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Copilot Cowork training

A Copilot Cowork rollout: set up properly, then your team trained on their own work.

A hands-on setup and skills workshop gets Cowork working properly in your firm, with access, spending limits and your first skills in place. Then hands-on team sessions, group by group, show everyone how to hand Cowork real jobs from their own week and keep the cost down.

Book a free 30-minute call How the rollout works

Last checked 4 October 2026. Cowork is generally available. Only its built-in App skill (/app) is still limited to Microsoft's Frontier programme.

The rollout

Step one
Setup and skills workshop. £1,150 first session, £850 repeat
Step two
Team sessions. £950 first session, £650 each further group
Length
Three hours, then two hours a group
Group
Up to 12 people a session

Book them together as a rollout, or either one on its own.

All prices exclude VAT.

What Cowork is

Cowork does the work. How it's set up decides who can use it and what it costs.

Copilot Chat answers a question. Cowork does a whole piece of work: you describe it, such as drafting an email, building a spreadsheet, scheduling a meeting or pulling a weekly report together, and Cowork plans it and does it. It runs in the browser, in Outlook and Teams, in the Microsoft Copilot desktop app and in the mobile app. How Cowork differs from Copilot Chat.

Cowork is billed by the task, in Copilot Credits. People get access to it through spending policies. So how it's set up decides who can use it and what it costs, and how well people brief it decides whether it saves time or wastes credits. That's why a Cowork rollout is setup first, then training.

How the rollout works

Two steps: set it up, then train the team.

Hands-on and follow-along. Each step is shown on screen and everyone does it as they go, on their own machine. Built around your firm's own processes. The exercises use your jobs, not demo material about a company that isn't yours.

  1. Copilot Cowork setup and skills workshop

    Set Cowork up properly

    The people who'll look after Cowork set it up in your firm: who has access, the spending limits, which models are on and your first skills.

    Only want it set up? Stop after this workshop.

    What it covers

  2. Copilot Cowork for your team

    Train your team, group by group

    Everyone who'll use Cowork hands it real jobs from their own week, using the skills your firm built in step one.

    Cowork already set up? Start here.

    What it covers

Step one: Copilot Cowork setup and skills workshop

Cowork setup, skills and automations, done properly.

For the people who'll set Cowork up and build with it: whoever looks after your firm's Microsoft 365 (in-house or your IT provider), your practice manager or operations lead and the people who'll write skills for their teams.

Three hours hands-on, as one half day or two 90-minute sessions, for up to 12 people. It runs in your own Microsoft 365, so the settings and the firm's first Cowork skills are in place when the workshop ends.

Setting it up properly

Spending policies decide who can use Cowork as well as what they spend. Anyone in a policy can use it, however low its limit, so the way to keep someone out is to leave them out of the policy. Limits can be set per person or per group, which is how you roll Cowork out team by team. It also covers which models are on and the effort setting your team should start from.

Skills for your own jobs

A skill is a name, a short description of when to use it and plain-language instructions, with templates or examples if they help. The group writes skills from your firm's real work, such as a weekly client-status summary, reads the quality report Cowork gives each one and reviews them before sharing them with the right people.

Automated tasks that ask first

Tasks that run on a schedule, such as a Monday briefing from the week's emails and calendar, or start when something happens, such as a certain email arriving. By default they draft and wait for approval before sending, posting or changing a shared system. Each runs with the permissions of whoever set it up, so it only sees what they can see.

Plugins and connectors

Plugins from the Microsoft 365 App Store add skills and connectors to Cowork. Your admins decide which are available and who can use them, and a plugin they deploy appears for those people automatically. The group chooses which your firm allows.

Apps with /app

The App skill is the only part of Cowork still limited to Microsoft's Frontier programme. If your firm is in it, the Copilot Studio apps workshop covers building apps from Cowork as well as Copilot Studio.

The Copilot Studio apps workshop

Step two: Copilot Cowork for your team

Cowork training for your team, on jobs from their own week.

