Copilot Success Kit

At Microsoft, we are dedicated to your success with Microsoft 365 Copilot and our suite of cloud services. We have created the Copilot Customer Success Kit with the reference guidance we believe will help you to be successful. Combined with your own staff, this guidance will allow you to safely and successfully embark upon your journey to AI transformation. You are not alone – we are also here to help. For assistance you can:

• Engage your account team
• Ask us questions through our Microsoft 365 Copilot online community
• Engage our FastTrack team to gain assistance in technical readiness
• Engage a Microsoft Partner or utilize our Unified offer to augment your staff

Get started by reviewing the Implementation Summary Guide for Leaders for an overview of key actions. Start assembling your team, taking foundational training, and dive into both the User Enablement and Technical Readiness Guides with our prepared materials. Additional templates, tools, and guidance for each phase of your initial journey are detailed throughout these primary resources. These resources, compiled based upon our experience, research, and feedback from customers, can also be customized to meet your own unique situation.

Your AI journey will be an iterative experience with continuous improvement, learning and discovery. The team at Microsoft wants to hear about your experience through our community and ongoing engagement. Microsoft is only successful when you achieve your goals. Your feedback, both within our products and through our communities, help to shape the future of our services and is essential to our improvement. Please share your insights along the way.

Purpose:

Utilize this deck with executive leaders in your organization.

Outcomes:

Identify executive sponsorship or talent gaps ahead of implementation kick off.

Set context for detailed framework materials in the full Copilot Success Kit.

Highlight the resources and support options available for customers to accelerate their adoption, such as Microsoft Partners, Microsoft Unified, and Microsoft FastTrack.

Responsible AI principles

Copilot readiness checklist

Sponsor

Scenarios

Security

Human change

Prepare organization and employees for the AI transformation journey through user enablement programs

Technical readiness

Address technical deployment and optimization, including governance, security, compliance, and management

Workstreams support each other for maximum value and ROI

Get ready > Onboard & engage > Deliver impact > Extend & optimize

Leadership journey

Responsible AI principles

Executive Sponsors should:

• Help the project team identify and prioritize their top business needs.
• Encourage shared planning between user enablement and technical teams.
• Play a role in communicating the vision to leaders across the organization.
• Actively participate in and use Copilot to help drive and reinforce enablement.
• Promote the enablement program. Studies show engaged employees are 2.6x¹ more likely to fully support a successful AI transformation.

Executive Sponsors may:

• Lead or participate in the organizational AI Council.
• Have purchasing authority for licenses or services from supporting suppliers.
• Be directly accountable for Microsoft 365 or broader digital workplace initiatives.

Organization and culture

• Do you have an operating model to enable the adoption and use of AI?
• Do you have top-down support?

Business strategy

• What business outcomes are you driving?
• How can AI help you achieve those outcomes?

Applied AI experience

• Do your people have diverse experiences and skills with AI?
• Is your organization collaborating to build experience?

AI governance

• Are you implementing processes and controls that are transparent?
• Are you governing data privacy and security?

Technology strategy

• Do you have access to quality data?
• Is your infrastructure set up to help you scale?

IT enablement team

Responsible for technical preparedness and rollout, providing onboarding support, as well as managing feedback and compliance.

Executive sponsor

Drives adoption and infuses confidence in the technology. Active champion that encourages integrating AI into day-to-day processes.

Change management team Bridge between the AI council and employees, helping to monitor adoption progress, gather feedback, and foster a collaborative environment.

Risk management

Ensures compliance to AI regulations and ethical standards. Ensure organization’s AI initiatives are transparent, accountable, and trustworthy.

Get tips for your AI journey with actionable guidance from early adopters with the Business Leader’s guide for AI adoption.

Explore practical guidance for aligning AI strategy with business goals and mitigating risk with the Leading in the Era of AI: Creating an AI Council - An Exercise in Transparent Leadership whitepaper.

Learn about building trust and putting human connections first to get the most from AI with the whitepaper, Leading in the Era of AI: It's not about AI - It's about trust.

Read how those you enlist to support your success will guide it to the next horizon of business expansion with the Leading in the Era of AI: Recommended Principles for Selecting AI Suppliers whitepaper.

Responsible AI principles

• Organizational performance/
• value realization

Time

Current State

• Copilot readiness complete
• Licenses assigned

Benefits outlined in the business case

Transition state

Future state

• Change ‘adopted’
• Sufficient benefits realized

Adoption

Communications

• Copilot Communities to facilitate user enablement
• Share best practices
• Access company announcements
• Seek support from peers and IT

aka.ms/CopilotCommunities

Measurement

• Copilot Analytics for ROI and impact assessment
• Copilot Dashboard for leaders
• Viva Insights for customizable analysis
• Copilot business impact reports

• aka.ms/CopilotAnalytics
• aka.ms/CopilotDashboard

Skilling

• Copilot Academy for user skill development
• Curated learning paths
• Hands-on prompt guidance
• Content created by Microsoft experts

aka.ms/CopilotAcademy

Powered by Microsoft Viva

Responsible AI principles

Get ready

Optimization Assessment

The assessment is designed to understand your current licensing profile, your collaboration tools, sensitive data handling, and security controls implemented today in your organization, helping you identify a clear path to deploying Microsoft 365 Copilot. The assessment consists of 26 questions and takes about 30 minutes to complete.

