Streamlining everyday tasks in education with Microsoft 365 Copilot

Education professionals bring creativity, dedication, and expertise to work every day, shaping meaningful experiences for their school community. With Copilot, you can build on these strengths—boosting productivity, amplifying creativity, and securely empowering everyone. Explore these possibilities and more with the Copilot Scenario Library for education—a collection of real-world examples that demonstrate how educators and leaders can easily use AI to assist with everyday tasks.

The Copilot Scenario Library for education is a great place to start for finding ideas on how to integrate AI into your daily workflow. It offers easy to follow day-in-the-life examples tailored to your role in education. Whether you’re designing personalized lesson content, collaborating with colleagues, or communicating with families, Copilot helps you save time and focus on supporting student success.

Additional Copilot Scenario Libraries provide targeted guidance and even more day-in-the-life examples:

• IT Management – Strengthen cybersecurity and optimize device management.
• Communications – Craft engaging content and improve communication.
• Operations – Boost efficiency in planning, reporting, and scheduling.
• Accessibility – Enhance digital accessibility and create inclusive environments.

Leverage these useful resources to get inspired and support success across your institution with Copilot.

Copilot Chat: Your AI assistant for education

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is the AI chat experience you can use every day. It’s powered by broad knowledge from the web, built on the latest AI models, and designed to be safe and secure. Copilot Chat includes free, secure AI chat powered by GPT-4o, agents accessible right in the chat, and IT controls, including enterprise data protection and agent management. In addition, pay-as-you-go agents are available through Copilot Chat.

While Copilot Chat is an excellent starting point for integrating AI into your day-to-day workflow, Microsoft 365 Copilot offers all the features of Copilot Chat and additional capabilities to transform educational experiences. Integrated into the apps you use every day, Copilot combines the power of the latest AI models with your institutional data—documents, presentations, emails, meetings, chats, and more—plus the web to deliver relevant responses with sources.

Schools using Copilot have seen tangible benefits. In fact, educators in Brisbane, Australia, reported saving an average of 9.3 hours per week on routine tasks. The time saved is especially crucial in a profession where burnout is a common challenge. As St Francis College Principal John Marinucci highlights, Copilot can transform education by streamlining administrative tasks that often overwhelm educators. This means teachers can now devote more energy and time to their core mission—helping students be successful.

Simplify daily tasks with Copilot Chat

From lesson planning to school operations, Copilot Chat can help you be more productive. Whether you’re personalizing instruction, gathering resources, communicating with stakeholders, or rolling out new technology, Copilot Chat simplifies everyday tasks—so you can focus on what matters most: helping students thrive. Let’s explore how Copilot Chat can assist you.

K-12 educator: Differentiate lesson plans

Personalizing instruction takes time, but Copilot Chat can help you adapt lesson plans faster. Quickly adjust activities by specifying accommodations, instructional strategies, and student needs. Try this sample prompt:

Adapt this text for a student who is struggling with reading. Address vocabulary issues, identify and define words to practice, and explain figurative language. Include a list of 5 corresponding comprehension questions. Here’s the original text: [copy and paste text]

K-12 special education assistant: Find appropriate resources for each student

Special education assistants and support staff work with students across multiple classrooms. Copilot Chat can streamline resource collection by helping you plan your day ahead and suggesting materials based on your input. Spend less time searching and more time supporting students.

Education leader: Communicate clearly with staff, families, and students

From morning greetings to school board updates, effective communication is essential for education leaders. Copilot Chat helps you draft clear, professional messages, so you can keep staff, families, and school communities informed without spending hours crafting communication.

IT professional: Create an onboarding plan

When introducing new technology, instructional coaches and IT leaders often need a structured rollout plan. Use Copilot Chat to create onboarding guides, find training resources, and outline step-by-step implementation plans. It can save hours of planning time while ensuring a smooth transition for staff and students.

Take it even further with Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft 365 Copilot builds on the capabilities of Copilot Chat by connecting with your institutional data and is available in the apps you use every day. Whether you’re summarizing your day in Outlook, adapting lesson plans in Word, or analyzing data in Excel, Copilot can streamline your workflow—helping you stay organized, informed, and more efficient. Let’s explore how Copilot can further assist you.

K-12 educator: Prepare for meetings with families

Meeting with families is essential to supporting student growth, but preparing for these conversations takes time. With Copilot in PowerPoint, you can generate meeting-ready presentations that include key details—then customize them for each student. Reuse and remix templates to streamline your prep work and keep meetings focused.

K-12 special education assistant: Review and adapt lesson plans with ease

Collaboration between educators is key to supporting diverse learning needs, but time constraints often make it difficult to quickly review materials and provide feedback. Copilot in Word can help you streamline review of educator lesson plans in the context of individual student needs. You can then ask Copilot to suggest differentiated learning activities and adjust formative assessments to meet the needs of each student.

Education leader: Analysis and insights from budgets

Education leaders make strategic financial decisions to support student learning. Copilot in Excel helps track spending, identify variances, and optimize budgets. Need a quick analysis? Ask Copilot to insert a budget variance column, so you can easily spot trends and reallocate funds where they’re needed most.

IT professional: Align IT solutions with school priorities

IT teams play a vital role in keeping schools running smoothly. Copilot in Word helps you draft strategy documents that align IT solutions and projects with school and district goals—making it easier to secure approvals and drive long-term success.

Find your inspiration

Copilot is your AI assistant for everyday tasks—helping you support student learning outcomes, boost productivity, and save time. No matter your role, Copilot can help securely empower everyone at your institution, making it easier to work smarter and stay organized. Explore the Copilot Scenario Library for education for inspiration and prompts that you can start using today.

You can also use Copilot to find inspiration. For example, you could write a prompt explaining your role and what you need help with. Then, ask Copilot for use cases or examples of how others in similar roles have used AI to improve their daily workflow. This way, you can discover new ways to use AI to enhance your work, streamline your tasks, and achieve your goals with greater ease and creativity.

To help you and your team build competency with AI and Copilot, check out the Microsoft 363 Copilot learning path which walks you through the basics of Copilot.