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Lots! Learners with M365 Copilot (Basic) can take part meaningfully in both Avocado programmes.
They can complete around 85% of both the Copilot for Work team programme and the AI for Leaders workshops hands-on.
Where an activity needs the paid Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on, or your administrator has to switch it on, they can watch the demonstration and use it to judge whether that additional capability would help their work.
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| If your goal is… | Basic Copilot is… |
|---|---|
| Take part and learn the core skills | Enough |
| Decide whether the paid Copilot add-on is worth it | Enough |
| Have everyone reproduce every activity hands-on | Not enough |
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Sign in to Microsoft 365 with your work or school account, then scroll to the bottom of the home page and check the label beneath your name.
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Our estimates apply to learners whose Microsoft 365 account shows M365 Copilot (Basic). Learners with Copilot Chat (Basic) will be able to complete less of the course, and this affects larger organisations (~2000+ seats) in particular.
| Basic | Paid add-on / separately enabled |
|---|---|
| Most course activities | Full hands-on experience |
| Selected files, Outlook context and instruction-based agents | Automatic cross-app organisational grounding |
| Notebooks, plus building and editing files in Word, Excel and PowerPoint | Researcher, Analyst and scheduled prompts; Cowork where separately enabled |
Microsoft changes Copilot regularly. Last checked against official Microsoft guidance and tested on Basic accounts: 2 September 2026.
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The percentages below estimate how much of each lesson a learner can actively reproduce with M365 Copilot (Basic). They measure hands-on completion, not learning value.
Watching a paid-add-on or separately enabled feature can still help someone judge whether that capability would be worth adding.
| Lesson | Hands-on completion | Main limitations |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Basic prompting and AI risks, part 1 | 95% | No automatic cross-app search across organisational data. Outlook is the main exception: Basic can reason across the user's inbox, calendar and meetings. |
| 2. Basic prompting and AI risks, part 2 | 75% | Learners can reference selected files and use instruction- or public-web-grounded agents, but not Researcher, Analyst or automatic cross-app work-data grounding. |
| 3. Outlook and Word | 90% | Drafting and editing in both apps works, including from a file. In Outlook, Basic can reason across the inbox, calendar and meetings and take supported actions. Automatic cross-app grounding across files, chats and other work data still requires Premium. |
| 4. Advanced prompting, part 1 | 90% | Most prompting works. Some agent and organisational-data examples have limited access. |
| 5. Advanced prompting, part 2 | 75% | Chat, advanced prompting and file creation all work. Researcher and broad work-data grounding require the paid Copilot add-on. |
| 6. PowerPoint and Teams | 85% | Building and refining decks in PowerPoint works, including from an uploaded file. Some Teams meeting features require the paid add-on, while Facilitator can also depend on administrator settings. |
| 7. AI for your role and working with data | 85% | Building and editing spreadsheets in Excel works. Analyst and broad work-data analysis require the paid add-on. |
| 8. Agents and scheduled prompts | 60% | Learners can build instruction- or public-web-grounded agents. Scheduled prompts require the paid Copilot add-on, while agents using shared organisational data need administrator-enabled metered billing. |
| 9. Getting more from reusable tools | 90% | Notebooks and instruction- or public-web-grounded agents are available. Some sharing, grounding and advanced agent features vary. |
| 10. Everyday life and the AI landscape | 95% | Almost entirely achievable with Basic. |
| 11. Recap | 80% | Learners can revisit most concepts but cannot reproduce every paid-add-on or separately enabled activity. |
| 12. Using AI as a team | 75% | Agents and Notebooks remain useful. Scheduled prompts require the paid add-on, while Cowork and agents using shared organisational data require separate administrator-enabled access or billing. |
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These are rounded estimates rather than contractual limits. Microsoft changes Copilot regularly, and an organisation's administrator can also turn individual features on or off.
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Learners with M365 Copilot (Basic) can complete around 85% of the three-workshop programme hands-on. Workshops 1 and 3 work almost entirely as designed. Most of the limitation is concentrated in Workshop 2, where we demonstrate advanced agents, scheduled prompts and Cowork.
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The percentages below estimate how much of each workshop a learner can actively reproduce.
Seeing a paid-add-on or separately enabled workflow can still help a learner judge whether that capability would be useful enough to add.
| Workshop | Hands-on completion | Main limitations |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Effective prompting and AI risks | 95% | Core chat, prompting, policy and most Word and Outlook activities work. In Outlook, Basic can reason across the inbox, calendar and meetings. Automatic cross-app grounding and a few advanced in-app demonstrations still require Premium. |
| 2. From prompting to building | 65% | Standard chat, building and refining decks in PowerPoint, instruction-based agents and Notebooks all work. Researcher, scheduled prompts, broad work-data workflows and some Teams meeting features require the paid Copilot add-on. Cowork and Skills require separate administrator-enabled access and usage-based billing. |
| 3. Strategy, data and using AI as a team | 95% | Strategic prompting, file uploads, data analysis, presentations and the team-culture activities all work. Skills and Cowork suggestions are watch-only unless enabled. |