• Complete the Microsoft 365 Copilot Optimization Assessment
• Understand current licensing
• Understand identity management
• Understand current collaboration tools
• Understand current data locations
• Uncover opportunities to implement data security measures and improve data security posture to optimize user experience with Microsoft 365 Copilot

Explore

Identify new high value scenarios

• Gather data from service health reviews
• Prioritize via AI Council and leadership engagement
• Skill/acquire talent for extensibility opportunities

Expand

Understand Copilot Studio capabilities

• Build, automate, and administer agents
• Select extensibility scenarios

Extend

Scale Copilot users and skills

• Extend throughout organization
• Identify high value user cohorts for advanced skill building
• Optimize usage patterns

Customers that buy more than 150 Copilot seats are eligible for Microsoft co-investment in partner deployment and adoption services through eligible Microsoft Partners.

Eligible customers can request technical and deployment assistance from Microsoft FastTrack.

Get started on your Copilot journey with expert-led services through Microsoft Unified.

Purpose:

This User Enablement Guide is intended to allow you to enable our customers for success in driving user satisfaction with Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Outcomes:

Identify key actions and best practices for the user enablement workstream.

Educate on user enablement framework in the context of the overall implementation.

Deliver guidance for using Microsoft provided tools through the user enablement lifecycle.

Responsible AI principles

Microsoft 365 Copilot represents a new way of delivering business value, employee engagement, and creativity in your organization. To get the most from these transformational AI capabilities, an investment must be made in the human side of change. Employees seek purpose and satisfaction. Employers aim to harness worker ingenuity, and a diverse, multi-generational workforce can now work anytime, anywhere. Success depends on your ability to collaborate successfully, drive productivity, and unleash creativity within teams spread across the globe. Supporting your users in understanding these powerful tools will enable you to get the most from your investment and drive the positive transformation that AI capabilities can deliver.

We understand that adopting new technology involves change, and change can be daunting even for the most innovative, cutting-edge organizations. That’s why we created the Microsoft 365 Copilot User Enablement Guide. This guide is the partner to the Technical Readiness Guide and will reference the shared planning milestones essential in iterative project success.

From our research and real-world experience, we’ve compiled an easy-to-follow how-to that guides you and your teams, step-by-step, through the best way to roll out Microsoft 365 Copilot to your organization and drive continuous impact across your organization. The insights we share come from our shared learnings from the implementation of other emerging technologies, our most successful customers, and User Enablement experts from around the world. Throughout this guide you will find links to additional tools and resources as well as the user enablement planning workbook where you can build your custom approach to driving true user satisfaction.

Remember, you are not in this alone. There are many organizations who are currently launching Copilot and generative AI technologies from Microsoft, and you can connect with them in the Driving Adoption Community and through our free, worldwide Microsoft 365 Champion program.

Implementing a robust user enablement program is a journey. Let’s take it together.

Copilot readiness checklist

Sponsor

Scenarios

Security

Human change

Prepare organization and employees for the AI transformation journey through user enablement programs

Technical readiness

Address technical deployment and optimization, including governance, security, compliance, and management

Workstreams support each other for maximum value and ROI

Get ready > Onboard & engage > Deliver impact > Extend & optimize

Leadership journey

• Nominate and activate your Copilot executive sponsors, in partnership with your AI Council

• Accelerate your business impact by defining highest value scenarios

• Define your path to secure your data for compliance and peace of mind

• Invest in a healthy champions team, who will provide peer learning and support during the AI journey

• Leverage in-product experiences to create a culture of continuous learning and deliver training in the flow of work

• Ensure a vibrant community of practice for ongoing user engagement and skill building

Communications

• Copilot Communities to facilitate user enablement
• Share best practices
• Access company announcements
• Seek support from peers and IT

Viva Engage Community

Measurement

• Copilot Analytics for ROI and impact assessment
• Copilot Dashboard for leaders
• Viva Insights for customizable analysis
• Copilot business impact reports

• Copilot Analytics introduction
• aka.ms/CopilotDashboard

Skilling

• Copilot Academy for user skill development
• Curated learning paths
• Hands-on prompt guidance
• Content created by Microsoft experts

aka.ms/CopilotAcademy

Powered by Microsoft Viva

Foundational tasks

• Build the right team
• Identify scenarios
• Review Microsoft provided materials
• Onboard supporting resources (as needed)
• Identify communication channels and initial rhythm
• Build relationships with technical leaders

Copilot specific tactics

• Understand Microsoft 365 Copilot capabilities
• Review Responsible AI principles
• Identify early adopters and scale onboarding cohorts
• Target AI-ready scenarios
• Build prompt and natural language skills
• Embrace rapid feedback cycles

Transforming to this new way of working requires buy-in and support from across the business. We have identified four key groups who will bridge technology and business outcomes that matter to your organization

Each group has a specific role in implementation and should be engaged early and often. The next few pages will outline the specific role these team members will play.

• Executive Sponsors
• Success Owner
• Early Adopters
• Champions
• Technical team

Mott MacDonald developed a network of technology champions by engaging the employees who are most interested and enthusiastic about the new capabilities. The company made sure the champions were well trained and sent them out into the business to coach and communicate with colleagues.

Executive Sponsors should:

• Help the project team identify and prioritize their top business needs.
• Encourage shared planning between user enablement and technical teams.
• Play a role in communicating the vision to leaders across the organization.
• Actively participate in and use Copilot to help drive and reinforce enablement.
• Promote the enablement program. Studies show engaged employees are 2.6x¹ more likely to fully support a successful AI transformation.

Executive Sponsors may:

• Lead or participate in the organizational AI Council.
• Have purchasing authority for licenses or services from supporting suppliers.
• Be directly accountable for Microsoft 365 or broader digital workplace initiatives.

