Valerie Merrill

Valerie Merrill is a Microsoft and people skills specialist, Fellow of the Learning and Performance Institute, award-winning L&D podcaster and one of the UK's most experienced Copilot trainers.

Website: https://www.merrillconsultants.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/merrillvalerie/

Jobscaping®

Carolyn Shepherd's framework for helping people consciously redesign their work in the age of AI.

Using three simple zones, Green (delegate), Amber (collaborate) and Red (protect), Jobscaping® helps professionals decide where AI can create value and where human judgement remains essential.

Microsoft Copilot Researcher

Researcher is one of Microsoft's deep reasoning agents. It investigates complex topics, draws on multiple sources and produces detailed, referenced reports that can be exported into formats such as Word, PowerPoint and PDF. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CV-4r_1-SjWr3CFUtGD2KzAUyNp0_2s5/view?usp=sharing

Companion Guide

Follow along with the screenshots and walkthrough featured in the episode:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CV-4r_1-SjWr3CFUtGD2KzAUyNp0_2s5/view?usp=sharing

The Sovereign Career Hub

https://substack.com/@thesovereigncareerhub

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynjshepherd/

Emmeline AI

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this episode which promises to move your AI efficiency rating up a couple of notches.

One of AI’s biggest promises is saving us time.

Yet many people find themselves paying so-called AI Tax: rewriting prompts, adding context, chasing sources and asking endless follow-up questions, only to end up doing much of the research themselves.

If you’ve ever asked Copilot a question and felt that the answer gave you the gist when you needed genuine depth, this episode is for you.

This week, learning and development specialist Valerie Merrill demonstrates Researcher, one of Microsoft’s deep reasoning agents. She has kindly shared some screenshots here if you need them to accompany this video.

Unlike a standard Copilot chat, Researcher is designed to investigate complex questions, review multiple sources and produce a structured, referenced report that can support real decision-making and the good news is - it’s easy to use and probably included with your current license.

Used well, Researcher can save hours of searching, reading and prompt refinement.

But here’s the important part:

The goal isn’t simply to work faster. It’s to spend less time gathering information and more time applying your judgement.

This Week’s Jobscaping® Challenge

Take one research task from your Green Zone list.

It might be:

* Researching a market or industry trend

* Comparing suppliers or solutions

* Preparing a recommendation for stakeholders

* Investigating a new technology or business opportunity

Before opening Researcher, create a clear brief.

Think about:

* Your objective

* Your audience

* The context

* The sources you would like considered

If you’re struggling to structure your request, revisit last week’s episode on Prompt Coach first and use it for a quick win.

Arguably, a good brief reduces AI Tax by 50% and a great brief eliminates it. More on this in the longer article to accompany this podcast.

How Researcher Works

* Open MS Copilot and select Researcher

* Provide a clear brief with your objective, audience, context and relevant sources

* Answer any follow-up questions it asks

* Review the report, check the citations and read key source material for yourself

Researcher can gather information.

Judgement remains your responsibility.

Why This Matters

Researcher is a great example of Jobscaping® in action.

Rather than repeatedly prompting a general-purpose chatbot and paying so-called AI Tax, you’re choosing a specialist tool designed for deeper investigation from the outset.

* Less time searching.

* Less time re-prompting.

* More time making better decisions.

A Word of Caution

A professional-looking report is not necessarily a correct report.

Researcher provides citations for a reason. Follow them, especially when the findings will influence important decisions, recommendations or actions.

Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Coming Up Next Week

Next week Valerie introduces Analyst, Researcher’s data-focused counterpart.

If Researcher helps you investigate ideas, Analyst helps you explore spreadsheets, datasets and numerical information with the same depth of reasoning.

Together, they represent a significant step beyond traditional chatbot-style AI.

Best wishes

Carolyn Shepherd

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carolynshepherd.substack.com