ONLC Training is launching a free, four-part webinar series on August 4, 2026, that tackles the three heavyweight AI agent platforms for the workplace: Microsoft Copilot Cowork, OpenAI’s ChatGPT Work, and Anthropic’s Claude Skills. No theory, no fluff—these sessions are designed to show Windows users, IT administrators, and business teams exactly how to hand off real tasks to AI, not just write better prompts.

What’s Actually in the Webinar Series

The series opens with a session on Microsoft Express on August 4, a two-day certification path that condenses Microsoft training into focused, instructor-led courses. Then, on August 11, the spotlight turns to Microsoft Copilot Cowork, the agentic experience baked into Microsoft 365 that promises to do more than answer questions—it can prepare emails, organize files, and assemble documents across Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, and SharePoint. On September 2, the focus shifts to Claude Skills, Anthropic’s method for turning team know‑how into reusable, no‑code instructions that guide the AI through repeatable processes. The series wraps on September 24 with ChatGPT Work, OpenAI’s agent that tackles long‑running, multi‑step projects—from research and planning to delivering finished spreadsheets, presentations, and even websites.

All four webinars are free, live online, and run from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. ONLC says space is limited, so early registration is encouraged. The lineup isn’t random: it walks attendees from building foundational Microsoft skills to comparing the three agentic platforms head‑to‑head.

Why Windows Users Should Pay Attention

These tools don’t live in a vacuum. Copilot Cowork is deeply woven into the Microsoft 365 suite that millions of Windows users rely on daily. ChatGPT Work can connect to cloud accounts and, under the right settings, work alongside desktop files. Claude Skills, while platform‑agnostic, can be invoked from Windows‑based tools via APIs or browser interfaces. The practical question for anyone running Windows isn’t whether to adopt AI agents—it’s which ones fit the workflows already in place, and how to adopt them without creating security nightmares.

For IT administrators, the stakes are higher. Giving an AI agent permission to read email, rearrange SharePoint folders, or post to Teams is a governance challenge. The webinars touch on the guardrails that matter most: approval checkpoints, least‑privilege access, and logging. For everyday users, the series offers a side‑by‑side look at what these agents actually do, so you can figure out which one—if any—saves time without introducing unacceptable risk.

What Each Tool Actually Does (and Doesn’t Do)

Microsoft Copilot Cowork

Copilot Cowork isn’t a smarter chatbot. It’s built to carry out multi‑step assignments inside your Microsoft 365 environment. You describe an outcome in natural language, and it can draft emails, create Word documents, pull together PowerPoint decks, search approved content, and organize files—all while respecting the permissions and policies your admin has set. Its killer feature for Windows shops is that it works where your data already lives, reducing the need to hop between apps. But it’s only as good as your underlying data hygiene. Messy SharePoint libraries and inconsistent file naming will hobble it fast.

Claude Skills

Anthropic’s approach is different: rather than an all‑purpose agent, Claude Skills let you package up repeatable processes—like turning meeting notes into a standardized project update, or reviewing a draft against a legal checklist—into reusable instructions. Teams can share these Skills, so everyone follows the same recipe. ONLC’s session promises to show how to build them without code, which is plausible for text‑based workflows. However, the moment a Skill accesses sensitive materials or runs embedded scripts, the “no‑code” label needs a hard look. Governance is non‑negotiable.

ChatGPT Work

OpenAI’s offering is built for endurance. Given a high‑level goal, ChatGPT Work can gather context from connected apps and files, propose a plan for your approval, then execute it step by step—creating spreadsheets, reports, presentations, and even websites. Plan mode is the differentiator here: you get to review the blueprint before the agent runs, catching assumptions early. But with great power comes great responsibility. An agent that can browse, pull data, and generate polished deliverables can also hallucinate convincingly if you drop your guard.

What This Means for You, Depending on Your Role

For everyday Windows users: Start with the session that matches where you spend most of your day. If you live in Outlook and Teams, the August 11 Copilot Cowork webinar will show you how to delegate tasks right inside the apps you already use. If you routinely perform the same steps to create reports or briefs, the September 2 Claude Skills session might help you codify that wisdom. And if your job involves researching, synthesizing, and producing deliverables from scratch, the September 24 ChatGPT Work session is the one to watch. Use these free hours to kick the tires before your organization commits budget.

For IT admins: The webinars are marketing, yes, but they’re also a low‑stakes way to see what’s coming down the pipe. Pay close attention to the approval checkpoints and permission models described for each tool. Ask yourself: Where does our data live? Which connectors would we have to open? What logging do we need? The sessions won’t answer all your compliance questions, but they’ll help you frame the right ones before someone in the org signs up for a trial.

For developers and power users: Claude Skills’ “no‑code” pitch may sound limiting, but the underlying idea—packaging expertise into reusable modules—is worth studying. Think of it as a way to prototype workflows that could later be hardened with APIs. The Copilot Cowork and ChatGPT Work sessions will also give you a sense of each platform’s extensibility and where custom integrations might fill gaps.

How We Got Here: From AI Chat to AI Agents

It wasn’t that long ago that “AI at work” meant typing a prompt into a browser window and hoping for a decent answer. In 2023, Microsoft put Copilot into Office apps. OpenAI introduced plugins and later GPTs. Anthropic steadily expanded Claude’s context window and tool‑use capabilities. By mid‑2025, the conversation had shifted from “can it draft an email?” to “should it be allowed to send one?”

The term “agent” gets thrown around loosely, but the industry has landed on a workable definition: software that can pursue a goal through multiple steps, using tools, data, and services along the way—often with built‑in checkpoints for human review. Microsoft Copilot Cowork, ChatGPT Work, and Claude Skills are all competing answers to that same bet. The problem is that most training courses still focus on writing better prompts, not managing agents. ONLC’s series bridges that gap at the right moment.

What to Do Before and After the Webinars

Register now. All four sessions are free, but ONLC caps attendance. Reserve your spot at www.onlc.com/webinar-series as soon as possible.

Prepare your environment. Identify a real, low‑risk task you’d love to automate—a weekly status report, a meeting briefing, a repetitive data pull. Check what data and services that task touches. Talk to your IT team about what can be connected.

During the webinar: Don’t just watch the demo. Ask the instructors specific questions: “How do I limit which files the agent can see?” “What happens if the agent makes a mistake—who’s accountable?” “What logging trail is left behind?” The more concrete your questions, the more useful the answers.

After attending: Test whichever tool seems most promising in a sandbox tenant or a personal test account. Run the task you identified earlier. Compare the output against what you’d produce manually. Document the results, and if you’re part of a team, share your notes so others can learn.

Build internal playbooks. Even a one‑page cheat sheet on what a tool should and shouldn’t do can prevent trouble later. Agree on approval steps, restricted data categories, and review processes before anyone deploys an agent broadly.

Outlook: Agentic AI Is Coming to Your Desktop

The free webinars are just the starting gun. Microsoft’s recent Build conferences have signaled deeper Copilot integration into Windows itself—soon you might hand off desktop tasks to an agent as easily as you summon the Start menu. OpenAI and Anthropic are expanding their desktop applications, too. The line between “AI as a helper” and “AI as a coworker” will keep blurring.

The organizations that get this right will be the ones that pair experimentation with education. Watching a one‑hour demo won’t turn you into an AI expert, but it will help you ask the right questions. And in a world where agents are about to become another member of the team, knowing what to ask may be the most valuable skill of all.