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4.4 – Creating Our First DALL·E 3 Image with Microsoft Copilot Lesson

Generate your very first AI-powered images using Microsoft Copilot and DALL·E 3. This lesson walks you through crafting, submitting, and tweaking image prompts—making the creative process practical and easy to follow. Watch the video for a complete demonstration and see these steps in action.

What you'll learn

  • Generate images with DALL·E 3 inside Microsoft Copilot using your own prompts

  • Interpret and use the grid of initial images produced by AI

  • Refine image results by editing prompts and adding descriptive details

  • Troubleshoot common issues such as generation errors and chat limits

  • Experiment with prompt variations to achieve different visual outcomes

  • Use Copilot’s and Bing’s suggestion features to brainstorm new ideas

Lesson Overview

This lesson covers the practical steps for generating your first images with Microsoft Copilot powered by DALL·E 3. After planning your ideas and logging in, you’ll see how easy it is to type a prompt, submit it to Copilot, and receive AI-generated images based on your description. You’ll also learn how to adjust or improve your prompts for more realistic or relevant results, a helpful skill as you explore what AI image creation can do.

Understanding how to use Copilot and DALL·E 3 goes beyond artistic pursuits. Whether you’re gathering research visuals, building class materials, or brainstorming for marketing assets, the process described here saves time and sparks new creative directions. You’ll also see how to deal with occasional issues like generation errors or limited chat threads, so you can keep working without frustration.

This lesson is ideal for anyone ready to move from planning images to actually generating and refining AI images in real time. By the end, you’ll have the knowledge needed to start creating usable outputs for school, work, or personal projects.

Who This Is For

Anyone interested in quickly creating visual content through AI will benefit from this lesson, especially:

  • Students looking to add illustrations to research papers or class projects
  • Educators developing visual teaching materials
  • Marketers in need of rapid concept mockups or social media images
  • Writers and researchers wanting themed visuals for presentations
  • Small business owners creating graphics for branding or online presence
  • Curious beginners exploring generative AI tools for the first time
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  • AI-Driven Visual & Presentation Creation

Where This Fits in a Workflow

This lesson picks up after you’ve outlined your image ideas and signed into Microsoft Copilot. Generating your first DALL·E 3 image marks the shift from preparation to content creation. For example, after listing desert animals for a report, you can visualize those animals with custom images to support your text. If you’re brainstorming marketing materials, this is where you produce draft visuals before selecting or refining them further. Having hands-on images ready at this stage helps speed up document creation, presentations, or creative brainstorming.

Technical & Workflow Benefits

Previously, creating unique images meant searching stock libraries, finding copyright-free photos, or spending hours on manual digital drawing. With Microsoft Copilot and DALL·E 3, you skip those steps—just describe your idea, and the AI provides a set of images almost instantly. This not only saves significant time but also lets you control style, details, and subject matter with simple adjustments to your prompt. For instance, adding “photo realistic image of” or specifying certain backgrounds leads to more tailored results than generic search or manual design. If an error occurs, small prompt tweaks or thread refreshes keep the work flowing without major delays. Overall, this method brings creativity and rapid iteration directly into your workflow.

Practice Exercise

Find a topic you’re currently working on—a science project, brand idea, or article illustration.

  1. Open Microsoft Copilot and use your chosen topic to write a simple prompt, such as “a horned lizard in the desert.”
  2. Submit the prompt in the chat to generate your first four-image grid. Review the prompt Copilot used and take note of any differences.
  3. Copy the displayed prompt, add extra details (like “photo realistic image of a horned lizard with a small oasis in the background”), and submit it again. Compare the new results to your first attempt.

What changed in the images when you refined your prompt? How did the extra details affect the outcome? This reflection will help you see how prompt engineering shapes your creative results.

Course Context Recap

This lesson builds directly on your work brainstorming ideas and covers the essential first steps in DALL·E 3 image creation with Microsoft Copilot. Now that you’ve generated and refined initial images, you’re ready to tackle more advanced prompt techniques and creative uses for your outputs. Continue through the course to learn more about prompt adjustments, project applications, and how AI-generated images can enhance your work or studies. Explore the next lessons to unlock even more creative possibilities.