Over 185 SMU staff members have enrolled in our AI Operation Copilot Bootcamp. Staff who commit to completing the Bootcamp receive a Copilot Premium license, funded by OIT, for the academic year.
The AI Bootcamp, led by Rachel Mulry, Associate CIO for Planning and Customer Service, gives staff the opportunity to build AI skills while focusing on productivity tools in the Microsoft Suite.
Participants complete one live training session that introduces them to AI and the fundamentals of prompt engineering. They are also enrolled in a self-paced Canvas course, which provides instruction on how Copilot integrates into the core Microsoft Office applications.
How participants are using Copilot
A number of individuals have been using Copilot to summarize emails and webpages, draft memos, analyze data, generate tables in Word based on bullets, and even play around with language translation. Here’s what a few participants had to say.
Jessica Jones, Cox School of Business Senior Director of Marketing, shared, “I’m getting more and more comfortable using Copilot to iterate our social posts for use across the different platforms. We have different audiences on each platform, with different voices/tones, and it’s done a decent job out of the gate adjusting for those differences. It’s not perfect – but it provides a strong starting point.”
Susan Morrison, Financial Officer for DEA, explained, “I prepared a memo regarding calculating and accounting for the tax benefit associated with a donation to the Tate Lecture Series. It took several prompt revisions and a request for a summary with bullet points, but resulted in a good start for sharing with… It took about 5 minutes to get to the bulleted memo, much faster than if I had started from scratch.”
How secure is Copilot?
For those curious about how secure Copilot is, Rachel Mulry explains. “All AI models train on available data, but with our version, the data stays within SMU’s tenant and isn’t used to train Microsoft’s larger model. Copilot Premium is tied to your individual account, so it can access your emails, OneDrive files, Teams chats, and public web content to assist you.”
“But rest assured, no one else can see your files or emails unless you choose to share them, and your content won’t appear in anyone else’s prompts. I recommend that our staff take advantage of opportunities like the AI Bootcamp to experience firsthand how powerful and helpful AI can be. I’d love to have you join us.”
Are you interested in signing up for the AI Bootcamp? It’s not too late! Visit our website at smu.edu/copilotnow to learn more about the AI Bootcamp and On-Demand Series.
