Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 Tips, Tricks & Prompts
Achieve more than ever before with Copilot for Microsoft 365, your new AI assistant.
Learn how to improve your prompt skills, see real Copilot use cases and delve into industry scenarios.
Prompt Like a Pro
Get the most out of Copilot for Microsoft 365 by learning how to write more effective prompts. In this five-part series, you can learn how to upgrade your prompt skills using an established prompt framework, discover advanced techniques and templates, and even find out how to leverage Copilot itself to enhance your prompting further.
1. Introduction to Effective Prompting
Stuart Ridout gives you an introduction to this video series, alongside an outline of what effective prompting entails.
Learn about the ideal length, view examples of great prompts and get some quick tips for elevating your prompts.
2. Components of a Great Prompt
Explore the building blocks for creating a great prompt, starting with defining what you want Copilot to do.
Discover some of the main tasks that Copilot could help you with and how the GCSE prompt framework ensures better results.
3. Chain of Thought Prompting
Learn how to break down your tasks into smaller subtasks, and ways to iterate and refine your prompts.
Get a deep-dive into how chain of thought prompting works and ways to adjust Copilot’s responses to suit your needs.
4. Advanced Prompt Techniques
Explore further ways to ensure Copilot’s responses meet your needs, such as asking for variations.
You’ll also learn how to tailor your prompts to different roles and personas and how to use Copilot to create templates.
5. Using Copilot for Help with Prompts
Learn how to enhance your prompting expertise further, including asking Copilot itself to tell you what it needs.
And discover the power of the Copilot community, which offers invaluable resources for the exchange and discovery of outstanding prompts.
Smarter communications
Produce engaging content with speaker notes
Presenting information in a clear, easy-to-digest way can be time-consuming.
Copilot’s advanced algorithms can take your documents and turn them into engaging presentations to share with your audience. This can help you spend less time on the initial build of your presentation and give you more time to focus on smaller tweaks to make it your own.
Simplify a complex concept for various audiences
When creating important documents, catering for different abilities and reading ages can be challenging.
Copilot can help with this by using its large language model to translate complex concepts and forms into something someone with a young reading age can understand. This can help you be more inclusive with your content and cater to a wider audience with ease.
Get coaching when drafting sensitive comms
Communicating sensitive topics to your workforce can be challenging, and you’ll need to strike the right tone.
Copilot’s advanced natural-language processing capabilities can analyse your draft emails and make suggestions to help you create a clear message that’s empathetic and covers any questions a reader may have. This can help you send all manner of emails with confidence, knowing it’ll be received as you intended.
Run effective focus groups
No matter how productive a focus group discussion or brainstorm, it can fall flat if its key takeaways and action points aren’t captured properly.
Copilot’s advanced algorithm can help you categorise and summarise ideas in Microsoft Whiteboard so it’s easier to keep track of the topics discussed. It can help you keep the discussion flowing without interruption while still staying organised and on top of what’s being said.
Customer service
Prepare for a customer meeting
You want to be fully prepared for meetings, but it can be time-consuming to read long email threads and chats that might be related to those meetings.
Copilot can help you create summaries of emails and draft replies so you can catch up quickly and respond back with confidence. It can also help you become a subject matter expert by summarising existing information so you can feel more prepared and have a more effective meeting.
Create customer feedback forms in seconds
Collecting customer feedback can help you improve your products and services.
Copilot, together with Microsoft Forms, can help you generate a range of forms that are tailored to your needs. It can also adapt the forms for different tones so you can change how you address your customers. By using Copilot to create your questions, it can help you save time while creating a reliable customer feedback form.
Write better responses to complaints
When responding to complaints, you might find it a challenge to balance being empathetic with providing accurate information in the response.
Copilot can help with this by using its advanced natural language processing capabilities to generate engaging and informative responses that use active language. By handling complaints with the help of Copilot, you can improve customer satisfaction and build trust.
Scheduling and productivity
Optimise itineraries based on availability constraints
It can be challenging to create and manage a maintenance schedule while ensuring that tasks are completed efficiently and effectively.
Copilot can help you with this by using its advanced algorithms to analyse the schedule and identify any opportunities for optimisation. This can save time for the maintenance workers or delivery teams, allowing them to complete more tasks in a shorter period of time.
