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https://directorcia.gumroad.com/l/copilotequiv

Mapping “ChatGPT Capabilities” to Microsoft 365 Copilot  Equivalents

Unlock the Power of AI Productivity: Mapping ChatGPT Capabilities to Microsoft 365 Copilot

Are you a small business owner or professional eager to harness the full potential of AI in your daily workflow? This essential guide demystifies the differences and synergies between ChatGPT and Microsoft 365 Copilot, showing you how to achieve every productivity hack with enterprise-ready tools you already own.

What’s Inside:

  • Feature-by-Feature Comparisons: Discover how ChatGPT’s most popular features—custom instructions, persistent memory, voice and vision modes, data analysis, and more—map directly to Microsoft 365 Copilot’s built-in capabilities across Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, and PowerPoint.

  • Practical Guidance: Step-by-step instructions make it easy for non-technical users to enable and master Copilot, with troubleshooting tips and real-world examples.

  • Security & Privacy Insights: Learn why Copilot’s integration with your Microsoft 365 environment offers superior data protection and compliance for business users.

  • Comprehensive Tables & Visuals: Instantly see which Copilot features match your favorite ChatGPT tricks, with clear notes on licensing, differences, and best practices.

  • Extend & Automate: Explore how plugins, connectors, and Power Platform automations let you customize Copilot for your unique business needs—no coding required.

Why Buy This Guide?

  • Save Time: Stop searching for answers—find out exactly how to use Copilot to draft documents, analyze data, manage emails, schedule meetings, and more.

  • Boost Productivity: Leverage AI to automate routine tasks, generate insights, and collaborate smarter—directly within the Microsoft 365 apps you use every day.

  • Stay Secure: Make informed decisions about AI adoption with clear explanations of privacy, licensing, and compliance.

  • Future-Proof Your Workflow: Get ahead of the curve with up-to-date information on Copilot’s evolving features, plugin ecosystem, and integration roadmap.

Whether you’re new to AI or a seasoned tech enthusiast, this publication is your roadmap to mastering Microsoft 365 Copilot and transforming the way you work.

See all the titles available at – https://directorcia.gumroad.com/

CIAOPS Need to Know Microsoft 365 Webinar – January

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Now in our tenth year!

Join me for the free monthly CIAOPS Need to Know webinar. Along with all the Microsoft Cloud news we’ll be taking a look at Vibe coding.

Shortly after registering you should receive an automated email from Microsoft Teams confirming your registration, including all the event details as well as a calendar invite.

You can register for the regular monthly webinar here:

January Registrations

(If you are having issues with the above link copy and paste – https://bit.ly/n2k2601 )

The details are:

CIAOPS Need to Know Webinar – January 2026
Friday 30th of January 2026
11.00am – 12.00am Sydney Time

All sessions are recorded and posted to the CIAOPS Youtube channel.

Also feel free at any stage to email me directly via director@ciaops.com with your webinar topic suggestions.

I’d also appreciate you sharing information about this webinar with anyone you feel may benefit from the session and I look forward to seeing you there.

CIAOPS AI Dojo 008

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What’s the session about?

This month we will be focusing on new Copilot features and updates as well as optimising AI for Small Business.

Who should attend?

This session is perfect for:

  • IT administrators and support staff
  • Business owners
  • People looking to get more done with Microsoft 365
  • Anyone looking to automate their daily grind

Save the Date

Date: Friday the 30th of January 2026

Time: 9:30 AM Sydney AU time

Location: Online (link will be provided upon registration)

Cost: $80 per attendee (free for Dojo subscribers)

Register Now

CIA Brief 20260103

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Managing Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender XDR permissions in Microsoft Defender portal –

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/MicrosoftSentinelBlog/managing-microsoft-sentinel-and-micr…

Microsoft Sentinel Platform: Audit Logs and Where to Find Them –

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/MicrosoftSentinelBlog/microsoft-sentinel-platform-audit-lo…

Get ready for the new year with Microsoft 365 –

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft365insiderblog/get-ready-for-the-new-year-with-mi…

After hours

The Truth About the Moon Landings– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMHLvoWZfqQ

Editorial

If you found this valuable, the I’d appreciate a ‘like’ or perhaps a donation at https://ko-fi.com/ciaops. This helps me know that people enjoy what I have created and provides resources to allow me to create more content. If you have any feedback or suggestions around this, I’m all ears. You can also find me via email director@ciaops.com and on X (Twitter) at https://www.twitter.com/directorcia.

