Recognizing the need to develop a new skillset around AI tools, we are excited to introduce Microsoft Copilot Academy, a new addition to our Viva Learning platform designed to help customers effectively utilize Copilot experiences through guided upskilling. Copilot Academy is generally available now from your Viva Learning Teams app or webapp.
To utilize the academy today, customer tenants must have access to Copilot for Microsoft 365, and individual users must be assigned a paid license of either Viva Learning or Viva Suite. Starting in 2024 Q3, Copilot Academy will be available to all Copilot for Microsoft 365 customers at no additional cost and will not require a Viva license.
Please contact your Microsoft sales representative with questions, to see a demo, or to get started with a trial of Viva Learning.
Now let’s take a look at Copilot Academy in more depth, and see what’s coming next.
Academy structure and content
The Copilot Academy features structured learning experiences crafted by Microsoft experts, enabling users to learn about, discover, and use Copilot effectively. As an academy in Viva Learning, your central hub for learning, it’s easy for users to access within the Microsoft 365 tools they’re already using.
Navigate to Microsoft Copilot Academy from the dropdown menu in the Viva Learning app
Content within the academy is curated into a series of learning paths that guide users on a journey starting with “Meet Copilot” and “Intro to prompts”. We then dive into details of how to use Copilot for Microsoft 365 across a series of use cases from “Save time”, “Create & transform”, and “Collaborate & engage” learning paths. We finish the user journey with a “Put it together” learning path to help bring your new skills to light with end-to-end Copilot scenarios. There is also an admin learning path covering implementation guidance, security, compliance, and other important considerations.
Microsoft Copilot Academy is a centralized location to help with the basics of Copilot learning and upskilling
The individual learning objects comprising the building blocks for the learning paths in Copilot Academy feature a combination of standard generative-AI learning content (i.e. “Intro to prompts”) and content specific to Copilot for Microsoft 365 (i.e. “Summarize email threads with Copilot in Outlook”). The content is freely available to customers from our Copilot skilling platforms like Copilot Lab and Microsoft Learn. We are already using Copilot Academy ourselves to upskill Microsoft employees, in addition to a set of early-access customers.
Notifications
As a solution built natively into Teams, it’s easy to stay on track with your AI learning from the Teams notification center. Users with access to Copilot Academy will receive a one-time notification highlighting the availability of Copilot Academy, and additional monthly reminders to complete in-progress content. Users can disable notifications through Teams notification settings.
Receive Microsoft Copilot Academies in the Teams notification center
Admin setup and configuration
Copilot Academy requires no admin setup and is default-on. All content in Copilot Academy is freely available to all customers and requires no additional licensing to access. Admins can choose to disable Copilot Academy for their organization from the Admin tab in the Viva Learning app.
Admins can disable Microsoft Copilot Academy from the Admin tab in the Viva Learning app
Currently the Copilot Academy is an out-of-the-box experience. Please see our Copilot Academy documentation page for additional information, including guidance on creating your own custom academy with Viva Learning.
Looking ahead
As we gather user feedback and new content becomes available, we will update Copilot Academy to ensure it stays up to date with the latest in generative AI skilling and Copilot readiness. Recently released features include:
- On May 15th: We introduced support for 7 additional languages beyond English – French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese.
- On May 15th: Copilot Academy now supports new hands-on prompt guidance from Copilot Lab. These exercises, combined with the guidance and documentation in Copilot Academy allow learners to uplevel their Copilot skills all in one place.
In our next development phase, targeted for 2024 Q3, we plan to deliver further customization and extensibility options.