Copilot Chat

Overview

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is an AI chat service designed to support teaching, learning and school operations. To comply with data protection and compliance policies, Microsoft Copilot Chat is only available to practitioners through their Hwb account.

How to access Copilot Chat in Hwb

To access Copilot Chat from the Hwb website, log in and click the Microsoft 365 app on the Hwb dashboard. 

To access Copilot Chat outside of the Hwb website, open copilot.microsoft.com and sign in using a Hwb account by clicking the sign in icon found at the bottom left of the screen. Use this icon to ensure that Copilot Chat is signed into a Hwb account and not a personal Microsoft account.

How Copilot Chat can support schools

Reduce workload and personalise learning

• Draft differentiated classroom activity plans, quizzes and rubrics.
• Adapt resources for learners with additional needs.
• Support translation of materials into Welsh or other languages.
• Provide differentiated questions and (or) explanations based on learner ability.
• Suggest topic ideas, assemblies or themed weeks.
• Create AI-generated images.

Support professional learning

• Suggest strategies for classroom management and pedagogy.
• Summarise long articles and research papers.
• Assist with learning how to use new digital tools for learning and teaching. 

Enhance school operations

• Draft emails, newsletters and announcements.
• Generate action plans and summaries from school data such as attendance and behaviour to inform interventions.
• Generate policy documents, handbooks and meeting minutes with consistent formatting.
• Translate parental communications into multiple languages.

Copilot Chat agents 

Agents are purpose-built assistants designed to handle specific tasks or areas of expertise, like curriculum planning or school admin support. They give quicker and more accurate answers than regular Copilot chat which is more general and open-ended. Agents can be found in the left-hand menu.

Teach in Copilot Chat is a feature which uses education-focused agents to help with teaching tasks. These agents are built to understand educational needs and respond with tailored support. Please be aware that the tools within Teach not yet aligned to the Curriculum for Wales.

Find out more about Microsoft agents.

Copilot Chat in Microsoft Teams

Copilot Chat features are integrated into Microsoft Teams. To access Copilot Chat within Teams, open the Teams app and select Copilot from the left-hand menu. If it's not visible, you may need to click the ellipsis (...) to find it.

How Copilot Chat in Teams can support schools

• Draft messages, meeting notes and collaborative documents.
• Create shared resources for staff departments.
• Support writing feedback for learner assignments and creating rubrics.
• Generate ideas for school clubs, fundraising or learner-led initiatives. 

Key considerations

• For enhanced data protection, always ensure a Hwb account is used, not a personal Microsoft account, check the account manager icon in the bottom left corner. 
• Copilot Chat should be used in accordance with wider school policies such as digital literacy, online safety, acceptable use, safeguarding and data protection. Its use should also reflect local authority AI strategies.
• All information shared with Copilot Chat should be carefully considered to maintain privacy and safeguarding. See data assurances section for further information.
• Copilot Chat is designed to support not replace professional judgement. It may produce inaccurate or biased responses and is susceptible to copyright infringement. It can appear to express personal opinions or emotions, which are not genuine. Additionally, it may misjudge prompts, failing to respond appropriately or offer unsuitable replies. If content generated by Copilot Chat is considered inappropriate, it must be reported to the school IT team, education technology support partner or local authority.
• To uphold ethical standards and safeguard privacy, ensure that deepfakes or AI-generated representations of individuals generated with Copilot Chat are not created or shared without clear, informed consent.
• Copilot Chat can translate materials into other languages, but this should be considered a simplified or approximate translation. It is not an approved translation tool and may not be accurate.
• Access more Copilot Chat resources and watch the Copilot Chat Hwb DigiFest recording.

Usage limits

One file, up to 512 MB in size can be uploaded per prompt from One Drive or a device. 

Image generation is currently limited and depends on system capacity. Generally, 1 image per day is allowed.