If you want to be part of a dedicated Microsoft Cloud community with information and interactions daily, then consider becoming a CIAOPS Patron – www.ciaopspatron.com.

Watch out for the next CIA Brief next week

My Stuff 2026

This post is my annual post aimed at bringing the links to everything I have out there on the Internet together into a single place. Here we go.

About me

Social Media

Free Stuff

Regular technical and business information, tutorials, walk throughs, learnings, upcoming courses and more.

Here you’ll find currently almost 200 videos full of tutorials on SharePoint, Office 365, Azure and technology.

Presentations and whitepapers for free download.

Documentation for older versions of SharePoint on premises, especially the free versions and those that came with SBS.

I have number of free GitHub repositories that include things like PowerShell scripts, pricing calculators, reference documents, helpful links and more. You will find all these at:

I maintain a GitHub repository that contains not only links to articles on best practices for services like Exchange Online but also contains configuration files and settings typically in JSON format that can be imported and used to configure your Microsoft 365 environment. You will find all that here:

https://github.com/directorcia/bp

With over 350 episodes and now in it’s 16th year, my podcast focuses on providing you news and updates from the Microsoft Cloud around Microsoft 365 and Azure.

You can subscribe using iTunes or Spotify. If you’d like to be a guest or know someone who would, please let me know.

Need to Know webinars are held monthly and announced on my blog. These are conducted using Microsoft Teams on a topic around the Microsoft Cloud.

You can join my free Teams shared channel. To do so follow the instruction here:

here you’ll find a forum on the Microsoft Cloud along with up to date news and information.

I publish a weekly round up of Microsoft Cloud news in my CIA Brief here on my blog:

I also have an email list you can join here:

You can get answers to Microsoft 365 questions via AI grounded on my knowledge by sending your question in the BODY of an email to:

Be patient, a response by return email will take a couple for minutes.

Commercial stuff

This stuff helps pay for free stuff above, so I appreciate your support for my paid work.

Access to the CIAOPS community for technical support, product discounts and access to the best Office 365 and Azure information

You can also just buy me a coffee and support what I do – https://ko-fi.com/ciaops, which I would very much appreciate.

General Interest

I’m a big believer in supporting those who want to build their own business but just need a leg up to get started. Kiva is simply and easy way to provide this and I recommend this to everyone.

Being an Electrical Engineer by trade I enjoy building and solving problems with a variety of projects. This involves digging to electronics, IoT and 3D Printing amongst other things. I try and document all of those learnings over at CIAOPS Labs when I can.

In 2025 I read over 30 books. That means I do a lot of reading on a variety of topics and with Goodreads you can follow along with the books I’m reading as well as those that I add to my bookshelf. I’ll have an upcoming post on my recommended reads, so watch out for that post coming soon.

If you ever need to send me stuff you can do so via the following address:

PO Box 5
Beecroft NSW 2119
Australia

My Bitcoin address is – bitcoin:bc1qwgcr296c7rtjvlpkv9yy5033qjgwwrvttxhtm7

My Ethereum address is – ethereum:0xD7cc991E1f84B625C3723D2965C9948238F5DFe8

Introduction to Copilot Notebooks

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Unlock the power of AI-driven productivity with Microsoft 365 Copilot Notebooks!
Are you ready to transform the way you organize, analyze, and create? This comprehensive beginner’s guide reveals how Copilot Notebooks—Microsoft’s revolutionary AI-enhanced workspace—can become your personal project brain, helping you work smarter, not harder.

Why This Guide Is a Must-Have for Every Microsoft 365 User
  • Supercharge Your Workflow:
    Learn how to gather content from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDFs, emails, and more into a single, organized notebook. No more hunting for scattered files—Copilot Notebooks centralize everything you need for any project.

