Many Massachusetts employers now pay for AI built into the tools workers already use every day, yet much of that capability sits unused. This instructor-led, hands-on course teaches trainees to use AI inside their own email, calendar, documents, spreadsheets, slides, and meetings. The course is delivered in the employer's suite: Microsoft 365 Copilot (Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Copilot Chat and agents) or Gemini for Google Workspace (Gmail, Meet, Docs, Sheets, Slides, NotebookLM). Each session follows a real workday: triaging an inbox and drafting replies, capturing meeting decisions and action items, turning a rough outline into a document and slide deck, and asking questions of a spreadsheet in plain language. Trainees practice on a fictional company's files, then apply the same steps to sanitized versions of their own recurring tasks. Every session covers what to check, how sharing permissions affect what the AI can see, and which data stays out. Trainees finish with a personal productivity playbook for five recurring tasks, each with steps, a prompt, a check, and a measured time saving. Ideal for office, administrative, sales, and supervisory staff whose employers have licensed Copilot or Gemini.
What you will be able to do
By the end of the course, trainees will be able to:
- Use AI in email to summarize long threads and draft replies, then edit for accuracy and tone.
- Generate meeting recaps with decisions and owners, and verify them against the meeting notes or transcript.
- Turn an outline and source files into a document and a slide deck, then correct structure and facts.
- Ask plain-language questions of a spreadsheet and confirm one answer with a manual formula.
- Explain how file sharing permissions determine what the assistant can see, and fix one over-shared file in the lab tenant.
- Document five recurring tasks in a productivity playbook with measured time saved.
Who this course is for
Administrative and executive assistants; Office managers; Sales and account managers; Project coordinators; HR generalists; Operations supervisors
Before you start
Daily use of Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. Employer must hold Copilot or Gemini licenses for trainees, or accept sandbox delivery. FAST-01 or FAST-02 recommended.
Hands-on activities
- Inbox triage lab in a fictional Merrimack Freight & Logistics mailbox (sandbox tenant).
- Meeting recap lab using a recorded fictional staff meeting; trainees mark errors in the AI recap.
- Document-to-deck lab: outline plus two source files into a 6-slide briefing.
- Spreadsheet Q&A lab with a fictional sales log; manual verification of one AI answer.
- Permissions check: find a file shared too widely and correct it.
- Playbook build and cohort share-out.
How your learning is measured
- Attendance at all four sessions.
- Five lab outputs scored Meets / Not yet (e.g., meeting recap with every AI error marked).
- Final: productivity playbook with five tasks, each demonstrated live to the instructor in session 4.
- Time-saved log reviewed by instructor; optional 30-day follow-up survey to employer.