Green = Supportive

Orange = Neutral

Red = Critical

Worldwide User Enablement Team

Core IT services and support

• Provide scenario-based guidance on Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Provide global package of assets to leverage (comms, training, readiness, etc.)
• Provide onboarding, enablement, and issue reporting
• Consolidate feedback and share via Service Health Reviews
• Provide operations, service, and support experiences for new scenarios and features

Unit Executive Sponsor

• Sends key local communications
• Appoints Business Integration Lead

Business Integration Lead

• Represents sponsor with core team
• Monitors enablement
• Works with Executive Sponsor for Communications and Cascade

Local Copilot Champions

• Provide local support
• Provide local training as needed

It is essential for organizations to establish a governance framework that ensures the responsible and ethical use of AI across their operations and stakeholders.

One way to achieve this is to create an AI Council, a cross-functional and multidisciplinary body that oversees and guides the development, deployment, and evaluation of AI solutions within the organization. An AI Council can help to align the organization's AI strategy with its vision, values, and goals, as well as to identify and mitigate potential risks and harms of AI. An AI Council can also foster a culture of trust, collaboration, and innovation among the AI practitioners, users, and beneficiaries within and outside the organization.

Get started today

aka.ms/copilot/AICouncilSetupGuide

Records

our practice of Responsible AI by Design – the proactive ways in which we guide the design, build, and testing of AI systems

Establishes

a durable framework for the maturing practice of responsible AI and evolving regulatory requirements

Reflects

our deeper exploration of what our six AI principles mean and the steps we must taken to uphold them

Accountability

• A1: Impact assessment
• A2: Oversight of significant adverse impacts
• A3: Fit for purpose
• A4: Data governance and management
• A5: Human oversight and control

Transparency

• T1: System intelligibility for decision making
• T2: Communication to stakeholders
• T3: Disclosure of AI interaction

Fairness

• F1: Quality of service
• F2: Allocation of resources and opportunities
• F3: Minimization of stereotyping, demeaning, and erasing outputs

Reliability & Safety

• RS1: Reliability and safety guidance
• RS2: Failures and remediations
• RS3: Ongoing monitoring, feedback, and evaluation

Privacy & Security

• PS1: Privacy Standard compliance
• PS2: Security Policy compliance

Inclusiveness

I1: Accessibility Standards compliance

Foundational tasks

• Complete User Enablement Strategy training and template
• Define user experience and feedback strategy
• Launch employee communications and Champion program
• Onboard executives and user cohorts
• Deliver user Champions and support staff training

Copilot specific tactics

• Review Microsoft provided training and engagement content
• Design and deploy training and engagement community (Center of Excellence/Champion Platform)
• Leverage Microsoft Viva for Copilot Enablement (if available)
• Review overall plans with AI Council and stakeholders

When can I use it?

How can I get help?

Think

Act

Feel

The Think-Act-Feel framework is grounded in decades of research showing a whole human understanding – including feelings – is critical to business outcomes.

Building on this framework we understand that delivering accelerated change is based on trust.

• Set the context.

• Align the Champions community to organizational objectives and vision for your Copilot implementation.

• Identify Champions and get buy-in.

• Build a plan with Champions. Skill them first and often.

• Execute and share Champion feedback with leaders and through Service Health Reviews.

• Copilot Champions may be referred to with terminology that is in alignment with your company culture.
• Champions are professionally referred to as User Enablement Specialists.
• Microsoft Partners can aid you in creating your internal user enablement function.
• Champion recognition – in the form of badges for engagement, Praise via Viva Insights, or other forms – are essential to Champion morale.
• As advocates for the employee experience, regular feedback, employee engagement, and communications are required for role success.
• Champion duties are a part of the day-to-day duties of the employee alongside their core job function.
• Representation from across the organization ensures balanced viewpoints and early identification of risks and issues.

• Get more from Copilot and Microsoft 365
• Help others do the same
• Expand your knowledge and enhance your career

Join the free program at aka.ms/M365Champions

Utilize the following scenario worksheets to complete your own investigation to locate AI-ready scenarios.

The following slides will identify the business areas that are AI-ready for transformation, then work through the prioritization exercise.

Leverage this content to develop key messaging in your awareness and training engagements.

Microsoft 365 Copilot capabilities will inspire you to transform existing business processes and drive innovation across employee experiences.

Utilize our interactive scenario library to start the conversation with business users about their pain points, opportunities, and ideas: aka.ms/ScenarioLibrary.

Interactive library

Downloadable guidance

• As a knowledge worker, I’d like to…

• Provide the impact of a campaign in a visual format

• Create a presentation based on a word document

• Generate a summary about a document

• Help me write a paper on a topic I know little about

• Review my HR Benefits

• Have Copilot help me write a draft email about a topic I am not too familiar with

• Give me insights on my data

• Get a new coworker up to speed quickly

• Create a job description or review a resume against a job plan

• Track progress through task list reports

• Create a table of pros and cons for a topic

• Highlights of a Teams chat with actions

• Respond to a customer’s email in Outlook with a different tone of voice

• Identify the decisions made and suggest next steps for a meeting

• Summarize emails missed while on vacation and flag important items

• Save time by helping me search across my org for information

• Create a Teams channel to respond to an urgent issue

• Actively ask for details and insights on a document

• Create a SWOT analysis of a topic

• Summarize emails, chats, and documents about a customer

• Provide coaching on generating email replies

• Generate a RACI chart or other PMP skills

• Provide a gap analysis between documents

• Create an RFP response with minimal effort

• Determine upcoming milestones on a project

• Ask about what a coworker or team member has been working on

• Provide details on a project as a new member on the team

• Review business results and summarize key trends

• Analyze a complex sales report

Before building your engagement plan, take time to understand who needs to be informed, key messages to convey, and preferences for communication channels.

