Copilot for Your Staff · Lesson 4 of 7

Copilot in Outlook

20 minutes. Summarize the long thread. Draft the reply. A person reads it, fixes it and sends it.

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Outlook is where Copilot pays off first for most offices, and it's the one place where the included Copilot Chat can see your work. Microsoft says Copilot Chat in Outlook can work with your inbox, calendar, meetings and chats, plus a limited set of related files, even without the paid license.

That means Marcus at Comfort Zone Heating & Cooling (our fictional company) can open a 23-message thread about a commercial rooftop unit and know what happened in 30 seconds. It also means Copilot is one click away from writing to a customer. So this lesson has one firm rule.

The rule: a person sends every email

Copilot drafts. You read every word, fix what's wrong, and press Send yourself. Microsoft's own steps end the same way: generate, review, keep, edit, then send. Copilot never sends a customer email on its own in this business.

Why so firm? Because a draft can sound perfect and still be wrong. It can promise "a technician tomorrow morning" when the schedule is full. It can repeat a price from an old email in the thread. A person catches both in a few seconds.

Before you start: two things to know

Copilot works on your own mailbox only. Microsoft's Outlook FAQ says Copilot isn't available on shared mailboxes, group mailboxes, delegate mailboxes or archive mailboxes, even if you can open them. If your customer email comes into a shared service@ or office@ address, Copilot won't summarize or draft there. Many small offices hit this on day one. Write it on your "can't see" list for Lesson 7, and ask your IT partner about options.

Drafting needs HTML mail. In new Outlook and Outlook on the web, Microsoft says Draft with Copilot doesn't work on plain text messages. If yours is set to plain text, go to Settings > Mail > Compose and reply and choose HTML.

Move 1: Summarize a thread (5 minutes)
  • Open a long email conversation.
  • At the top of the thread, select Summary by Copilot (it might say Summarize).
  • Read the summary. The numbered citations take you to the email each point came from.

In new Outlook and on the web, if the email has a Word, PowerPoint or PDF attachment, Microsoft says you can also select Summarize a file.

On your phone, open the conversation and tap the Copilot icon in the toolbar.

Check it. Click at least one citation per summary for the first week. You're learning when to trust it.

Move 2: Draft a reply (8 minutes)

Microsoft's steps differ a little between Outlook versions.

In new Outlook or Outlook on the web, open the email and select Help me reply in the message area. Tell Copilot what you want to say, then keep editing the draft.

To start a new message in new Outlook, select Home > New mail, select the Copilot icon in the toolbar, and choose Draft. Type your prompt, select the Generate arrow, use the options to change length or tone, then select Keep it.

In classic Outlook, select Home > New Email, select the Copilot icon, choose Draft with Copilot, type your prompt, select Generate, adjust if needed, and select Keep.

Use the four-part prompt from Lesson 3. At Comfort Zone it looks like this:

> Reply to Mrs. Alvarez confirming we received her request for an AC check. Tell her Marcus will call today to schedule. Friendly, under 80 words. Don't mention a date or price. If something is unclear, write [CHECK].

(That's one place a "don't" is worth it. Promises about dates and prices are the most expensive mistakes.)

Move 3: Check, then send (2 minutes per email)

Read every draft against three questions:

  • Is every fact right? Names, dates, times, prices, addresses. If Copilot wrote a fact you didn't give it, treat it as wrong until you've checked.
  • Does it promise anything? Look for "will," "today," "guarantee," "free" and "covered."
  • Does it answer what they asked? Drafts sometimes answer a neighbor of the question.

Remove every [CHECK] by filling it in or cutting the sentence. Then send it yourself.

Move 4: Ask about your inbox (5 minutes)

Select the Copilot button near the top of Outlook to chat with Copilot about your mail and calendar. Microsoft's examples include summarizing a week of email on a topic and asking when your next meeting with someone is. Try:

  • "Summarize emails from the last week about [customer or job]. List open questions."
  • "What meetings do I have tomorrow, and is anything I should prepare for mentioned in my email?"
  • "Which emails from customers this week haven't I replied to?"

Check the answers against your inbox the first few times. With the paid license, Copilot can also pull in Teams chats and documents for answers like these.

What stays out of Copilot drafts

Some emails get a person's own words, no draft at all:

  • An angry or upset customer
  • Refunds, credits, discounts and billing disputes
  • Damage, injury, safety or anything that sounds like a lawyer
  • Hiring, firing, discipline and anything about an employee's health

Copilot can still summarize these threads so you understand them faster. The reply is yours.

Do this now
  • Summarize two real threads. Click one citation in each.
  • Draft three real replies with a four-part prompt. Mark each one: sent as is, small edit, or big fix.
  • Send them yourself.
  • Ask Copilot one question about your week's email.
  • If your team uses a shared mailbox, write it on the Two-Week Copilot Log under "Can't see."

Check it worked

  • You summarized two threads and checked a citation in each.
  • Three replies went out today, each read and sent by a person.
  • No draft went out with a [CHECK] still in it or a promise you didn't mean.
  • You know whether your customer email lands in a mailbox Copilot can work with.

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Next: the meeting nobody took notes in.

→ Lesson 5: Copilot in Teams meetings

Previous: Prompts that work · Next: Copilot in Teams meetings