, that’s a great place to start. And remember, as AI users, it’s essential that we don’t let our guard down when it comes to the privacy of our students.

While our staff may be using different AI models, Microsoft Copilot is available for free at copilot.microsoft.com. This base web version includes commercial data protection, which means your work isn’t used to train AI models.

Five AI Use Cases for University Staff

Here is a small sampling of how you can use AI in your everyday tasks.

1. Meeting Minutes
   • Prompt: Summarize this meeting transcript into action items and key decisions.”
   • Tip: Copy-paste chat notes or Zoom transcript into Copilot.
2. Drafting Communications
   • Prompt: Write a friendly email reminder to staff about the upcoming event/meeting.
3. Brainstorming Event Ideas
   • Prompt: Give me creative theme ideas for [insert task] at a university.
4. Creating Surveys or Forms
• Prompt: Draft five short questions for a staff feedback survey after an event.
5. Editing for Tone
• Prompt: Rewrite this paragraph to sound more professional and encouraging.

Copilot Prompt Gallery

If you need help writing prompts or just want to get ideas about using AI, consider visiting Microsoft’s Copilot Prompt Gallery. There, you’ll find all sorts of tips on how to tell Copilot what you need.

Do you have a great Staff AI hack? We’d love to hear how you’re using it! Let us know so we can pass along the tip. In the meantime, happy prompting!