Awareness

• Land AI transformation vision
• Tailor content by audience, scenario, persona, and usage journey
• Copilot Champions launch
• Internal testing for some

Land the message

Engagement

• Deliver strategic engagements by org and role
• Ongoing partner and employee education
• Showcase successes via #CopilotStories
• Conduct ongoing feedback surveys

Support the change

Measurement

• Usage, support, and health metrics inform baseline for enablement journey
• Drive listening systems engagement
• Improve employee guidance
• Identify additional scenarios for AI transformation

Analyze and adjust

Management

• Improve the experience from employee feedback
• Deliver integrated service roadmaps
• Iterate messages and tactics bi-monthly
• Provide employee insights signals in Service Health Review

Improve the experience

We’ve developed a collection of tools and templates for you to get your organization excited about Copilot and quickly realize the full benefits. It includes:

User email templates

Customizable, role-specific email templates for users in:

• Sales
• Marketing
• IT
• Legal
• Finance
• HR

Manager resources

Resources to send to managers across your organization to inspire and motivate them to drive Copilot user enablement on their teams. Includes:

• Customizable email templates
• Copilot for managers flyer

And more!

Available at aka.ms/UserEngagementTools

One site for all your Copilot needs: adoption.microsoft.com/copilot

• Resources by role
• Interactive Scenario Library
• Product announcements and news
• Links to all other Microsoft sites
• Extended links for Small/Medium business, Copilot in Sales, Microsoft Viva, and more

Take the class!

Earn your User Enablement badge & validate your skills with MS-4007 available today!

Develop the skills to utilize Copilot experiences effectively

Curated learning paths designed by Microsoft experts to help you learn about, discover, and use Microsoft 365 Copilot

• Access directly at aka.ms/CopilotAcademy
• Surface free Copilot learning courses in the tools and platforms where users already spend their time
• Includes hands-on prompt guidance from Copilot Prompt Gallery to develop prompt engineering skills
• Out-of-the-box academy is preloaded in Viva Learning – no admin configuration required
• Available in 8 languages

Out-of-the-box Community of Practice to drive Copilot awareness and user enablement

Use the new Copilot community template in Viva Engage to quickly generate excitement, share learning, and support future Copilot Champions and experts.

Give employees a place to:

• Share best practices, such as prompts
• Share success stories of Copilot saving time and driving productivity
• Access company announcements on AI usage, adoption, direction, and mission
• Seek support from peers and IT admins
• Host virtual townhalls with Q&A in your community

Join Driving Adoption Tech Community

https://aka.ms/DriveAdoption

Collaborate, share, and learn from experts

Microsoft Learn

https://learn.microsoft.com

Technical documentation for developers and IT professionals

Microsoft Adoption Hub

https://adoption.microsoft.com

Resources to help you drive adoption of Microsoft services

Microsoft Support

http://support.microsoft.com/copilot

Access FAQs and user help and learning

Teamwork governance

https://aka.ms/TeamworkGovernance

Collaboration governance guidance for Microsoft 365

Join our communities

Utilize our resources

Achieve your goals

Foundational tasks

• Review success measures and user survey results
• Conduct feedback and reporting analysis
• Deliver extended training and adoption support
• Iterate user experience strategy
• Gather and amplify success stories

Copilot specific tactics

• Measure Copilot impact
• Ensure progressive AI skilling with training tools
• Identify additional optimization scenarios
• Expand Microsoft Viva for Copilot Enablement tactics (if available)
• Review feedback with AI Council and stakeholders

• Validate key performance indicators (KPIs) that are improving based on Copilot skills.
• Choose criteria to help you show the impact Microsoft 365 Copilot is having on the organization.
• Use the end user surveys, listening systems, product feedback, and Champion insights to gather sentiment, risks, and issues.
• Leverage Microsoft reporting for further pattern analysis.

*Based on observation and research from early Copilot customer implementations.

Organizational

Cultural

Tangible

Individual

• Identify common themes
• Identify opportunities for expansion and extension
• Validate support scenarios and guidance
• Identify success stories
• Conduct success/challenge analysis
• Categorize issues: technical, enablement, strategy or communications, other

Analyze feedback

Leadership, technical, user enablement teams, and business stakeholders contribute to a periodic Service Health Review to:

Gain insight from the AI transformation journey progress

Identify risks, issues and potential mitigations

Identify opportunities for expansion and further optimization

Highlight success stories

This process is critical to the overall success of the long-term transformation and realizing business value.

Measure Copilot adoption and impact

Pre-built dashboard for business leaders to prepare for their Copilot rollout, understand and drive usage and adoption, and measure the impact of their investments.

• Access directly at aka.ms/CopilotDashboard
• Readiness tab to see licensing and copilot activation status across the tenant
• Adoption tab to see Copilot trends and usage down to the app feature level, with filters to drill down by group, organization, and job function.
• Impact tab to view Copilot actions by productivity categories, Copilot assisted hours and related value calculator and how Copilot usage is correlated with behavioral patterns in your business. Sentiment data from uploaded survey results is also available.
• Learning tab for research and best practices to inform your AI journey
• Use the Copilot Dashboard metrics eBook to help understand and interpret the data

Included with Microsoft 365 Copilot

Copilot business impact reports

Measure the value of Microsoft 365 Copilot with your key business metrics.

See setup details

Advanced adoption and impact reports

Get a deeper look into Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption and impact trends with a customizable, prebuilt report.

