Recent Discussions
Measuring success in Microsoft 365 & Copilot adoption
As a student Microsoft 365 Champion, I’m starting to notice that successful adoption isn’t just about enabling tools — it’s about how adoption is measured and guided. In my learning, simple analytics (usage trends, engagement patterns, feedback loops) combined with tools like Power BI seem to make a big difference in understanding what’s actually working and where support is needed. I’m curious — for those working on Microsoft 365 or Copilot adoption, what KPIs or signals have you found most useful beyond basic usage counts?Excel Copilot now supports local files (Preview): what this means for everyday users
In the Microsoft 365 Current Channel (Preview), Excel Copilot Chat now supports local Excel files, not just workbooks stored in the cloud. This is a meaningful usability improvement because many users, especially students and early-career professionals, still work primarily with datasets stored locally on their devices. Why this matters for adoption: Users can now interact with Copilot Chat while analysing local Excel files. This reduces friction for offline work, assignments, and exploratory data analysis. It makes Copilot more practical for everyday learning and productivity workflows. For users learning data analysis, reporting, or business intelligence, this update lowers the barrier to using Copilot consistently rather than only in cloud-based scenarios. I am exploring how these preview features can improve real-world adoption and learning experiences, particularly for students and early-career users who work with Excel daily.Helping students adopt Microsoft 365 tools for learning & productivity
Hi everyone, I’m a Microsoft 365 Champion and MSc Data Science student, and I’m currently helping fellow students get started with Microsoft tools such as: • Power BI (data analytics & dashboards) • Microsoft Learn learning paths • Microsoft 365 productivity tools I’m curious: What are the biggest challenges you’ve seen when introducing Power BI or Microsoft Learn to students or early-career professionals? I’d love to learn from your experiences and share what’s worked in an academic environment.
Organizing Multiple Shared Inbox's
Multiple people in Multiple shared inboxes within the organization. How do you keep them organized, what works, what doesn't work? We have color coding/tags that mean certain things for different inboxes which doesn't work when it is one person working out of multiple inboxes. For Example: Joe is in three shared inboxes, but each inbox has the color red tagged for different things. Joe can't save red as multiple things. Also, do people tag who is working on what and then move to their personal inboxes, or leave them in the original inbox until it is resolved and then move to a completed folder."Operational Guide for Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption" (DNS error)
Hello Community, On the official page **Operational Guide for Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption**: https://www.microsoft.com/en/microsoft-365-copilot/copilot-adoption-guide Also https://www.microsoft.com/fr-fr/microsoft-365-copilot/copilot-adoption-guide the **“Get the guide”** button points to a CDN link that does not resolve and shows the error: **DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN** (host: `clouddamcdnprodep.azureedge.net`). Context: - Region: France ; Browsers tested: Edge and Chrome ; Date/time observed: January 12, 2026 at 17:24 CET - Expected: Access to the downloadable PDF/resource associated with the guide Could you please escalate this to the relevant teams (content/CDN) to fix the link for the “Get the guide” button? In the meantime, what are the official download URLs for this guide? (in English or French) Thank you!How are you keeping your associates up to date on Microsoft changes? HELP
I’m looking for ideas or best practices from other organizations on how you're keeping associates up to date with the constant changes across Microsoft 365 especially in Teams, Outlook, SharePoint, Planner, Visio, and Copilot. With so many updates rolling out daily from the roadmap and message center, it’s a challenge to make sure users are aware of new features and understand how to use them in our environment. Do you have an intake process for all changes or just some? Do you vet all changes? Do you have a self-service model? Do you have a centralized communication or training strategy? Are you using internal champions, newsletters, Viva tools, or other methods? How do you make updates engaging and easy to understand? Any tips for turning roadmap and Message Center updates into actionable guidance? Thanks in advance for sharing what’s working for you!
How to view all employees in Microsoft Places?
Now that the Favorites feature has been removed and Microsoft Places only shows frequently used people from Microsoft 365 apps, is there a way to see all employees of the company (65 people) in one overview? I’m looking for a way to search this list and ideally sort it alphabetically or by department. Is this functionality planned to return, or is there an alternative way to achieve this today?
