AI & Society | Practice Lab | Microsoft CoPilot

📍 New Venue: Chermside Library | Sunday 9am–11am
AI & Society | Practice Lab | Microsoft CoPilot
If you've attended an AI & Society workshop before, you know we move fast. We've demoed high-level concepts like RAG, agents, and vibe coding. Now, it's time to bring those concepts down to earth — and into the tools already sitting in your Microsoft 365 account.
The Practice Lab is your dedicated space to stop watching and start building. This session focuses on contextual AI inside your existing workflow — not new apps to learn, but superpowers layered into what you already use every day.
What We'll Unpack
We are moving beyond simple chatbots. This session focuses on AI that works inside your existing tools — so you can get more done without switching context.
🔵 CoPilot in Word & Outlook
Draft, rewrite, and summarise documents in your own voice. Tame your inbox with intelligent email replies and thread summaries — in seconds.
🟣 CoPilot in Teams & Meetings
Live meeting notes, action items, and catch-up summaries — so you can stop taking notes and start being present in the room.
🩵 CoPilot in Excel & PowerPoint
Generate slides from a prompt. Analyse and visualise data with plain-English instructions — no formulas required.
🟢 CoPilot Pages & Custom Agents
Build a collaborative AI workspace. Create your own CoPilot agent tailored to your team's tone, data, and brand.
Beyond the Tech: The AI & Society Approach
We believe AI literacy is built by doing, and our space is designed to be accessible, inclusive, and focused on knowledge sharing.
What To Bring
💻 Your Laptop — Recommended for the full hands-on experience.
🔑 A Microsoft CoPilot Account — Good news: CoPilot is free! You can create an account at copilot.microsoft.com using any email address (Gmail, Outlook, work — anything works). Please set this up before you arrive so we can dive straight in.
➡️ To set up before the event:
1. Go to copilot.microsoft.com
2. Click "Sign in" and create a free Microsoft account, or log in with an existing email like Google
3. You're in — no subscription needed for the free tier
📵 No Laptop? No Problem — You can follow along on your phone, pair up with a neighbour for some collaborative vibe-checking, or simply take notes. The goal is knowledge sharing, not just technical setup.
📄 Your Raw Material — Bring a messy doc, a dense report, or a deck you want to transform. The more real, the better.
We've demoed the future. Now, let's practise it.