Explore

Identify new high value scenarios

• Gather data from service health reviews
• Prioritize via AI Council and leadership engagement
• Skill/acquire talent for extensibility opportunities

Expand

Understand Copilot Studio capabilities

• Build, automate and administer copilots
• Select extensibility scenarios

Extend

Scale Copilot users and skills

• Extend throughout organization
• Identify high value user cohorts for advanced skill building
• Optimize usage patterns

adopt attention-harnessing

work within

contains essential

are enabled by

supported by

contribute to the wider organizational

For other helpful videos – Visit our Mastering Copilot Studio video series

Disclaimer: As of June 2025, the agent pane has transitioned to the left side of M365 Copilot

53%

Of leaders say productivity needs to increase

82%

Of leaders expect to use agents to meet the demand for more workforce capacity

¹2025 Work Trends Index

• Researcher gives organizations the capability they’d expect from a highly paid strategist or researcher.
• Combines the most advanced deep reasoning models with Copilot Chat’s web- and work-grounding, as well as its agent ecosystem.
• Provides well-reasoned responses to complex prompts with the data that matters most.​
• Gives users a thought partner that can perform advanced reasoning grounded in their unique context.
• Gives organizations on-demand access to the types of work they typically expect from highly paid employees.

Generally available

• Analyst thinks like a skilled data scientist, so you can go from raw data to insights in minutes. ​
• Built on OpenAI’s o3-mini reasoning model and optimized to do advanced data analysis at work.
• Analyst uses chain-of-thought reasoning to progress through problems iteratively, to refine its reasoning and provide a high-quality answer.
• Runs Python to tackle your most complex data queries—you can view the code it’s running in real time to check its work.

Generally available

Discover agents

Personalized experience on an integrated platform to discover agents from Microsoft, partners, and your own organization.

Deploy quickly

Accelerate results with ready-to-deploy agents that help boost efficiency and enable smarter decisions.

Admin control

Agents are validated for security, compliance, and performance, and IT retains full control and oversight.

Foundational tasks

• Build the right team
• Identify scenarios
• Review Microsoft provided materials
• Onboard supporting resources (as needed)
• Identify communication channels and initial rhythm
• Build relationships with technical leaders

Copilot specific tactics

• Understand Microsoft 365 Copilot capabilities
• Review Responsible AI principles
• Identify early adopters and scale onboarding cohorts
• Target AI-ready scenarios
• Build prompt and natural language skills
• Embrace rapid feedback cycles

Foundational tasks

• Complete User Enablement Strategy training and template
• Define user experience and feedback strategy
• Launch employee communications and Champion program
• Onboard executives and user cohorts
• Deliver user Champions and support staff training

Copilot specific tactics

• Review Microsoft provided training and engagement content
• Design and deploy training and engagement community (Center of Excellence/Champion Platform)
• Leverage Microsoft Viva for Copilot Enablement (if available)
• Review overall plans with AI Council and stakeholders

Foundational tasks

• Review success measures and user survey results
• Conduct feedback and reporting analysis
• Deliver extended training and adoption support
• Iterate user experience strategy
• Gather and amplify success stories

Copilot specific tactics

• Measure Copilot impact
• Ensure progressive AI skilling with training tools
• Identify additional optimization scenarios
• Expand Microsoft Viva for Copilot Enablement tactics (if available)
• Review feedback with AI Council and stakeholders

Explore

Identify new high value scenarios

• Gather data from service health reviews
• Prioritize via AI Council and leadership engagement
• Skill/acquire talent for extensibility opportunities

Expand

Understand Copilot Studio capabilities

• Build, automate and administer copilots
• Select extensibility scenarios

Extend

Scale Copilot users and skills

• Extend throughout organization
• Identify high value user cohorts for advanced skill building
• Optimize usage patterns

Purpose:

The goal of this guide is to help customers understand how they can rapidly deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot and specific steps they should take to optimize their data security environment based on their current licensing profile and security posture. The guide is divided in four phases:

• In the Get ready phase, complete the Microsoft 365 Copilot Optimization Assessment to understand your current environment and what data security controls are implemented today, address any specific Generative AI questions, and proceed with developing an implementation plan based on the outcome of the assessment and the initial scenario discovery.
• In the Onboard & Engage phase, we recommend focusing on addressing any content management questions, fulfilling required prerequisites, assigning licenses, and deploying Microsoft 365 Copilot. In this phase, if needed, we provide recommendations on how to reduce the risk of oversharing by enabling Restricted SharePoint Search, then guide you down one of two paths: Foundational and Optimized. These two paths have been developed to meet you where you are and guide you on how to address specific data security concerns that may exist.
• The Deliver impact phase is focused on understanding how users are adopting and engaging with Microsoft 365 Copilot by analyzing Microsoft 365 Copilot readiness and usage reports.
• In the Extend & optimize phase, we expand on how you might want to enhance Microsoft 365 Copilot experiences and start designing, building, and deploying your own AI plugins to fulfill specific business requirements.

This Technical Readiness Guide goes hand in hand with the User Enablement Guide which prepares organizations and employees for the AI transformation journey. The link to the User Enablement guide can be found here: https://aka.ms/Copilot/UserEnablementGuide.

Target audience: Technical delivery managers, Microsoft 365 Architects and Consultants, IT Professionals.

What this asset is NOT: Detailed technical product documentation.

