Microsoft Copilot is already in your Outlook, Teams, and Word - but most people barely scratch the surface of what it can do. The difference between a mediocre result and a genuinely useful one usually comes down to one thing: the prompt. Here are the best Microsoft Copilot prompts for everyday work tasks, ready to copy and use.
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Why your Copilot prompt is everything
Microsoft Copilot (formerly Bing Chat for Enterprise) is built into the Microsoft 365 apps most UK office workers use every day – Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. According to Microsoft’s own Copilot adoption data, users who prompt Copilot well save an average of 1 hour and 10 minutes per week just on email alone.
But “prompt well” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Vague prompts get vague results. Specific, well-structured prompts get outputs you can actually use. The good news is that prompting is a learnable skill – and once you’ve got a small library of prompts that work for your job, you’ll use them on repeat.
A few principles before the list:
Be specific about the output format – ask for bullet points, a short email, a table, a five-slide outline, etc.
Include the context Copilot needs – who the audience is, what tone you want, any constraints
Iterate rather than restart – if the first output isn’t quite right, ask Copilot to adjust it rather than starting over
Use the right Copilot for the right app – Copilot in Outlook behaves differently from Copilot in Teams or Word
If you’re just getting started with AI tools at work, the ivee AI Masterclass series includes a dedicated session on using Copilot effectively in a Microsoft 365 environment.
Best Copilot prompts for email and communication
Outlook is where most people first feel the benefit of Copilot. These prompts work directly in the Copilot panel inside Outlook, or in the Copilot compose window when drafting a new email.
Summarising and triaging
“Summarise this email thread and list any decisions made and actions outstanding.”
“What are the three most important emails in my inbox from the last 24 hours?”
“Flag any emails where someone is waiting on a response from me.”
Drafting and replying
“Draft a reply to this email agreeing to the proposed meeting time, but asking to shift it 30 minutes later.”
“Write a professional but warm email declining this request, and suggest an alternative if there is one.”
“Write a follow-up email to [name] chasing the report we discussed last Thursday. Keep it brief and non-pushy.”
“Turn these rough notes into a clear, professional email to send to a client: [paste notes]”
Tone and editing
“Rewrite this email to sound more confident and direct, without being blunt.”
“Make this email shorter – cut it to three sentences maximum while keeping the key message.”
“Is the tone of this email appropriate for a first contact with a senior stakeholder? Suggest any changes.”
Best Copilot prompts for meetings and Teams
Copilot in Microsoft Teams is one of the most immediately useful applications – especially for anyone who sits through a lot of meetings. These prompts work when Copilot is enabled in a Teams meeting or when you’re reviewing a recorded transcript afterwards.
Microsoft’s Work Trend Index found that 75% of knowledge workers use AI at work – and meeting summaries are consistently one of the top use cases. Here’s why these prompts work so well:
During or after a meeting
“Summarise what was discussed and list all action items, with the names of who owns each one.”
“What were the key decisions made in this meeting?”
“What did [person’s name] say about the budget for Q3?”
“Were there any unresolved questions or disagreements in this meeting?”
Before a meeting
“Draft an agenda for a 45-minute project review meeting with three agenda items: progress update, blockers, and next steps.”
“What should I know before joining a meeting with based on our recent email history?”
After a meeting
“Write a short meeting recap email to send to all attendees. Include what was decided and what happens next.”
“Create a to-do list of my personal action items from this meeting.”
Best Copilot prompts for documents and Word
Copilot in Word can read your existing documents and help you write, summarise, or restructure them. It’s particularly useful for long reports, proposals, or any document you need to get from rough draft to polished output quickly.
Summarising and extracting
“Summarise this document in five bullet points for a senior audience who hasn’t read it.”
“What are the three main recommendations in this report?”
“Create an executive summary of this document in no more than 150 words.”
“List all the action points mentioned anywhere in this document.”
Drafting and rewriting
“Write a first draft of a project proposal based on these notes: [paste notes]. Use a professional tone and structure it with an introduction, objectives, timeline, and budget section.”
“Rewrite this section to be clearer and more concise – aim for half the current length.”
“This paragraph is too jargon-heavy. Rewrite it so a non-expert would understand it.”
Reviewing and improving
“Review this document for consistency – are there any places where the tone shifts or the terminology changes?”
“What’s missing from this proposal? What questions might a reader have that aren’t answered here?”
Once you’ve built a solid library of prompts like these, the next step is learning to adapt them for your specific role and industry. That’s exactly what the ivee Core AI Programme covers – practical AI skills for the job you actually do.
FAQs: Microsoft Copilot at work
What is Microsoft Copilot and how is it different from ChatGPT?
Microsoft Copilot is built directly into Microsoft 365 apps like Outlook, Teams, and Word. ChatGPT is a standalone tool you access separately. Copilot’s advantage is that it can read your actual emails, documents, and meetings – so it knows your context, which makes it far more useful for work tasks.
Do I need a special licence to use Copilot in Microsoft 365?
Yes – Microsoft 365 Copilot requires a separate add-on licence on top of your standard Microsoft 365 subscription. Check with your IT team or manager to see if your organisation has it enabled.
What makes a good Copilot prompt?
Good prompts are specific about what you want, who it’s for, and the format you need. Instead of “write an email”, try “write a short professional email to a client explaining a one-week delay, keeping it reassuring and solution-focused”. The more context, the better the output.
Can Copilot read my emails and documents?
Yes – that’s one of its biggest advantages. Copilot in Outlook can summarise email threads, and Copilot in Word can read and act on your existing documents. It only accesses content you already have permission to see.
I’m new to AI tools – is Copilot a good starting point?
If your organisation uses Microsoft 365, Copilot is a great starting point because it’s already in the apps you use every day. You just need to learn how to write better prompts – a skill that takes a few weeks of regular practice to build.
Conclusion and next steps
The prompts above are a starting point, not a complete library. The real skill is learning to adapt them – adding the right context, adjusting the tone, specifying the format – until the output lands first time. That takes practice, but it’s a short learning curve once you’re using Copilot consistently.
If you want to go beyond individual prompts and build genuine AI skills you can use across your whole job, the ivee Core AI Programme is built for exactly that. No jargon, no coding – just practical training that fits around how you actually work.
Book onto one of our AI programmes at ivee and start learning today.