  • AI-Powered Insights at Your Fingertips:
    Discover how to ask Copilot questions about your collected materials and receive instant, context-aware answers. Whether you need a summary, trend analysis, or a draft report, Copilot delivers tailored results based on your actual content—not generic web searches.

  • Automate Tedious Tasks:
    Say goodbye to manual note-taking and repetitive documentation. Let Copilot turn meeting notes into action lists, summarize long email threads, or draft proposals in seconds, freeing you to focus on what matters most.

  • Boost Collaboration and Creativity:
    Share notebooks with colleagues, co-author in real time, and leverage AI to keep everyone aligned. Copilot Notebooks are designed for seamless teamwork and creative brainstorming.

  • Stay Ahead with Audio Overviews:
    Unique to Copilot Notebooks, generate AI-narrated audio summaries of your projects—perfect for reviewing information on the go or multitasking.

  • Step-by-Step, Beginner-Friendly:
    This guide walks you through setup, best practices, and real-world use cases (data analysis, task automation, documentation), making it easy for anyone to get started—no technical expertise required.

Empower yourself to work faster, smarter, and more creatively.

Get your copy of the “Microsoft 365 Copilot Notebooks: Beginner’s Guide” today and unlock a new era of productivity!

I would always appreciate you supporting my work by purchasing a copy (nominate your own price) here:

https://directorcia.gumroad.com/l/bgcn 

and don’t forget all my other publications can be found here:

https://directorcia.gumroad.com/

November Microsoft 365 Webinar resources

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The slides from this month’s webinar are available at:

https://github.com/directorcia/general/blob/master/Presentations/Need%20to%20Know%20Webinars/202512.pdf

If you are not a CIAOPS patron you want to view or download a full copy of the video from the session you can do so here:

http://www.ciaopsacademy.com.au/p/need-to-know-webinars

Watch out for next month’s webinar.

Unlock New Revenue with AI: The Ultimate Playbook for MSPs Serving SMBs

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Transform your MSP business and your clients’ success with “AI as a Revenue Stream for SMB-Focused MSPs: A Step-by-Step Playbook.”
My comprehensive guide reveals how Managed Service Providers (MSPs) can harness the power of AI—especially Microsoft 365 Copilot—to create profitable, recurring revenue streams while delivering real, measurable value to small and mid-sized business clients.

What’s Inside:

  • Proven Strategies: Learn how to build in-house AI expertise, develop marketable service offerings, and position your MSP as the go-to AI advisor for SMBs.
  • Actionable Playbooks: Step-by-step instructions for AI readiness assessments, Copilot pilot deployments, custom AI solution development, and ongoing managed AI services.
  • Real-World Examples: Discover practical use cases, pricing models, and packaging ideas that have driven success for forward-thinking MSPs.
  • Marketing & Sales Tactics: Get tips on educating your market, overcoming AI skepticism, and using demos and case studies to close deals.
  • ROI-Focused Guidance: Master value-based pricing, SaaS-style subscriptions, and how to clearly demonstrate the business impact of AI for your clients.

Why This Guide?

  • Written by industry experts with deep Microsoft 365 and AI experience.
  • Packed with checklists, templates, and ready-to-use service packages.
  • Designed for immediate action—whether you’re just starting with AI or looking to scale your offerings.

Perfect for:

  • MSPs and IT consultants serving small and mid-sized businesses.
  • Business owners seeking to future-proof their services and boost client retention.
  • Anyone looking to monetize AI and Microsoft Copilot in the real world.

Don’t let your MSP get left behind.
Download “AI as a Revenue Stream for SMB-Focused MSPs” and start building your next growth engine today!

As a Boxing Day sale, I’m offering this publication for free in exchange for your joining my email list. To get your copy just provide your details here:

https://forms.office.com/r/T4ZSWhquJ8

and will be emailed out to you. This offer is valid until 1/1/2026.

I would always appreciate you supporting my work by purchasing a copy (nominate your own price) here:

https://directorcia.gumroad.com/l/airevenue

and don’t forget all my other publications can be found here:

https://directorcia.gumroad.com/

All the best for the holidays.