Responsible AI principles

Copilot readiness checklist

Sponsor

Scenarios

Security

Human change

Prepare organization and employees for the AI transformation journey through user enablement programs

Technical readiness

Address technical deployment and optimization, including governance, security, compliance, and management

Workstreams support each other for maximum value and ROI

Get ready > Onboard & engage > Deliver impact > Extend & optimize

Leadership journey

• Nominate and activate your Copilot executive sponsors, in partnership with your AI Council

• Accelerate your business impact by defining highest value scenarios

• Define your path to secure your data for compliance and peace of mind

Get ready

Optimization Assessment

The assessment is designed to understand your current licensing profile, your collaboration tools, sensitive data handling, and security controls implemented today in your organization, helping you identify a clear path to deploying Microsoft 365 Copilot. The assessment consists of 26 questions and takes about 30 minutes to complete.

• Complete the Microsoft 365 Copilot Optimization Assessment
• Understand current licensing
• Understand identity management
• Understand current collaboration tools
• Understand current data locations
• Uncover opportunities to implement data security measures and improve data security posture to optimize user experience with Microsoft 365 Copilot

Access the IT Professional admin resources for additional documentation and to help address deeper questions you may have about Microsoft 365 Copilot, such as:

• How does Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, AI-powered chat for the web, work? How is it different from Microsoft 365 Copilot?
• Is this AI-powered chat available for eligible Entra ID users at no additional charge?
• How does Microsoft 365 Copilot work?
• How is my data indexed?
• How should I prepare my data by adjusting permissions and policies?
• Where does my data go?
• How do Copilot agents work?
• What is Microsoft’s responsible AI commitment?
• AND MORE….

Note: For more information on AI Council and RAI, visit User Enablement Guide.

Use the results of the Optimization Assessment and scenario discovery to develop a plan for implementation of Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Questions to help develop the plan:

• Are all the gaps in the optimization assessment listed in the plan?
• Have you identified the first set of employees that would get Microsoft 365 Copilot?
• How many licenses would you need to purchase?
• Are there any data security questions that you need to address?
• Do all items have owners and due dates?
• Have you identified key adoption steps for the first set of prioritized scenarios?

Get ready

Accelerate Site Governance

Use SharePoint Advanced Management to reduce accidental oversharing, minimize your content governance footprint, improve Copilot response quality, control content access by Copilot, and ensure data safety specifically for business-critical sites.

• Reduce accidental oversharing with SharePoint sharing settings
• Ensure all sites have valid owners
• Clean up unused sites
• Identify sites with potentially overshared content
• Control access to content
• Take proactive measures on business-critical sites

Get started quickly and continue to optimize along the way

Get started

Microsoft 365 Copilot Optimization Assessment

Determine path

(26 questions; 30 minutes)

Foundational (previously Core)

Restrict data oversharing and data leaks with manual labeling and policies

Required licenses:

Office 365 E3, Microsoft 365 Business Standard/Premium, or higher; and

SPP-SharePoint Advanced Management

Optimized (previously Best-In-Class)

Prevent data oversharing, data leaks, and detect non-compliant usage at scale with auto labeling and policies

Required licenses:

Microsoft 365 E5; and

SPP-SharePoint Advanced Management

Ready to deploy?

Yes

Fully Deploy

Microsoft 365 Copilot fully deployed in your organization

NO

Pilot (optional)

Deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot to sub-set of users with up to 100 sites

Operate Continuous improvement of security practices

Foundational

Microsoft 365 Copilot* + Microsoft 365 E3

Foundational site governance tools to discover, manage, and restrict site access, and streamline site lifecycle management

Microsoft Purview

Foundational data security, compliance, and governance capabilities that provide protections for content that Microsoft 365 Copilot creates and references

Optimized

Microsoft 365 Copilot*+ Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance

Everything in Foundational, plus:

Microsoft Purview

• Comprehensive security, compliance, and governance:
• Proactive and reactive risk identification and alerts
• Policy suggestions to mitigate your specific risks
• Enforcement of file level access controls and data loss prevention policies
• Visibility to prompt and response text and referenced files
• Use AI to identify risky user patterns and automatically add them to more strict security policies
• And more

*with SharePoint Advanced Management

Foundational (previously Core)

LEGEND

1 – Copilot and SharePoint Adv. Mgt.

2 – OE3/ME3

Follow the recommended activities for the Foundational path to further optimize data security controls.

Required licenses:

Office 365 E3, Microsoft 365 Business Standard/Premium, or higher; and SPP-SharePoint Advanced Management

*Note: Eligible customers can request technical and deployment assistance from Microsoft FastTrack.

Guidance assumes Copilot technical prerequisites in place: Technical enablement of core services (Teams, SharePoint, Exchange), Office Applications deployed (modern Outlook recommended) and on current or monthly update channel

Learn how to use the features in the blueprint and how these features impact Microsoft 365 Copilot: https://aka.ms/E3PrepareYourDataForCopilot

Optimized (previously Best-in-Class)

LEGEND

1 – Copilot and SharePoint Adv. Mgt.

2 – OE3/ME3

3 – ME5/E5 Compliance

Follow the recommended activities for the Optimized path to achieve top-tier security posture.

Required licenses: Microsoft 365 E5; and SPP-SharePoint Advanced Management

Guidance assumes Copilot technical prerequisites in place: Technical enablement of core services (Teams, SharePoint, Exchange), Office Applications deployed (modern Outlook recommended) and on current or monthly update channel

Learn how to use the features in the blueprint and how these features impact Microsoft 365 Copilot: https://aka.ms/E5PrepareYourDataForCopilot

Deliver a readout on the prioritized activities for data security controls based on the selected deployment path

Validate user cohorts prior to assignment of licenses

Set up Microsoft 365 Copilot

• Quick start – this guide helps you accelerate Microsoft 365 Copilot for onboarding, with step-by-step guidance to fulfill the core requirements for Microsoft 365 Copilot. New features include Restricted SharePoint Search (RSS).
• Foundations+ – this guide is the next step in your customer’s Copilot onboarding process and includes core recommendations to support Copilot readiness and full-scale adoption.
• Advanced Configurations – advanced configurations provide best in class security, privacy, and data protection recommendations for Microsoft 365 E5.

