Why does the choice of tool matter for training?
The habits a workshop teaches are practised inside a specific product: where to paste text, how to attach a file, where the conversation history is kept and what the tool can see without being told. Teaching AI in general leaves each person to translate the lesson into their own tool, and most will not. Three things differ between products and change the exercises: which business data the tool can reach, how the vendor treats prompts and responses, and where the tool sits in the working day. The core skills of giving context, checking output and keeping restricted information out carry across tools. The practice itself does not.
We have Microsoft 365. Is Copilot Chat enough to train on?
Often, yes. Microsoft's documentation describes Copilot Chat as the baseline experience included with eligible Microsoft 365 licences, and says using it does not require a Microsoft Copilot licence. It is mainly grounded in web content plus whatever the user pastes, uploads or references, with extra grounding in Outlook for eligible users. The paid Microsoft Copilot licence adds reasoning across emails, meetings, chats, documents and sites the user already has permission to open. Microsoft has renamed Microsoft 365 Copilot to Microsoft Copilot, and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat to Microsoft Copilot Chat, so staff may see both names during the transition.
- In-product labels such as Copilot Chat (Basic) or Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) tell each person which experience they have.
- If only some attendees hold licences, plan a separate exercise for them that uses their own mailbox and files.
- Eligible work and school accounts get Microsoft's enterprise data protection, and Microsoft states that prompts and responses are not used to train foundation models.
We use Google Workspace. What changes with Gemini?
Google's Generative AI in Google Workspace Privacy Hub states that, on a qualifying edition, your content is not human reviewed or used for generative AI model training outside your domain without permission, and that Gemini follows your organisation's existing controls and data handling practices. If a user cannot open a document, Gemini does not retrieve it. For training, that means exercises can sit inside the documents and mail your team already uses, within the same sharing boundaries. Before the session, ask your Workspace administrator to confirm which edition each attendee is on and that Gemini is available to them, since the protections Google describes apply to qualifying editions.
When does ChatGPT make sense for a team?
ChatGPT fits organisations that do not run Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, or that have chosen it as their approved tool. The account type decides the data terms. OpenAI's help centre says that by default it does not use inputs or outputs from ChatGPT Business, ChatGPT Enterprise or ChatGPT Edu to improve its models. For the individual Free, Plus and Pro plans, OpenAI may use content to train its models unless the person turns off Improve the model for everyone under Settings, Data controls. Even after that opt-out, giving thumbs up or down feedback on a response can allow the whole conversation to be used.
That difference is why a workshop built on staff members' personal ChatGPT accounts teaches the wrong habit. A business workspace gives the organisation administrator controls and one set of terms, and it lets the session show staff exactly which account to use for work.
Can a workshop cover more than one tool?
It can, but one tool should carry the hands-on work. A room switching between three products spends its practice time on sign-ins and menus. A common pattern is a Microsoft 365 organisation that uses Copilot for documents and email while a marketing team also holds approved ChatGPT seats. In that case the core exercises run in Copilot, and the marketing group gets a short segment on the differences that matter to them: which account to use, what each tool can see and where its history lives. Tools nobody is approved to use stay out of the session, even if a few people already use them privately.
What should be settled before the workshop is designed?
The facilitator needs answers to a short list of questions, and most of them sit with IT or whoever administers the tool. Without them, exercises get written for features that turn out to be switched off on the day. Microsoft notes, for example, that turning off optional connected experiences can affect the availability of web search in Copilot, and that administrators choose which agents users can access. Collect the answers in one short document that the facilitator and IT both sign off.
- Which tool and account type each attendee will use, and whether anyone is still on a personal account.
- Whether file upload and web search are turned on for the attendee group.
- Which paid licences exist and who holds them.
- The written rule on what information may go into the tool.
- Who fixes access problems on the day.