FAQs
Who has access to Microsoft Copilot?
Staff & Faculty only. Student access isn't available currently - options for student access within our Microsoft licensing entitlements will continue to be evaluated.
What do you mean by “generative AI?”
Generative AI is AI (Artificial Intelligence) that can generate new content—like text, images, etc.—on its own. Copilot is a generative tool: you can prompt it with something, and it will generate a response based on its underlying AI models and the web.
What kind of questions can you ask Copilot?
Think of Copilot as a new, more powerful way to search the internet for answers. If you’re trying to learn about a new topic, start your prompt with “Explain this” or “how come.” If you have a lot of different articles with multiple perspectives on a topic but still can’t make a design, try asking, “Compare this option and another option in the form of a table” or “Give me the pros and cons on <topic of interest>.” And if you need more help with making content, you can ask Copilot to “write an email based on bullet points pasted below,” or “Create an image” in a specific style.
Copilot cannot answer questions about your work data, such as your emails, chats, and files, because it does not have access to those items.
How do I know that I’m in the protected experience of Copilot?
When you’re in the protected experience of Copilot, you’ll find the shield icon in the top right of the experience. Above the text box, you’ll find a sentence that reads “Your personal and company data are protected in this chat.” If you don’t find these cues, you don’t have data protection for your AI chat. To fix this, just sign at copilot.microsoft.com with your work account.