Boost your productivity and minimise interruptions at work
It can be tempting to send a “quick” message to your colleagues with ‘Where can I find’, ‘Can you remember what...’ type questions. But this can reduce their focus and interrupt their flow of work.
Copilot Chat can help answer those questions for you, combing through relevant company files to find documents and phone numbers, and even providing summaries. This can help you stay productive without disturbing your colleagues.
Reports, forms and contracts
Create and interrogate an impact assessment report
Creating a reliable impact assessment means making sure you cover everything in the official guidelines.
Copilot’s advanced algorithms can help you identify the areas that your local authority requires, and create a custom impact assessment questionnaire with a rating matrix based on your data. This helps save you time and improve accuracy. Copilot can help you create reliable documents that actively improve your workflows.
Create and review contract agreements
It’s important that contract agreements are accurate while reflecting the correct pricing and warranty details.
Copilot’s advanced natural-language processing capabilities can help you draft contract agreements that align with your existing documents and seamlessly add or rewrite sections. By using Copilot to generate your first drafts, it can help you save time while still keeping full control of your documents.
Perform a gap analysis between job description and CVs
A major task for any hiring manager is identifying the most suitable candidates to invite for an interview.
Copilot’s advanced algorithms can help you compare the requirements of a job description with the qualifications and experience listed on a candidate’s CV. This allows for a quick and accurate gap analysis of multiple candidates. Copilot can help you spend less time on the initial screening process and more time interviewing candidates, increasing efficiency.
Quick fixes
Get a quick view of your open Jira tickets
Having to switch from one app to the other can interrupt the flow of your work and can be unproductive.
With plug-ins or connectors, Copilot can help you keep on top of your Jira tickets, providing summaries, status reports and details and composing emails without you needing to do so yourself. This can help you address your Jira cases more efficiently, saving you time.
Transform a transcript into a table
If you’re on the road frequently and involved in a lot of face-to-face meetings, translating your notes into reference material for others or to transpose into other systems can take a lot of time.
Copilot can support you by creating an organised summary of your notes that can be used in other applications or shared with your colleagues. This can help save you time while still capturing all the important points discussed in your meetings.
Detect and redact PII from documents
One of the challenges of document redaction is ensuring that all PII data is accurately removed.
Copilot can help you with this by using its advanced AI algorithms to accurately identify and redact PII data. This can save you time and reduce the risk of human error, providing a more accurate and efficient solution for document redaction. With Copilot, the process can be completed in seconds, which also helps increase productivity.
Peer to Peer Learning Series
See how Copilot for Microsoft 365 transforms the day-to-day activities of Microsoft employees. Watch these live demonstrations as employees across different functions in Microsoft come together to share how it’s helped them improve productivity, quality of work and just getting time back to focus on things they love.
Please choose the video that aligns closest to the things you do in your day-to-day job:
Marketing Manager
Mike and Kris show how Copilot for Microsoft 365 helps them stay on top of multiple projects and accelerate impact.
They use it to review a budget tracker, analyse campaign performance and draft a new brief based on best-performing campaigns from the last quarter. Mike also gets support catching up with emails from suppliers and missed meetings thanks to a list of actionable insights.
Business Manager
Silvi and Sammy explore how Copilot for Microsoft 365 assists with business management.
They use it to understand and condense a lot of information for executive summaries, write and revise talking points based on specific content and even make graphics for a presentation.
Sales Manager
Clare and Andy demonstrate how Copilot for Microsoft 365 can help a sales manager enhance team culture and performance.
They use it to sort and distribute the results of a team ideation session, follow up on a team meeting with defined tasks, access the most recent information on specific customer interactions, understand and examine the latest customer financial reports, spot where issues can be solved and compose and refine customer communication.
Legal
Richard and Tomek share how they use Copilot for Microsoft 365 to save time and improve contract and risk management.
They cover catching up with client emails on the go, writing meeting minutes in a specific format, reviewing contracts, extracting specific information from lengthy documents with complex prompts, and comparing two agreements against each other.
Executive Assistant
Vicky and Stuart explore how using Copilot helps support the CEO office.
