GitHub Copilot Isn't Just for Developers: A Guide for Every Role

There’s a common misconception that GitHub Copilot is just for developers writing code. And sure, that’s where it started. But Copilot has evolved into something much broader: an AI assistant that can help almost anyone involved in the software development lifecycle.

Whether you’re triaging security vulnerabilities, writing runbooks, drafting PRDs, or building test suites, there’s probably a Copilot feature that can make your life easier. This post breaks down practical use cases by role, with links to resources so you can dive deeper.

Developers

Let’s start with the obvious one. Developers have the most mature set of Copilot features, and they keep getting better.

Use Cases

• Code completion and generation: From single-line completions to entire function implementations
• Debugging assistance: Ask Copilot to explain errors, suggest fixes, or identify root causes
• Code refactoring: Modernize legacy code, improve performance, or adopt new patterns
• Documentation generation: Generate JSDoc, docstrings, and inline comments
• Learning new languages/frameworks: Ask questions about unfamiliar syntax or patterns
• CLI assistance: Use Copilot CLI to build complex shell commands with natural language

Resources

• GitHub Copilot Documentation
• GitHub Copilot in VS Code
• GitHub Copilot CLI: How to Get Started
• A Developer’s Guide to Writing, Debugging, Reviewing, and Shipping Code Faster

Training

• GitHub Copilot Fundamentals (Part 1) - 5 hr learning path covering responsible AI, prompt engineering, and advanced features
• GitHub Copilot Fundamentals (Part 2) - 3 hr learning path on code improvements, documentation, and guided projects
• Accelerate App Development Using GitHub Copilot - 6.5 hr learning path for intermediate developers
• Code with Copilot - Interactive GitHub Skills course
• GitHub Learning Pathways: AI-Powered Development - Self-paced tutorials from GitHub

Security Teams

Security folks might not think of Copilot as “their” tool, but there are some genuinely useful applications here.

Use Cases

• Vulnerability analysis: Ask Copilot to explain CVEs, assess impact, and suggest remediation steps
• Security code review: Use Copilot Code Review to catch security issues in PRs
• Policy and compliance documentation: Draft security policies, incident response procedures, and compliance documentation
• Threat modeling: Describe your architecture and ask Copilot to identify potential attack vectors
• Security automation: Generate scripts for security scanning, log analysis, or alert triage

Resources

• About GitHub Copilot Code Review
• GitHub’s Agentic Security Principles
• GitHub Code Scanning Documentation

Training

• Resolve GitHub Secret Scanning Alerts Using Copilot Agent - 1 hr 40 min module on detecting and remediating hard-coded secrets
• GitHub Learning Pathways: Security - Comprehensive pathway covering GitHub Advanced Security
• Introduction to Secret Scanning - Interactive GitHub Skills course
• Introduction to CodeQL - Learn to secure your code with CodeQL
• Secure Code Game - Learn security concepts in a fun, hands-on environment

Operations and SRE

If you’re on-call at 2 AM and staring at a wall of logs, Copilot can be a lifesaver.

Use Cases

• Runbook generation: Describe a scenario and generate step-by-step operational procedures
• Incident response: Summarize incidents, draft postmortems, and identify action items
• Infrastructure as Code: Generate Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible, or Kubernetes manifests
• Log analysis: Paste logs into chat and ask for pattern identification or root cause analysis
• Automation scripts: Build monitoring scripts, alerting rules, or deployment automation
• CLI mastery: Use Copilot CLI to construct complex kubectl, aws, or gcloud commands

Resources

• GitHub Copilot CLI 101
• Custom Agents for Observability, IaC, and Security
• How to Build Reliable AI Workflows with Agentic Primitives

Training

• GitHub Copilot Across Environments - 48 min module covering IDE, Chat, GitHub.com, and command line techniques
• Building Applications with GitHub Copilot Agent Mode - 50 min module on autonomous coding workflows
• GitHub Learning Pathways: CI/CD with GitHub Actions - Automation best practices from GitHub experts

Product Managers

PMs spend a lot of time writing. Copilot can help you write faster and more consistently.