‌These guides may be completed individually or in sequence, so administrators can choose the path that best suits their organization’s needs.

Deploy Microsoft 365 apps to Business Users

Deploy required apps

To seamlessly integrate with Microsoft 365 Copilot, you are required to deploy the following applications for your users:

• Word, Excel, PowerPoint, new Outlook for Windows
• Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint, Exchange

Configure Channel

To use Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 apps must run on Current Channel or Monthly Enterprise Channel. Follow this guidance to configure the default update channel. Support options are available to help you make the most of Microsoft 365 Copilot*!

• Develop a list of users who will receive apps
• Map the users to the apps
• Deploy apps using the built-in tool in admin center or customer’s preferred method. For additional information, watch these videos on how to deploy Microsoft 365 apps
• For more information on the implementation process, please see Deployment guide for Microsoft 365 apps

*Note: Engage your Microsoft Account Technical Specialist (ATS) or Customer Success Account Manager (CSAM) to discuss the support options available to you.

Microsoft 365 Copilot application compatibility promise

Microsoft is committed to ensuring your apps work when moving to Monthly Enterprise Channel to take advantage of Microsoft 365 Copilot. If you encounter any issues, App Assure will help you remediate them!

Help customers troubleshoot root cause and resolve app compatibility issues

Included as part of your license, this service is at no additional cost

Questions?        Email: achelp@microsoft.com    |    Submit a Request for Assistance    |    For more information visit aka.ms/AppAssure

Customers get a direct line of communication to Microsoft product engineering teams

License your Business Users

Assign licenses

Based on the results of the Optimization Assessment and scenario discovery, the appropriate licenses need to be assigned to the select set of end users.

See the License Allocation Guide for more information.

• Based on the adoption plan, develop a list of users who will receive the licenses first. A few data points to keep in mind:
• Analyze departments with the highest Microsoft 365 usage data, and based on that analysis start enabling entire teams within Marketing, Sales, or HR
• Use the Scenario Library to identify top use cases and the key metrics you would like to improve in your functional area
• Use the setup guide to assign required licenses to users or customer’s preferred method. You can assign and unassign licenses for users on the Licenses page under the Active users page.

Encourage your organization to use Copilot by pinning it to the navigation bar of the Microsoft 365 apps.

By default, Copilot is not pinned to the navigation bar. Users will be asked if they want to pin Copilot.

Administrators can change this behavior by selecting an option for pinning Microsoft Copilot to the navigation bar:

Learn more about pinning Copilot

Assign usage report permissions

The Microsoft Copilot 365 usage report allows you to interpret how ready your organization is to adopt Microsoft 365 Copilot.

The following roles can see the report: Global admins, Exchange admins, SharePoint admins, Reports reader, Teams admins, User Experience Success Manager. For more details, read our documentation here.

• Develop a list of users who will have permissions to read the Microsoft 365 Copilot usage report
• Assign permissions to the identified users

Establishing a service management plan empowers IT and User Enablement teams to:

• Periodically review health and business value of the AI transformation journey
• Conduct periodic assessments of governance, security, and user enablement practices
• Identify opportunities for expansion and further optimization of key Microsoft 365 Copilot user experiences

• Access the admin documentation for the latest technical requirements, policies and reporting
• Join the Copilot community to connect with experts and community members
• Participate in Copilot Ask Microsoft Anything events

A Service Health Review (SHR) is a systematic process of evaluating the current state and future needs of IT services in an organization.

The purpose of an SHR is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of IT services (in this case Copilot implementation), as well as the opportunities and threats that may affect their delivery and value.

An SHR provides recommendations for improving IT service management, governance, user enablement, and alignment with business goals.

SHRs foster a transparent and collaborative partnership between business leaders, user enablement specialists, and IT professionals.

Recommended practices include:

• SHR Chair is the Copilot Success Owner
• Conducted monthly, moving to quarterly, once onboarding cohorts are complete
• Includes service feedback and top issues from User Enablement staff
• Core focus on data-driven fact finding, scenario identification, learning, and improvement in a blame-free environment
• SHRs are opportunities for leadership skill building
• SHRs provide data for AI Council review

Interpret the Microsoft 365 Admin Center Usage Report

The Microsoft 365 Copilot usage report includes two sections: Readiness and Usage.

In the Readiness section, you can review technical eligibility, license assignment, and users who are in a strong position to get value from Microsoft 365 Copilot.

In the Usage section, you can view a summary of Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption with visibility into users’ last Microsoft 365 Copilot activity.

Interpret the Readiness section by analyzing assigned and available Copilot licenses, how many users are technically eligible, and how many are in a strong position to get value from Microsoft 365 Copilot.

If needed, you can export the report data into an Excel .csv file by selecting the Export link. This exports the Microsoft 365 Copilot last activity data of all users and enables your identified report readers to do simple sorting, filtering, and searching for further analysis.

Interpret the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard data

In the Readiness tab, you assess your organization’s overall readiness for Copilot rollout based on technical eligibility requirements and overall Microsoft 365 app usage.

In the Adoption tab, you track user adoption trends per Microsoft 365 app and understand how employees are using Copilot features.

In the Impact tab, you gain visibility into total Copilot assisted hours, time savings and behavioral changes between active Copilot users and non-Copilot users.