They show how an executive assistant can catch up, communicate, draft responses, get coaching, prepare documents, and gather feedback - all with Copilot.
Director of Business Management
Helen and Emma show how Copilot supports the multi-faceted role of business orchestrators.
A day in the life of Helen includes catching up on the business, reviewing team budgets, brainstorming on Microsoft Whiteboard, designing team images, summarising long documents, and preparing for customer meetings. The team even looks at how Copilot can help draft a personal learning and development plan.
Internal Comms
Kojo and Sammy demonstrate how Copilot for Microsoft 365 helps them to be more creative and efficient.
They use it to write social media posts, condense news into short content, make an employee onboarding guide, and keep up with different project stakeholders. They even write a script for a virtual office visit video.
Everyone
Kris shares top scenarios he uses Copilot for, helping him stay up to date and save time on day-to-day activities.
He shows how everyone can tackle the three villains of modern work - blank page, broken meeting and information labyrinth - using Copilot for Microsoft 365.
Solve for your industry
Have an industry-specific task you’d like to streamline? Copilot for Microsoft 365 can help. Explore these tutorials to learn how to compare documents and statistics more easily, create drafts quickly, catch up on news, auto-complete forms and much more.
Compare versions of T&Cs
Capture claim details from meetings and update stakeholders
Score RfP submissions
Review store performance and manage inventory
Compare performance and customer satisfaction across stores
Generate case notes chronologies
Create multiple itineraries for client visits for frontline workers
Fill a form with social care details from a meeting transcript
Create a draft product review article
Review contracts and key positions
Compare legal positions across documents and perform a gap analysis
Create an internal FAQ for a contract template
Build a project documentation set
Perform commercial due diligence for a new project
This is my Copilot
Copilot for Microsoft 365 also removes barriers to accessibility in the workplace. So every employee feels empowered and included. Learn from our colleagues with diverse abilities how they’re using Copilot every day to achieve more.
This is Adam’s Copilot
Discover how Copilot helps Adam, who has ADHD, accelerate his use of Microsoft Excel and PivotTables in particular.
This is Andy’s Copilot
Andy can struggle to keep up with fast-moving Microsoft Teams meetings due to his ADHD. Find out how Copilot helps him feel included and understand key takeaways.
This is Farah’s Copilot
Farah’s daily round of meetings can sometimes feel overwhelming. Discover how she uses Copilot in Microsoft Teams to digest information and participate more fully.
This is Michael’s Copilot
Managing social interaction can be challenging for people with autism. Using Copilot in Microsoft Outlook and Word, Michael quickly drafts emails and documents with the right tone of voice.
This is Rylin’s Copilot
Rylin is a Disability Policy Advisor and has to regularly document public policy changes. As a dyslexic notetaker, ensuring accuracy is important to her. Learn how Copilot saves her time by producing accurate summaries, citations and more.
This is Paulo’s Copilot
Paulo, who has dyslexia, brainstorms his thoughts into an Outlook email, then lets Copilot finesse the tone and other details, making him ready for the next step.
This is Ben’s Copilot
Ben is hard of hearing and can find Teams meetings difficult to follow, despite the captions. Discover how Copilot’s note-taking and “who said what” assistance help him participate more fully.
This is Elena’s Copilot
Elena’s mother tongue is Mexican Spanish and she appreciates language support when writing reports in English. Discover how Copilot gives her a head start.
This is Jeremy’s Copilot
Jeremy has to read many emails daily, despite having low vision. Hear how Copilot helps him summarise them, making his task easier and faster.
This is Laurie’s Copilot
Laurie’s disability makes it hard to type on a keyboard or use a mouse. Learn how Copilot helps her create content via the spoken word.
This is Stuart’s Copilot
In Microsoft Teams meetings, Stuart wants to be sure that he doesn’t over-contribute. Find out how Copilot discreetly gives him that assurance.
This is Kojo’s Copilot
Kojo uses Copilot to summarise where he’s been mentioned in chats or emails and to prioritise the next day’s actions. This helps him switch off from work.
This is Trinh’s Copilot
As a stroke survivor, Trinh can get mentally and physically drained in meetings. See how he uses Copilot to stay present in meetings and feel more included.
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