CPAi Advisors + Copilot Frontier: Accounting Meets Agent Mode
Hey all — I’m Dan, founder of CPAi Advisors, where boutique accounting meets workflow automation and Microsoft Copilot. I spent years in public company accounting, working across GL, AP/AR, reporting, and compliance — plus deep ERP integrations and technical troubleshooting. After seeing firsthand how manual and fragmented financial workflows can be, I decided to go out on my own and build something smarter: a boutique firm powered by Microsoft 365 Business Premium + Copilot. Now I’m exploring how Office Agent (Frontier) can take things further — not just chat in Word or Excel, but actually carry context across apps and orchestrate real accounting tasks. Here’s what I’m testing: Agent Mode in Excel → financial models, ledger reconciliation, anomaly detection Agent Mode in Word → client-ready reports that pull live spreadsheet data Agent Mode in Outlook → turning email threads into task lists and audit prep Cross-app orchestration → one prompt that builds a report, updates the spreadsheet, and drafts the email 💡 Focus: Copilot in accounting workflows Automating compliance & audit readiness Bridging trust in AI for financial advisory Pushing Agent Mode beyond the obvious Excited to share feedback and help shape what’s next. Let’s make accounting workflows smarter — and a little more fun. Take care & be well!Maturity framework for digital transformation
Before I end up going too much further down a rabbit hole with this, is anyone else using an adoption framework that recognises the tech maturity of users? Ive regularly used something similar to crawl/walk/run/fly but I’d like to put some more structure around it so it’s easy to apply to any tech. For example, if you pick up anything from the MOCA stack, you can show stages of maturity as people integrate it into their work. The challenge is that I often see organisations push out a new tool and expect radical change without addressing the basics. If we can provide a flexible, visual for decision makers and a rough roadmap for project managers/learning & development/change, we can be realistic about what to expect. Keen to hear what others use or if that sort of resource would be useful.🚀 Microsoft Edge Gets Smarter: Copilot with GPT-5, AI Podcast Creation & Advanced Security!
Big news for productivity and creativity lovers! 🎯 The latest Microsoft Edge update brings some game-changing features: ✅ Copilot Smart Mode powered by GPT-5 – Your AI assistant just got even smarter. 🎙 Create Podcasts with Copilot – Turn ideas into audio content effortlessly. 🎨 Generate Images & Videos directly in Edge – No extra tools needed! 🛡 AI-Powered Shield Against Scareware – Stay safe while you browse. I’ve created a detailed video on my YouTube channel where I explore these features in action and share tips on how to make the most of them. 👉 Watch it here: https://youtu.be/73KEDh2MDow What do you think about these updates? Which feature excites you the most? Let’s discuss in the comments! #MicrosoftEdge #Copilot #AI #Productivity #CyberSecurity #GPT5
M365 Roadmap Management
Wondering if others have tips & tricks on how they stay up to date with the https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap? I find it tedious to stay on top of all the features being announced, switching launch phases, moving target dates, and so on. I was hoping to use the RSS feed in a PowerBI Dashboard or find a solution in Planner similar to syncing the Admin Centre messages, and after some quick searches online could not find an example of anyone doing something similar. I was hoping any members of this community may be able to shed some light on how they approach the roadmap site and what tools if any they use to manage the constant influx of information? TIA!Reimagining Bing and Copilot: A Creator-Led Movement to Spark Visibility in India
Hello Microsoft Community, I’m Kanishka, a creative technologist and digital storyteller from India, passionate about blending technical precision with emotional resonance. As someone deeply engaged with Microsoft Copilot and Bing, I’ve been reflecting on a bold idea: What if we sparked a grassroots movement that made Bing and Copilot as visible and beloved in India as Google and ChatGPT—powered entirely by creators, from the comfort of their own rooms? 🌟 The Vision: Creator-Led Visibility for Bing & Copilot India’s creator economy is thriving. From students and freelancers to influencers and educators, digital creators are shaping tech adoption at scale. My proposal is to tap into this momentum and position Bing and Copilot as tools of empowerment, creativity, and everyday utility. Here’s how we can do it: Instagram Carousels & Reels: Showcase Bing’s smart search and Copilot’s AI magic in relatable, bite-sized content—caption writing, coding help, idea generation, and more. Regional Language Content: Create tutorials and storytelling in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, etc., to make Bing and Copilot feel accessible and culturally relevant. Festival-Themed Campaigns: Build interactive websites and games using Copilot for occasions like Independence Day, Diwali, or Republic Day—celebrating Indian identity through tech. Creator Challenges & Spotlights: Launch Microsoft-backed contests and spotlight series to reward innovative use cases from grassroots creators. 🎯 Strategic Impact Drives emotional connection with Microsoft tools—especially among Gen Z and Tier 2/3 audiences. Positions Bing as more than a search engine—a smart, intuitive companion for discovery and learning. Elevates Copilot as a creative partner, not just a productivity tool. Builds a creator-first narrative that aligns with India’s digital growth story. 