For everyone who'll use Cowork day to day, from partners to the office team, run group by group. Each person brings a real job from their own week and hands it to Cowork during the session.

Two hours hands-on, for up to 12 people a group. No technical knowledge needed.

Chat or Cowork

Which jobs to hand to Cowork and which are quicker in Copilot Chat. A quick answer or a short draft belongs in Chat. A piece of work you'd hand to a colleague belongs in Cowork.

Briefing it well

What to tell Cowork so the first result is close: the files to use, the output you want and what good looks like. A clear brief is also the cheapest one, because a finished version of the wrong work costs as much as the right one.

Using your firm's skills

The skills built in step one, so routine jobs such as drafting replies to a common type of query in your firm's own template are done the firm's way every time.

Checking before you approve

Cowork asks before it sends an email, posts a message or schedules a meeting. What to check before saying yes, and what allowing it for the session means: similar actions go ahead without asking for the rest of that session only.

Why approval needs to mean something

Your own recurring jobs

Setting up a weekly report, or a task that starts when a certain email arrives, without scheduling it more often than you need. Every run uses credits like any other Cowork task.

Client files and safety

Cowork works on files in OneDrive and SharePoint, not files saved only on someone's computer. It runs with each person's own permissions, so it sees what they can already see, and the decision to send or post stays with them.

Cowork or a Copilot Studio agent?

Cowork is one person delegating. An agent works for the team.

Cowork is one person handing over their own work, running with their own permissions. A Copilot Studio agent is built for a team or a process, runs on its own and has an owner who looks after it.

They're closer than they look. Cowork runs on the same engine as the new Copilot Studio experience, the GitHub Copilot harness, and both draw Copilot Credits. What the GitHub Copilot harness changes and what it costs.

Copilot Cowork

  • One person delegating their own work
  • Runs with that person's own permissions
  • Draws Copilot Credits for each task

A Copilot Studio agent

  • Built for a team or a process
  • Runs on its own and has an owner
  • Draws Copilot Credits as it runs

A Monday briefing for one person suits Cowork. Replies to a common type of query that the whole team relies on suit an agent. If a job needs an agent that runs for the whole team, that's the Copilot Studio workshops.

Before the first session

Two hours to make sure the day works.

The first session of each includes a two-hour preparation session with James Wilkinson. We pick the jobs the skills and exercises will use and check everything Cowork needs. Then we agree a spending limit for the sessions with whoever looks after your Microsoft 365, so the sessions don't run up a bill nobody agreed to.

Every session runs in your firm's own Microsoft 365, not a demo account.

What we check

  • The jobs the skills and exercises will use, chosen from your own work
  • Microsoft 365 Copilot licences for the people taking part
  • Usage-based billing set up for your firm
  • Who is in the spending policy that selects Cowork
  • Which models are on

The sessions

Two sessions, fixed prices.

The first session of each includes the preparation session. A repeat for another group is the session price only.

Copilot Cowork setup and skills workshop

£1,150

First session per group (recommended up to 12 people), including the preparation session. Repeat for another group £850

Length
Three hours. One half day, or two 90-minute sessions
Group
Up to 12 people
Where
Online through Microsoft Teams or in your office

Leave with Cowork set up for your firm, with access and spending limits in place, skills for your own jobs and one automated task that asks before it acts.

All prices exclude VAT.

Book a free 30-minute call

Copilot Cowork for your team

£950

First session per group (recommended up to 12 people), including the preparation session. Each further group £650

Length
Two hours
Group
Up to 12 people
Where
Online through Microsoft Teams or in your office

Leave with every person having handed Cowork a real job from their own week and knowing how to brief it, check its work before approving and keep the cost down.

All prices exclude VAT.

Book a free 30-minute call

Rather we set it up?

We can set Cowork up for your firm instead, scoped on a free call, then train your team.

