Copilot Training NZ, home

13.6% of Otago employees work in professional services

Copilot skills for Otago professional offices

Your firm already has a review process for advice. Learn to fit Copilot into the preparation work, so drafts arrive with traceable references, visible assumptions and a person responsible for checking them.

EnquireWhere Copilot helps
Illustration generated with AI.
Employees in professional services
17,202Otago, February 2025
Share of Otago employees
13.6%8 of 16 regions
Share across New Zealand
18.4%all regions, February 2025
Location quotient
0.74×less concentrated than nationally

Professional services in Otago

Otago's professional sector includes the southern accounting and advisory work described by Polson Higgs and the Dunedin and Queenstown legal offices listed by Anderson Lloyd. Their presence helps ground the training in local work. We use fictional engagements rather than suggest that these firms are course customers.1,2

A generic Dunedin practice might start with an Outlook thread and an engagement letter in Word. Participants examine where the record is clear and where a partner needs to decide. Before training, the Microsoft administrator confirms the functions enabled for the attendees and the visibility of the reference folder.5

Paid employees in professional services went from 17,512 in February 2020 to 17,202 in February 2025 (−1.8%).

Share of paid employees in professional services, by region

Share of employees in professional services by region, Otago highlighted
RegionChartShareNZ×
Auckland 24.1% 18.4% 1.3×
Wellington 21.9% 18.4% 1.2×
Canterbury 17.4% 18.4% 0.9×
Nelson 15.5% 18.4% 0.8×
Bay of Plenty 14.9% 18.4% 0.8×
Hawke's Bay 14.0% 18.4% 0.8×
Waikato 13.9% 18.4% 0.8×
Otago (this page) 13.6% 18.4% 0.7×
Taranaki 12.5% 18.4% 0.7×
Tasman 11.3% 18.4% 0.6×
Gisborne 11.0% 18.4% 0.6×
Marlborough 10.6% 18.4% 0.6×
Manawatū-Whanganui 9.9% 18.4% 0.5×
Northland 9.8% 18.4% 0.5×
Southland 8.8% 18.4% 0.5×
West Coast 7.8% 18.4% 0.4×

Paid employees at business locations in the region, February 2025. The tick marks the national share. × is the regional share divided by the national share.

Source: Stats NZ, Business Demography Statistics, February 2020 and 2025.

What professional services covers in Otago

Divisions in professional services, Otago
DivisionChartEmployeesShareNZ×
Media and telecoms 1,102 0.9% 1.3% 0.7×
Finance and insurance 1,573 1.2% 2.8% 0.5×
Property and rental 2,169 1.7% 1.5% 1.1×
Professional services 6,750 5.3% 8.3% 0.7×
Admin and support services 5,608 4.4% 4.6% 1.0×

ANZSIC06 divisions in this industry group: share of the region's paid employees, against New Zealand.

Source: Stats NZ, Business Demography Statistics, February 2020 and 2025.

Local context

  • New Zealand Law Society guidance addresses generative AI risks in legal practice. It is a useful reference for local lawyers planning a pilot, while the wider professional group needs review rules appropriate to its own work.33

Organisations are named for local context only. No relationship with them is implied.

Towns in Otago

Each town page has its own figures and local brief.

Or see Microsoft Copilot training across Otago.

Where Copilot helps professional services teams

  • Read the history behind a client request

    Use Outlook's summary support on a staged conversation containing an original request and a later scope change. Ask Copilot to identify the change and the reply still required. The staff member checks the original messages before drafting a response. An unanswered proposal should remain open until the engagement owner confirms the firm's position.5

    • Practice administrator
    • Copilot in Outlook

  • Prepare a letter from approved wording

    Word drafting can support an engagement exercise built from a cleared reference letter. Give Copilot a precise section to revise and keep the supplied terms visible. Review exclusions, responsibilities and any new claim sentence by sentence. The aim is a document ready for professional review, with the underlying evidence easy for the reviewer to inspect.5

    • Adviser or legal executive
    • Copilot in Word

  • Check a practice reporting workbook

    Ask questions of a synthetic Excel table that records work categories and invoice status. Inspect how Copilot handles entries with missing periods or inconsistent labels. Compare the proposed formula with an independently checked calculation in the workbook. A useful discussion explains what the data cannot establish, such as the cause of a change in recorded work.5

    • Finance and operations manager
    • Copilot in Excel

  • Separate meeting actions from suggestions

    Teams can assist with meeting summaries when the relevant features are enabled. Stage an internal discussion about a fictional proposal, then compare the action draft with what participants agreed. Mark suggestions as suggestions and confirm the action owner. Do this first with an internal exercise whose content is approved, before considering any meeting involving client information.5

    • Engagement partner
    • Copilot in Teams

Review a change to an engagement letter

  1. Select cleared letter wording and fictional correspondence.
  2. Summarise the requested change from the email history.
  3. Draft the affected section in Word using the approved reference.
  4. Ask the responsible professional to check scope and obligations.
  5. Store the signed-off draft through the firm's established document process.

Courses

  1. 1Introductory

    Microsoft Copilot foundations

    A first hands-on session on Copilot Chat and Copilot in Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

  2. 2Organisation

    Copilot rollout and readiness

    Prepare the tenant, choose a pilot, and measure whether people use Copilot well.

Professional services in other regions

Other industries in Otago

See Microsoft Copilot for professional services, finance and property across New Zealand, or all training in Otago.

Professional services in Otago: questions

Which Microsoft access do participants need?

Access depends on the Copilot experience and apps enabled in your tenant. Microsoft's overview describes licence and configuration differences. Ask your administrator to confirm the planned Word, Outlook, Excel and Teams tasks using an ordinary participant account before the workshop.5

Can we use existing letter precedents?

Use a precedent only after its owner clears it for the training environment. Remove matter-specific content and identify the approved version. The exercise should test how participants preserve controlled wording while checking changes to a fictional engagement.

How do we include property and consulting staff?

Give those roles their own recurring document or reporting question. They can learn beside legal and accounting staff without sharing the same evidence pack. Agree who has the expertise to approve each output before the group starts drafting.

Can you deliver at more than one Otago office?

We can discuss on-site delivery across your Otago offices and remote sessions for dispersed staff. Public workshop days are another option. Bring the Microsoft administrator and a practice reviewer into the preparation so the training reflects the firm's working arrangements.

Train your professional services team in Otago

  1. ScopeHeadcount, sites, Microsoft 365 plan and licences, and the teams you want to start with.
  2. PlanWe propose a course, a pilot group and a format, and agree the files and meetings to use.
  3. TrainOn-site or over Teams, in Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams, with your own work.
  • In person
  • Remote
  • Half-day workshop
  • Full-day workshop
  • Team rollout

Independent training by TheColab. Not affiliated with Microsoft.

Enquire

Tell us about your team in Otago. We reply by email with a suggested course and format.

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Sources

Written 6 October 2026. Employment figures come from Stats NZ Business Demography Statistics.