💡 Why Microsoft Should Support This Vision India is not just a market—it's a movement. With over 750 million internet users, a booming creator economy, and a rising wave of digital-first youth, the opportunity to embed Microsoft tools into everyday life is massive. But visibility alone isn’t enough—emotional connection and cultural relevance are key. Supporting creator-led outreach would allow Microsoft to: Accelerate grassroots adoption of Bing and Copilot in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, where curiosity is high but awareness is low. Humanize AI and search tools by showing real creators using them in relatable, everyday scenarios—from writing captions to solving coding challenges. Build trust and loyalty by empowering creators to become advocates—not just users—who shape how Microsoft is perceived in India. Position Microsoft as a creator-first brand, aligned with India’s digital aspirations and storytelling culture. Unlock organic growth through shareable, regional-language content that resonates far beyond traditional marketing. This isn’t just about visibility—it’s about belonging. When creators lead the narrative, Microsoft becomes part of India’s digital identity. Warm regards, KanishkaAdoption Masterminds: Copilot Conversations!
We are excited to welcome Pat McGown, CEO of Cloudwell and MVP, for an insightful session on the adoption of Copilot and AI. Pat will share his experiences and insights for the first 30 minutes. Following that, we will have an open discussion for the remaining 30 minutes. Bring your ideas, thoughts, and strategies to help fellow adoption leaders navigate the evolving landscape of AI adoption. The Adoption Masterminds is a quarterly meeting for Adoption Professionals to come together and talk about Adoption of M365 across the globe. These meetings are lowkey and collaborative in the hopes that you will leave inspired and energized! https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/c06af6b8-e69b-4b76-9aba-01e631c066a6@8b3dd73e-4e72-4679-b191-56da1588712bDriving User Adoption - User Personas and User Journey Maps
When we say things like "casting a wide net" in the world of User Experience in most cases this isn't a good thing because it means the wider the net we cast the less we understand about the fish we catch. In the case of O365 Groups we have the power to create groups quickly, create focused content, manage permissions, etc., which is really amazing but the ability to do this in some cases gives false promises that we can just "start something" with the hopes of User Adoption and through Rapid-Adaptation maintain or even build User Adoption. While it is true that being able to quickly adapt to "new" User Needs helps to "build" User Adoption, the problem is that the psychological effects of a Negative Experience are hard to repair for "current" users once they have casted a ballot on UX. A good way to go about solving this problem before actually having Negative User Experiences occur is to create Macro User Personas and then couple them with User Journey Maps of the O365 Groups that we are trying to build an experience around. User Personas and Journey Maps have been around forever and are used in the UX community on a daily basis. The really powerful concept here is that we are still able to rapidly adapt experiences around our users faster and better than ever before thanks to Microsoft making infrastructures smarter and faster but with User Personas and User Journey Maps it gives us the ability to better understand the "emotional connections" of our users and what actually makes them tick. As an example, think about knowing the answer to these questions prior to starting any project then couple the idea with constructing an O365 Group. Workshop questions structured to capture UX for a new interface: What is the average age of the people you think would use this online application? Will you be using a mobile device to access this application? What type of online applications do you use? What online applications do you like? Does this online application have a direct competitor? If so, who is it? What brands do you admire? If the interface did one thing that would make you happy, what would it do? What would make you recommend this online application? Workshop questions structured to capture UX out in the wild already: What is the average age of the people you think use this online application? Do you access this online application with a mobile device? If so, does it work? Do you use other online applications? Does this application work better or worse than other online applications you have used? Do you like this application? What brands do you admire? What is something you wish this application did better? What is something this application does that makes you happy? https://1drv.ms/b/s!AhD16xYVMgyoorJhAX_QGxpSpNfEbw I would really like to start indepth conversations on UD/UI and UX topics and how they relate to the Microsoft Experience as a whole. Thanks,Can't find how to obtain Certification for Specialist Adoption program
Hello everyone, I have completed the Specialist Adoption course. Co-workers have told me that I can take an exam and obtain a certification, upon payment of 99$. It's also mentioned on the Microsoft page: (URL). https://learn.microsoft.com/es-es/office365/customlearning/champ_education I can't find how to take the exam, pay the 99$ and obtain the certificate. Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance.
