Microsoft says OpenAI's ChatGPT isn't "better" than Copilot; you just aren't using it right, but Copilot Academy is here to help
By Kevin Okemwa,
2024-09-18
What you need to know
Microsoft expands Copilot Academy beyond companies with a paid Viva Learning or Viva Suite license and will now be included in the Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
A separate report indicated that the top complaint at Microsoft about Copilot AI was that "it doesn't seem to work as well as ChatGPT."
Microsoft narrowed down the disparity to a lack of proper prompt engineering practices.
At some point, Microsoft even decided to pump the brakes on shipping new Copilot experiences to focus on improving and enhancing the existing ones. The company announced new Copilot experiences at its special event , including Copilot Pages and Copilot agents .
We aren't "using Copilot as intended," but Copilot Academy is here to help
The report further disclosed that a lack of proper prompt engineering practices prevents users from realizing Copilot's full potential. A Microsoft employee indicated that the quality of Copilot's response depends on how you present your prompt or query. At the time, the tech giant leveraged curated videos to help users improve their prompt engineering skills.
And now, Microsoft is scaling things a notch higher with Copilot Academy. As you might have guessed, Copilot Academy is a program designed to help businesses learn the best practices when interacting and leveraging the tool's capabilities.
Microsoft launched Copilot Academy in April but was limited to a paid license with Viva Learning or Viva Suite. However, the program is now available to a broader audience , including businesses with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
The Copilot Academy ships with a ton of features, including:
Academy content updates and refinement : We continually assess the value and impact of individual courses. We will periodically add new content as it becomes available, and are always working to ensure the materials provided are helpful and of the highest quality.
Copilot Academy nudges (2024 Q4) : these Teams notification nudges will encourage new users to try Copilot Academy and keep existing users in the loop for new Copilot Academy updates on a monthly basis.
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