Why Giving Employees Microsoft 365 Copilot Licences Is Not Enough

Many employees receiving Microsoft 365 Copilot licences are not completely new to generative AI. In their personal lives, they may already use ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Grok or another AI tool to help with everyday tasks.

They might paste in an email and ask for it to be shorter, upload a presentation and ask for a summary, or ask a question and then continue the conversation until they get an answer they are happy with.

This way of using AI feels natural.

The person gives an instruction, reads the response, adds more information, asks for a change and continues until the result is useful. They may not use sophisticated prompts or follow a defined method, but the conversation helps them work through the task.

In our Microsoft 365 Copilot workshops, we regularly see a different pattern. People may already feel comfortable using generative AI, but their understanding of Copilot is often much narrower. They know it can summarise an email, draft a response, review a document or create a presentation, but they are less clear about how it can help with the wider work they complete every day.

This is one reason giving employees a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence does not automatically change how they work.

People often know how to use AI, but not how to use Copilot for their work

The challenge is not always confidence with AI.

Many people have found ways of interacting with a chatbot and are comfortable asking follow-up questions or improving an answer through conversation. This doesnt mean the approach is effective, it does though feel intuitive. 

Copilot is a little different and the gap is often understanding what Microsoft 365 Copilot can help them do within the work they already perform.

Ask a group how they currently use Copilot and common answers include drafting emails, summarising messages, reviewing documents and creating presentations. These are useful starting points, but they represent a small part of the work taking place across Microsoft 365 every day.

The bigger change happens when people understand that Copilot can support a complete piece of work rather than a single instruction.

A simple email example shows the difference

One task we often demonstrate is following up on requests sent by email.

Imagine someone has asked several colleagues for information and now needs to work out:

• which requests are still outstanding

• which people have replied

• whether each reply fully answered the original request

• what information is still missing

• who needs a follow-up

Without Copilot, they may search through Sent Items, find the original requests, check the Inbox for responses, compare each reply with what was originally requested and then prepare follow-up emails where information is missing.

Copilot can support that process in a much more useful way.

The person can use Copilot to identify emails in Sent Items where information was requested and then look for the related replies in the Inbox. They can compare the original request with the response, identify anything that has not been answered fully and use that information to prepare the follow-up.

The task is no longer simply:

Write a follow-up email.

It becomes:

Find the requests, check the responses, identify what is still missing and prepare the follow-up.

When we demonstrate this type of task, one of the most common reactions is: "I didn't know Copilot could do that."

That reaction matters because it shows where the gap often sits. The person did not need another generic prompt. They needed to see how Copilot could support a piece of work they already complete.

Generic examples usually lead to generic use

The examples employees are shown influence how they think about the tool.

If someone learns that Copilot can summarise an email, they will probably use it to summarise emails. If they are shown how to create a presentation from a document, they will know that this is possible too.

Both are useful, but more meaningful work usually requires a clearer understanding of the task and the result required.

Consider an HR example.

A simple instruction could be:

Summarise this Q1 HR report.

That may produce a useful summary, but the summary is rarely the final piece of work the person actually needs.

A more useful task might be:

Use the Q1 HR acquisition report to help create the Q2 recruitment action plan. Review the recruitment requirements for each department, identify the priorities and organise the actions required.

The report is now the source information rather than the final task. Copilot is being used to support the next piece of work.

That difference is important. Employees begin to move away from using Copilot for isolated outputs and towards using it as part of the work they are already responsible for completing.

Copilot requires people to understand how to work with it

Microsoft 365 Copilot is different from opening a chatbot and starting a conversation.

Copilot is available across the Microsoft 365 environment, including Copilot Chat and applications such as Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Teams and Excel. This gives users more ways to work with Copilot, but it also means they need to make more decisions.

For a particular task, they may need to understand:

• whether to start in Copilot Chat or inside an application

• which information Copilot needs access to

• whether the work involves email, documents, meetings or several sources

• whether the task should be completed in one place or across several steps

• how to review the output before using it
  
  

This is why Copilot can feel less intuitive than ChatGPT for some workplace users. With ChatGPT, the person often opens a single interface and starts talking to the tool. With Copilot, they also need to understand how the tool fits into the Microsoft 365 work around them.

That understanding develops much faster when people learn through tasks they recognise.

The licence is only the starting point

Microsoft 365 Copilot gives employees access to a wide range of useful AI tools within the environment where much of their work already takes place.

The difficulty is that access does not show someone which tasks are worth using Copilot for.

People need to see practical examples that are close to the work they perform. They need to understand that Copilot is useful for more than drafting, summarising and creating first versions of documents.

For one person, that might mean checking outstanding email requests and preparing follow-ups. For another, it might mean turning an HR report into the starting point for the next recruitment plan. Other teams will have their own tasks where Copilot can save time or help them work with information more effectively.

This is where organisations can begin to move beyond giving people licences and hoping they discover the useful parts themselves.

Employees need to understand what Copilot can help them do, where they should use it and how it fits into the work they already complete.

When that happens, Copilot starts to become part of how the work gets done.

If your organisation has already given employees Microsoft 365 Copilot licences, the next step is helping them learn how to use Copilot for the work they actually need to complete.

[Learn more about Koshima Microsoft 365 Copilot training]