M365 Copilot FAQs

M365 Copilot is Microsoft’s AI tool that is part of the Microsoft 365 suite. This suite includes apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. M365 Copilot helps you work more productively by doing tasks like summarising documents, drafting emails, and creating presentations. For more information on M365 Copilot, you can read the Introduction to M365 Copilot article on the support site.

M365 Copilot is your AI-powered digital colleague embedded across Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. It uses natural language prompts, combining them with your NHS data such as emails, chats, files, and calendar to help you ideate, evaluate, and create more efficiently.

To access M365 Copilot, you must have an active M365 Copilot licence. Once assigned, the Copilot icon will appear in your M365 apps within a week. You can then use it directly in apps like Word or Teams to draft content, summarise documents, or generate presentations. For onboarding prerequisites, licensing setup, and acceptable use policies, please refer to the support article: Onboarding to M365 Copilot.

For any guidance on how to use M365 Copilot and help with prompting, please explore the Getting Started Guides on Viva Learning.

M365 Copilot enhances productivity by automating routine tasks, generating content, analysing data, and facilitating collaboration. Whether you are drafting policy documents, preparing presentations, or summarising meeting notes, M365 Copilot helps save time and improve quality.

You can contact the helpdesk if you have any technical, licensing or security issues. The below table provides some examples of queries you might have and the support avenue you should take to resolve.

For any guidance on how to use M365 Copilot and help with prompting, please explore the Getting Started Guides on Viva Learning.

Users must be Enhanced Service users and have the following licences:

• M365 E3 base licence
• M365 Apps for Enterprise
• M365 Copilot

Please contact your local administrator (LA).

LAs will need to purchase an add on licence via Microsoft, or their usual licence reseller, and follow the guidance here to onboard your licence to the NHS.net Connect portal: Onboarding Guide for Local Administrators – NHSmail Support.

If you are having trouble accessing M365 Copilot in the desktop versions of Office applications or if certain features aren’t working across M365 applications while using an @nhs.net account, please follow the steps below:

1. Update Channel: M365 Copilot is only supported on M365 Apps configured to the “Current” or “Monthly Enterprise” update channels. If your local IT department has set the deployment to the “Semi-Annual” channel, M365 Copilot will not function in the desktop applications. Please contact your Local IT to confirm your channel and update it if necessary. Follow this link to find your Local Administrator.
2. If you are still experiencing the issue, please make sure you are logged in with your nhs.net account by navigating to Office > File > Office Account > User Information.

3. If certain functionalities are not working in Outlook, please note that these issues may be related to the new Outlook update and not to M365 Copilot. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide guidance on this matter. We recommend contacting your local helpdesk to escalate the issue and find a resolution.

4. Uncheck “Turn on optional connected experiences” within File>Account, Manage Settings, restart the Office application and then re-enable it.

5. Sign out and sign back in to your NHS.net Connect account.

This is consistent with the behaviour we have experienced. We encourage you to try again later and not lose motivation as this technology is still evolving so this kind of inconsistency is to be expected

Yes. The M365 Copilot uses generative AI technology and nuanced differences in responses are expected.

Yes, M365 Copilot is available on mobile devices.

For detailed instructions on how to use M365 Copilot on your mobile device and how to download it, please refer to the links below: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft365M365 Copilotblog/M365 Copilot-now-available-for-the-microsoft-365-mobile-app/4071014

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/mobile

M365 Copilot is available on Android devices too.

When using M365 Copilot in most M365 applications such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, you can specifically reference documents you wish to refer to. In time, all applications will be able to reference files you have access to. Note: One exception to this is if you are referencing a document which has an “Official Sensitive” sensitivity label applied to it. In this case, M365 Copilot will be prevented from accessing the file’s contents.

Yes. You should have the ability to apply an “Official Sensitive” sensitivity label to your file. In doing so, this will block M365 Copilot from accessing or referencing the contents of this specific file. For further information on sensitivity labels, please visit this link.

We have seen users have delays with M365 Copilot activation in some apps. A fix that has worked for multiple is to restart the programs and ensure all updates are applied to M365 applications and additionally restart their laptops.

In general, M365 Copilot supports the following languages for prompts: Chinese (simplified), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil) and Spanish. M365 Copilot in Excel is supported in English only. However, we do see some instances where we can receive immediate translations, specifically directly off transcripts from Teams calls. We have tested the prompt “recap the past five minutes in [language]”, where results were returned Thai, Japanese and Danish, so we do encourage you to test and explore in terms of translation. There is no official guidance on when further languages will be supported.

Three options for you to try: (1) Sign out of the app you are struggling with and log back in (2) Look manually for updates clicking on File > Account > Update options (3) Restart your laptop.

In early March, additional data residency capabilities were announced here.

Full details on data, privacy, and security for Microsoft M365 Copilot for Microsoft 365 can be found here > Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft M365 Copilot for Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn.

When referencing documents with M365 Copilot in Word, try to limit your document size. Click here for more information on working with M365 Copilot in Word.

For M365 Copilot to work with Office web applications like Word Online, PowerPoint Online, and Excel Online, third-party cookies must be enabled. Blocking third-party cookies will result in a failure when retrieving files to reference. More information on requirements here > https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-M365 Copilot/microsoft-365-M365 Copilot-requirements.

To use M365 Copilot with Apps for Enterprise (Desktop apps), NHS.net Connect users must be licenced for M365 Apps for Enterprise which is supported as a BYOL add-on licence and assigned via the NHS.net Connect portal. To ensure you are appropriately licenced, please contact your local IT/Admin and they can assist you further on this. If your licensing is correct, the issue may be because your local IT needs to transition you from the Semi-Annual Update Channel to the Monthly Update Channel for M365 Copilot to appear in locally installed apps.

If you are receiving the error page “Your account is not enabled for Viva Learning”, please make sure:

• You are logged in with your “nhs.net” account.

If you are still experiencing an issue, please contact your local IT Administrator to enable your account for Viva Learning.

Currently, M365 Copilot does not have a direct setting to switch to UK English. However, you can include your preference for UK English in your prompt, and it should respond accordingly. Over the next few months, updates will come to M365 Copilot that will use your Windows and Office language settings to determine the response language. You can prepare for this by ensuring your Windows language is set in Settings > Time & Language > Windows Display Language, and in Office (from any Office app) Options > Language > Office Display Language. You may need your local IT team to make this change for you.

Ensure you are logged in to your office applications with your @nhs.net email address. If you still don’t see the icons, check if you have access to M365 Copilot via the web apps. If the issue persists, contact your local IT department.

Use the GCSE framework: Goal, Context, Source, and Expectations. Be clear and specific in your prompts. Learn about M365 Copilot prompts – Microsoft Support.

In Teams, go to M365 Copilot and click on “View Prompts” to access the Co-Pilot Prompt Gallery. There is also a standalone site at https://aka.ms/prompts (sign in with your @nhs.net address).

Prompt Buddy is an NHS-specific tool for sharing and accessing useful prompts. You can find it in Teams by searching for “Prompt Buddy” in the apps section.

Ensure your files are saved in SharePoint (including the Files in Teams) or OneDrive.