Data retention

Copilot chat history remains accessible to an individual practitioner for 18 months. This allows a practitioner to revisit prompts easily. After 18 months the chat history is automatically deleted.

Practitioners can delete their chats from their history to keep the conversation history manageable.

Data assurances

• Schools should consider if a new Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is needed, or if their current DPIA should be updated. For further information, refer to Microsoft’s Data Protection Addendum.
• Practitioners using Copilot Chat in Hwb benefit from enhanced protections and controls called enterprise data protection. Other Microsoft 365 applications through Hwb, such as Outlook and OneDrive also have the same protection. In Copilot Chat check there is a green shield in the top right of the screen, this means that enterprise data protection is applied. 
• Prompts and responses will not be reviewed by humans and are not used to train the underlying large language models (LLMs). However, schools remain the data controller for any information entered and are responsible for how the data output is used.
• Where a school is considering using AI tools in a way that may involve personal or special category data, it should:

• • carry out a local Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA)
  • seek advice from the school’s data protection officer

This helps to make sure any risks are properly understood and managed in the local context. Examples of personal and sensitive category data include:

• • personal data, such as names, email addresses, learner identifiers, dates of birth or any information that could identify an individual
  • special category data such as health information, safeguarding details, additional learning needs or equality and diversity data

• Copilot Chat only uses information shared in prompts, uploaded files or information which is publicly available. Copilot Chat does not have access to organisational data such as emails, documents stored in Hwb or Microsoft 365, Teams messages and internal databases or records.
• Copilot Chat in your Hwb Microsoft Teams can access the content shared in that specific Team, along with publicly available information. If learner data is contained within a file in the Microsoft Team (which is viewable to all), then Copilot Chat in Microsoft Teams can access it. It does not have access to learner account information, for example usernames, passwords or personal profile data.
• Copilot Chat through Hwb respects the permissions and access controls set within Hwb Microsoft 365.
• Copilot Chat through Hwb adheres to privacy and security commitments, including UK GDPR. 

Data processing

Nature of processing 

Copilot Chat collects data directly from users through:

• prompts
• queries
• content they upload or paste into the chat

The service uses this data to:

• authenticate users
• maintain secure access
• generate AI assisted responses to support professional tasks such as drafting, summarising, planning and information retrieval 

Data is processed within the Microsoft 365 service boundary and protected by enterprise data protection controls. Microsoft acts as a data processor under the Microsoft Products and Services Data Protection Addendum. The school remains the data controller.

Data is stored in Microsoft Azure data centres in the UK and EU. Chat history is retained for up to 18 months and can be deleted by the practitioner. Data may also be retained in line with organisational retention policies for compliance and security purposes.

Data is shared only with Microsoft as the contracted data processor. It is not shared with advertisers or commercial partners. Prompts and responses are not used to train AI foundation models. The processing does not involve automated decision-making or profiling.

Scope of processing 

The data processed may include:

• text entered by users
• files uploaded by users
• account information needed to authenticate users and control access
• technical information, including diagnostic and telemetry data, used to maintain service performance, fix faults and keep the system secure

In a school, special category or criminal offence data may include information about:

• health or wellbeing
• additional learning needs
• ethnicity or religious beliefs
• safeguarding concerns
• criminal allegations or offences

Schools, as the data controller, decide whether to process special category or criminal offence data when using Copilot Chat. Where a school chooses to do so, this must be reflected in their local Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA). Schools should identify appropriate safeguards, including:

• data minimisation
• purpose limitation
• staff guidance on appropriate use

The volume and frequency of data processing depend on staff usage and local implementation. Chat history is available for users for up to 18 months, subject to deletion by the user and organisational retention policies. 

The number of individuals affected is limited to authorised staff using Copilot Chat within the school. 

Processing takes place within the UK and EU, using Microsoft Azure data centres supporting the Hwb tenancy. 

Differences between authenticated and unauthenticated users

For additional resources on generative AI, including guidance, training and learning activities visit the Keeping Safe Online area on Hwb.