Copilot Dashboard: What Admins Can See

Overview

You’ve deployed Copilot. Users have licenses. Now the question every stakeholder asks: “Is it working? Is anyone using it? Is it worth the investment?”

The Copilot dashboard gives you the data to answer those questions. This video covers the two primary monitoring tools available to government admins, what metrics they provide, and how to use that data operationally.

What You’ll Learn

• Two Dashboard Options: Admin Center reports vs. Viva Insights Copilot Dashboard
• Admin Center Walkthrough: Usage metrics, readiness reports, and adoption trends
• Viva Insights: Deeper productivity and ROI metrics where available
• Operational Practices: Establishing baselines, tracking adoption, and reporting to leadership

Script

Hook: monitoring is not optional

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. That’s true for every IT deployment, but it’s especially true in government where you’re justifying budget, demonstrating ROI, and meeting governance reporting requirements.

Copilot costs real money—per user, per month. Leadership is going to ask whether it’s delivering value. Your authorizing official is going to want evidence that it’s operating within your security boundaries. And your adoption team needs to know who’s using it and who isn’t.

The Copilot dashboard gives you all of this. Let’s walk through what’s available.

Two dashboard options explained

There are two primary tools for monitoring Copilot in your organization.

The first is the Microsoft 365 Admin Center usage reports. This is your go-to for operational metrics. You access it through the admin center under Reports, then Usage, then Microsoft 365 Copilot. It’s available in GCC, GCC High, and DoD environments. It shows you how many users are active, how many prompts they’re submitting, and adoption trends over time.

The second is the Viva Insights Copilot Dashboard. This provides deeper organizational insights—productivity metrics, satisfaction data, and ROI indicators. It goes beyond “who’s using it” to “what impact is it having.” However, availability varies by government cloud. Viva Insights is generally available in GCC, with limited availability in GCC High and DoD. Verify what’s accessible in your specific environment before planning around it.

A governance note: different environments have different dashboard feature availability. Don’t assume that because a metric is available in GCC, it’s available in GCC High. Check your specific cloud deployment and document what monitoring tools you have access to.

Admin Center reports walkthrough

Let’s dig into the Admin Center reports, since these are available across all government environments.

Navigate to Reports, then Usage, then Microsoft 365 Copilot. You’ll see several tabs and metrics.

The Usage tab is your primary view. It shows total prompts submitted across your organization and the average prompts per user. This tells you not just whether people are using Copilot, but how intensively they’re using it. A user who submits 50 prompts a week is getting significantly more value than one who tries it once and stops.

Active users is your adoption metric. You can view this over 7, 30, 90, or 180 days. The 30-day active user count is the most operationally useful—it smooths out daily variation while still being responsive to adoption trends. Track this number weekly during your pilot and monthly during broad deployment.

Agent usage, if available, shows whether your organization is using custom Copilot agents built through Copilot Studio. This metric is rolling out as a preview and may not be available in all government environments yet.

The Readiness tab shows license allocation and user enablement status. This tells you how many Copilot licenses you’ve purchased, how many are assigned, and how many assigned users are actually active. The gap between assigned and active is your adoption opportunity—those are users who have Copilot but aren’t using it.

What does this tell you operationally? Three things. Adoption velocity: are users trying Copilot? If your 30-day active rate is climbing, adoption is working. Engagement depth: are active users using it regularly, or trying it once? Look at prompts per user. Coverage gaps: which groups or roles aren’t adopting? Cross-reference active users with your deployment groups to find the gaps.

One note on data timing: reports are typically available within 72 hours of activity. Don’t expect real-time data. Plan your reporting cadence accordingly.

Viva Insights Copilot Dashboard

Where available, the Viva Insights Copilot Dashboard adds a layer of insight that the admin center doesn’t provide.

Key metrics include chat active users and adoption trends over time, assisted hours—an estimate of time saved through Copilot interactions, and satisfaction rate and sentiment based on user interactions.

The ROI indicators are where this dashboard shines for leadership reporting. You can see productivity impact by department or role, usage patterns correlated with business outcomes, and trends that help you understand whether Copilot is changing how people work or just adding another tool to the stack.

Access requirements have improved. Previously, the Viva Insights Copilot Dashboard required a minimum of 50 Copilot licenses. As of early 2026, this threshold has been reduced to just one license, making it accessible to organizations running smaller pilots.

For government environments, verify dashboard access for your specific cloud. In GCC, most Viva Insights features are available. In GCC High and DoD, availability is more limited. Check the Viva Insights documentation for your environment before building your monitoring plan around features that may not be accessible.

Operational best practices for monitoring

Here’s how to use these tools effectively.

Establish baseline metrics before broad rollout. During your pilot, capture your initial adoption rate, average prompts per user, and app-level usage distribution. This baseline lets you measure the impact of training, communications, and expansion in later phases.

Track adoption by pilot group, department, or role. Don’t just look at the tenant-level numbers. Break down adoption by the groups you defined in your deployment plan. If one department has 80 percent adoption and another has 20 percent, that tells you where to focus training and support.

Combine dashboard data with qualitative feedback. Numbers tell you what’s happening. User feedback tells you why. A department with low adoption might have a training gap, a use case mismatch, or a technical issue. You won’t know without asking.

Integrate metrics into governance reporting. Copilot monitoring data supports several government requirements. ATO continuous monitoring benefits from regular reporting on AI tool usage and security events. Budget justification uses adoption and productivity data to demonstrate ROI. Training effectiveness is measured by tracking adoption before and after training interventions.

Schedule a regular reporting cadence for leadership. Monthly is the right frequency for most organizations. Create a one-page summary: active users, adoption trend, key wins, issues resolved, and next steps. Leadership doesn’t want a 20-page analytics report. They want a clear answer to “is this working?”

Close: the admin monitoring checklist

Before rollout: confirm which dashboards you have access to in your environment. Set up admin access for the people who need to see reports. Establish your baseline metrics.

During rollout: track active users, prompts, and adoption velocity weekly during the pilot. Identify low-adoption groups and intervene with targeted training or support. Report to leadership monthly.

Ongoing: use metrics to refine training, optimize licenses—reclaim licenses from users who aren’t using Copilot—and demonstrate ROI for budget conversations. Export reports regularly for governance and compliance records.

Visibility drives accountability. And in government, visibility also drives budget justification. The dashboard is your evidence that Copilot is worth the investment—or your early warning that something needs to change.

Sources & References

• Microsoft 365 Copilot usage reports — Admin center usage report metrics and access
• Copilot reports for admins — Overview of all admin reporting options
• Viva Insights Copilot Dashboard — Organizational insights and productivity metrics
• Copilot readiness report — License allocation and enablement status