Compare them with the other sessions
What is Copilot Cowork?
Copilot Cowork is Microsoft's tool for handing over a whole piece of work. You describe a job, such as drafting an email, building a spreadsheet, scheduling a meeting or pulling a weekly report together, and Cowork plans it and does it, rather than answering a question the way Copilot Chat does. It's generally available and runs in the browser, in Outlook and Teams, in the Microsoft Copilot desktop app and in the mobile app. Copilot Chat vs Cowork: what's actually different?
Can you train all our staff on Cowork?
Yes. Once Cowork is set up, the team sessions run group by group, up to 12 people at a time, and each one is hands-on with jobs from people's own work. The first session is £950, including the preparation session, and each further group is £650.
Which session should we book first?
The setup and skills workshop, unless Cowork is already set up for your firm. It puts access, spending limits and your first skills in place, so the team sessions can use them. If Cowork is already set up, go straight to the team sessions. If you only want it set up, stop after the workshop.
Do we need Microsoft 365 Copilot licences?
Yes, for everyone who'll use Cowork. Each person needs a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, usage-based billing has to be set up for your firm and the person has to be in a spending policy that selects Cowork. We check all three in the preparation session.
Does Cowork use Copilot Credits?
Yes. Cowork is billed by usage, in Copilot Credits. Model responses, tool and skill calls, image generation and browser tasks all count, and automated tasks use credits each time they run. Microsoft's rates change, so the current figures are in our Copilot Credits rate card rather than on this page. Copilot Credits explained: what each Microsoft workload costs
How do we stop Cowork costs running away?
Two ways at once. Whoever looks after your Microsoft 365 sets spending policies with limits per person or per group, and watches the Cowork usage report and consumption dashboard in the Microsoft 365 admin centre. Your team learns the habits that keep each task cheap: a clear brief, the right effort level and no more automated runs than the job needs. The setup workshop puts the first in place and the team sessions teach the second. Copilot Cowork costs: ten habits that keep Copilot Credits under control
What is a skill in Cowork?
A saved set of instructions for one kind of job: a name, a short description of when to use it and the instructions in plain language, with templates or examples if they help. It's saved as a file in the person's OneDrive. Skills can be made on a guided page, by asking Cowork to write one or by hand, and Cowork gives each one a quality report. Custom skills don't work in the mobile app.
Can skills be shared across the firm?
Yes. A skill can be kept to yourself or shared with specific people in your firm. Microsoft doesn't check custom skills for you, so review each one like any other procedure before you share it. Plugins from the Microsoft 365 App Store can add skills too, and your admins decide who gets them.
Can Cowork send emails or post messages without asking?
Not unless someone has said it can. Before Cowork sends an email, posts a message or schedules a meeting, it asks for approval. People can approve one action, or allow similar actions for the rest of that session only. Automated tasks draft and wait for approval before sending, posting or changing a shared system by default, and the activity is recorded in the unified audit log.
Is it safe to use with client files?
Cowork works on files in OneDrive and SharePoint with the permissions of the person using it, so it only sees what they can already see. When it runs a task, it processes the files in a temporary, isolated environment inside the Microsoft 365 service boundary and removes it when the task finishes. It follows the same data residency model as Copilot and Microsoft Purview applies. Admins can turn the Anthropic models on or off, and they're off by default for UK tenants. Admins can also turn browser use on or off, and browser tasks are recorded in the audit log.
Should a job be done in Cowork or a Copilot Studio agent?
Cowork, if it's one person handing over their own work, such as their Monday briefing. A Copilot Studio agent, if the job is for a team or a process and needs to run on its own with an owner who looks after it. Cowork runs on the same engine as the new Copilot Studio experience and both draw Copilot Credits, so the choice comes down to who the work is for and who looks after it. Copilot Studio workshops for the people who'll build agents
Do we need to be in Microsoft's Frontier programme?
Not for Cowork, which is generally available. Only the built-in App skill (/app) is still limited to the Frontier programme, and the Copilot Studio apps workshop covers it for firms that are in. See the Copilot Studio apps workshop

Next step

Talk through a Cowork rollout for your firm.

A free 30-minute call with James. No pitch and no obligation, and no Discover needed first.

Book a free 30-minute call See all the training sessions