Threshold based dlp block in Purview DLP
Hi All, Just wanted to know if there is a way to add threshold based email block for sensitive info types. Example: If there are 3 unique Social security numbers keywords matched only then block. If the weightage of the keyword is above 10, only then block. Do we have an option in Purview DLP to block the email using the above examples? Thanks, K.AAI upskilling -10 quick-reads
I just took stock of my blog and found ten on AI adoption! I never bothered to share them all in the public domain, but these themes were of burning interest to me at the time of publishing. However, Microsoft MVP renewal is looming, so I guess it is time to use it or lose it! My blogs combine personal experiences, professional insights, and practical AI-assisted guidance. They are quick reads for anyone interested in AI's evolving, high-impact role in society. I "work out loud," which means sharing your work with a view others might find helpful, and others might help you improve your work. I would love comments. Children's story creation. With the help of AI, I share my journey of bringing my children’s story, “Joy of Stick,” to life, overcoming challenges such as graphic design costs and time constraints. This a cheeky nod to the “Joy of Sex” book title from the 1970s, but the content is entirely different! Responsible Copilot Usage. Drawing parallels with past experiences with Yammer's Responsible Usage Policy, now known as Viva Engage. I point out the need for and importance of a responsible Copilot usage policy. Copilot adoption is easy with Viva Engage. I demonstrate how Viva Engage facilitates the creation of a Copilot champion community. This is also my insight into the differences between seeded and premium features. AI Upskilling Workshops. Testimonials from professionals across various industries highlight the benefits of my AI upskilling workshops, featuring tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, and Copilot. SWOT Analysis of AI Tools. My AI-assisted analysis of AI personal assistants provides valuable insights into their strengths and weaknesses. Social, Emotional, and Artificial Intelligence. My AI-assisted exploration examines the interaction between these intelligences and their potential to enhance our IQ. AI Adoption Steps. My AI-assisted practical advice for consumers on integrating AI into daily life, ensuring effective and beneficial use. AI's Societal Impact. My AI-assisted reflections on the historical impact of technologies such as calculators, email, and the internet, along with forecasts for AI's future influence. AI for Beginners. My simple glossary of AI terms for newcomers. Digital Skills Advocacy. My global petition recommends the relevance of basic digital skills training for new hires and highlights the importance of AI upskilling.
Events
Happening Soon
Host: Tiffany Lee
Guest Sangeeta Kulkarni, Rahul Mittal
Moderator: Bryan Hart
📢 NOTE: our community call formats are Teams webinars so you must register at https://aka.ms/M365ChampionCallP...
Online
Recent Blogs
- Join our next community call on February 24, 2026, to learn more about Word, Excel and PowerPoint Agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot. Reminder: Our community calls are in the Teams webinar format, so ...Feb 17, 2026
- Hello Champions, and Happy New Year! Here’s a recap and top Q+A from our first monthly call of 2026, featuring Copilot Pages with the Copilot Pages & Microsoft Loop product team members Constan...Feb 03, 2026