The Learning tab provides information research around the impacts of AI on workplace productivity.

Readiness

• Instruct users to access the Copilot Dashboard in Teams or web app to analyze the tabs
• Analyze Readiness, Adoption, and Impact tabs
• Follow the instructions on the Impact tab under Sentiment section to deliver a survey to users
• Upload the survey results through the Microsoft 365 admin center to have them displayed in the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard
• Analyze insights on how users feel about the AI assistance they receive from Copilot

Adoption

Impact

View usage

See how AI usage and adoption align with your investment

Copilot Analytics Measure the impact of Copilot and agents on your business

Track productivity shifts

Explore how AI transforms the way your teams get work done

Measure business value

Evaluate the business impact Copilot and agents deliver to your org

Building agents with Copilot Studio

Copilot Studio is the platform to build agents that extend Microsoft 365 Copilot or operate standalone:

• End users can build in Copilot Studio and SharePoint.
• IT and developers can build in Copilot Studio and Azure AI Foundry

There are countless ways to optimize and reinvent your business processes with agents:

• Agents can handle highly variable situations in real time, using judgment to plan their steps and perform specialized tasks required to complete the job.
• Agents can collaborate with multiple users and other agents to accomplish tasks that span disconnected systems, and organizational boundaries.
• Using natural language, any employee can design and operate agents for their workflows.

• Get agent adoption content from the AI Agent Hub
• To learn more, go to Extend Microsoft Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft Learn

½ day to 1 (one)-day hands-on workshop for subject matter experts and business users, covering the breadth of Microsoft Copilot Studio.

The goal is for customers to:

• Have enough experience with the product to be able to understand the value and features currently in preview and how they could begin to use it
• Understand how Copilot Studio differentiates from the competition and become Copilot Studio advocates in their organization
• Know what the next steps are to learn more about Copilot Studio and become part of the community
• To develop your own agents for high-value scenarios

• The latest workshop materials are published on GitHub at aka.ms/CopilotStudioWorkshop
• Access the learning path at aka.ms/CopilotStudioTraining
• Sign up and attend Copilot Studio in a day events at aka.ms/CopilotStudioInADay
• Check for latest content on Microsoft Power Platform Partner Hub

• Learn more about the requirements for Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Follow the blog series on What’s new in Copilot to keep up to date on the latest news
• Learn more about the benefits of using Monthly Enterprise Channel in this Forrester study
• Read the change update channels guide for directions on managing update channels across multiple technologies
• Learn more about the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center and the features available with Cloud Update
• Follow our guide for Cloud Update to get started
• Watch these short tutorial videos about the latest features in Cloud Update
• Check out our other deployment and servicing videos for Microsoft 365 Apps
• Work with App Assure to unblock your app compatibility issues

Customers that buy more than 150 Copilot seats are eligible for Microsoft co-investment in partner deployment and adoption services through eligible Microsoft Partners.

Eligible customers can request technical and deployment assistance from Microsoft FastTrack.

Get started on your Copilot journey with expert-led services through Microsoft Unified.

One site for all your Copilot needs: adoption.microsoft.com/copilot

• Resources by role
• Interactive Scenario Library
• Product announcements and news
• Links to all other Microsoft sites
• Extended links for Small/Medium business, Copilot in Sales, Microsoft Viva, and more

Take the class!

Earn your User Enablement badge & validate your skills with MS-4007 available today!

Utilize our interactive scenario library to start the conversation with business users about their pain points, opportunities, and ideas: aka.ms/ScenarioLibrary.

Interactive library

Downloadable guidance

Overview of update channels for Microsoft 365 Apps | Microsoft Learn

Channels explained | YouTube

Drivers

• Ensures great fundamentals across performance, reliability, compliance, and accessibility
• The most secure experiences
• Minimize incidents and disruptions
• Modern tools to empower end-users to do their best work
• The best modern, connected, and collaborative experiences
• Alignment with industry best practices for agility

For more information on the benefits of the Monthly Enterprise Channel, review the Forrester Total Economic Impact (TEI) paper:

Benefits

• 70% of helpdesk claims eliminated
• Increased quality – 6+ months faster fixes
• Better diagnostics for supportability
• Performance increases (~15% vs SAEC*, ~50% vs Office 2019)
• Security features 6+ months faster
• Higher end user satisfaction (NPS +~3%)
• Modern Management: Safety nets + Insights (Rollback, Pause, Exclusion Dates, Servicing Profiles, Apps Health, Inventory, …)

https://aka.ms/M365AppsTEIStudy

Confidently move to Monthly Enterprise Channel or Current Channel to take advantage of Microsoft 365 Copilot while knowing your apps will just work. Microsoft is committed to ensuring your apps work with the latest versions of our software. If you encounter any app compatibility issues, App Assure will help remediate them at no additional cost!

App Assure helps customers troubleshoot, root cause and resolve app compatibility issues

Included as part of your license, this service is at no additional cost

Customers get a direct line of communication to Microsoft product engineering teams

Questions?        Email: achelp@microsoft.com    |    Submit a Request for assistance    |    For more information visit aka.ms/AppAssure

Rich data insights that keep you informed about the Microsoft 365 Apps across your organization

Automatic updates that keep your apps up to date with the least amount of effort

Channel management simplifies the task of changing update channels and prevents configuration drift

Custom waves enable you to customize your rollout and define which users goes first

Update validation enables you to validate the latest build before you reach broad deployment

Pause your deployments at any time, for as long as you need

Exclusion windows enable you to schedule updates around critical freeze periods

Rollback offers a safety net, enabling you to rollback to the previous build with flexible targeting