AI in Microsoft 365

Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered tool which integrates and cross-communicates with our Microsoft 365 services to boost productivity and mitigate mundane tasks. Below are the different kinds of Copilot tailored to each of our services:

• Microsoft 365 Copilot - 'Copilot for MS365' is a product that integrates with your Office applications, such as: Teams, Word, PowerPoint etc. where you can use prompts to help with: transcribing and summarising meetings, generating text onto documents, and creating presentations with design suggestions respectively.
• Copilot in Power Platform - is used in conjunction with Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI to help with: creating custom applications without the need for coding knowledge, finding solutions to streamline workflows, and automatically generating reports and visualisations respectively.
• Copilot within Edge - a "Copilot" chat service that is free for all Edu customers, formerly known as Bing Chat Enterprise, and is built into Microsoft Edge Browser: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/chat/enterprise 

Copilot integration with our MS365 services is part of a larger Microsoft 'Copilot for MS365' product that we do not currently have available in our service provision and our licence agreement with Microsoft.

ISG currently do not have any plans to make Copilot for MS365 available in the near future. However, we are aware of it and are looking at individual elements that will be beneficial to the way our services are used. Please let us know your ideas by filling in our Ideas Tracker form: https://forms.office.com/e/mLt2qWur7h

Currently, you can access the CoPilot chat service within Edge by signing in with your University credentials. A green shield will appear, giving you additional protections: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/microsoft-365/enterprise-data-protection

Your school or support group will need to carry out an AI Impact Assessment along with the Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) and Equalities Impact Assessment (EqIA). The full assessment is then presented to the university's AI Ethics Committee for review. Information on the AI Adoption Task Force can be found here: https://uoe.sharepoint.com/sites/AIAdoptionHub

Information Services Group (ISG) are not authorised to switch on AI Tools on demand. If use of the tool is to proceed following conclusion of the necessary risk and impact assessments, ISG can then review the necessary requirements in order to support the use of the tool. Depending on the scale of its use, this may require you to submit a project proposal to annual planning. Please submit your request for third-party AI software here: https://edin.ac/4kEDqct

ELM - (Edinburgh (access to) Language Models) is currently approved and compliant for use with University data. This platform can be used to carry out most AI-related tasks: https://information-services.ed.ac.uk/computing/comms-and-collab/elm

Generative AI Guidance for Staff: https://information-services.ed.ac.uk/computing/comms-and-collab/elm/generative-ai-guidance-for-staff

Using generative AI in your studies: guidelines for students: https://information-services.ed.ac.uk/computing/comms-and-collab/elm/guidance-for-working-with-generative-ai