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Overview
The University of Richmond’s Microsoft Office license provides access to Microsoft Copilot AI-powered search functionality, accessible at https://m365.cloud.microsoft/chat.
University faculty, staff, and students can use Copilot for secure, enterprise‑protected searches, prompts, and outputs within the Microsoft 365 compliance boundary.
Note: the University does not have access to the full Copilot integration inside Microsoft 365 core apps (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.).
When accessing Copilot with your University of Richmond account, all activity runs inside the Microsoft 365 enterprise compliance boundary. Enterprise data protection policies—including encryption, data loss prevention, and information governance—apply to searches, prompts, and outputs. Importantly, University of Richmond organizational data accessed through Copilot is not used to train Microsoft’s foundation models. This ensures that sensitive institutional information remains secure, compliant with regulatory requirements and fully under the control of University of Richmond.
It is important to remember that you must sign into Copilot using your University of Richmond account to use university Administrative Data or Education Records with the service. For more information regarding these data types, please refer to the university’s Data Security Policy.
Details / Instructions
How to Access Copilot Chat & Enable Enterprise Protection
1) Visit https://m365.cloud.microsoft/ (link opens in new window) and click "Sign In" at the top right corner if you are not already signed in. 
2) Login with your University email address and click "Next".
Note: if your UR account appears under the "Pick an account" option, you may click it to proceed with authentication. If not, choose "Use another account". 
3) Continue the authentication process by entering your UR password, you may be prompted for Duo Mobile MFA.
4) Use CoPilot search as desired.
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All searches, prompts, and outputs are protected by enterprise data protection policies, and your organizational data is not used to train Microsoft’s foundation models.
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Once signed in, you’ll be inside the University of Richmond’s Microsoft 365 compliance boundary.
Critical: When using Copilot Chat, always confirm that you are signed in with your @richmond.edu account. You can verify this by checking for the green check mark in the top-right corner of the Copilot interface. This indicator confirms that enterprise data protections are active. If this is missing, sign out and log back in with your University credentials to restore enterprise protection by following Steps 1-3 above.
Support
For information on how to use Copilot Chat, see Microsoft’s official guide on Getting Started with CoPilot Chat (Opens in new window).
For questions or assistance with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat please email cast@richmond.edu
See Also