Use Cases

• PRD drafting: Outline your requirements and let Copilot help structure and expand them
• User story generation: Describe a feature and generate user stories with acceptance criteria
• Competitive analysis summaries: Organize research notes into structured comparisons
• Meeting notes and action items: Summarize discussions and extract next steps
• Roadmap documentation: Create and maintain roadmap documents with consistent formatting
• Technical translation: Ask Copilot to explain technical concepts in business terms (or vice versa)

Resources

• GitHub Copilot Chat Documentation
• Using Custom Instructions

Training

• Introduction to Copilot Spaces - 31 min module on creating and configuring Spaces for grounded responses
• Introduction to Prompt Engineering with GitHub Copilot - 30 min module on crafting effective prompts

Technical Writers

Documentation is code too. Copilot can help you write, edit, and maintain docs more efficiently.

Use Cases

• API documentation: Generate OpenAPI specs, endpoint descriptions, and example requests
• README generation: Create comprehensive README files for repositories
• Tutorial creation: Outline step-by-step guides with code examples
• Content updates: Use Copilot to identify outdated documentation and suggest updates
• Style consistency: Apply consistent formatting, voice, and terminology across docs
• Translation assistance: Draft content in multiple languages or localize existing docs

Resources

• How to Update Community Health Files with AI
• How to Write a Great agents.md

Training

• Generate Documentation Using GitHub Copilot Tools - 1 hr 8 min module covering code explanations, project docs, and inline documentation
• Communicate Using Markdown - Interactive GitHub Skills course on Markdown formatting

QA and Test Engineers

Testing is another area where Copilot really shines. Writing tests is repetitive, and repetitive tasks are exactly what AI is good at.

Use Cases

• Unit test generation: Generate test cases for functions, classes, and modules
• Integration test scaffolding: Create test harnesses and mock setups
• Test data generation: Create realistic test fixtures and edge cases
• Bug reproduction: Describe a bug and generate a minimal reproduction case
• Test coverage analysis: Identify gaps in test coverage and generate tests to fill them
• E2E test scripts: Generate Playwright, Cypress, or Selenium test scripts

Resources

• Testing with GitHub Copilot in VS Code
• Copilot Code Review for Test Quality

Training

• Develop Unit Tests Using GitHub Copilot Tools - 1 hr 7 min module with hands-on exercises for creating unit tests
• Test with Actions - Interactive course on CI testing with GitHub Actions

Data Analysts

If you spend your days writing SQL queries and building reports, Copilot can be a surprisingly effective assistant.

Use Cases

• SQL query generation: Describe what you need in plain English and get working SQL
• Query optimization: Paste a slow query and ask for performance improvements
• Data transformation scripts: Generate Python or R scripts for data cleaning and transformation
• Visualization code: Create charts and dashboards with matplotlib, seaborn, or Plotly
• Documentation: Document data pipelines, schema changes, and analysis methodologies
• Regex and parsing: Generate complex regex patterns or parsing logic for messy data

Resources

• GitHub Copilot in VS Code
• Using Copilot with Jupyter Notebooks

Uncommon Use Cases Worth Trying

Here are a few less obvious ways people are using Copilot that might spark some ideas:

• Architecture diagrams: Describe your system and ask Copilot to generate Mermaid or PlantUML diagrams
• Regex debugging: Paste a regex pattern and ask Copilot to explain what it matches (and what it doesn’t)
• Legacy code archaeology: Ask Copilot to explain what old, undocumented code does
• Interview prep: Generate practice coding problems or review your solutions
• Learning by refactoring: Take working code and ask Copilot to show you different ways to write it

Getting Started

If you’re not already using Copilot, here’s the quick path to getting set up:

1. Sign up: GitHub Copilot offers a free tier with limited usage, plus paid plans for individuals and organizations
2. Install the extension: Available for VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Neovim, and more
3. Try Copilot Chat: Open the chat panel and start asking questions about your codebase
4. Explore Copilot CLI: Install gh copilot for command-line assistance

TL;DR

• GitHub Copilot is for everyone involved in the SDLC, not just developers writing code
• Each role has specific use cases: from security teams doing threat analysis to PMs drafting PRDs to QA engineers generating test suites
• Start small: Pick one or two use cases relevant to your role and experiment
• Customize your experience: Use custom instructions to tailor Copilot’s responses to your team’s conventions
• Keep learning: Copilot’s capabilities are expanding rapidly with features like coding agents, code review, and CLI integration

The best way to learn is to try it. Pick a task you do regularly, open Copilot Chat, and see if it can help. You might be surprised.

Have questions or want to share how you’re using Copilot in your role? Find me on LinkedIn or Bluesky. Always happy to hear about creative use cases.